APPALACHIAN MEDIA INSTITUTE

Outdoors on location, discussing light, weather conditions and time of day.

Photo: Jeff Whetstone

The core program is a six-week summer session for high school sophomores and juniors. Professional media artists train participants in video and radio production skills and performing arts techniques so they can then turn their camera lenses, microphones, and creativity toward their own communities. In hands-on workshops, students learn how to set up cameras and microphones, create lighting, conduct interviews and take notes, operate video recorders, and edit videotape. The student interns then work in teams to create their own media pieces, including such recent documentaries as A Dying Tradition, which explores mountain rituals and traditions associated with death, and Simon, a folk tale using claymation. Their completed works are presented to teachers, students, families and community members. Some of the best have aired on local cable and statewide public television and have won in national student media competitions.

Since 1988, the Appalachian Media Institute has trained 115 student interns, each of whom in turn has passed on his or her skills to an average of 30 young people in their home communities. Nearly 10,000 students in 20 eastern Kentucky communities have participated in media arts activities that would not have existed without the Appalachian Media Institute.