Fall 2025 First TV Production Project

In my Television Production class, I call the first assignment "Me in 30 Seconds." It gives the students early exposure and experience in front of and behind the camera. 

During previous classes, we went over camera, microphone, tripod and lighting operations. And I gave the students tips on speaking on camera. In this photo, Summer Gray is speaking with Dallas Barnes recording her. RJ Steadman is the timekeeper. 

Like many things in television production, this project must be carefully timed: as close to 30 seconds as possible. A cue is given when there are 10 seconds left. Reshoots are OK. 

The project also involves putting the video on YouTube, so I did that on my channel. Below is the unedited version. 

New Turner Hall Classroom Building on the Way!

 

(Click to hear this post)

The new school year just began here at SC State and it may soon get pretty noisy on campus. 

A sparkling new academic building is going to be constructed between the current Turner Hall and Dukes Gym. 

The university secured $54.7 million from the state legislature to erect its first new classroom building since 2013 when the Engineering and Computer Science Complex was opened. 

The new Turner Hall will have 94,000 square feet of classroom, collaborative learning, and office space, according to the university.

The outline of the new Turner Hall can be seen clearly and completely from the third floor of the current Turner Hall. 

The construction is slated to last two years and should be open by fall 2027, according to the current timeline. 

Some student and faculty parking spots have been lost to the large footprint of the work site. 

Communication News- August 19, 2025

 

MSNBC news network will now or soon be called MS Now (My Source News Opinion World). 

Part of Comcast's NBCUniversal recent spinoff move.

Associated Press story here.

YouTube to begin testing AI-powered age verification. 

AP report.

AOL is finally shutting down its dial-up Internet service. 

AP story here.

Other summer media news: 

CBS canceling long-running Stephen Colbert late night show. 

AP report.

Howard Sterm Sirius XM show to be canceled.

Five-year $500 million contract won't be renewed, reports say. 

Captured in a Flash: The Epitome of Bulldog Tenacity (Audio Report)

 

Marching 101 band member and drum major Trent Bryant had 15 minutes of fame that lasted three months or so. 

(Click here to listen to this story with Bryant's comments)

Bryant's image was selected last fall to be on SC State's homepage. Decked out in his colorful Marching 101 uniform...he is the first thing people see when going to S-C-S-U-dot-e-d-u. 

Bryant says he was back home in Georgetown, S.C. in December when friends began alerting him that he was on the school's front page...

SOT: Trent Bryant :29
In: When I first saw it...
Out: ...face of the school right now

The director of S.C. State University Relations...Sam Watson...took the photograph when the Marching 101 performed at halftime of the home game versus Fort Valley State on October 19. (YouTube has the show here!)

When Watson looked at the images he captured that day he saw something special in one of them. 

SC State's Website Features Marching 101's Trent Bryant

 

If you've been to SC State's website recently you have seen this image of a Marching 101 band member that some call the epitome of Bulldog Tenacity. 

Meet Trent Bryant, a senior mechanical engineering major from Georgetown, S.C. Bryant is one of the band's drum majors so he is front and center during performances. 

At an October 2024 home football game, he caught the eye of Sam Watson, director of university relations. Watson was taking photographs of the halftime show and snapped this focused, determined image of Trent in action. 

My feature writing students had the chance to interview Bryant in February. The students were assigned to write a feature about Bryant's 15 minutes of fame. I recorded his talk and had my radio production students produce an audio report. 

From the audio recording, here are three memorable comments Bryant shared about his unique experience appearing for several months on the school's homepage. 

Soundbite 1

Here's his first reaction when learning in December that he was on the website. 

Soundbite 2

When he looks at the image of himself, what does Bryant say was going through his mind at this moment in time? 

Soundbite 3

Bryant says it was in 2017 when he decided he had to be part of a university marching band.

Three Point Lighting Starring TK!

 

In my TV Production class we have been covering different lighting techniques. 

This exercise covers three point lighting, long a mainstay of video and still-shot photography. 

Three strategically placed lights can help produce a high quality, flattering look for someone at the center of it, whether in a video interview, a modeling scenario or a professional head shot for Linkedin or a newspaper or magazine placement. 

Ryan Stubblefield is in this image. 

Makayla Dotson sits for the three-point spotlight. 

Next in this post, I'll break down the steps needed to get the most out of the three-point lighting setup. 

Two years ago I wrote a similar post. Check it out here.

Full Sail University has on YouTube this tutorial on this popular and widely used lighting technique. 

TK Ayinmide is the model for this presentation. First we see her with the three lights turned off. You see the three lights: the key light (front right), the fill light (left) and behind TK is the backlight. 

New "Action Sequence" Production

I have always been fond of the assignment that I call "Action Sequence." It depicts one of my SC State University students getting up, leaving the classroom, making his or her way out the door, through the hall and down the steps from the third floor to the ground level of Turner Hall. 

Another student is the director and videographer, and later the editor using Adobe Premiere Pro to put it all together with titles and music and the clips that should be edited together into a smooth, flowing process. 

Last week I shot a sample "Action Sequence" with two students, Ariana Pinder and Andrea Fullington. 

The skills tested in this production exercise include communication and planning between the director and "actor", shot composition, lighting, white balancing the camera in different settings, editing and blog posting correctly. 

Here are some other "Action Sequence" examples from previous years.