"The Firefall Experience" was shot by the second-year students over the course of a two-day period. Firefall presented challenges for the staff of 1996-97 to get together and function as a team the summer before they took over HTV Magazine, and it is maybe the best thing we've ever done to prepare a group of students for production work. Students learned to stay alert in the field, do spot news, conduct interviews on the fly, and think about story ideas as they unfolded in front of them. One example from Firefall: a crew was in the right place at the right time to record a mother reporting her daughter was missing (in a crowd of over 50,000). The ensuing search of the area and the happy reunion of the mother and daughter were both captured. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it made for a nice behind-the-scenes story about Firefall. "Teens and Nutrition," on the other hand, was a live show that gave us fits. Setting up the new classroom for a live show with a live audience proved to be too much of a challenge last fall. There were too many equipment issues, and no time at all to rehearse anything. By the time we hit the air, we were ten minutes late and flying by the seat of our pants, which is where we ended up more than once. The guest, a nutritionist, spoke passionately, but also in very technical terms that were lost on our teen audience. The graphics were not easy enough to read, we had audio problems, and our director/technical director team was not clicking at all. It was a nightmare. It really was a humbling day, and one that taught us a lot. And it made us remember that when it's live, you can't do anything to cover your errors.