Yearbooks on DVD taking off in popularity

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Why sign your friends' senior yearbooks when you can give a special message on DVD instead?

At Kickapoo High School in Springfield, electronic yearbooks are growing in popularity, with around 300 students snapping up the $12 DVDs, which mix video of school events with the traditional collections of pictures.

Senior Kristie Zimmerman bought both the DVD and the traditional, printed version.

"With the video, if you ever missed an assembly or sporting event, you can watch it," Zimmerman said.

This is the fifth DVD yearbook at Kickapoo. Students bought 40 DVDs in the first year for $50 each. Advertising on the DVDs brought the price down and students bought 400 of the electronic yearbooks last year.

Two students shot the video footage of this year's edition, spending hours attending school functions after first attending movie camp to learn about digital production. The footage is then handed over to a professional company named YourMovie, which makes the final product.

"It's so cool the first time you see your work," said the video yearbook's editor, Michael Sly, who has worked on both versions. "I feel I can give more to the students through a movie than on paper."

Kickapoo journalism teacher Michelle Wahlquist said she decided to introduce video yearbooks a number of years ago to provide new opportunities for her students.

"I know it's a real marketable skill," Wahlquist said. "Because it's kind of a new thing and hitting the college campus, a lot of kids can waltz right in and get a scholarship, jobs on campus, paid position as an editor."

Last year's video yearbook editor, Katelyn Gerecht, said she submitted the DVD along with her college resumes to show she was a well-rounded student. She said the project got her interested in computer science, in which she now plans to major.

John Burgess, chief executive of YourMovie, said modern students are used to multimedia products.

"We feel that the YourMovie is very complementary to yearbooks and when bundled together ... provide a much richer 'Remember when' keepsake," Burgess said.