Students in George School's video production class will present their work at the sixth annual George School Video Festival on Friday, June 3, at 7:00 p.m. in Walton Center Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Arts Department Head Scott Hoskins, who teaches George School's two video production classes, described the event as "an evening of the best videos created this year" by his students, whose efforts, he said, include "a healthy dose of comedy as well as some of the more serious work." The festival selections are of varying lengths and altogether their collective running length is approximately two hours. Scott's students, who regularly engage in constructive critiques of one another's work as a part of the curriculum, chose the festival videos as a group, arriving at a decision after screening and discussing all of the class projects.

Students in the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma program, an intensive two-year, six-subject course of study that George School students have the opportunity to embark upon in their junior and senior years, can choose to take video production as part of a two-year preparation for the IB higher level visual arts exam. George School's video production offerings were expanded this year to include two class sections instead of one, and next year they will be developed further to include classes at two levels, introductory and advanced.

"I think that the primary value of the [video] medium is being able to tell stories," Scott said. To that end, he said, he tells his students, "Put everything into your video that tells your story, but nothing else." Working individually or in groups on projects they have devised themselves, students in his classes develop various skills that allow them to tell their stories, including concept development, pitching, scriptwriting, planning, scheduling, camera work, sound recording, lighting, and digital editing. Most of the videos in the festival were created in response to a major end-of-year assignment that required students to tackle various narrative, camera, and editing techniques. "I'm just continually impressed and amazed and surprised by how thoughtfully kids have been approaching this project," Scott said.

For more information about the festival, please call 215.579.6568.

All George School students take four year-long courses in the arts. In addition to video production, the arts department offers courses in vocal and instrumental music, dance, theater arts, journalism, painting and drawing, woodworking and furniture design, ceramics, and photography. The arts department encourages students to be creative and enjoy themselves while they practice and appreciate a specific art form. In addition, students learn to be discriminating when they evaluate their own and others' work. 

About George School 
George School, founded in 1893 by members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), teaches that each person shares a responsibility for helping to make the world a better place. The student body is diverse, representing twenty states and thirty foreign countries and a variety of ethnic, racial, religious, academic, and economic backgrounds. Each year more than $4 million in need-based financial aid is provided to eligible students.