Latest / GCA Unmuted: Voices of Virtual Education / Media in Motion with Aaron Bell: Storytelling Through GCA’s Video Team

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Media in Motion with Aaron Bell: Storytelling Through GCA’s Video Team · GCA Unmuted: Voices of Virtual Education

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to GCA Unmuted, the podcast where we share the stories and strategies that show how Georgia Cyber Academy makes online learning work.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: In a virtual school, storytelling matters more than ever.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Video and media don't just capture moments, they connect people, build trust, and bring learning to life across screens.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm joined today by Aaron Bell, GCA's media production specialist, who helps tell the story of our students and staff at school through video, bringing GCA's mission to life one frame at a time.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: We'll explore how GCA uses media to connect a statewide community, what goes into telling authentic stories in a virtual school, and why video plays such a powerful role in education today.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, Aaron, thanks for being here.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And can you share a project or a moment that you think really captures the heart of what the GCA video team does, what you do?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, thanks for having me on here.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Good to see you.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: And first of all, I just want to say like it's really feels really surreal to be in an episode of something that we're producing since I'm always behind the scenes.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of bizarre transitioning to being on screen, and it's probably gonna feel even weirder when I'm editing this episode, editing my own my own episode on here.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Real out-of-body experience here.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: For sure, for sure.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, oh man, there's so many good examples to pick to answer your question.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: If I had to, I'll cheat and pick two rather than just one.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the first would be the uh graduation highlights videos that I've been able to produce and the Day in the Life series that we've been making here at GCA.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what do you think um about those is standing out?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh first tell me what what is the story that you tried to capture in the graduation one?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pick that graduation one and the graduation highlight.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: What's the story?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Is it simply what graduations like at GCA, or is it is it more to it than that?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit about that, but tried to tried to go a little bit deeper as well.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: So for the two years, I've been I've been here on staff for about four and a half years, but for two years now, I've produced these graduation highlight videos.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really being able to take the students and show how they have overcome all the obstacles that they had to overcome in order to graduate and finish high school and to be able to celebrate their accomplishments.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, for both of those highlight videos, we were able to take a select number of students that we featured there at the uh Georgia Tech Arena, the McCamish Pavilion is where we've had it the last couple years, and we've been able to do interviews with those students and then cut that in with B-roll that we captured from around the ceremony, as well as putting in key moments from various keynote speakers and things like that, so that through all of those things, select uh sound bites from the students, sound bites from the uh from the speakers, and then all the B-roll, you kind of form a narrative showing what it's like, usually following the theme of overcoming adversity, obstacles, you know, students from just like all of the different kind of backgrounds and things that that we have here at GCA and how they made it to the finish line.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And do you know how students or staff responded to that graduation highlights video?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because are you have you been present when other people have seen this or because we're virtual?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do how is that how is that media like pushed out?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And do you know how people have responded when they've when they've seen that graduation highlights?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: For graduation, I wish I could say I've been with students when they've seen it, but because since they graduated, you know, they're gone.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: We have played, we have screened that at our uh annual PD conference for staff, like when people are walking in.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it was you know gratifying to see people respond to that and things like that.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: But more so for the student side, I'd have to pick some other projects where you know the students are more here with us, and that would be um, you know, the big project that you and I work on all the time, Hootworthy.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: And being able to, you know, see students kind of like both going into it, hearing their families how excited they are, um, and you know, then being able to uh you know, kind of like see a few comments on YouTube for you know, either like the students themselves or maybe their friends who you can tell left comments expressing interest in it.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then um back to that other project that I mentioned at the start, the uh Day in the Life series, you know, where we're able to show um you know what the day-in, day out real life experience at virtual school is.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: We, you know, some of the families for that, they've been so happy to take part in it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, uh one family in particular where we were able to do a number of features because they have so many students in that family who were part of GCA at the time.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And they, you know, like afterwards, I had phone calls with them, and they were just tickled pink to be able to be part of that experience and to you know kind of get to see that they were for for uh time there kind of being the face of GCA.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: That was very rewarding for them.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so that's the second piece I was gonna ask.