Lights, Camera, Ballou!
Ballou High School seniors Lamonte Clark and Rasonne Smith are working with veteran WJLA-TV journalists Sam Ford and Pege Gilgannon in a partnership with Prime Movers Media on a piece about football players. Photo by Fred Lewis
Ballou High School seniors Lamonte Clark and Rasonne Smith are working with veteran WJLA-TV journalists Sam Ford and Pege Gilgannon in a partnership with Prime Movers Media on a piece about football players. Photo by Fred Lewis
Veteran WJLA-TV journalists Sam Ford and Pege Gilgannon, pictured in the television studio at Ballou High School, work with Ballou students to create high-quality newscasts in a partnership through Prime Movers Media. Photo by Fred Lewis
Ballou High School seniors Lamonte Clark and Rasonne Smith plan to tackle a long-held stereotype on high school campuses nationwide: Football players are dumb. But it won’t be a persuasion piece argued on the pages of a term paper. It will be a televised segment produced by professional journalists.
“Football players are looked at as role models,” said Clark, a member of the Ballou High Knights football team. “We want to touch on the fact that [people] think we’re dumb jocks. But, the truth is we’re out-performing others at the high school and collegiate levels.”
On Thursday, the two stood at the gates of the school’s famed football stadium with a television camera – Smith behind it, Clark in front – recording a segment for a news story on football players they’re producing with veteran WJLA-TV journalists Sam Ford and Pege Gilgannon.
Ford and Gilgannon have been working with Ballou students through Prime Movers Media, a nonprofit launched in 2004 by George Washington University and former Washington Post columnist Dorothy Gilliam that brings together professional journalists and university journalism students to mentor high school students in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.
“What we’re doing, to some degree, is showing them how it works,” Ford said. “They’re learning how stories come together and meeting people out in the world.”
The program, which works with students at seven DC public schools including Ballou, seeks to prepare the next generation of journalists by helping high school teachers and students create and breathe television, radio, newspaper and online media. Professional journalists representing a variety of media visit schools to help improve student writing, speaking, critical thinking, team building, and use of technology.
For Clark and Rasonne, the program provides valuable insights into how a story is conceived, how a script is written, what shots are needed to tell the story, and what is required in production and editing to get the news story on the air. But, the experience with Ford and Gilgannon also gave them an idea of what it’s like to be a professional television journalist.
“Sam is an interesting guy. He helps with scripts and brings a lot of energy to it,” said Clark, who will attend Kansas State University and play on the school’s football team in the fall. “I like being around cameras and doing interviews. I think it’s totally interesting. Football is not forever, so I’m thinking about being a broadcaster.”
Rasonne, who will attend Penn State University in the fall, hasn’t decided on a major or career path, but would consider journalism after being in the school’s mass media program and working with Ford and Gilgannon.
Ford said the mass media students in teacher J.D. DiMattio’s class already come equipped with many of the skills needed to put together quality newscast. DiMattio said students work on deadline using the school’s television studio and editing equipment to write, assemble graphics and produce stories for regular assignments.
“If you make it fun, they’ll do whatever it takes,” DiMattio said. “And when they see they can get better, they get better.”
Ford and Gilgannon have worked with students on a longer piece that airs on WJLA. In past years, Ford and Gilgannon have had as much as a month and as little as three days to work with students. This year, they have a few weeks.
“Now, we’re runnin’ and gunnin’ – they’re really working hard to get their stuff done,” Ford said, noting that students are working on 19 stories ranging from modeling, tattoos and hair styles to football, band and lacrosse. “They will really be hustling.”
Ford and Gilgannon say they always look forward to working with Ballou students through Prime Movers Media. Over the years, they’ve developed a strong bond with students and a lasting relationship with the school. They’ve followed the school band for performances in California and New York.
The Ballou Marching Knights band even played a surprise performance for Gilgannon last year when she received the 2010 White House News Photographers Association lifetime achievement award.
“It was my ‘Disney’ moment,” Gilgannon said.
While the relationship has generated more than a few pleasant memories, Ford and Gilgannon hope their connection with the school has also produced the next generation of journalists.
“I hope that this experience will lead to some young people choosing journalism for a career,” Ford said.
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