Public Access offers students opportunity to produce television shows

Students with an urge to try their hand at working in televi­sion can learn the ropes through U-public, the operators of Albuquerque’s Public Access channels.

The non-profit organization offers classes through meetup. com/upublicans which range in price from free to $10 and teach things like how to develop a show concept, how to use production and recording equipment and how to make money through programming, said U-public Director Toby Younis.

The program has offered 75 classes and trained 138 volunteers since July 2012, and has 35 more classes in the works, he said.

Since U-Public began operating chan­nels 17, 26 and 27 in the city, it has offered seven in-house productions and 18 independent productions. More than 30 more are in various stages of pro­duction, he said.

“We have been working on bringing in all types of content to public access, from shows such as an online web-series, to educa­tional and local based content, as well as sports broadcasts such as Women’s Liberal Basketball,” Younis said.

Theatre major Shelley Carney said U-public’s vision of training and support­ing budding TV pro­ducers has done a lot to bring public television back into the public forum in Albuquerque.

“U-Public has suc­ceeded in changing the face of public access television with educa­tional and local com­munity based program­ming, and U-Public’s main focus is to produce shows with quality content that add value to the com­munity,” she said.

Carney, who pro­duces a local talk show called “New Mexico Media Makers” on U-public, said the con­tent on U-public is education-driven and locally-based, which has made it valuable to the public.

“We have a show that educates on how to deal with the death of a loved one emotionally and financially, a show that gives legal advice on many common scenarios from legal experts and we have productions that show­case local community media,” Carney said.

For more infor­mation on U-public, visit upublic.tv.

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