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So you mentioned graduation highlights is something that you think really sticks out about like uh powerful things you've done that captures what you do at GCA.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the day in the life.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: So what's the story with the day in the life?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, is it really like, hey, let me track a s a school day of a student?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Is that how you map that out?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And like how do you make um how do you make that really powerful experience in terms of like, hey, I'm really trying to tell a story with this day in the life?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: That that's uh that's basically been the mission with that is to try and show, especially families who are, you know, maybe in brick and mortar currently and they're kind of on the fence about figuring out whether GCA is right for them.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, they're wanting to think, well, what does virtual school look like?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And not every virtual school is the same, you know, like what we offer is different from what other virtual schools offer.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: So trying to capture that, you know, real life experience of a school day.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: So on the production side of things, what that's looked like is traveling to a family's house.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And now we're starting to do these featurettes for uh staff as well, so we can show people what it's like to work for GCA.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: But you travel to the person's house and you record a sit-down interview with the student or students, if it's you know, multiple kids in the family that that are that attend here, um, and the learning coaches, and sometimes even the grandparents, and you get that interview asking you know pre-selected questions about their experience, what that looks like, all trying to get at that idea of what an actual day you know is like here at Georgia Cyber Academy.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'll go through the house and get uh you know what we call B-roll, which is the video clips that you can play over top of the interview that illustrates what they're talking about.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: So if the students are, you know, if the students and their learning coaches, parents, grandparents, whatever, if they're talking about um, you know, uh times in class, like interacting with other students on the computer, or if they talk about you know, even something as simple as the lunch breaks that they take, or maybe hands-on learning exercises, I'll take the camera after that interview and go get footage of the student sitting there at their desk.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe even you know, in the past I've actually recorded actual footage of not just like the student staged there, like you know, clacking on the keyboard or whatever, but maybe the student is actually in a live class and I'll just get footage off to the side of them as they're sitting there, you know, nodding along as the teacher talks.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, even things is like their parents making a lunch for them in the kitchen, all that stuff that you can use to illustrate the narrative that we build in the um in the edit of their interview, if that makes sense.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: No, it does.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's perfect.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine those day in the life series are incredibly helpful too for, like you said, prospective parents who are like, hey, what does the virtual school really even look like?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have any idea?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to test you here, but do you have any idea how many day in the life we have in a in a in our library of like a a parent wanting to go see?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know offhand?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm trying to remember right now.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think we have maybe I want to say five or six, and we've got more on the horizon that we're putting together.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: So currently I uh I've already I've already shot the footage for two staff interviews, and then I just got on the schedule for at the time of this recording, it'll be next month when I go to two more students' homes and record their experience as well.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the goal is to uh by the time we're done with the series, have kind of like a representation of every grade band as well as the other programs that we offer, such as special education, uh advanced and gifted, and just trying to get more of a comprehensive picture so that again those prospective families can see that we uh we offer everything here at GCA.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's great.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I imagine people that are listening already have a pretty good idea of like just based on the projects and things we've already talked about, but can you give us kind of an overview of broadly speaking, what does your role really look like at this virtual school?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like what do you what are your main like goals?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: What are your main projects?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: What are the main things that you're kind of doing like day to day or month to month to month or like year over year kind of big picture is like as you would see it?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I was if you were at a party with somebody, they're like, What do you do at what do you do as a media specialist at GCA?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of how would you explain that or describe that?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness, there's like so many different things I had written down in my notes, uh, you know, kind of along these lines, getting ready for this meeting.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um, man, first of all, like it's more than you would expect when you're doing uh providing, you know, essentially filmmaking in a virtual educational experience.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of project variety.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um the thing that I had specifically for this talking point was it looks on the day-to-day a lot like it does in other content creation, media, filmmaking careers or fields where you spend a lot of time in the editing cave.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Only this time, since I work for a virtual school, the editing cave is in the uh comfort of my own home.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: If this uh blurred background was off right here, you'd see that there is a pile of towels to be folded on the guest bed behind me in my office here.