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From left are award winning BlueTube students DJ Samuels, Cheyenne Plummer, Dextiny Patrick, Javier Martinez, Jake Freelen, and KJ Tyler
BlueTube, Paris High’s weekly video news magazine, has been selected as 1 of 12 high school broadcast programs to receive the Distinguished Merit Award in this year’s Interscholastic League Press Conference ratings.
Also, BlueTube students received three first-place awards, two seconds, and a third in Individual Achievement Awards for Broadcast Division MS-4A (middle school through Class 4A high schools).
Paris High and Austin Gorzycki Middle School tied for the most individual achievement awards.
“The ILPC has been around for a long time providing ratings for yearbooks and student newspapers,” BlueTube sponsor Tim Taylor said, “but they’ve recently added the broadcast competition.
“Last fall I showed my students examples of entries that won last year’s ILPC competition and asked ‘who wanted to be a state champion?’ Several students took on the challenge, and I’m ecstatic that their work has been recognized in this, our first year of ILPC competition.”
BlueTube students placed first in the categories of the documentary (by senior DJ Samuels), feature story (sophomore Javier Martinez), and anchor presentation (senior Cheyenne Plummer and junior Dextiny Patrick).
It marks the third significant video production award achieved by Samuels during his time at Paris High. He was named a finalist for the 2015 All-American High School Film Festival in New York City and a quarterfinalist in this year’s UIL Young Filmmakers Contest.
Samuels’ winning ILPC documentary, titled “Over,” chronicles the 2016 Wildcat football season.
“I’m extremely proud of DJ,” Taylor said. “He spent lots of time on the project and changed gears several times before settling on a direction and a message that was comfortable to him.”
Martinez, a first-year BlueTube student, produced a featured titled “Bonded,” a creative representation of urban dialog between elements of the periodic table.
“I’m glad that judges recognized the unique creativity that Javier displayed,” Taylor said. “He also spent countless hours working on improving his entry.”
The winning anchor presentation, broadcast on the Feb. 12 show titled, “Love to Hate,” was a collaboration between two veteran, out-going students.
“Cheyenne and Dextiny are on-camera naturals,” Taylor said. “They have a presence and chemistry that relates to our student audience.”
Patrick also collaborated with fellow junior KJ Tyler on the second-place winner in general sports story category. Their piece previewed the 2015 Paris Holiday Boys Basketball Invitational.
Tyler also picked up a third place in promotion/commercial/PSA for a satire of a famous snack commercial.
Sophomore Jake Freelen picked up a second place in graphics for his opening to the Feb. 12 show. BlueTube is in its eighth year of operation at Paris High.