Good Morning, Inglemoor! Each Wednesday and Thursday, GMI greets students with a video that showcases important school information, sports recaps, sports features and teacher interviews. However, GMI is more than just two weekly videos; it’s a dedicated class of 27 students who work tirelessly to bring these broadcasts to life.
“Joining GMI was probably the best decision I made in high school,” senior Jace Dixey (he/him) said. “I started editing around COVID — I created a YouTube channel called Lift Ticket Productions, and that’s when I started editing. Since then, I took video productions, and my brother was in GMI, and he said that he enjoyed it, so I joined.”
The staff works in teams, rotating between roles each quarter. Whether they are producers, editors, on-camera talent or camera operators, each member experiences the different aspects of video production.
“You kind of do everything,” Dixey said. “I’ve done all of them, but I would say my favorite is probably the editing part. I like putting together the features and adding my own little twist.”
Junior Tyler Regala (he/him) said he also finds editing the shows to be his favorite part of the process. He said editing allows him to make sure everything looks clean and polished, but he also likes to help out all around.
“I’m an excellent editor and a very handsome talent,” Regala said. “They also have me go out in the field — they’ll have me record and be recorded as well — but I just always try to facilitate things, help out, make sure our process runs smoothly and efficiently.”
At the beginning of each quarter, the staff elects producers for the show. GMI adviser Katrina Allemier tasks the staff with creating openers and a sports or teacher feature. Each week, Allemeier compiles scripts received from club submissions and school events.
“For content of the show — like weekly — different clubs or whatever send stuff to Allemeier saying, ‘Hey, we have this event or whatever that’s gonna happen, can you put this on the show?’ and they’ll submit a script, and then that’s what we read off of for the show,” Dixey said.
Once they have the scripts, they record the segments on Mondays and Tuesdays. The goal is to edit everything by Tuesday for the Wednesday show, and to edit the Thursday show the day before it airs.
“GMI’s very cooperative,” junior Jayden Chae (he/him) said. “Cooperative in a sense where you’re handing things off to each other; it’s really important to have that communication or things can get muddy in between handing off the segments.”
The team works under tight deadlines, with just under two hours each week to produce, film and edit their segments. Dixey said this time crunch requires efficient collaboration and time management. He said finding people he works well with helps him get his segments to the producers quicker.
“The producers are often the most experienced editors, so they’re pretty good at getting it all done quickly,” Dixey said. “They can get a lot of segments started in the last 20 minutes of class and still get it all together to export and put out for everybody.”
The pressure to produce quality segments in short time frames also encourages personal growth. Sophomore Yana-Maria Deneva (she/her) said that she’s improved her ability to manage her schedule and work efficiently.
“I’m really bad with time,” Deneva said. “But because of GMI, I’ve learned to just do it and stop procrastinating. If you don’t meet a deadline, it could affect the whole show.”
Despite the challenges, Deneva said GMI has found new ways to grow and improve over her two-year tenure.
“We used to just use — for the green screen — random images behind us, but now we have a whole news-show-type vibe with all the yellow lines and stuff, which is really cool,” Deneva said. “And our editing has gotten better. We’ve switched to (Adobe) Premiere, which is more professional.”
Through it all, GMI’s dynamic staff of newcomers and veterans defines its success. Dixey said the infusion of new talent each year keeps the program fresh and innovative.
“Every year, there’s new people, and those people bring different skills to the table,” Dixey said. “It’s exciting to see how GMI grows and changes.”