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: So there's always the convenience factor of that.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: But no, no, on a more serious note, um it uh it's a lot of well, you know, there's the three stages of creating content or creating sometimes I hate that word content, creating media, creating art, if you will, if I can be that pretentious to use that word.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's you know, pre-production, production, and post-production.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: So my job encompasses all three of those things.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: So a large part of it is here in the home office, coordinating with other departments, uh, people within our own uh marketing and communication department, and a lot of uh, you know, our families and things like that.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you've got the emails, the Zoom messages, all those things, trying to plan things and set stuff up, and then you know, the other part of it is going out and capturing the material.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: So traveling either to people's homes like we talked about, or to venues like uh, you know, Georgia Tech, where we have our graduation ceremony, or I'm out um in the trenches with uh Tanette and her team.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure if we're if her episode is gonna screen before mine, but but uh people can watch hers all about the field trips and the community days.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of times I'm shadowing them, especially for their bigger events, trying to get good footage of that.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh, like I already mentioned, the rest of it is just sitting here um in the editing cave and working on all this footage and the uh you know the audio content, um, you know, being able to put together the finished product and build the story or the stories that we've planned and captured out there.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds like you really don't do anything at all, actually.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like you have nothing going on.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Not nothing at all.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just twiddling my thumbs here, you know.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's how do you decide what stories to tell or what projects to take on, or is that kind of told, kind of told to you, and then you kind of like filter or whatever.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: How does it work in terms of like the projects you do?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine you're not just like, oh, I'm gonna do XYZ today.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's like a lot of it like, hey, we need this, and then you're like, hey, I'm gonna filter this.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, you know, kind of like if there's one guiding principle, at least that I, you know, like when I first came on staff, something that I was thinking through was like, what stories best tell GCA's story?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: And another principle that we've had here is, you know, like uh what our communications and marketing directors and I have talked about is, you know, kind of like, is the information helpful?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Is it critical?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Does it communicate things that our stakeholders need to hear?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then, you know, like practically, yeah, a lot of it does look like um, you know, collaboration with other departments and GCA, you know, district district leadership, kind of figuring out the kind of uh things that we want to be able to communicate.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: But within that, I have been afforded a lot of creative freedom and uh you know the trust to be able to put together the material um you know as I see fit.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: But uh hopefully, hopefully that makes sense, or hopefully I haven't drifted too far from the question here.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds like obviously you have like people like as you mentioned, uh coming from your director, these are school initiatives or head of school or administration.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: They say, hey, we really need these things done, for example, like a graduation highlight or what have you, and then you have to collaborate like with Tonet's team or different departments that are like, hey, we really want X done, and you're like, hey, I can fit it in, or I can't because I need a bigger team, right?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because you said you are the pre-production, the production, and the post-production, so obviously that makes your plate pretty full pretty quickly, since you're responsible for all aspects.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um but when when you're like um doing doing different things in terms of you're saying, like, I want to figure out how to tell GCA's story best, I was actually surprised.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you might not have remembered this project.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: I thought you were gonna pick the project that you did that was like uh at the 11th hour, our head of school, Mike Coy, was like, hey, we have this charter school like contest thing or whatever.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: I can't really remember, but you can tell us a little bit about that because I thought that that was something that was like, wow, you put together this thing that really tell us about that a little bit so I don't sure.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm glad you asked actually, because I I was this close to putting that as my like you know, go-to answer for that first question.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: And because yeah, it really, you're right, it does encapsulate um telling Georgia Cyber Academy story.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: So for context for our viewers or listeners on the podcast, um what uh yeah, at the 11th hour, it was this spring, um, and uh I think it's every year our school gets invited to attend, I'm probably getting the name wrong, but something like the Georgia you know charter school association conference, something along those lines.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And this was the first year that uh either they had a video component to the contest, the voting, peer voting among the schools, all that kind of stuff.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it was the first year that they wanted us to take part in that.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I was going about my, you know, kind of like regularly planned calendar events, you know, like putting together the Hoot Worthies, the monthly community event videos, planning big projects, day in the life, all that kind of stuff.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then yeah, it was probably like a week or so from when we were gonna be there.