The Tracks TV show, from its start in 1995 to 2013 and BEYOND, is reflected in these pages
Making Tracks!
This site shows the stand-outs from the earliest videos from 1995 to 2001. It also shows the stand-out students over 19 years who made it to "The Wall," the honor bestowed on a classroom wall for the highest quality contributions sampled on the following pages.
1- Mission Possible, 1995: Jon and Shane and Andy teamed up with a community citizen that used a Video Toaster for special effects. The explosion was from Speed but some transitions we could never have done with our limited VCR editing.
2- Teleprompter origin, 2000-01 This has Mr. Preston's leadership class busy building the teleprompter from a kit. The video class prior to this was simply having two members read out intro’s in a prerecorded and then a live presentation. The leadership class used top students from the school monitored by super teachers like Preston, Mrs. White, and Ms. Everette
3- 1995 to 2005 Wall: segment has the first lead-in and some changes with announcers and editing. Included are some highlights from the first Wall-of-Famers.
4- 2007 to 2011 Wall: in mainly a battle of five directors. Two directors primarily worked alone and recruited their actors, and the other two pair of Wall-of-Famers focused on their own acting. The fifth, Molly Nelson, made her Wall premiere as a second year Tracks student as a junior and then returned senior year to set records for performance.
5- Blair Witch Spoof using a Sandwitch. The Blair Witch Project had just in 1997 set records for ticket sales for a new sort of horror documentary.
7- 1997 Explode Juice commercial: This is based on the anti-cigarette commercials of the time. The concluding explosion is from the movie Speed a few years earlier.
8- 1998 Country Boy Sports: Buck Preston, the English Dept. Chair for many years, especially liked this segment because it captured the good ole country boy. It has many imperfections, but it does show off a past-time with passion. Coon Dog Day is celebrated on the Keepsake page.
9- How to Wow a Tracks audience: This gives the step by step process for the general making of our video segments in 1999. VCR editing was still used, but computer editing was also ongoing on two computers.
10- Grendel Senior English Project: Mrs. Warren's Grendel was done after the senior project was completed; this is what the class came up with to work on.
11- Guy & Girl Romancing: This gives a girl's perspective on getting a guy and then how guys aim to appeal to girls.
12- Spoof Trek 1995: The script was taken from a drama booklet that spoofed Star Trek. These actors added their own personality to the roles and made use of the library “transporter” to get to the forest that was at the back parking lot.
13- The First Tracks does lunch was a critique on the initial 1995 Tracks broadcast. It was very creative in content, but in technique had poor quality by today's standards, and classes used it on the exam to critique on all the areas to improve.
14- Art Teacher & English Teacher: Mr. Jeff Thomas won the Golden Apple Award from WLOS in about 2000. It was shown in class as an example of how to do a good "interview project." Mr. Buck Preston is also given a teaching award by Mr. Miller in the ending segment
15- Mr. Greene's Views from 1997: In his third year at PCHS, what was on Mr. Greene's mind? In adds up to more than teaching math. Listen to the interview and see!
Background: For the spring semester of 1995, there had only been five students to preregister for newspaper journalism. When the name was changed to video journalism, suddenly a class of 20 materialized. Equipment, though, was very costly and sparse. The teacher had just bought a camcorder to take on a trip to his in-laws in England; the library had one to check out, and it also had a tiny studio with a standard VCR and an editing VCR. Every "Tracks" class was a team effort; outstanding contributors to that ground-breaking class were Andy Chaffin, Shane West, and Jon Sellers, the editorial guy .
6- 2000 SPIRIT Week: This has spirited ingredients like "Don't Let the Dogs Out", football players in drag, decorating the gym, crowning of the court, a tribute to a cheerleader,
the blue-white game, a
46-20 score, and the
band.
Origins
Origins
1 Mission Possible for Early Tracks
2 Teleprompter 2000 01
3 Background on the Wall 1
4 wall of fame Battle of the Directors
5 Blair Witch Spoof
6 2000 SPIRIT week homecoming
7 1997 Explode Juice commercial
8 Country Boy Sports
9 How to Wow
10 Grendel
11 getgirlguy
12 Spoof Trek 1995
13 The first Tracks takes time for lunch
14 Art Award for Thomas & Sr Award for Preston
15 Mr Greene s Views from 1997
More on that Wall: A listing of the Wall of Famers did not begin until the year 2000, and not until 2008 was a set criteria established for the number of Tracks segments produced in order to make it to the Wall. The first Wall of Fame segment begins with a battle of directors, 2007-10.
The team of Abigail Hall and Jordan Ollis in fall of 2008 established an amazing record of an even dozen Tracks segments. But this was outdone with 13 in spring of 2010 by the super tag team of Heber Najera and Jairo Nevarez.
Other Wall of Famers dating back to the year 1999 are the following: Justin Ford, 1999; Keith Wilson, 2000; Michael Long and James Dudli and Michelle Edwards and Kate Cunningham, all in two separate classes from spring 2002; David Sierk and Chris Weitzen, 2003; Austin Kempton, 2005; Justin Jennings, 2007; Rogelio Najera, 2007; and Molly Nelson, 2011. Molly's final partner, Sammie Walker was the final wall-maker, in 2012. Molly became the all-time greatest contributor to Tracks: a record never to be broken: 22 Tracks segments!
Homage is here best paid to Co-Principal David Williams, the gent in the black suit alongside Co-Principal David Jones, for allowing the video class to even get started and listening to
class member complaints of all the notes and logs and lack of equipment.
He allowed the notes and logs to stay for class management and high
expectations. Somehow he found over $6,000 so that an editing VCR
system and new camcorders could be purchased to
start the second semester.
