Pine-Richland High School Video Students Win Five Awards

Lights, camera ... awards!

took five awards Wednesday at the 19th Annual Television & Video Teachers Spring Student Video Festival held at Robert Morris University.

"The TVT festival provides all students in TV/Video production at Pine-Richland an outstanding educational experience and insight into the world of news, media and film,” said teacher Aaron Koehler.

In all, more than 500 entries were submitted this year from 30-plus schools from the tri-state area, Koehler said.

The awards were presented to the following:

For the second year in a row, Selina Bitting won an Award of Excellence in the Animation/Graphics category. This year's entry is titled "Something About Clay." 

Jessica Malandro won first place in the Student Judged Music Video category for her entry called "New Orleans." More than 30 schools at the festival scored and voted on 16 entries in this category.

"New Orleans" features the vocals of Katie Colosimo, another Pine-Richland senior.

Jeff Burgess and Davis Karran won an Award of Excellence in the Digital Cinema category for their entry called "Davis & Jeff Save Christmas."

For the fourth year in a row, students in PRTV won an Award of Excellence in the Live Event category. This year's entry was coverage of Pine-Richland Football vs. Butler, which was directed by Karl Dickensheets.

For the second year in a row, students in PRTV won an Award in the Best of Morning Announcements category.  

Students were pleased with the outcome of the festival.

"The festival proves that sheer talent and work ethic produce the best possible end product," said Burgess.

"It’s nice to be recognized for all of the work we have done," said PRHS senior Dan Micco, who had an acting role in the "Davis & Jeff Save Christmas" video.

In addition to Koehler, the Pine-Richland Technology Education Department and PRTV media technicians Steve Karpinski and Bill Clack supported the awards initiative.

PRTV is a TV production class open to seniors who have completed video production and advanced video production classes.

Students learn the skills necessary to produce television programs within a studio environment, according to a description on the school district's website.

"Students will write and produce daily school announcements (PRTV), variety shows, talk shows and Pine-Richland events," the website states. "All students will study/practice on-air skills. This class will provide students the opportunities to create a variety of programs for Pine-Richland School District."

 PR-TV is broadcast on Armstrong Cable on digital cable channel 211 and regular cable channel 50 while Consolidated Subscribers can view PR-TV's programs on channel 404. 

—Submitted by Rachel Hathhorn, communications director for Pine-Richland School District. If you have news you would like to share, please email Editor Cindy Cusic Micco at cindy.micco@patch.com.