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, uh our uh marketing and communications director um met me in the studio when I was working on another project, and she said, Hey, our superintendent, you know, uh Mr.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Mike Coy, he has um been requested to like you know present a video as part of the Georgia Cyber Academy presentation.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: What can we do in like a week?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: And with that short of notice, you know, it's not like we could go out and get a whole new slate of families who could talk and all this stuff.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: So instead, I was able to draw from you know like everything I had shot over the last, by that point, four years of being here.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it worked out perfectly where even some of the uh most recent studio Hootworthy interviews and other things like that, where we had families in there, we had been asking very specific key questions of them afterwards.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: So they would stick around and then answer some other testimonial content.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it managed to dovetail perfectly with this request.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: So uh long story short, I took I synthesized four years worth of content that I've shot here and interviews and was able to put that together into I'm trying to remember how long the finished product was.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it's actually I think it was just under like five minutes or something.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right now it is the uh kind of like headline or marquee video on our YouTube channel.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're listening and you want to check this out, at least at the time of this recording, you can log on to our GCA YouTube channel, and it should be the uh the first video that you see on the homepage there.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: I believe the thumbnail reads something like Georgia Cyber Academy serving students since 2007.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just really cool being able to like see footage of all these different events and things that families have done and accomplished and and uh all the things, all the extracurriculars that our students are involved in.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh they're part of what's called the first robotics competition, and you know, different things like in the studio and and academic achievements and kids that are part of uh leadership clubs and financial clubs, all kinds of things.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it was able to, yeah, really, you know, from a variety of voices of actual GCA uh students hear what uh kind of what our story is.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that and that was something that you crafted to say, hey, I'm gonna pull all this stuff, and then it was like a drop everything, right?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Even though you had other projects, you were like, nope, this needs to get done priority, so have that flexibility in your job, it sounds like as well.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because things can change.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: But let's shift just really quickly, in case anybody wants like the technical side, or if they want to geek out a little bit.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or if or if schools are listening and are like, what what are the things that we would actually need?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: What are the tools we would need for you to like do your job effectively?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, I'm sure there are things that you're like, man, I want this, I want this, I want this, I want this.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: You I mean, you know all the video and audio and lighting and all that stuff that you're like, man, I I want a$100,000 budget to grab all this stuff, right?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: But what would you say like are the things that you do have that are like these have been fantastic?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad, like in terms of like you mentioned the studio, so you can tell us a little bit about that, but then you also go out in the field.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So what are the things, what are the tools that you have that have allowed you to do to do your job, but also to be able to create media for GCA that like you're you're proud of, you feel good about, and that you think tells GCA's story?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: And first of all, I'll say this caveat.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: As somebody who is a self-admitted gearhead when it comes to film and media, video, all that stuff, I love all the technical things, but the big caveat is like that's not originally why I got into media as a career.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'll say it's not the tools, but it's how you use them.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, everything about you know being able to like speak to hearts and minds, it's all about a good story, well told.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, storytelling is the main tool, so to speak, in the in the filmmaker or the storyteller's belt.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that revolves around character, and character is all about being human.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just trying to find those human stories.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: But to get to like all of the fun things that I can geek out over, I mean, you know, uh Georgia Cyber.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Academy has definitely equipped me with so many of the resources that I've needed to do this job.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: So for that I've been very thankful.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, they allowed me to pick out a package of kind of like all of my cameras, starting from, you know, the Sony FX6 as our primary camera, which is uh, you know, it's it's on the it's Sony has their own line of cinema cameras, and it can go all the way up to like the Sony Venice, which is really expensive, all the way down to the FX3.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the FX6 is kind of like hitting that sweet spot for what we need where it was affordable but also high quality.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I use Sony A7S3 and A7 IIIs.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: They're kind of like younger uh baby cousins.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, so there's that that we've got uh gimbals which which stabilize cameras when I'm out on location trying to get tracking footage, and uh man, everything from even like this microphone that we use for uh our Hootworthy podcast and all that stuff.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: And uh you asked about the studio.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I'll I'll go back to my first in-person interview for this job a few years ago.