Shining a spotlight on Samohighlights

Samohighlights has been highlighting greatness for 14 seasons. Samohightlights is a cable news tv show put on by the Film class that shines a spotlight on campus events. For the students who run the show, their main goal is to represent all parts of Samo and discuss the issues that they as students want to solve. Bill Wishart, the film teacher, recounted how initially Samohighlights was not solely a film class endeavor.“ASB tried to have a television show but there were students who didn’t have a background in media creation, so they struggled. The second time they tried, the ASB advisor asked myself and members of the group Running With Speakers to come and basically in 36 hours we went in, learned the equipment, did our pre-production and put out a successful show,” Wishart said.There is a long process that occurs in order to reach the final product of a cohesive, entertaining and informative show. First, film students pitch ideas to the producers and research their ideas. Next, the students work on roll-ins which are short video segments that provide brief coverage of specific on-campus events such as pep rallies, concerts or sports games. These roll-ins are researched, filmed and edited by the students themselves. A few days before the episode comes out, additional prepping, cutting and editing is done so that the show looks clean and all the pre-made clips, such as roll-ins, can be incorporated. To get information for the show, the Film class conducts interviews and covers current events. All students in Film are required to participate whether they work the camera, teleprompter, timekeeper or one of the many other technical jobs. “We have a set crew that I supervise, that goes to Studio 16 and each student is responsible for either shooting a piece and or editing so that everyone in the entire program contributes,” Wishart said.For many past seasons, the show has been filmed in the same, specific way. However, recently the producers, Grace Rietta (’19) and Izzy D'Amico (’19) have instituted a debate segment where students can express political opinions on current events. This segment started in order to give students a place to voice their opinions and get other students and community members interested. “The debate segment we have started has been very cool. Deciding to change the show from the template from years past has been a little hectic with having different people on the show, and it being unscripted has been very exciting,” Rietta said.The students behind Samohighlights are grateful that the city of Santa Monica provides them with a real studio to work in, called The Sound Stage. At The Sound Stage, students get to use actual studio technology, figure out how to operate the equipment and navigate the inner workings of a television show. This has given the students, especially the producers, a chance to gain experience and a greater understanding of the commitment and responsibility involved in a production of this manner.“It has honestly been such amazing experience [working in a real studio], getting to work with real technology, understanding the real problems that happen when things don’t work and having to improvise,” D'Amico said.A significant portion of the producers’ work is scheduling and organizing the show, and keeping track of the research that goes into it. This has given the producers a chance to explore strong leadership roles and show off their directorial abilities.“As well as doing broadcast news journalism, we also get to do the more creative aspect...we try to consider a lot more visuals and how to translate the content to be more engaging and not have people be bored while watching,” Rietta said.Samohighlights produces one season per semester and is currently going on to their 14th season which can be seen on Youtube.“We are really excited for when season fourteen premieres and people will get to see what we have been working on. Because we have more experience now, we think things will run a lot smoother,” D'Amico said.