Students compose ‘Sounds of MCCTC’

By Elise Franco

MCCTC students said making the video was a challenging process.

CANFIELD — Students in one class at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center have discovered a better way to make the school appeal to their peers.

With help from The Prodigal Media Company’s Khaled Tabbara, about 20 students in Melissa Hackett’s Interactive Multimedia class conceived, shot and edited what they call “The Sounds of MCCTC.”

Hackett said the point of the project was twofold.

“As a part of the program they had to do a video project where they shoot and edit, and they must be able to work with an established videographer like Khaled,” she said. “It really shows them what it’s like to do a real-world project.”

Hackett said the video also serves as a recruitment and marketing tool to bring students in for the 2009-10 school year.

She said the video, which is now posted on YouTube, will soon be manipulatable — meaning anyone can edit the video and individual clips to create their own.

“It’s on YouTube because that’s where many of our students play,” Hackett said. “I definitely feel like we’re hitting more of our target audience this way.”

The video, which runs two minutes and 19 seconds, features clips of what goes on daily at MCCTC, edited together to sound like music.

Jessie Tyler, 17, of Austintown, said she was part of the group that came up with the concept.

“We figured out the story line of the girl walking into the school, and she basically starts the whole beat of everything,” she said.

David Wayne, 19, of Austintown, said the video and sound clips were pieced together to make ordinary sounds and situations extraordinary.

“It turned out to be very well-made because of all the editing and taking different sounds and video and matching it all up,” he said.

Crystal Harvey, 17, of Struthers, said even though making the video was time-consuming, interaction with other trades and classes made it worth it.

“I thought it was great how we got to see how other classes interact,” she said. “We had the chance to see what they do.”

Crystal said her favorite part of the two month-long process was actually fitting clips together to form a cohesive video.

“We had to get the sounds to make sense with the clips,” she said. “It was hard but fun at the same time.”

Tabbara, who said Prodigal often works with MCCTC for advertising and marketing purposes, said learning videography skills at the high school level puts these students a step ahead of those who don’t begin until college.

“The more marketable you can make yourself to an employer, the more you can demand in getting the job and beating other potential employees out,” he said. “It’s crucial to master your field, and by learning different aspects of your trade it makes you better at the bigger picture of your trade.”

All of the students involved in the video agreed the experience has prepared them for careers outside MCCTC.

“When we go out into the business world we’ll have to work in teams,” Laura Feder, 18, of South Range, said. “This taught us how to do that.”

To check out “Sounds of MCCTC” visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFiPcT6inng.

efranco@vindy.com