Oh, also! I got involved in the Local Community tv station when I was in High School. That's something to consider - with a little training, he gets free access to editing and shooting equipment.

We don't have have a local TV station here in Barberton, but they do in Wadsworth, where my Dad lives.  He might be able to do that.  We will have to be the media club.  We home school.  

Oh, I just have to say that at no time did I think that he could just read a book and be able to walk out and do a job.  That's the trouble with MBOs.  I fully understand that nothing beats real life experience.  So, no more worrying about that.  

Well, I have equipped my son with an old Panasonic Palmcorder he can use to get the hang of filming things.  I printed the manual off a very cool website: http://www.retrevo.com/

Anyway, this will give him some hands on experience and allow him to get his feet wet and see how he likes it.

He's filming everybody right now. . . .

My husband is a broadcast engineer. When he was younger, he just walked into a local television station and told them about his love of broadcasting and asked if he could volunteer and help them so that he could learn.

He said his first job was helping to build a set. He had to lay out pallets and nail plywood to them. Then they carpeted everything. He worked his way up to operating a camera or running audio.

After one year of volunteering, he applied for a job as a master controller at an affiliate for the Home Shopping Network with a reference from people at the other station. He worked there for six years. He got his hands on every trade magazine he could, read manuals, and learned everything he could.

When he realized the HSN job was going to become obsolete because they were going to become completely automated, he went to a friend who worked at an emerging WB affiliate and got a job in maintenance. He worked both jobs for about five months and then got laid off from the HSN. Then he got a job working full time for the WB in engineering maintenance. Within three years he was the Assistant Chief Engineer.

His friend then quit and went to work for the state in Legislative Media Services. (That’s the people that film the house and senate hearings.) He and his friend eventually became business partners and filed for FCC licenses and building permits for their own stations. Today they own a local television station.

His advice is that your son get involved in any way he can. Remember that it’s not just about the camera. Lighting and sound knowledge and experience are crucial as well. A local theater is a good place to gain experience dealing with lighting. Theaters often don’t have the rights to record material due to copyright issues, but if it’s an original production and if the theater has the rights to record, you may inquire about making a video production.

Sound is important too. There are lots of differences between live event recording, sound reinforcement (PA systems), and studio production recording. A local church can help you get experience dealing with sound reinforcement.

Depending on the size of the school, some schools have Film Clubs. If you have a nearby school with good opportunities for your son, you may consider letting him enroll in a school. Nothing against home schooling but public schools, depending on their size, may have a great deal of opportunities regarding his particular interest.

Also if you live near the state capital (we live near Oregon’s state capital), you may go to the capitol building and see about volunteering for the media services there.

If your son is willing to volunteer, there are a lot of opportunities. Maybe just go to a local television station, tell them what you want to do and ask if they have any work for you. We had a local young man work for my husband and he wound up doing teen news stories for an affiliate for a major network. He’s an awesome kid with a bright future. But he was a real go getter and he started getting somewhere before he was even out of high school. Now he’s in college and I have no doubt he’ll succeed in whatever he does.

Best wishes to your son.


Breanne

Great advice, Breanne,  Thank you and thank your husband for us!