The green screen room opened last year for the use of all students in the school. However, the results of a poll of 159 students revealed that 58% did not know that the room is accessible to everyone. Fifty-five out of 70 freshmen (79%) were unaware of the room’s availability let alone its existence, most likely because they are still new to the school buildings.

“I had no idea that we could use [the room] freely,” Alice Tsui (9) said.

Fifty-seven percent of 35 sophomores polled, 50% of 28 sophomores polled, and 69% of 26 seniors polled replied that they knew about the room’s existence. However, when asked if they had any interest in using the room, 100 out of 148 students—about 78%–answered no. Most replied that they had no need to use the room.
“I don’t think the school gives us assignments where you really need to use [the room],” Da-Yoon Chung (12) said.

“So far, I haven’t had any projects where you can use [the room],” Ria Desai (9) said.

As part of the Nichols Hall construction plan, the room was originally built last fall to accommodate a class called Computing across the Curriculum. The class, taught by Fred Triefenbach, Assistant Director of Instructional Technology and Computer Science Department Chair, was dropped from the course list, but the construction and preparation of the room continued for the use of any other class in the school.

“The room itself was empty when the building was finished. The room had a green screen edit and that was about it. During that first year, I did research on what type of equipment we needed … and then I went out and started purchasing the items,” Triefenbach said.

Some of the acquired equipment included microphones, a boom operator, a teleprompter, a 25-inch monitor screen, and upgraded software for audio and video editing. According to Triefenbach, the items cost about $30,000 and he still plans to buy more later on.

However, some classes do make full use of the facility. Within this last school year, students and faculty members have used the room for various reasons. Curran Kaushik (12) has used the room to record his singing as an art supplement for his college applications.

“I found out that to [record] outside, [it] costs over 100 bucks, so in terms of time and money, it’s a lot easier [to record at school]. [The room] is a good resource because it’s convenient,” Curran said.

For Maggie Woods (12), the room has been useful for recording monologues in class. “The sound was excellent and the picture was actually really crisp,” Maggie said. She also plans to use the room for her college application art supplement recording later in the year.

Teachers have held classes in the room as well. Last year, Journalism advisor, Chris Daren’s newspaper and yearbook classes set up the room as a television studio and enacted a newscast with weather and sports. This year, Ramsay Westgate’s International Issues & Public Policy class used the room to film movie projects on IGOs (intergovernmental organizations).

According to Triefenbach, more students have used the room this school year than all of last school year.

He said, “Students are starting to find out about [the room] and I keep trying to get teachers … to hold class here if they are planning on doing something that uses the multimedia room.”