Published: February 23, 2009 11:30 pm      

Somerset students film documentary for WPSU-TV

SOMERSET — America’s County again is in the limelight – this time as seen through the eyes of young historians in a 60-minute PBS video.

Stories covering topics from the dramatic rescue of nine men trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine to the promising green energy of enormous wind turbines unfold in “Our Town: Somerset – The Kids’ Cut.”

The documentary will premiere at 7 tonight at Somerset Area Junior/Senior High School.

It is part of the WPSU-TV “Our Town” series that will air on the PBS station at 8 p.m. March 5.

“The whole video was done from kids’ point of view,” high school adviser Sharon Warner said. “They filmed places they want to go, contacted the people to interview, wrote the scripts, and did the voice-overs and editing.”

About 35 freshmen and seventh- and eighth-graders scoured the county to ferret out its history – some spiced with a little intrigue.

From November through this month, they filmed 16 locations including the Flight 93 Memorial, Quecreek Mine, a maple sugar farm, the Inn at Georgian Place and the wind turbines.

The historic Summit Diner, Somerset Historical Center and Leader Dog for the Blind also were highlighted.

The students worked the phones and knocked on doors as they interviewed residents and county officials.

Seventh-grader Ravi Desai was drawn to the rickety former jail near the courthouse.

It was there he discovered the county’s dark past. Ravi tells the story of David and Joe Nicely, who lived around 1890 and were hanged after a robbing a man of thousands of dollars.

“They robbed a farmer and they killed him,” Ravi said. “They were hanged at the jail at the double hanging gallows.”

Planning each shot for the documentary taxed the students’ organizational skills.

Eighth-grader Amanda Barclay said the hardest part was organizing all the video clips for editing.

She and three other students – Matt Barndt, Hannah Fortini and Mary Lynn Retassie – filmed a segment on the elegant Inn at Georgian Place, a 22-room mansion built in 1915.

“We took turns with filming the rooms and asking questions,” she said. “But first we had to get background information so we could ask the things we wanted to know about.”

With a plethora of ideas from students, whittling down the list of ideas was important, freshman Aubrey Stull said.

“We brainstormed about the things we were interested in in Somerset,” she said. “You have to have your ideas etched in stone so you’re not all over the place.”

In all, the students committed 1,500 to 2,000 hours to the project.

Warner said the school was contacted by PBS about filming an “Our Town” segment and was given two high-definition cameras to use.

“We think this is a wonderful educational opportunity for students as well as a great partnership opportunity with the school and community,” Greg Petersen, director of programming services at WPSU-TV in University Park, said in a statement.

The project taught Stull and her friends valuable lessons about meeting deadlines.

“We had such a short period of time to do it (and) that worried me,” she said. “I think it would be fun to do it again if we had more time.”