From working countless hours to putting together 20-second segments to capturing important school events on film, the leadership of Portola News Network is always on top of its game. To prepare for another year of filmmaking, PNN has selected their leadership team for the upcoming school year. 

The two main leaders of next year’s PNN team are juniors Angela Kim and Peter Pan. Pan will act as the Broadcast Director, in charge of the logistics such as coordinating schedules. Kim will be the Executive Producer, in charge of producing relevant stories and content, editing the writing for all rough cuts and approving final edits with associate producers. Kim and Pan will work together in designing the creative and artistic direction of the show.

Students applied to be a part of PNN’s 2020-21 leadership team by submitting a 60-second self feature video, an optional reel and an academic teacher recommendation and participating in an interview with adviser Tina Murphy, and Dave Junker, founder of FilmED and Orange County Film Festival. 

“A really ambitious goal of both mine and Peter’s is for Portola News Network to be nominated or win best broadcast again for OCFF next year,” Kim said. “I am [also] excited to work in a class with a completely new [staff]. When the new class [positions were] revealed, I was surprised, but in a good way. I feel like all of our positions are perfect for what we are the best at, meaning that the class is very balanced.”

Sophomore Tiffany Park will serve as PNN’s life anchor, meaning she will appear in the middle of the show to transition from one section to another. This is PNN’s first year with a life anchor as well as desk anchors, which they have always had. Park will also be the ASB Promo Producer and a show editor.

“With PNN starting the new life anchoring, it’s gonna be very fun, and I feel like I generally want to take advantage of that and make PNN more appealing to its audience… I feel like with me being in the middle of the show to really transition from segment to segment, people will look forward to watching it,” Park said.

For the past four years, PNN’s seniors have built the program from the ground up. Reflecting on his high school experience, current PNN sports anchor and senior Daniel Han shared his own findings about what effective leadership in PNN requires. 

“The willingness to change or adapt to situations is a very important thing,” Han said. “Whatever your plan may be, things will always deviate from that original plan, and you’re always going to be looking for a plan B and ways to improvise. Whoever can handle that stress the best has the leadership abilities to lead such a class into creating a great show, such as PNN.”

Han expressed the vast influence the class has had on his growth as a filmmaker and a person, and the large extent to which it shaped him as a person.

“I never thought I’d be in such a professional class and be able to create such high-quality content,” Han said. “The people that I’ve met in the class are all super creative, super powerful and super influential.”