By Alex Powell

The clock reads 6:59:55 p.m. in the control room of the broadcasting studio in the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication as the cast and crew of HPU All Access are getting ready to begin their weekly show at 7:00 p.m.

“Going in Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Take camera two and cue talent,” said Emmy Beck-Aden, the Director of News for HPU Vision and Director of HPU All Access.

She instructs her crew and cast over her headset as she counts down to the beginning of High Point University’s weekly news show. 

While this may seem like a countdown to a regular news show, this is a one of a kind show, as it is fully planned, organized and executed by students at HPU. It differs from other schools’ student-run broadcasts because any student from any major or year can be involved in the club in any capacity. 

HPU Vision is the broadcasting and production club on HPU’s campus that provides students with the hands-on opportunities and experience in multiple shows to hone their craft and do an activity they enjoy. HPU All Access is just a small part under its umbrella.

Reporting the news

The most well-known and watched show in the HPU Vision club is HPU All Access. HPU All Access focuses on High Point University campus news and local news in the High Point community. 

The show contains main stories from the surrounding community, on-campus news, a segment about HPU sports, a segment about the entertainment industry, a segment highlighting a university student, weather and other various topics. 

“This is a great opportunity to go out into the HPU community, see what’s going on and get stories, and create content that then we can use in our show to get critiques from mentors and older members of the program,” said Beck-Aden. 

But before the stories can be broadcasted, preparation and planning must be done to make sure the show runs smooth. In fact, Beck-Aden suggests that planning is probably the largest time commitment. 

Some of the aspects of planning include finding stories, writing stories, writing scripts, finding b-roll shots, organizing the show into a rundown and assigning people into roles. 

When the show rolls around each week, Beck-Aden feels right at home.

“There’s just a lot of moving pieces,” said Beck-Aden. “It’s really fun to see it all come together… So, to come into the studio, have everything work properly, have everything set up and then produce a quality show is something always cool to see the end result of.” 

Joe Michaels, HPU Vision advisor and Broadcaster in Residence at HPU, said that the club is all a learning experience, so it is important to watch and review the final product.

“As a club experience, I’ll go back to them,” said Michaels. “They’ll come and have a meeting with me and I’ll talk about what I saw, what you could have done better, what I love and things like that.”

Even though students can be involved in a news show like HPU All Access, they can also be involved in other shows, such as Point Blank. 

Entertainment is the name of the game

Another popular show under the HPU Vision umbrella is Point Blank, which focuses on the latest news and buzz from the entertainment world. 

Riley Manion, the Director of Entertainment and Producer of Point Blank, describes the show as a laid-back entertainment talk show. 

“We talk about things from the Oscars to the Kardashians to Survivor and everything in between,” said Manion. “And it’s just us having casual conversations about it and sharing our thoughts about what is going on in the industry.”

Similarly to HPU All Access, Manion said that planning is paramount as a lot of logistical planning goes into the show, but he also needs to do a lot of homework and research to be knowledgeable about the recent stories that are being discussed. 

While Manion is a producer of Point Blank, he is also an on-camera host for the show. This enables him to be able to contribute to the show in multiple ways. 

“When I’m sitting there and the countdown is going and I’m ready to actually be on screen, that’s when I feel most relaxed and most comfortable,” Manion said. “When I’m actually on camera talking with my co-hosts, talking about the things that I’m passionate about and doing what I want to do in the future, it just feels so much better.”

This year, in addition to the weekly show, the entertainment branch of HPU Vision and Point Blank helped put on the second annual live show of “The Voice” on HPU’s campus.

Manion took the lead on planning and organizing “The Voice” in addition to being the host of the live show. He said that he did a lot to organize and prepare the logistical aspects, but it was a team effort with his fellow students to put on the production. 

“I think it’s pretty cool that we do stuff like that and that they go beyond stuff they’ve done before, which is a challenge,” Michaels said about the students. “‘The Voice’ is an incredible challenge and they’ve done it twice now just to try to fix it and make it better.”

In the future, Manion, looks forward to holding “The Voice” again.

“Next year, I’m super excited to see what we’re able to do to kind of grow on the show again, implement things that we weren’t able to implement this year and just make it even better than it was,” said Manion.

An expansion of opportunities

While HPU All Access and Point Blank are the club’s most well-known broadcasts, there are other shows that students can get involved in to improve their skills and further their interests.

The club has a podcast called HPU Sports Talk where students have a roundtable discussion about HPU athletics.

Another opportunity to get involved is through the We Are College Kids podcast that talks about different aspects of college life and other entertaining topics.

In addition to HPU All Access, the HPU Vision club debuted another news show this semester called Prime News. Prime News covers larger scale stories from the region, state, nation and world news.

The last element of the HPU Vision club is the narrative branch. The students involved in the narrative branch work on writing, filming and editing together a short film over the course of the semester. 

The number of shows currently in the club show a dramatic growth and interest increase, which makes members optimistic about the future.

“If the last couple years have been any indication, they’re (the shows) just going to keep getting better and better because like I said five years ago, there was nobody here attempting to do what they’re doing now and what they’re doing now is just really incredible,” said Michaels.

While Beck-Aden will be unable to be a part of the club’s future moving forward because of graduation, she is grateful for the opportunities and memories the club has provided.

“I have so many great memories from HPU Vision and some of my best memories from college are from not only the times in the studio and working on broadcasts with members of HPU Vision, but the outside of studio memories as well,” said Beck-Aden. “I mean the people here became some of my closest friends. It’s resulted in some amazing friendships that I know will continue post-graduation as well.”

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To get involved with HPU Vision, please visit the hyperlinks within this article to learn more about each of the shows.

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Alex Powell is a sophomore at High Point University majoring in Journalism and considering a minor in Political Science. For contact inquiries, please email apowell1@highpoint.edu.