Buchanan High School students continue to get accolades for their multimedia production skills. The Bears videography team, led by adviser Dan Pearce, not only took Emmy awards in April, but also snagged awards at the SlickRock Student Film Festival.
The Bears News Network is a big part of the videography students’ success, winning three Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to earn an Emmy for the second time in three years.
The BBN also won for best high school newscast for the fifth year in a row at the the SlickRock Student Film Festival.
According to the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Emmy-winning entries were submitted by high schools with media programs in the chapter’s region –– Visalia to the Oregon border including Reno, Nevada and Hawaii –– for work done during the 2018-19 school year.
The Award for Excellence, an engraved glass pillar, is presented to the school with each student recipient receiving a certificate, while the Award for Merit gives each student a certificate, according to the NATAS.
A total of 104 entries were received from 14 high schools.
Buchanan’s Connor McInerney was recognized for his work in editing a package on the Clovis Unified special education soccer team.
“We all filmed different parts of that promo and I kind of put it together and made it what it was,” McInerney said.
The senior also got awards for editing a feature called Bears Spotlight.
Courtney Compton and Mikayla Reyna joined McInerney in helping the team get the Award for Excellence in newscast.
“I put an entire show together for the last two years,” Compton said. “Basically I compile all the segments and put in the B-roll.”
Reyna said she is the Bears Insider, putting together interviews that would be shown on the news.
“I have to pick a person on our campus to highlight for the week and I interview them and I have to get b-roll and compile it all together,” Reyna said.
Savannah Macias, working as a producer and anchor, was another key part of the team’s excellence award. Macias informs the school about events going on or any other prominent news.
“I don’t want to be a news anchor in the future, but it’s fun right now,” Macias said. “I want to be a photographer. I started off in videography, but I really like photo. That’s what I plan on doing in the future.”
Eric Ahumada took an Emmy for working on a music video called Love.
“It was a song by Imagine Dragons. We did a cover of it, so I was the one directing and editing and filming,” Ahumada said.
The Bears’ emmy-winning news team also included Kaitlyn Gilman, Joseph Soza, Kendall Veatch, Ethan DeLaPena, Mitchel Mazzeo, Presley Vu, Zac Cline and Bryce Hoffhous.
Buchanan’s music video, Rainbow Connection, took a Merit Award.