BY ELLA DEAN

“5-4-3-2-1… Cue talent!”

“Quiet on the set!” “Control room ready?”

“Preview camera 2, take 2!”

“Roll video!” “Graphic up!” “Graphic out!”

Confused? Welcome to the daily jargon of MHS Info. MHS students and faculty watch Info almost every day; however, they only get to see the final product. So much goes on behind the scenes…here is the inside scoop!

MHS Info students work in an authentic television news environment. Emily Dombroff, MHS’s Video Production teacher, said, “the set up and the positions would be virtually the same if you walked into a professional TV studio.” The Info facilities include the famous studio as well as the hidden control room, the heart of the production. In the control room there are three alternating cameras, a lighting board and grid, a boom microphone, additional microphones, many TV monitors--one for each camera and one for the master shot--a preview monitor for a following shot, a teleprompter, a computer graphics program, an audio board, a giant switcher for the cameras and videos, an iMac computer to play back video roll-ins and little preview monitors for the graphics.

Each show requires copious amounts of effort from every member of the Info team. These behind-the-scenes positions include director, technical director, graphics, teleprompter, audio, roll-ins, floor manager, cameras and producer. Raffaello d’Amore ‘13 said, “Since we always switch or fill in roles, we’re always learning new things. I started on camera, which was easy, but now I am on graphics, which is much harder.”

Dombroff revealed that the best-kept secret about MHS Info is that it is not performed live! Instead, it is shot “live to tape,” which means that it is taped in one take. Daily TV shows, like the Letterman and the Daily Show, are also recorded “live to tape.” These shows have some layover time between taping and broadcasting in which they can tweak things. However, the Info team preps, rehearses and tapes in 52 minutes. The team confesses that they can definitely feel the time crunch on days when they finish taping as close to the airing time as 9:59 a.m.

Students are lucky enough to see Info on Day Two, Day Three and Day Four. On Day Five, they pre-tape for Day One, the day the class is dropped. Day Fives are their creative days because they have ample time to edit. They can incorporate spoof intros, such as the talking Watson computer that appeared in one of last year’s shows. And they may experiment with special effects like “beaming” anchors into the studio.

Of course, there are always mishaps in showbiz. On days One through Four, Info is broadcast to channel six on every MHS television. A “live” signal is sent to that channel as the taped show is played back. Numerous times last year, the signal was left on, so on the following day, their rehearsal was broadcast to every television in the school!

Dombroff loves her job and is extremely proud of her students. “Although Info can be stressful, on the days when little things go wrong and the team has trouble recovering, it is still always fun and rewarding,” she said. “It is funny that our audience would never know what happened, or how many times we had to start over because of the same mistake!” Dombroff is thrilled by her students’ partnerships. “Every day I get to see the pride in my students when they are able to achieve the result of great teamwork, collaboration and professionalism, ” she said. She is confident that she has an awesome group this year that is “professional, hard-working, and supportive.”

Those who have been lucky enough to take MHS Info can attest to its importance. Alumni have used the skills they learned in MHS Info in college and beyond. Jason Weitzman ‘09, who is pursuing journalism at Boston University, borrowed parts of MHS Info’s format when he created a news show there. When he worked in the TV studio at BU his freshman year, he felt he had greater knowledge than the third year students. He credits this knowledge to his work on Info.

MHS Info students love their elective! Kahn articulates, “I always look forward to Info – definitely one of the highlights of my school day. It’s serious yet funny!”