As the biggest commission in UC High’s Associated Student Body, ASB Media works nonstop to provide the school with quality content through biweekly videos, student collaboration, and social media presence.
“Last year we only had three people working to make a Friday video every week, so making quality videos was really hard and the time constraint was extremely difficult to keep up with… This year we have a team of eight people and are able to break up the videos between people along with our Monday videos, which is awesome,” said Senior Sophia Rosas, a co-lead of the commission.
“ASB Media is the perfect space for me to bring what I’ve done to the table and collaborate with others,” said Junior James Mylenek. Mylenek, Rosas, and Senior Gustavo Damian Danemann Soto film and produce the Friday ASB videos every other week.
As per Mylenek, daily tasks of the media commission include, “…scheduling, filming and editing content, brainstorming content ideas, and working off of peer feedback on videos.”
“The commission has added a lot of talented editors and people educated about equipment and production. Compared to last year, we have a bigger team, a larger budget for productions, and more structure for our videos,” said Junior Carley Connor, who co-leads the commission with Rosas.
Connor added, “We have further involved staff and students into our videos, with outside suggestions, insight, and of course, volunteers for videos.”
“I like being involved [in ASB]. It encourages me to meet new people outside of my bubble, and has really opened up my world to so many new perspectives and opportunities. Specifically in Media, I feel like we have so much creative freedom to express ourselves and this school through the weekly videos we put out,” said Junior Alyssa Crossan, who films and produces the Friday ASB videos with Senior Jenna Huynh every other week.
“Though we do have restrictions, I love sharing my ideas with everyone else and then creating the visuals, bringing them from my head to reality. There are so many different tastes and interests out there that I want to explore with each video we produce,” said Huynh.
“If we have an idea, we all work together to try to achieve it. I think it’s very cool that we can all work together and create two videos every week,” said Senior Priscila Artiga, who oversees ASB’s social media accounts along with making the weekly Monday videos with Senior Sydney Buchanan.
Buchanan said, “I edit all of the Monday videos, and I’ve learned a lot about green screens, timing, and audio, which has been really interesting to learn about.”
The media commission consistently seeks to receive viewer feedback to improve content quality, with different methods to receive such input.
“Earlier this year, we did an ASB-wide conference and learned from each other about what we are doing that’s working and not working. The goal was to build ideas and grow off of one another,” said Buchanan.
Among the commission members, their almost unanimous pick for their favorite video of the year was Friday Video number 9, where students signed up for a speed dating game. “Filming was so much fun, and editing it was great, looking through all the funny moments…. That video was for sure our hardest to plan and set up, but it was 100 percent worth it, because I think it came out amazing,” said Rosas.
“For the rest of the year, I’m hoping to improve communication with the rest of the media commission so we can all be more collaborative. Since there are only so many Fridays left in the school year, I want to make sure that we don’t put out anything that isn’t fully entertaining,” said Crossan.
ASB Media’s main focus so far this year has been better involving students and school organizations in videos. “Even though it’s tough to get people [to participate], we try our best, and it’s always better when we get a diverse variety of people in the videos,” said Artiga.