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BY RHODA GARZON-CAMPILLAN
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Things we do in AB Com V.1
IF YOU are not enrolled in the AB Communication program, perhaps at one point or another you’ve asked your friends enrolled in this program, “What do you do in class?”
Well, to answer this question, we do a lot of things inside the class. Things you will be interested to know. Perhaps you are most familiar with TV and radio production activities. But what do we do exactly to achieve the objectives of these courses?
Well, teachers would usually expose their students to actual practice. There will be demo-return-demo activities. In my column today, I pick radio production class as an example. The teacher demonstrates how to use the different equipment found in the radio booth.
The professor explains how to manipulate these equipment to come up with a radio program; then, students are given ample time to practice the operation of audio console, microphone, recorders, audio players, and the like.
Students will anticipate that in the next meeting, there will be return demonstration. In teaching this course, I give each student approximately 15 minutes to decipher how to connect all the wires and connectors inside the booth and how they could switch on the needed equipment.
Students would normally feel nervous. I would see their hands shaking and their knees wobbling as they enter the radio booth. For an AB Com students to survive this test is like touching the sky; ask any Communication student, and they will agree with my metaphor.
It is difficult choosing the correct wires that will fit the production equipment, much more, it is a torture how to turn on all of these all together.
This is just the beginning in radio production. Succeeding activities will include writing a radio script, interviewing key people, squeezing creative juices, and mounting a full blown radio program.
Now here is the fun part – how do students produce a radio program, say for example, a radio talk show.
Well, first, they need to have a concept. A concept is defined, in the context of production, as to how you will like your show to be like. What will set your show apart from other talk programs airing. Your torment begins in this stage. You will be groping in the dark, asking yourself time and again, what concept will my teacher like or what concept will my audience like to listen to.
The next stage will be writing your script following the format and instructions prescribed by the teacher. You will decide what music you will use, who will be your talents, who will be the members of your crew, record your segments and bumpers, among others.
Now the best part is the execution of the script, the day of your production. Usually, students come early and I mean really early. I remember in one of my TV Production classes, the production started at exactly 7 a.m. The students were setting up as early as 3 a.m. In actual production, call time usually is really early, especially if there is big-events coverage.
If you are not inclined into this type of program, you will easily give up because this is a tiring course actually. But at the end of the day, even if it is toxic, the fun and experience of mounting a production is priceless. There is drama, horror, and action during the implementation of the script.
At the end of the production, an AB Com student will be dead tired for sure; however, ask him if he enjoyed the stint. I am pretty sure he will answer, “I enjoyed a lot.” And he will add, “Nothing beats the experience.”
What I shared was just one class. In my succeeding columns, I will talk about other AB Com courses and how teachers translate theories into actual practice. I am a believer in outcomes-based education.
Students are well equipped if teachers introduce theories and at the same time give practical activities to their students. In this kind of program, practical activities is the key in producing high-calibre AB Com graduates plus instructors also who are industry practitioners.
AB Com students look up to these practitioners because they can visualize how fun their work is through their stories. The inputs of industry practitioners will inspire the students to pursue a career in media; hence, achieving the purpose of opening an AB Com program in the first place.
Personally, I want our graduates to employ themselves in media industries after they graduate. I dream that these new graduates trained by exceptional teachers will surely make a difference in the media field in the near future./PN
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