Television For Kids, By Kids

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Savannah Unruh set up a “special effects” shot.

It may not be Nickelodeon Studios, but at the end of a long hallway inside the Agnes Wahlstrom Youth Playhouse is a television studio dedicated to children. Strategically cluttered in front of the Navy blue backdrop are old television sets from the ’70s – the kind with large dials instead of remote controls. There are old computer monitors that flicker on and off, wire baskets full of video tapes, an “On Air” and “Applause” sign, ladders, cables and loose wires hanging from the ceiling.

Off to the side of the makeshift studio, two boys, who look to be about 9 or 10 years old, rehearse their lines. A young girl, wearing a headset with a microphone attached to it, fiddles with the video mixer, switching the television monitor from one digital camera to the other. Another set of boys puts on their headsets and begin to speak loudly into the mics talking to each other, even though they are standing less then three feet apart.

Read the entire article in the March 2002 issue

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