The senior class at Southmoreland High School will produce a video for a seventh consecutive year.
"These students do an absolutely fabulous job with this," faculty adviser Denise Puskar said. "They spend hours and hours on this, working with special effects and music and putting the whole thing together. They're amazing."
The idea of the video is to capture every senior on film, either participating in a sport or an event or just hanging out. The students use a mixture of personally shot photos and video footage, and images brought in by seniors.
The video is presented at a student assembly at the end of the school year.
Over the years, the video has grown from a mixture of still shots to the elaborate production that is shown today.
"The first year it was just senior baby pictures shown on the screen with music," Puskar said.
The following year Puskar, who teaches technology and multimedia classes, took over as faculty sponsor for the project and began incorporating special effects into the senior class video.
"I personally took it on because I wanted to do something with computers after taking all of Mrs. Puskar's classes," student O.J. Walsh said. "This is like the last thing that I could do, and it is one way to do something for the senior class and one way to show my creativity."
Making the video is time-consuming for the nine students who volunteered.
"I wanted to give my graduating class something that they'll remember me by," Jennifer Jones said. "It takes time and a lot of dedication, but it's worth it."
The students sign up for the video project at the beginning of the year, when project planning and organization begin.
Attempting to capture all 174 seniors at some point during the school year is a huge endeavor.
"We hung fliers in the classrooms asking for pictures and videos," Ariel Byers said. "We'll get stuff from the students, and they'll just give it to one of us to use."
The video incorporates many special effects, including ghosting and morphing. Much of it is shot with an effect called camera-view.
"There are also a lot of programs that we use to make the senior video," Anna Stewart said. "We use Photoshop CS, CS2, After Effects, Pinnacle, Premier 6.5 and Pro 2.0."
Many of this year's staff, which is the largest group that Puskar has worked with on the project, have waited many years to participate.
Project leader Anna Stewart knew for some time that she wanted to volunteer her time and creativity to the video.
"I decided to be a part of my senior video in my sophomore year," Stewart said. "I watched the seniors from the previous years, and it was interesting to see the creativity that they had made for us to watch."
"I have wanted to work on it since my freshman year," Eric Fulton said. "I always enjoyed watching the senior video in years past."
Puskar stresses that this is a big responsibility these students have taken on, and the time-consuming project helps to prepare them for the years ahead.
"They'll learn that many times, things in life just don't work out the way that they may want them to," Puskar said. "They'll learn to handle a lot more in life from this project."
The diverse background of the group is also a big plus.
"This isn't a bunch of students that hang out together or a group of friends, which is great," Puskar said. "They get to pull from all their different ideas and outlooks, covering a larger range, making the group a good example for representing the entire senior class."
The end result is important to the students.
"Your senior year is something that you will never forget, so why not make a video to remember everything?" Majesta Shaffer asked. "It's also a way for me to show my appreciation for the school and for my senior class."
"After working on this all year, it becomes a part of you," Sherie Pritts said, "and a huge part of your life."
Students participating include Anna Stewart, O.J. Walsh, Ariel Byers, Eric Fulton, Sherie Pritts, Jenny Jones, Wes Grimm, Keisha Smitley and Majesta Shaffer.
Additional Information:
See for yourself
The Southmoreland Class of 2007's senior video will be shown at the school assembly after the awards presentation and senior skits in late May. The video, about 20 minutes long, also will be shown at select times on Southmoreland Channel 39, on Armstrong Cable, the week after the debut presentation.
