April 9, 2009
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS , OH – Cleveland Heights High School TV production students Byron Farmer and Alfred Sharp recently experienced a unique behind-the-scenes look at the production team for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The students, along with their instructor Jeff Glass and District technology infrastructure specialist Marc Brown, were part of the pre-planning and production that occurs prior to each Cavs home game.

The students received a tour of Quicken Loans Arena, contributed to two pre-production meetings, shadowed a production assistant during the game, and captured a glimpse of a future career in video production.

Jonny Grecco, the Director of Video Production for the Cavs, led the students through their multimedia experience. The students had an opportunity to meet some of the video production crew and ask questions before going to the first pre-production meeting.

Several different staff leaders gathered at the production meeting, including the on-camera talent, Moon Dog the mascot, cheerleader coordinator, in-house video director, in-house audio staff, as well as the live production director who controls the show production during the game. Byron and Alfred got to see how every aspect of the game was scripted in detail, including corporate sponsor spots, giveaways, promotion for colon cancer awareness month, and what groups were performing during time outs. The scripts covered every aspect of the game when the teams were not playing basketball.

The students also got a chance to view the production from a video perspective by spending more time with the different crew members to understand the intricacies of various roles. During the game, students were directly involved either in the control room or in the arena helping deliver supplies to the remote videographers.