Concert benefits Viking Video class
According to Josh Archer, former Viking Video student, the benefit concert held for Viking Video Productions on March 27, resulted not only in cash for equipment for the class, but also in the possibility of in-kind donations worth thousands of dollars.
Although the audience for the concert was small, those attending dug deeply into their pockets and the amount of money raised exceeded $500. Even though she wasn’t able to attend the concert, Kelly O’Mara, a WAGM’s meteorologist, contributed a sizeable donation to assist the class.
Among those attending the concert were Steve Buck, Caribou city manager; Sean Cunninghgam, WAGM news anchor; Laura Claus, WAGM evening news director; and Viking Video advisory board members Archer, WAGM morning news director, who organized the benefit concert; Dr. Richard Asam, professor emeritus UMPI; and John Murchison, television director at Time Warner.
Three Caribou High School students, Ryan Ouellette, Larry Tarbox and Devin Cote, as well a former Viking Video student Fred Asam, manned cameras to record the event which included performances by “The Mighty Oak,” “Ryan Ashby,” and “Just John.”
Watching via a live webcast from the Caribou Performing Arts Center were former Viking Video students around the country and even other parts of the world, including Sam Hallett, who resides in Bangor, after taking television production courses at New England School of Communications.
Although Hallett couldn’t attend the concert in person, just hearing about the plans for the event prompted him to go to New England School of Communications to inquire if they were about to retire any equipment that might be useful to Viking Video Productions.
Hallet was informed the school was about to phase out several Canon GL-2 cameras, (costing more than $3,000 each) and it was said to be fairly certain that at least one or two of these cameras could be donated to Viking Video Productions.
Also tuning into the live webcast, broadcast by Joshua Archer’s web-based TV channel, Presquillian.com, were former Viking Video students Janice Embleton in Florida, who now works for Fox News, as well as Kristina Kane Gibbs, who currently is employed by Fox News in Texas. They were joined by Jenny St. Peter, who is studying at the Art Institute in Nevada. Former student Steini Eythorssen tuned in from Iceland (he was a CHS exchange student who lived with the Margesons of Westmanland.)
Exciting activities by former Viking Video students don’t end there. At the close of the concert, Brenda Jepson, program instructor, informed the audience that two students, Nathan Oliver and his wife, Deidra LeVasseur Oliver, will be returning to the area from Montreal, next month to audition local residents for a zombie film they are planning to shoot in northern Maine.
Oliver and Deidra attended Concordia University, where Nathan studied at one of the foremost film schools in North America. Auditions for their film will be held at the Caribou Motor Inn next month.
FMI visit The Zombies Are Coming To Town page on Facebook.
For more information about how to donate to Viking Video Productions, visit Presquillian.com.
