Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 35

Asbury Park Press 1 11 1 Jan. 3, 1990 C9 liii Television Robert craiu.ee Video yearbooks John Feddersen focuses his video camera to record high school memories. 1 i 0 OAVIO GAMBLtAsOury Pan Press St. John Vianney students (from left) Scott Barcenilla, Lisa Granata and Lori Casey, have walk-on parts in video. Moving high school memories for VCR viewing By PAULETTE BROWNE the '90s top this? The '80s.

and thai year of your most recent anguish. 1989. are finally over. No that we are several days' '90s-sophisticated. we can look back at thai pavi year of anguish with heady irreverence.

Well. I will anyway, giving you I few reflections on the year jusl gone. ERE YOU Al the handing-over of secret documents by alleged spy Felix Bloch. On Ihc scene of a drug deal by teen-agers. While detectives investigated the firsi crime solved by fingerprinting.

No. you weren't, despite their being shown on network "news" shows BC orld News Tonight," CBS's "Saturday Nighl "Yesterday. Today and Tomorrow," respectively). It was bad enough thai syndicated trash heaps like "Inside Edition" and entertainment shows like "America's Most Wanted" and "Rescue 9-1-1" prostituted news with thcirsalacious re-creations. Bui then news divisions took over this kind of cheapness from which Connie Chung's credibility.

at least, will probably never recover. DONT YOU ISH YOU WERE Watching a man with a shopping bag stop a line of tanks at Tiananman Square. Dancing on the Berlin Wall. Listening lo the joyous wails ofCzcch playwright Vladislav Havel in Wenceslas Square in the center of Prague. In the middle of the San Francisco Earthquake.

Surrounding Manuel Noriega al the Vatican Embassy in Panama City. Oh, you were there! If rc -creations were TV news's ebb. their heights al the seeming endless flow of news were Evereslian. i THE BEST EPISODE OF SERIES TELEVISION: While the first showing of the estimable, but barely watched, "Life Goes On" lent more to the understanding of Down Syndromrthan a thousand documentaries and white papers, the episode last month of "Quantum Leap." equally estimable and only slightly more watched, in which Scott Bakula fell into the body of a retarded man in the early 1 960s told us more about our heavily ingrained prejudices toward the handicapped. THE MOMENT OF SERIES TELEVISION MOST ORTH FORGETTING: None can lop the embarrassment of the one in the debut of the horrid "Live-In." CBS' idea of a family show.

Lisa Patrick played an 1 8-ycarold Australian nanny in a house that also contained a hormone-popping 1 6-year-old boy and his friend, who drilled a peephole from his bedroom to the bathroom. We all got to see her underpants, his jaw and the Tiffany network's standards drop. ORTHY MINIS AND MOVIES: "Lorjcsomc Dove" gave a new meaning 10 copoke. "War and Remembrance" gave 'tis a last remembrance of the horrors of holocaust. "Home Fires Burning" (with "Doogie Howser, M.Cf." star Neil Patrick Harris playing a mid-American kid watching World War 11 ending) told us about how eras charge.

"My Name is Bill ihe storyofthe beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous, allowed the magnificent and franiacal James Woods the latitude he deserves. MINTS AND MOVIES ITH LESS VALUE THAN MANUEL NORIEGA: "Cross of Fire" told us nothing about the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s or date rape, its two purported missions, but a lot about the lack of acting ability Mel Harris. "Till We Meet Again," a muln-generational look at the filthiest and cichest, may finally drive Judith Kranu out of your living room. Unfortunately, Barry Bostwick and Bruce Boxleitner will probably find something else to be lousy in. SOM ET1 MESTH EY BOW OUT "Moonlighting" and "Family Ties" all had (heir last episodes within weeks and just in the nick of time.

"Vice" and "Moonlighting" had bright lightning flashes that made them worthy of notice evenfor those whodidn't love them, but finally became too ncttlesome to too rttany. "Tics" pulled its own plug befoie its fade became embarrassing. SdMETIMESTHEY DONT: It will not be loo soon to see "Free Spirit," "Hidden Video," the returned "Beauty and the Beast" and oh-so-many others becofnc forgotten lines in the encyclopedia. The plethora of bad andor dull shows demonstrates that evenn the great table era. producers aren't aware thai we arc intelligent consumers or are we? video for $29.95.

With a $10 deposit in the beginning of the school year, students are guaranteed an appearance on the tape. Dehl said sales figures show that between 20 to 35 percent of the student body orders the tapes, which are delivered in August. He said the company expects that figure to increase each year as people get used to the idea of a video yearbook. see it as another responsibility. He said other video yearbook companies do not put the time into the product, but instead rely on the students to cover the events.

"We take as much responsibility as possible," he said. "We shoot the videotape, do the narration and special effects and write the script. The students can get involved as dersen use up to seven free-lance videogra-phcrs to assist them. The schedule is often hectic. "During the fall sports schedule, we covered 120 teams in 45 days," Dehl said.

He said he expects to hire more staff as business expands into Mercer County and Bucks County, Pa. Dehl said National Video can afford to invest the time covering all the activities in the schools and producing a first-rate videotape because of its size and production facilities. With 40 franchises nationwide covering 400 schools, the production of a tape must be as efficient as possible. Dehl said National Video meets the demand with its $2.4 million studio in Nashville, where technicians edit the tapes, create the special effects, insert background music and narrate the script. The editing process turns hours of videotape into a professional production, giving the viewer an enjoying and quick-moving review of the school year.

