Although many teens may want to attend their high school sports game, homework levels climbing up to three hours a night can prevent the students from taking time support school sports teams. Scott Callisch, video productions advisor, tried to bring the game to the students by broadcasting live sport-casts on The Feather Online.

?I saw our church [New Covenant Community Church] was broadcasting over the site and thought it would be perfect for our needs,? Callisch said. ?It was a perfect project for our video productions class and it benefits our school as well.?

The video productions class films the boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball and volleyball games, and then streams them live on The Feather. Despite an effort to stay focused, the cameras and viewers at home sometimes affect the athletes’ mindsets.

“I mainly just focus on the game,” varsity volleyball player Sam Kaiser, ’10, said, “but sometimes I feel like I need to try harder because I’m like ‘Okay, I’m being filmed… the camera’s watching.'”

The video students use two cameras to capture the action. Kyser Anderson, ’12, shoots the game in a wide view on top of the bleachers.

“I think the kids will watch the games online, not in person,” Anderson said, “because the students might have lots of homework so they can still watch the game, but still be able to support our FC Eagles!”

In addition to the stationary camera, one is positioned on the court for a closer look and face shots of the players, and sometimes quickly approaching volleyballs.

“I get to move around getting different shots,” Terrence Shepherd, ’12, said, “and to make sure the ball doesn’t hit the camera, which almost happened twice!”

Many obstacles are faced when making these videos, like running the videos online fast so they are not choppy, getting a computer for each camera and technical issues from broadcasting the game from computer, to computer to camera. However, Callisch makes an effort to defeat these challenges.

“There are multiple technical issues that with my limited intelligence took a while to understand,” Callisch said. “But I overcame them by asking someone smarter to help.”

Callisch’s son, Mitchell, ’09, a video productions veteran, teamed up with his father in order to produce the project.

“[The live broadcasting] was a combined effort of my dad and I,” Mitchell said. “I showed him the live broadcasting material. I thought it would be a cool thing to bring to our school that has never been done before.”

Mitchell switches the game shots back and forth from one camera to another live, starts playback videos and records the score on screen.

“If you can’t make it to the gym, you can watch the game at home,” Mitchell said. “But it’s still more fun to be in the crowd with your friends and feel the energy from the people around you. I really like going to the games because it’s more fun. But the broadcasting is perfect if you can’t make it to the game.”

While watching the game online, the viewer can also chat with other online spectators.

Not only does the live broadcasting bring interaction and communication with the online viewers, but it adds another aspect to The Feather Online’s coverage of campus athletics.

“Broadcasting will be a great way to advertise our school,”
Spencer Lee, ’10, sports editor for The Feather, said, “and it will also attract parents and students to our Web site so they can read the articles about the games.”

In addition to students home-bound by homework, fans and family can watch the games from across the country.

“My sister and two of my brothers are down in Santa Clarita going to school,” Kaiser said. “They don’t really have time to sit and watch my games [on The Feather]. But when they do I like it because then it shows they care and want to see our games.”

The next broadcast will be the varsity boys’ basketball against Orange Cove High School, Dec. 16. To find the sportscasts on The Feather, go to the front page and look for the icon on the right menu bar, above podcasting.

For more information, e-mail Scott Callisch.