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: And when I met with you know, Maria and our uh our marketing communications director, and I remember in the interview when it was over, I asked, So, can I see the studio?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: And she I remember I'll I'll never forget sitting in the HR wing in the little room that they they had for this, and she grinned real big and she said, You're gonna help build it.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's not it's not here yet.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna help build this thing.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, and that's what happened.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was this really cool process of you know coordinating with uh Andre's team there in finance to get the you know the budget approvals and all that stuff, and then from there, basically Maria and I were able to project manage this thing and work with outside vendors from the building contractors who came in and they took what I believe used to be old cubicle space on the first floor office there and convert that to the studio with the you know what's called a cyclorama or an infinity cove, where um, you know, again, for viewers or listeners, if you go on our website, check out our Hootworthy podcast, that's where we shoot all of that.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, just that white background with kind of a parabolic shape to the wall.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: So when you point the camera towards it, it looks like you're just in this white infinite void.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, to working with outside vendors that came in to install the lights and the control room, you know, all the computers, is we, you know, most of what we use it for currently is is pre-recorded content, but we also have full uh live stream, you know, a live stream kind of broadcast capability in there.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, we want to be able to expand into that more and to be able to allow our students to use more of those capabilities.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Just like in brick and mortar, a lot of times a high school have like morning announcements.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, someday we want to be able to have that capability for kids if they're interested in it.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: But all of those things, you know, had to work with vendors to to tell us some of the things that we needed and come bring it in.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then we had to work with uh kind of like a little bit of red tape issues with the with the property managers of the building to get approval, even from a structural engineer who came out to make sure that the uh the grid, the lighting grid that hangs in the ceiling was going to be structurally sound and and you know legally safe so that we could hang lights from the ceiling.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it was it was a process of getting all that to come together.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: But um now that it's uh you know basically there, it's completely functional.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's been, you know, just it's it's honestly been a blast to be able to get to do this job.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I yeah, I mean, what can I say?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: I get to I get to tell GCA's story while playing with very cool and expensive toys, and uh yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me though, about tell them about real quick.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine you need a pretty good computer to be able to edit.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the editing side, what software do you use and the type of computer would you need?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because I imagine you probably couldn't get that much done from an editing side of things if you didn't have the power, right?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's absolutely true.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: When I, you know, again, when I first came on staff, I had kind of just the the standard issue laptop that kind of all of our staff are given when they first came on.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh when they when they come on staff here.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember, man, those first I think it was about the first three months of my job here, it was excruciating trying to edit content on that laptop.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: And those were that was like the longest three months of my life trying to like get, you know, we we use um GCA pays for an Adobe account for everybody here in the uh marketing department.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so we use, you know, like like my job basically I live in Premiere Pro.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: And my workflow is Premiere to After Effects to Audition, Photoshop for making the thumbnail images and all that kind of stuff, and media encoder to do the final exports of the of the of the master copies and all that kind of stuff.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: So it just all that software was just bogging down so badly on that laptop.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we it was about three months in that the computer that even before I was hired, or just around the time that I was hired, I had been working with Maria to kind of like you know get a outfitted and equipped for my job.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: It took about three months for it to come in.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: And um, oh my goodness, that this thing, you know, it's uh it's hard to believe that it's I guess, yeah, about four years old now, but it's still a powerhouse.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's a Dell precision tower.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure if they're still making that model, but I made sure it was crammed full of as many goodies as possible.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's got um 64 gigabytes of RAM and a dedicated NVIDIA, I think it's the Quattro RTX uh dedicated graphics card, and that alone has 16 gigs of RAM built into it.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: And um it has, I wanted to make sure it had not one but two separate internal solid state hard drives.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: One that's just the boot drive that you run all the programs off of, and then another drive that's just for media cache files, not even where you store the footage that you're working on.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: You we'd I do that with uh solid state external drives that you put individual projects on.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: But the uh secondary internal drive is just for the cache files that get generated when you're you know doing pre-renders and things like that.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then uh yeah, I've got uh you know, 4K monitor in front of me here, and then just fairly recently I upgraded to the to the dual monitor life that everybody has been talking about for so long for productivity enhancement.