Warren Tech students working behind the cameras at Mansfield Township Comcast station to get experience for possible careers in television

MANSFIELD TWP. | Some of the screens in the dark room alternated between "Comcast Newsmakers" host Jamie Lynn Drohan and her guest, an epidemiologist from the Hunterdon County Department of Health, as they discussed the differences between a cold and the flu.

"Three minutes," called Joshua Roan, the segment's videotape operator and a Warren County Technical School student from Greenwich Township.

Two more Warren Tech students, Mike Spadafora, of Pohatcong Township, and Travis Thierrin, of Lopatcong Township, sat at control boards as the technical director and audio operator responding to cues from one of the Comcast producers. Spadafora cut to and from shots of an 11-year-old girl trying not to wince as she received a flu shot.

When they were finished, the students had successfully filmed and produced another 5-minute interview segment, one of several scheduled for the day that will air on local Comcast broadcasts of CNN Headline News. The tapings at the Comcast station on Port Murray Road are a monthly practice for Warren Tech's Television, Radio & Digital Media program.

"They are on the job here," said Rich Patricia, program teacher. "This is the real deal and you're expected to perform."

Technically in charge

For the last eight years, the local Comcast station and Warren Tech have worked together allowing students to produce an official area broadcast. Although the students work alongside professionals, who occasionally have to bark an order or two at their lesser-experienced counterparts, much of the technical work is the students' own.

"I always like exposing young people to something like this," said "Comcast Newsmakers" producer Ruben Rodriguez. "When I was in high school, I didn't have anything like that."

While some are drawn to the idea of performing in front of the camera, many of the students working at the Comcast set last week said they were already drawn to the technical end of showbiz by observing camera work in movies and television or by fiddling with video-editing programs on their computers at home.

"Every show needs somebody to film it," said student Kris Gordon, of Mansfield Township.

Taste of a possible career

The program provides professional experience, both the teacher and students said. Not only is it a resume-builder, it also gives them a chance to decide if it is something they really want to do.

"If we want to do it (professionally), we get experience," Spadafora said. "If we decide we don't, we find out here."

Aside from the monthly work at the Comcast station, students in Patricia's program this semester will also create their own 30-minute documentary on a subject of their choosing.

In the second half of the year, Patricia said the class will try something new by creating a collaborative movie. The class has also produced various public service announcements and, through Comcast, commercials for local businesses.

In addition to teaching the media courses, Patricia works as a freelance videographer. He has worked in the industry since high school.

Some of his students have earned freelance jobs with Comcast through the program, while others go on to other endeavors.

"It's exciting for me to work with these kids and see them go out and do things that I wanted to do and to have them come back and tell me about it," Patricia said.