Iowa Public Television

Challenge Question Number 1 for Prod./Dir./On-air promo

Clearly describe what you expect from the students:
You are the number one video producer for a project called Eat Healthy, Eat Out. Your job is to travel around the United States taping different restaurant chefs and the various ways in which they prepare healthy food. You love your job, you are an ethical, law-abiding person, and are well paid. Everything is going well…

Until one day, your entire team, (minus one person…Bob), is called into a meeting. The boss is quite upset and begins to explain why Bob will no longer be attending any meetings. Apparently, Bob's latest shoot was in his hometown, and after hours, he took the camera equipment to his house and made home videos of his family. Unfortunately, he forgot to take the tape out of the camera and the boss found the tape.

When originally hired, each member of the team was informed that company equipment was never to be used for anything except company projects and anyone breaking that rule would be fired. The boss announces that Bob has been fired, and ends the meeting with this quote…

"I don't care what happens, whether it is a plane crash or your aunt's birthday, if you use the equipment to video tape anything except "Eat Healthy, Eat Out," you will be immediately fired!"

Two weeks later, there you are, taking a shortcut through some back roads when low and behold, you see a UFO landing in a field full of cows. If you video tape it, the world will have proof that UFO's exist. Dilemma number one: Do you video tape the UFO, knowing that you may lose your job?

Things to consider…Does such a fantastic event warrant deliberately disobeying your boss and ignoring your ethics? If your boss found out, do you think you would be fired given the amazing circumstances?

Let's say you decided to video tape the UFO…Minutes after it takes off into space, two trucks pull up beside you. One truck is from the popular tabloid, "The National Blabberer," the other from the local news station. "The National Blabberer" wants to pay you $500,000 for the video of the UFO. The local news station wants to pay you $10,000.

Dilemma number two: Do you accept either offer?

Things to consider…A more credible news station would probably give this noteworthy story and video greater journalistic justice than "The National Blabberer"…does that make a difference? If you accept the offer, your boss will surely find out…will you get fired and why is the situation different from dilemma number one?

FINALLY…would any of your decisions be different if the situation was a huge town-destroying tornado instead of a UFO? Would any of your decisions be different if the situation was a company secretly dumping barrels of toxic waste into the river instead of a UFO? Why are any of situations different or the same as Bob making home videos of his family?

In order to give the teacher some guidance in evaluating the student's project(s); list some tips that may help to assess the student's work:
Teachers may use their own criteria for assessing the students' work.