A view from the catwalk

This year I decided to produce an audio/slideshow from all five District 11 high school graduations at the World Arena. Three schools graduated on Tuesday and two on Wednesday. At first I thought a behind-the-scenes look at the activities between the graduations would be interesting, but after talking to people at the arena and the schools I realized it was a pretty smooth process. So I decided to cover the actual graduations. But I wanted a way to show the sense of how each graduation is unique, but similar to the others at the same time. I decided to mount a remote camera in the catwalk of the World Arena and shoot the procession at the beginning of each ceremony. I shot from the floor and triggered the remote camera every five seconds as I shot with my other cameras. Gazette photographer Kevin Kreck covered for me during the Palmer ceremony because I had to go to Boulder Tuesday night. ( thank you Kevin) When I edited the remote pictures, I grabbed every fifth frame. I started with one school's procession and worked my way through the schools till the seats filled with Doherty graduates. I ended with Doherty because they had more seats on the floor than any other school. I recorded the audio from all the ceremonies. (with the help of Kevin again) Photographers David Bitton and Carol Lawrence helped shoot the graduations too. Then Wednesday night I produced the show. The four of us put in 60 hours covering and producing the slideshow. I spent 20 hours Wednesday covering the two graduations, editing the 10-plus hours of audio and producing the show. Check out the slideshow at http://www.gazette.com/interactives/2007grads. While the graduations were a lot of work, I think it was well worth it. The four of us captured a special moment in the lives of the graduates and their families. A special moment in our community. The one lesson I learned is while every graduation seems the same on the outside, they are all unique. That is except Superintendent Terry Bishop's speech about the Lee Ann Womack's song "I Hope You Dance."