Simulation vs. Lecture Demonstration: Alternative Approaches to Teaching Television Lighting

Abstract

The increasing dependence upon the medium of television to inform, instruct, and entertain our citizens in the 1970's has created a need for Broadcast Communication personnel, trained in media production techniques. The effectiveness of television is dependent upon the mastery of these techniques which serve to clarify action, reduce distractions and add emphasis to messages. Appropriate illumination of the subject matter is the key element in television production. It provides the base for all camera coverage and subsequent electronic manipulation of images.

With a shortage of time, facilities and faculty, today's Broadcast Communication student often operates at the level of an observer, thereby taking a passive role in the education process. Given a lecture-demonstration approach to such instruction as found in a majority of institutions of Higher Education, individual differences and needs in many relevant variables simply are not accounted for. One such variable in television production lies in the area of television lighting, a field demanding, but rarely receiving, an adequate amount of individualized instruction and “hands on” manipulation of equipment.