Preparing for a parade

Suzie Harrison

Saturday’s 37th annual Laguna Beach Patriot’s Day Parade will be one

to watch.

Over and over, again.

This year’s parade, “Freedom’s Promise,” will be the first that

Laguna Beach High School students will capture on video for

broadcast.

The quartet responsible is Scott Brown, 18, Claire Vogel, 16,

Henry Plant, 18, and Hunter Poller, 16.

“We found out through our teacher that Cox would no longer be

filming,” Henry said.

The parade, of course, is a big deal for Laguna Beach, one of the

biggest community events of the year, one that involves people of all

ages.

Claire explained that officials at Cox Communications asked the

school if students wanted to do it. All the students except Scott

were in the first-year video production class last semester taught by

Pam MacKay.

“Through our weekly broadcasts people thought of us, they thought

we were good,” Henry said. “We worked with Scott writing scripts. He

wasn’t in the class, but Scott had these great ideas. I worked with

Scott writing scripts and he did commercials.”

Scott called himself the adopted member.

“I’m interested in film and want to go to film school and direct,”

Scott said. “I had worked with Claire and Henry a lot, and when they

asked me to do this, of course I jumped at the chance. I had

scheduling conflicts so I couldn’t take the class.”

At one of their meetings in preparation for the parade coverage,

talk was of logistics and equipment. Henry pointed out the largest of

the cameras and explained that they had to get a grant for that

camera, because it is industrial quality and it can’t be bought at

local stores.

In the video room at the high school, there are four different

size video cameras that will be stationed at different locations

during the parade.

Editing will be done on Macintosh G-4 computers.

“We’ll use the Panasonic for the industrial set up at the Fire

Station,” Claire said. “Then the other ones will be separately used

for our own interviews.”

She added that they are responsible for some of the news

broadcasts at the school, which happens every Thursday and Friday.

“There’s a TV in every room,” Claire said. “We get an assignment

-- news, an interview or activity that’s going on in the school. In

that group, you have to come up with an idea for it that people will

want to see.”

After they are done filming, they do editing on the computer,

which they do as a team together. Next it’s scheduled and then

finally it is broadcast.

“It’s a good experience because you learn how to edit quickly,

under deadlines,” Claire said.

Henry said that the problem is that the school only has that one

course with no advanced class.

“Even though we were excelling, we can’t go any further, Henry

said. “Because we are not in class, with the parade, it makes it

difficult to get equipment. So basically we are doing it on our own

time, not class time. Most of what we discuss we have to do after

school.”

Claire said it’s been tough because they have other activities and

some have jobs after school, but they have been meeting every day to

prepare.

All of them will be considered producers and editors of the

parade, but Scott will do more of the script writing and organizing

while the others will be using the cameras. They will have to fill

two hours on TV with a 20-minute pre-show.

“I feel privileged, I love filming and editing,” Claire said.

“It’s a neat step, it’s nice that they asked. It will be the first

experience and it will be good to see it on TV.”

Scott’s commercials are said to have a cult following around the

school because of his sense of humor and use of abstract comedy. He

is thrilled to be a part of the team responsible for the parade.

They have everything planned from the interviews to the time-lapse

video of everyone showing up at the football field for the parade to

begin.

“During the coverage there are four cameras. We’ll be shooting

around City Hall with a camera on both sides of the street and on the

second floor of the Fire Station,” Henry said. “All the pre-show

filming is around the high school.”

All four said they are all looking forward to this great

opportunity. They’ll be meeting in the production room at 7 a.m.

Saturday to make sure everything is in order to capture this year’s

parade.