Next Week Now, the new MVHS video announcements, has already had two successful showings and provides a new way to be informed on campus.
Prior to distanced learning, MVHS used video announcements to keep the school informed. Once students returned to campus, ASB took over and made announcements over the loudspeaker, MVHS theater teacher and Oracle adviser Pancho Morris said.
This year, Morris said he saw an opportunity to improve upon the current announcements and had the idea to reinstate video announcements.
“There was a feeling that a lot of information was getting missed, so I saw a need for there to be video announcements,” Morris said.
Initially, Morris said he thought it would be a great idea to bring broadcasting to the theater department and have the actors star in it. However, once Morris was offered the position of Oracle advisor, he created MVHS Oracle Broadcasting and helped Oracle produce them.
“When we got a bunch of broadcasting equipment this year, [Morris] really worked hard to get a studio together and he was super into the idea of just creating these new announcements,” Antonio Peeples, Oracle editor-in-chief and co-anchor in chief, said.
Peeples said he and his co-anchor Ethan Fey both volunteered to be anchors when they heard about the idea.
“Once I talked to Ethan, who I already knew from past years of Oracle, we just were super excited to get to work together,” Peeples said.
On set, sophomore Stephen Messner, Oracle video production member, works as a broadcast engineer for the announcements, where he switches between cameras on set, works on transitions, and monitors audio. After filming, junior Alex Bentley, broadcast director, said he edits the recordings into one cohesive video.
Morris said the process of making the announcements is a quick process, with the video being produced within three days.
“People submit to the announcements [which] they curate factually and [we] get a copy of that at 2p.m. on a Tuesday [every other week], ” Morris said. “That night, the script has to be written.”
After filming, the recordings have to be edited and made into a final product before being shown to students on Friday during tutorial period, Morris said.
Next year, both Peeples and Fey will be graduating, leaving open anchor positions. However, the anchors will most likely be selected from the Oracle through a process of auditioning and applying, Morris said.
Although a very new addition, Morris, Peeples, and Messner said they are thrilled so far and look forward to continuing producing quality video announcements.
“We always look at each other and we have a straight face but you can really tell that there’s a smile in our eyes,” Messner said. “It’s a really fun process and there’s no team I’d rather do it with this year.”
