BLHS AV Communications Newsletter Spring 2015

BASEHOR-LINWOOD

A/V COMMUNICATIONS

NEWSLETTER

SPRING 2015

STATE CHAMP

BLHS sophomore takes first place in online photo gallery at KSPA state journalism contest The Kansas High School Activities Association provides the means for high school students to compete in a variety of areas - athletics, scholars bowl, debate, and music.

High school journalists, specifically yearbook and newspaper staff members, work tirelessly all year long to capture the stories of their school in that particular year, but there is seldom tangible recognition of their work or avenues for them to compete against other journalists.

The Kansas Scholastic Press Association provides high school journalists an opportunity to compete in their areas of expertise, whether that be photography, writing, editing, design, or other storytelling forms.

In February, students from our journalism program competed in 15 different contests. Six students qualified for the state contest. Due to conflicts with the state forensics tournament, three students were

unable to compete at the state journalism contest, held on May 2 at the University of Kansas.

Junior Mitchell Mikinski competed in sports writing, where he had placed third in the regional contest.

He was given a fictitious prompt about a softball team that lost a game due to an error made by one of its players.

Mikinski had 90 minutes to craft a story using the information he was given.

Calder Hollond participated in two different contests, both of which were completed by posting them online.

The first was titled, “Online Photo Gallery.”

The prompt required students to capture a set of 5-8 photos that showed students showing leadership abilities behind the scenes of a school event.

Hollond captured a series of photos behind the scenes of the school play, “Transyl-mania.” She then interviewed several of the students who appeared in the photos to

write informative, entertaining, and compelling captions that told the story of the photos.

For her work, Hollond was awarded with a first-place finish in the 3A/4A category. This is the first individual state journalism championship in recent history [we do not have record of any other championships in years past].

Hollond also competed with senior Ashley Novo-Gradac in a multimedia storytelling category, where they had to tell a story about students and their cars using three different media - they chose a written story, an infographic, and a video story.

For their work, the pair earned an honorable mention at the state contest.

Overall, the Basehor-Linwood journalists tied for 8th place in 4A. This group of students has worked hard, and they are seeing it pay off with some well-deserved recognition.

KSPA CONTEST RESULTS REGIONAL CONTEST Jaime Weible Ashley Novo-Gradac Abi Batesel Calder Hollond Mitchell Mikinski Erin McGowan Claire Walsh

Photo Illustration Infographic Design Sports Photography Copy Editing Sports Writing Editorial Cartoon Yearbook Writing

STATE CONTEST Calder Hollond Photo Gallery Ashley Novo-Gradac Multimedia & Calder Hollond Storytelling [HM] Honorable Mention

1st 3rd HM HM 3rd HM HM

1st HM

Photo Imaging Classes Learn to Paint With Light

Mrs. Loney’s Photo Imaging classes capped off a month of studying how to use manual settings on their cameras by learning how to paint with light. The process involves setting the camera to leave the eye of the camera open for several seconds as it captures everything that happens in front of it.

Students used flashlight and strobe light apps on their phones to emit light that the cameras captured.

Each group of students expressed their own creative way of light painting. The results were incredibly creative and filled with ingenuity.

GRAPHIC DESIGN CLASS PRACTICES REBRANDING The inaugural Graphic Design B class spent much of the spring semester working on a rebranding project, where they chose different local companies to rebrand - creating a new look for the company from its logo, to the exterior of the building, to advertisements and billboards.

Each student’s project was unique, as students took on the following companies: Pink Zebra clothing boutique, a local pet grooming business, Jose Peppers, Moon Marble Company, Cavender’s, LEGO, Vintage Stock, Alienware, Das Keyboards, and Sporting Kansas City football club.

Students primarily used Adobe Illustrator to create their projects, but some also used Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.

JOURNALISM DEPARTMENT WRAPS UP YEAR OF HARD WORK

The Basehor-Linwood yearbook and newspaper staffs have been hard at work over the last nine months producing media content for the school and community. The yearbook staff is wrapping up the last few pages of their 144-page book, and the newspaper staff just submitted their eighth and final senior edition to print a few days ago. Copies of the 16-page senior magazine will be distributed at the senior breakfast on Thursday, May 14. The yearbook will be distributed at enrollment in August.

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE AV COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT:

VISIT BLHSNEWS.COM OR MRSLONEY.WEEBLY.COM. OR FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AT @BLHS_AVCOMM