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FAQ

What is BEC-TV?

BEC-TV is a district-level program in the Bloomington Schools that has been mentoring students for over 40 years to cultivate technical, leadership, and teamwork skills as we create award-winning video programming. We work around the community, creating productions for all of the Bloomington schools’ athletics, fine arts, and community events with students at the center of it all!

This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to work in a hands-on, fast-paced environment combining your creativity with the latest professional technology all while working with our team towards a common goal: high-quality, broadcast television and livestreams.

What can I do with BEC-TV?

At BEC-TV, we aim to put our student volunteers in the driver’s seat of all things video production.  Students run cameras, mix audio, generate graphics, create replays, and even call the shots as the director. You will get the chance to not only learn technical skills but also develop problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills without even knowing it.

We don’t do much sitting in classrooms at BEC-TV. We want to put the cameras in YOUR hands and get you into the action!

Now you may be thinking– wait a second! I don’t know how to do any of those things! Fortunately, you’ll be working with a team of students and staff who can’t wait to show you the ropes. We train all of our techs from the ground up; we know you may not know how to run a $35,000 broadcast camera, and that’s ok! All you need to know is how to ask questions and give it your best shot. Like we mentioned earlier, we are a team-oriented operation… and when you succeed, we all succeed!

When does BEC meet?

BEC can be much more flexible than most other school activities. We don’t necessarily expect you to come to all, or even most of our productions. We’ll take you whenever you’re available. This helps many of our volunteers spend time with us and not have to leave other sports and clubs behind.

Here is a link to our full shoots calendar. Many productions are listed months in advance. Some are late-breaking (esp with tournaments and/or weather changes)

How do I sign up for shoots (productions)? 

There are two ways to sign up for shoots. 

One way is to join a Tech Team. Tech Teams meet regularly to cover shoots that happen on the same day of the week. For example, football almost always happens on Fridays, so you can sign up to be on the Football Tech Team and you’ll be automatically signed up for all of our Friday Football shoots.

The other way to sign up is by signing up for individual shoots by saying "Yes" on your Google Calendar invitations. When you sign up on our Tech Profile Form we’ll add you to our tech list and send you Google Calendar invites for every shoot we have. You can sign up for whichever ones work best for your schedule.

But here is a really important note: we need you to respond to every single invite with a Yes or a No. Please do this at as soon as you can. Each one will only take a few seconds of your time and they’re really important for us to understand whether we will have enough people on our crew.

**Check out tips for Responding to BEC-TV Invites**

Where does BEC meet?

This depends on the shoot! Many shoots happen on location where the event is happening. For some productions we use remotely control cameras set up across the city and run the whole system from a remote control room.  We’ll always explain where and when to meet in the Google calendar invite.

For more info on where to meet at our shoot locations, click here.

Are meals and/or transportation provided?

For transportation, students are typically expected to get to and from our shoots on their own, but we’re happy to work with you and your adults to come up with creative solutions and we can help facilitate carpooling.

We rarely provide meals for techs unless the shoot is an especially long one. As an example, our football shoots are extremely fun to be a part of, but they also last from approximately 3pm to 11pm. Dinner is typically provided at our football shoots, and the notes in our Google calendar invites will have information about what that would look like. It's always wise to pack yourself a snack and a water bottle when going on a production

Do I need training? What does training look like?

Ideally, we want to show each new student how our stuff works on a fun-filled Fall Kickoff day. These typically happen sometime in August or early September, and it’ll be a full day event. You’ll get to meet the other kids in the group– both new techs (like you) and returning techs from previous years. You’ll also get some hands-on experience with our cameras and equipment to learn how they work and it all leads up to our fun-filled BEC Olympics event!

That said, the Fall Kickoff is NOT required. and - for a lot of reasons, doesn't happen each fall.  We really, REALLY encourage you just to start when you can.

We know that when you first come you'll know little to nothing. That's fine. Each production you'll build on what you learned last time, with plenty of opportunities to pick up new skills every time you come.

How much does it cost to participate?

There is currently no cost for training or participation in BEC-TV.

At our Fall Kickoff, we typically ask for $30 from each student that attends. The Kickoff is a full day event where we provide lunch, dinner, and snacks, and that $30 just helps us cover the food costs for everyone. 

What does a shoot look like?

Shortly after you arrive, we’ll have our pre-production meeting. That’s where we’ll get to know each other and learn about what the shoot setup will look like. We’ll go through what needs to get done by what time and then assign setup teams to work together to achieve that.

Just before the event starts, our producer or student producer will assign positions for who is working what equipment during the event. You might start out observing someone else to see how that equipment works, but we promise we’ll get you into the action before long! Our techs work cameras, replays, audio, graphics, scorebox, and some even direct after they’ve gotten a lot of experience at all the other positions

After the event, we’ll strike our equipment in a similar way to how we set it up. We’ll pack it all up and then meet together one more time in our post-mortem meeting. We’ll chat about how things went, how we can make it better next time, what you learned, and what you’d like to learn next.

Is there anything else I should know before my first shoot?

Come ready to learn! We expect you to be engaged and giving it your best shot from start to finish. 

Ask questions relentlessly!

When we’re doing our job– setting up, shooting the action, and striking– we expect that your phone won’t be a distraction. Basketball players and band members don’t have their phones out while they’re playing, right? The same goes for us. There might be moments where we take out our phones for communication or snapping a photo, but for the most part, you’ll be way too busy to even think about it!