STN 2022 - First Year, Second Place

On February 18, 2022, Mr. Heng took his students to compete at the Student Television Network (STN) National Convention and Competition. STN moves from state to state and offers middle school, and high school students an opportunity to put their skills to use when they compete in filmmaking, broadcasting, and podcasting. Not only are the students (from around the United States) competing in-person and virtually; they are also learning to become better at what they do through workshops and lectures led by industry professionals. This year, STN just happened to be in Long Beach, CA.

The day started with Mr. Heng meeting up with his students at school so that they can ride together to the Long Beach Convention Center. They arrived at the convention center later than planned because there was a sub shortage and Mr. Heng, along with his students, had to wait for the sub to arrive. Upon arrival at the convention center, Mr. Heng and his students had to register and get COVID cleared before they could enter the facilities. Everybody was cleared and they gathered their badges and wristbands for the weekend convention/competition.

At 9AM, prompts for the multiple Crazy 8's competition dropped. Mr. Heng's students decided as a group to compete in the Short Documentary category. There were other Crazy 8's categories such as: News Magazine, Morning Show, and Short Film. Crazy 8's meant that students, and teachers, had 8 hours to plan, record, edit, and deliver the final project. Delivering the final cut was a struggle. More, on that later.

Upon reading the prompt, "Through the Years," Mr. Heng's students were a bit lost at first for ideas. After a long while of standing in front of the convention center thinking, they took a walk up Pine Avenue to look for inspiration. They discussed doing a documentary on one of the old businesses like Rock Bottom, but COVID caused it to close down permanently. Then, they walked by the Federal Bar, however, that was closed too. They continued up Pine Avenue, while doing so, Mr. Heng was telling the students about how he brought a high school date to Johnny Rockets before a dance. The students were inspired to learn more about the burger joint since Mr. Heng had graduated high school over 20 years ago.

The students and Mr. Heng walked in with their film equipment and asked the workers if they could record a short documentary about Johnny Rockets for the Crazy 8 competition. Ironically, the owner of Johnny Rockets was a filmmaker herself and she “green lit” the project. While the students were interviewing the owner and one of the workers at Johnny Rocket, the owner treated them with drinks and fries. Mr. Heng was treated with tea.

For the next few hours at Johnny Rockets, the team filmed and edited their short documentary. Mr. Heng did not do much besides reminding the students how much time was left and advising them how they can work together more efficiently. The rest was all student work. There were many times when Mr. Heng wanted to do more, but he reminded himself that this is about his students gaining real world experience. However, let's be real. Mr. Heng was too busy recording his "vlogumentary" of the students creating their short documentary within 8 hours.

After the students finished creating their short documentary about Johnny Rockets, Mr. Heng fired up his iPad Pro to create a hotspot to upload their video for submission. Little did they know that they, and all the other 130+ teams, were all uploading simultaneously to the STN server before the 5PM deadline and crashed the server. Every team was panicking to submit, and the organizers eased the tension by sending out a Notice on Remind app that the deadline was extended to 8PM PST. Mr. Heng and his students relaxed and attended the opening ceremony from 6PM-7PM. While at the opening ceremony Mr. Heng, and all the other advisers/teachers, were all still trying to upload. Sadly, Mr. Heng gave up trying to upload and decided to focus on enjoying the opening ceremony with his students. The other schools were dancing and waving their team flags while Mr. Heng and his students were soaking it all in. The opening ceremony reminded Mr. Heng of high school cheer camps that he attended in his youth.

On Saturday and Sunday, Mr. Heng and his students competed in other smaller categories and attended classes/workshops. They were not as serious about the smaller categories and wanted to relax after the grueling Crazy 8’s competition. Then, Monday came and they attended closing ceremonies where STN would announce all the winners of all the competitions. The Crazy 8's categories were announced last. After hearing two honorable mentions and third place for Crazy 8’s Short Documentary, all hope was lost. However, the team was all caught off guard when they were announced as the 2nd place winners for their first major NATIONAL competition. Next year, they will bring a bigger and stronger team to compete at STN 2023 to be held in Long Beach March 16-19, 2023. Click here for all the results for each categories.