By: Oscar Castaneda
Redwood Video discusses their part in the Cowhide tradition including difficulties, history, film levels, and entertainment aspects.
Every year Redwood Video participates in the long Cowhide tradition by creating entertaining video commercials. This began after old ASB director, Mr. Nicholas Miller, emphasized Redwood Video to contribute and work on school projects.
The video classes combine about eighty students from both Ranger TV & Advance Digital Film in order to ultimately publicize nine commercials and one hype video. Approximately, fifteen drafts will be compiled, though only ten will make the final cut.
Film-making has 3 phases: Pre-production, Production, and Post-production.
Pre-production consists of brainstorming, script writing, storyboarding and going through a shot list.
Production falls under going out and shooting videos with the football players around campus, along with some out of campus locations.
Post-production consists of editing, music, sound effects, and animations. The total time it takes to accomplish these levels of film production requires a time of around two to three weeks.
Every year, video pulls their inspirations from the videos they release from actual older exciting commercials. Sometimes, students closely copy previous commercials and other times they construct commercials from scrap.
When asked about the creation process of these commercials, Nikko Gutierrez, ’23, one of the executive producers for Ranger TV, says, “It’s pretty stressful considering this is what a lot of schools watch for. This is the hype up for the game; we’re building up everybody’s excitement. It’s really stressful in that case, but it’s something we’ve been doing for years.”
This year Gutierrez has found inspiration from California State University, Fresno.
Micah Stipech, ’23 is one of the various essential and key members of Ranger TV. Stipech says that a difficult part of the process was “getting all of the football guys there. [Players] had to skip their periods to get there, so we had to run around.”
Ranger TV Producer, Malayna Nieto ’23, is yet another student involved in Ranger Video. When looking toward the most important aspects of Ranger TVs’ contribution as a whole, Nieto says that it’s “getting to make other people happy with these videos and showcasing how redwood is as culture.”
Mr. Henshaw, Digital Media Arts Production teacher says, “When Mr. Miller was ASB director, he really emphasized bringing video in and having us do projects to support the school culture and climate. We’re trying to develop something where students can learn, but also share part of our culture.”
The hardest parts during this time of the year is managing equipment and having the football players come together at one time due to conflicting schedules. Camera equipment must always be charged, read, and have an SD card along with other equipment.
Despite this being Henshaw’s 8th year, he doesn’t know what the past video teacher was involved with but says “I try to continue the tradition and enhance it. We try to continue what’s already been out there.”
“Seeing the expression on the peoples faces and the crowds reacting to the video, that’s where it’s all at; that’s your money, that’s the adrenaline rush. You feel like you are really connected.”
William Henshaw
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