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Production! L10 Introduces "L1 Shorts"

Ellen Jordan ’26 and Ethan Zhu ’26 in News | October 11, 2024

As Fall Term continues to progress, many of Lawrenceville’s various publications continue to unveil new initiatives for the 2024-25 school year. Among them is the School’s student-led video news program, L10 News. 

L10 has recently begun making  “L1 Shorts,” a project which, according to Executive Head of Production Na’imah Ford ’25, aims “to capture and highlight the most exciting events on campus and [in] student life [within] a minute or less.” These videos will be posted to Instagram and Youtube Shorts, giving the publication two different platforms to share their work. 

For Executive Head of Writing Celine Fong ’25, “L1 Shorts” is the culmination of months of work, including that of last year’s Board. “We had been discussing it early on since last March, and we finally brought it to life this fall with the release of our first ‘Under the Lights’ short,” Fong elaborated. 

A main objective of the structure of “L1 Shorts” is to cover segment ideas that otherwise may not have been considered lengthy or detailed enough to be included in one of L10’s typical video segments: an idea which was greatly inspired by current social media. “I feel as though [‘L1 Shorts’] kind of caters to the new form of content that we seem to consume a lot of today, especially as I’ve noted the popularity of engagement with content in this style on apps like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok,” Ford continued. 

Executive Co-head of Editing Kingsley Du ’26 echoed Ford’s sentiments, calling “L1 Shorts” a culmination of recent trends in social media, which many members of last year’s L10 Board and its applicants emphasized in their goals for the year. 

“L1 Shorts” additionally aims to help keep  L10’s audience more entertained, due to the correlation between shorter videos and increased engagement levels, which has been recognized by members of the Board. “We felt that a full episode was sometimes overwhelming to watch, and we hope that ‘L1 Shorts’ will bring fresh and exciting content in a shorter form. Our goal is for viewers to stay informed without the commitment of a full episode,” Fong summarized. 

Thus far, members of the Board have been satisfied with the production of the videos and are currently working to formulate a consistent production schedule. “The process [of making the shorts] has honestly been great, due to the lack of necessity for a long film time. Production of these shorts is efficient, and [it] gives us more of a chance to think about the regular segments for the future,” Ford concluded. 

To allow L10 members to familiarize themselves with the new editing and filming styles that come with the segment, the L10 Board intends to lead by example. “Right now, we have the entire Board working together to produce these shorts, just so everyone gets experience in learning how to work with the new format,” Du elaborated, “For future production, details still have to be ironed out, but the process will definitely get smoother as time goes on.”

Likewise, Executive Co-head of Editing Kayla Yang ’26 expressed her hopes for “L1 Shorts” to become an integral part of L10 production going forward. “This will definitely bring a fresh start to L10,” Yang emphasized, “Especially with the popularity of social media, we think viewers will be much more drawn to our shorts rather than a 10-minute video.” In the coming two years, Yang is determined to ensure that “L1 Shorts” is a success.

With the rise of social media, the L10 Board hopes to attract a larger audience to their content. Be sure to follow L10’s Instagram, @l10news! 

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