ALISON K MILLER
Television Production Workshop
During the 2022-2023 school year, I was a member of a course at our high school titled "Television Production Workshop." Limited to only about 25 students in our 2400+ student high school, TPW is a television journalism class that produces a tri-weekly live newscast broadcasted to our entire student body. I produced over 20 full-length news packages during my time in the class.
Martin Luther King Art Showcase
This news package explores the various artistic mediums through which students in the Lake Orion Community School District celebrated "Uplifting Humanity," the theme of the 2023 MLK Day celebration. This piece took third place in the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association Individual Video Category Contest for Diversity Coverage and an Excellence Award in the Michigan Student Film Festival.
Weigh the Costs of Drinking and Driving
I co-produced this public service announcement in an attempt to counteract the extremely high proportion of underage drinking and ultimately the dangerous statistics on injury and death due to drinking and driving. This piece was awarded Best of Show in the Michigan Student Film Festival
SHS Social Night 2/2
This news story takes a closer look at the activities of The Pine Tree Center, the learning support building of Lake Orion Community School District, and a unique opportunity for high school students to make a small difference in the lives of the post-secondary learners that spend their days at the center. This piece took third place in the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association Individual Video Category Contest for Informative Feature and received an Excellence Award in the Michigan Student Film Festival
Ok2Say Male Mental Health Public Service Announcement
I decided to co-produce this public service announcement in response to the growing quantity of teens at LOHS joking about serious mental health issues. This piece won second place in the category of Health-Related Public Service Announcement during the 2023 Michigan Interscholastic Press Association Video Production Awards and received an Excellence Award in the Michigan Student Film Festival.
Visual and Performing Arts Department
During my time in Television Production Workshop, I was the head of the three-person team that focused on telling the stories of students in various visual and performing art classes and clubs. I produced news packages on our high school's marching band, winter percussion, winter winds, winter guard, sit-down band, choir program, theater troupe, art club, and art honor society. This story received an Excellence Award in the Michigan Student Film Festival.
Service Hour and Scholarship Spotlight
The bi-weekly segment I took part in producing was SHS: Service Hour and Scholarship Spotlight. I traveled to various locations to film in-depth spotlight episodes on charitable organizations students could volunteer for in order to complete their 20 required service hours for high school graduation. This piece received an Excellence Award in the Michigan Student Flim Festival.
Other Video Productions
As a part of TPW, my work was never limited to the special focus areas of my segment and department. I produced several other stories and public service announcements to balance my reporting. I regularly collaborated with fellow student journalists to create a diverse array of news pieces, including coverage of student clubs, sports, and school events.
Experience & Skills
Throughout my time in Television Production Workshop and during my journalistic career, I have undergone valuable experiences and gained lifelong skills. The time I have spent as a director, news anchor, editor, team member, and volunteer have all helped me become a better journalist, communicator, and leader.
Director
As a director on LO-AM, I held the responsibility of ensuring the newscast flowed smoothly and appealed to our audience visually. I instructed camera operators, made technical directing decisions, directed the timing and placement of our graphics, and ensured every member of the crew was focused and on-task. Below is one sample of a show I directed. It was a special episode of LO-AM for the Cell Out for Soldiers event at our high school. During this newscast, I wore two headsets in order to give additional directions to a separate live crew outside of the leadership classroom.
News & Sports Anchor
I was a news anchor for eight newscasts and a sports anchor for two. The main skill anchoring assisted me in furthering was writing under pressure and time constraints. I was not given the outline of news stories until the beginning of the school day, and I often did not have time to create and edit scripts until the 45 minute period prior to show rehearsal. Anchoring is a creative and vocabulary challenge, and I seized every opportunity to engage the audience that I could, working alongside other anchors to fine-tune scripts that would interest and inspire. One of the newscasts I anchored on, the April 20th show, received an Excellence Award at the Michigan Student Film Festival.
Editor
As a journalist working with video production, it is essential to understand and continuously experiment with editing software. Through my production of news packages, I have become proficient in Adobe Premiere Elements editing software. This program includes tools for audio and video manipulation, including keyframes, blurring and sharpening, shake reduction, and several other methods for producing the best possible content for audiences.
Team Member
As a member of TPW, I was a part of not only a team but a family. We spent countless hours together, collaborating to produce a newscast we were all proud of. Outside of school, we spent even more time together on dozens of livestreams of sporting and performing arts events. Through my experiences in the class, I grew to know every single member of the program personally. As I worked alongside each peer, whether it was up front at the anchor desk or behind the scenes, I gained skills in communication, collaboration, and leadership, working efficiently and collectively to create high-quality news content.