"Without the studio, we never could offer the tape for $29.95," Dehl said. Despite the important role the studio plays, Dehl said, students have a lot of say about the final result. Dehl said he usually works with representatives of the student council, who then decide how they want the tape to look. They can choose three songs for the tape, but sometimes are limited in their selection because Dehl must get permission from record companies to use the music and pay the royalties. "One of the things I didn't realize is how terrific the student council sponsors are and how much fun the kids are to work with," Dehl said.

press uorresponoem A picture says a thousand words. But if you could add music, laughter and the sound of hundreds of high school students having the time of their lives, wouldn't it make the picture a better one? That's the sales pitch being used by National Video Yearbook, a franchise company that records the year's events of a high school on videotape. The company, started four years ago in Nashville, is banking on a marketing survey which shows that 65 percent of the households in the country have videocassette recorders. "Twenty years ago, we talked about video yearbooks, but it was only when VCRs became affordable for most people that our idea worked," said Robert Dehl, an owner of one of two National Video franchises now operating in New Jersey. Dehl, a Freehold Township resident, and John Feddersen, Matawan, purchased the franchise last year in time to sign contracts with 1 5 central New Jersey high schools for this school year.

Their franchise is at 710 Elton-Adelphia Road, Freehold Township. The phone number (201) 577-1726. The schools include Point Pleasant, Man-asquan, Matawan Regional, Lacey Township, Lakewood, Sayreville and Monroe Township. They also have contracts with St John Vianney in Holmdel Township and Monsignor Donovan in Toms River. "We don't compete with the print yearbook," Dehl said.

"We believe we can actually promote the print yearbook because we emphasize to students and parents the importance of saving memories. "Besides, you can't sign a video," Dehl added. "What we do is capture what the school year is like. We reflect the ambiance." National Video offers a 30- to 45-minute THOMAS P. COSTELLOAsbury Park Press The video camera also focused on the Lacey Township High School cafeteria.

much or as little as they want." Dehl said if students want to shoot the videotape themselves, they do it only under the supervision of himself or Feddersen. He said when they cover important events, such as homecoming, he or Feddersen always make sure they shoot the video themselves to guarantee that the event is properly recorded. With the academic, athletic and social events of 15 schools to cover, Dehl and Fed "Our biggest problem is getting people to understand what a yearbook video is," Dehl said. He said some principals are skeptical of the product and are unwilling to even listen to his presentation. However he said others see it as an opportunity to give students a memory they will always cherish.

Dehl said he understands the reluctance of some principals to get their schools involved in producing a video yearbook because they Alcohol use is drug abuse Homeless vets praise war movie By LARRY NEUMEISTER The Associated Press rj EW YORK Howard Fo-i gelman was shot seven times in Vietnam, losing all of his teeth and much of his confidence. He also lost his home. He now lives in the nation's first homeless shelter for veterans. On Sunday Fogelman and 13 fellow residents felt the memories flooding back as they watched "Born on the Fourth of July," a new film about a wounded veteran's struggle to cope. The vets praised the Oliver Stone movie as they emerged from the Manhattan theater, saying they identified with its portrayal of the isolation felt by veterans returning from the war.

But unlike real-life vet Ron Kovic (played by Tom Cruise), who leads anti-war demonstrators and finally feels at home by 1975, Fogelman and his colleagues are still waging their own war for dignity in America. They feel they are losing. Bitterness and sarcasm slipped out as the homeless veterans watched the film. As a military recruiter called on boys to join for pride, to protect their country and to fight communism, one veteran called out, "if you want to catch bullets." When soldiers first appeared on the screen in the field of Vietnam, one of the veterans moaned and said, "Oh God." Later, some cried. See VETS, page C10 By PAUL FARHI The Washington Post At the federal Office of Substance Abuse Prevention, official publications no longer use the term "substance abuse." Instead, the agency advises its employees and the medical community to adopt the phrase "alcohol and other drug use." Similarly, the National Parent-Teacher Association recommends that its local chapters include a reference to alcohol whenever members speak about the evils of drugs at school meetings.

By such subtle rhetorical changes, educators and health organizations say they hope to encourage a profound change in the way Americans think about drug abuse. As the nation confronts the havoc of such illegal drugs as crack cocaine and heroin, these groups promote the notion that alcohol also is a drug, and that any federal "war on drugs" must include treatment, education and legislation to deal with the devastation caused by alcohol abuse. The campaign to link alcoholic beverages with other drugs is based in some ways on self-evident points. Few experts, for example, dispute the idea that alcohol is a drug, in the same sense that caffeine and nicotine are drugs. Rather, the campaign confronts questions of imagery and emotion.

As it strives to counter $2 billion worth of advertising that depicts alcohol consumption as suave and sophisticated, the campaign's branding alcohol a drug conjures grittier images of addiction and despair. Such tactics may be necessary, say the promoters of this view, to keep the See ALCOHOL, page CI 2 ft HUM Tom Cruise in "Born on the Fourth of July." kobert Strauss is The Asbury Park Press television writer..