Monday, April 29, 2019
One of the neatest high school competitions this week will take place not on a stage or ball field, but on Vindy.com.
The Vindy High School Music Video Challenge is available to watch online now.
Starting Tuesday, you can vote for your favorite video.
The idea is this:
We have talented students and teachers around the Valley who are skilled with video technology and performance.
We also have talented musicians, too, making music that’s as good as Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift or Zac Brown.
If we could give both groups a stage to share and shine, it could be fun. The musicians have the songs. The schools have the talent to interpret the songs and make a video.
We did this a few years ago with singer JD Eicher and it was fun.
It was time to try it out again.
Round 2 of the Vindy video event switched it up a bit musically. We invited several Valley bands to offer up songs.
The Vindys, Rufus Blaq, Northern Whale, Spirit of the Bear, Spy Convention, Radio Lark, Leo D’Angelo, Jordan DePaul, East 9th and Fred Whitacre all offered up songs for videos. And of course, the original, JD Eicher.
You can look up Vindy HS Music Video on Spotify to see the songs. I like them all.
Making a video is not easy, and that’s what the months-long project showed for the schools.
Last fall, 20 schools were ready to try; 12 schools got going with music selection and work.
When the finish line came, six were able to get it done. Done and fun.
Returning schools Girard and Warren G. Harding are proving to be the Tom Brady and Peyton Manning of this work. They were standouts a few years ago, and again turned in great videos.
We had four new schools join the event: Chalker, Columbiana, Kennedy Catholic and McDonald high schools. It was fun to see their new work.
It’s online now to check out. Head to vindy.com.
Vote for your favorites. We will crown two champs.
SPORTS TALK
Vindy Sports Live continues to be a cool vindy.com sports project for us.
VSL, as we call it, is a live 30-minute gathering of some of the smartest people in Valley sports – namely our sports team.
This past week, the NFL Draft was the big topic for the show, and veteran sports writer Mike McClain joined our in-house team.
Past guests the last few weeks have included Canfield wrestlers, Poland girls basketballers, YSU coaches and players and more. High school football scouting guru Mark Porter drew a big audience a month ago.
Every Thursday at 5, this program can be seen live on Vindy.com and on
Facebook.
After it airs live, it remains on vindy.com to watch at your convenience and is also attached to every sports article.
The two projects above – the high school video and VSL – are among a handful of new projects we are trying as media changes overall.
Todd Franko is editor of The Vindicator. He likes emails about stories and our newspaper. Email him at tfranko@vindy.com. He blogs, too, on vindy.com. Tweet him, too, at @tfranko.