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of cool being able to like you know see content on both screens.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh we've even for long-term storage, we uh recently got outfitted with a network attached storage here at my house, which is kind of like the solution for not working off of, but you can take all the footage and back it up on that, and it's got you know like built-in redundant drives so that if one of the drives within that overall unit would go down, the footage isn't lost because it's still in one of the redundant drives.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds like GCA has not left you in want in terms of the tools you need to get your things done and the software and all those types of things.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, exactly.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: I've been very spoiled.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: You've been able to do the pre uh production and post with the tools you've been given.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do you think?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Switching gears, what could other uh schools learn, you think, from GCA and how you do your job, how you build connection?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, as much as I like I said, as much as I can geek out about tools and you know uh computers and cameras and all that kind of stuff.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, it is about the connections, you know, the the connections that you make with your fellow staff and with the students and things like that.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about you know working organically with those people and just trying to build those relationships.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, like there's been so many stories of like maybe maybe you and I have have been in the studio while you were interviewing somebody for Hootworthy, and then a couple months later, I've seen that person and their family out at community day.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe I got sent to whichever community day it happened to be in that geographic area here in Georgia where that family lives, and then like, oh hey, it's it's Ezekiel and his family, and then you know, asking, like, hey, have you made any more of those crocheted figurines that that uh that you did on our show and all that kind of stuff?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: But um, you know, I I know it's tricky when it comes to schools, and not everybody necessarily, not every district wants to prioritize kind of like the the funding for equipment like we've I've been blessed with here at GCA.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, kind of going back to what I said a little bit ago, at the end of the day, it really is about storytelling and you know, whether you're shooting on a cinema camera or you're shooting on your iPhone, you know, like try and figure out how to tell your school and your district's story best and the stories of your of your families and your staff there.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because at the end of the day, even if uh content, there's that word again that I hate, even if it's a little bit rough around the edges, if the story is there, if it's got a human heart to it, it's gonna engage and connect with your viewers.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so good.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh do you think there's anything that sets GCA's approach apart?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like GCA's approach, essentially your approach to media and storytelling that sets it apart from other schools.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: So there is there anything that you think of when you think about your job and what you've done and the different projects and things that you do that you think you know what this kind of makes GCA a little unique in terms of what I see other schools doing, whether brick and mortar or virtual, other virtual schools.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, I think a lot of it is just the fact that we have this, that we do this.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, like I mean, I know some high schools have a studio that they can use for like teaching, you know, maybe have like a media club about uh like the school announcements and things like that, but not every school has their own dedicated studio just to produce content out of.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: And another thing as well is like um, well, it's kind of like you know, in business in general, it's the make versus buy decision.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people decide to buy.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you hire an external company to come in and produce content for you.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: But here it worked out for me at the time that I was moving to the Atlanta area and looking for a job that Georgia Cyber Academy made the decision to make instead of buy.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: So they wanted to make their own material, make their own stories.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, like with us, we we don't like stock footage, stock content, that kind of thing.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: We like being able to show the real faces of our students and our families and our staff.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: We want it to be organic.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you're not gonna find on our YouTube channel or the things that we produce, I'm not gonna be, you're not gonna find stock videos that I've downloaded and put into our material to showcase stuff.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, no, that's the whole point of the day in the life.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you could just do, I could take a microphone and narrate a video and then play generic video clips over that of like families work, you know, working at home or whatever.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: But no, we want to actually go into the communities all across the state and go into our students' homes and show what it's like them, the real students actually like you know, doing their education.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what do you think you would say to someone who kind of underestimates the role you play, like the role that media plays in virtual education?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like someone who's like, you don't you don't really need that.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: What sort of thing is that really adding?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: What value is adding?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: What what would you say to somebody who really underestimates it?
