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Students make splash on C-SPAN

Two graduating seniors produce a video that earns third prize in a national documentary competition for students.

By MARY SPICUZZA
Published May 29, 2006

[Times photo: Janel Schroeder-Norton]

Michael Ciadella, left, and Jeff Surmin, recent graduates of James W. Mitchell High School, are splitting the $500 third prize they won in a national documentary competition.

NEW PORT RICHEY - Eight minutes can be a long time.

Michael Ciadella and Jeff Surmin of James W. Mitchell High School know this is especially true in the world of broadcast television. The pair recently produced an eight-minute and 10-second video titled, Young America: The Power to Vote, which won third prize in a national student documentary competition sponsored by C-SPAN.

It aired on C-SPAN earlier this month.

Ciadella said it was a new experience for the two high schoolers, "who usually do 10-second" segments for their campus' morning news show.

Young America was one of 14 entries throughout the United States that received third prize in the StudentCam competition, which invited middle and high school students to produce a documentary exploring a current political topic using C-SPAN programming. The prize was $500, which they are splitting.

In the video, a low camera-angle shows groups of students walking on campus. Green Day's American Idiot blasts as signs such as "Vote or Die!" "Youth Vote" and "Rock the Vote" flash onscreen. A teenage girl can be seen shouting into a megaphone.

"We didn't want to go for the straight C-SPAN style," Ciadella said.

But the video is full of information. It includes plenty of statistics on youth voting, as well as interviews with U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, and state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

The documentary also features a segment on the power of one vote, which details various times in history when major decisions have come down to a single ballot.

They made that part look and sound like old reel footage from a projector, with the help of their video editing software created by Apple Computer, known as iMovie.

"It's an effect on iMovie, it's black and white, called Old Movie," Surmin said.

Entries were selected for prizes based on their ability to capture a theme, quality of expression, creativity, balanced presentation of views, and use of C-SPAN programming, senior specialist for education relations at C-SPAN Meg Steele said.

Ciadella and Surmin said that, since they both are 18, they quickly decided to focus on youth voting after a C-SPAN representative visited their campus this spring.

"I was actually very happy that they chose this topic," their social studies teacher Steven Page said. "If you don't vote, you're allowing somebody else to choose for you."

They only had a few weeks to make the video, produced entirely using Mitchell High School equipment and iMovie.

"They were going up against magnet schools, but they used just what was available to them," principal Ric Mellin said. "And their God-given talents."

Ciadella and Surmin, both of whom graduated from Mitchell last week, hope to continue using those talents next school year. In the fall, Ciadella will attend the University of Florida, where he hopes to study telecommunications. Surmin, who will be at the University of Central Florida, plans to major in broadcasting.

If their documentary is any indication, both have a sense of what their college years may have in store.

"We did hours and hours of editing," Ciadella said.

Young America: The Power to Vote and other contest winners can be viewed on the StudentCam Web site, www.studentcam.org/winners.asp.

A version of this story appears in some regional editions of the Times.

[Last modified May 29, 2006, 04:50:11]