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: What I would say to that, probably one very tangible, concrete um example would be, you know, when I think of the uh like the videos that we make with the community events team, you know, like I already mentioned Tanette and her field trips and the community days and all that kind of stuff.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, there I was recently talking uh at the studio with I think it was Monique on her team, and they were talking, it was either Monique or maybe Tanette, I can't remember.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, somebody had mentioned that like you know, one of the reasons why families come here is because like for virtual school, we actually have things like that, like those field trips.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, here is like a way for us to be able to show that to people.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Again, going back to the perspective families, they can go on our website, they can go on our YouTube channel, and you don't even have to attend here to see the kind of things that we offer.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, you know, beyond that, it's like, I mean, even look at the podcasts, look at Hootworthy, look at this when all of these episodes are released.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it's showing that being able to put a visual image to the school is a great way to connect both with people that are already here and people that are thinking about if Georgia Cyber Academy is right for them.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, I I've had so many other staff that have talked to me at in-person events talking about videos that they've seen that I was able to produce and how much you know that kind of like just how exciting it was to see them and their departments represented, and maybe you know, a student featured in a video that they were like, yes, I I know that student.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like I worked with their family for years, and then now to see them on one of our videos being celebrated, like you know, students who struggled, and then there they are graduating, and you know, for that to to get featured in a video, it's just uh yeah, I guess I guess the proof is in the pudding.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's my uh that's my response to that.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: So leave us with this last question here.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think is the biggest lesson or a lesson?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be the biggest.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: A lesson that you've learned about storytelling, about creating media in education.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, there there is there is a surprising amount to do, and there's so much variety as well.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like yeah, when I took this job, I don't think I knew fully just how delightful a variety of content there would be to be able to make.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've had to work on things from music videos to podcasts to event videos, um, and then even, gosh, I've been wanting I've been waiting saving this for the entire podcast here to talk about something that we recently uh went through and experienced, which was seeing some of our own students uh go through a film competition and then win one of the three awards that were given.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it just yeah, being able to see, you know, kind of like hidden talents among our own student population or even staff.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: So uh for context about that, that was um this uh we just finished up um the Atlanta Jewish or Atlanta Jewish Film, their first annual student competition.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: And GCA was invited to be part of this the inaugural year.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, uh Tanette and I worked very closely to be able to assemble a team of students who were interested in this.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: And man, their talents, they, you know, there was there was some hidden talent there that we wouldn't have known about had we not been given this opportunity as a school.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: And just to see, you know, like the story was organic to them, to see them pour all of their sweat and effort into writing the script, and then taking like the the cont or not the the all the educational content that I gave them, learning about the filmmaking process, and then to take that onto our filming day, and you know, then they went through the whole process too.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: They took it into post-production, and one student in particular spearheaded the edit.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then to be able to go to a screening event at the uh Tara Theater in Atlanta with there, I think there were a hundred students represented.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there were 10 short films from nine different schools and only three awards given, and our students won the the award that was basically the theme award or the one that best exemplified the theme that we were all the schools were given.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that was just that was phenomenal.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then even among our staff too.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like I think of uh I think of Brock over Brock Tarno over in special education, and kind of like this uh this summer getting ready for um for our own professional development conference.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: He had this whole like you know, song and dance routine that he put together, and I, you know, Maria and I got to come alongside him and kind of bring his vision to life for what he had in mind for that, for the for the opening act, kind of like a you know, hype video, kind of a little bit of parody as well to uh you know get all of our staff excited for the the beginning of the conference.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: But um yeah, it's if I've if I've learned anything in my time here at Georgia Cyber Academy, it's been uh you just never know exactly what to expect, and it's a lot more exciting than people would probably think doing filmmaking at a school is.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds like you're not just uh filming students with paper and pencil or at their laptops, you have so much more going on, and what a cool opportunity for you to be a part of the student group and then the uh Atlanta Jewish film competition.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: How cool is that.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's big idea.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: When schools tell their stories with authenticity and care, media becomes more than content with the word that Aaron doesn't like, it becomes connection.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks again to Aaron Bell for joining us and sharing his perspective.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: If this episode gave you a new appreciation for the stories behind the screen, be sure to subscribe and join us next time on GCA Unmuted Voices of Virtual Education.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again, Aaron.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, thanks for having me on.