Digital Arts Service Corps - film

Month Seven: DIY Productions!

Melissa Niiya — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:10:37 +0000

Long time no field report. In the past few months, there has been a lot of progress and change. Tiffany is our new and awesome VISTA, and with her added support, DIY Media (a program to train youth in documentary filmmaking, social media, etc) has launched. I've been working with her and staff to develop the curriculum for this project.

We're also moving along with DIY Productions. As we build our base of creative and motivated teens through the DIY Media program, we hope to draw from this pool and build a social enterprise where teens make media for non-profits. I made a promo that will become one in our portfolio of films to show potential clients. You can view it here:http://www.youtube.com/user/digitalhistories#p/u/5/sp0t6U0PUJU

I've also been working on a website for DIYP. There was a little hiccup where we had disagreement on colors/design (of course, after building out the whole site...yarrgh) but I think it's now settled and we're running with the attached mockup.

Moving forward, I surveyed residents at one of our low income housing buildings and it seems that most are very pro-internet and don't want us to cut it off... so these results could support an effort to raise capital for wired internet at our buildings... I'm not sure it's feasible to do this in the remaining months, but we'll see. It will be difficult to get organizational support for what could be a lengthy and expensive project. But given that most of the residents surveyed cannot afford internet service and yet use and need it...well... I think it'd be worth it!

Month 7: Inauguration Video Diary & IMC FILM FEST 2009

Stephen Fonzo — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:03:47 +0000

Jan-Feb began a two month period in which both Nicole and I barely took a day off - no exaggeration.

The possible exception was a trip that a few of us made to Washington, D.C. for the Presidential Inauguration. We planned this trip on short notice, to correspond to a community organizing event taking place at the IMC on the night of the inauguration - the idea being that we would film a documentary, or more appropriately a video diary of our experiences, post daily clips to our web site, and then have a Skype video conference with everyone "back home." Going with both my VISTA Supervisor and VISTA Leader gave me an excellent opportunity to get to know them better and learn from their areas of expertise. Many superlatives apply to being in the capitol for that ceremony, mostly having to do with the sheer numbers of people crowding the streets and the willingness of strangers to be interviewed in the cold by other strangers.

As soon as we returned, I went straight back to the planning for the IMC Film Fest. There was still much to do, including designing and distributing fliers and posters, doing interviews with local press and arts/events magazines, recording and broadcasting radio advertisements, and working with filmmakers to determine the final schedule. The Film Fest was a success, comprising three days of independent, and most local/regional films, covering all lengths and genres. We raised money for the IMC Production group, the group I helped create that maintains the media production facilities and builds a team of trainers who can assist and teach others. I learned quite a lot about event planning and management; the small group of us that put it all together have a vast train of e-mails and Google docs that we are archiving with the IMC to help others create similar events in the future.

The remainder of this period involved less training than usual, just a couple of sessions on audio and video recording, and I continued to update and troubleshoot the WRFU radio automation system while helping to facilitate meetings of those interested in learning this "back-stage" aspect of radio production.

Month 6: Training, Event Planning, and More

Stephen Fonzo — Sat, 09 May 2009 04:22:08 +0000

I feel pretty bad that keeping up with these field reports has been so difficult - and because I have the flu... but that gives me some time to catch up and explain what kinds of things I've been doing at the IMC, one month at a time:

The IMC is in a college town (Champaign-Urbana), and a lot of our volunteers are students, grad students, and professors. Even though Dec-Jan was quiet, with many out of town, I had plenty to do.

The month started with an interview. To clarify, I was the one being interviewed, by two DJs whom I had trained, and whose semester project - as interns at our community radio station - had just ended. Maggie and Alex, AKA "The Amplified Librarians," asked me about all aspects of CTC VISTA, AmeriCorps service, and the Independent Media Center. It provided a great opportunity to reflect on my work and to share my observations with our listeners.

With a target date of the first IMC Film Festival looming in the near future (early February), this month was largely devoted to the intricacies of event planning. The Film Festival was something that fellow VISTA Nicole and I brainstormed earlier in the winter, and with help from our VISTA Supervisor, we solicited film submissions, arranged scheduling, format, promotion, sponsors, and a web site all in the course of a couple months. This gave me the opportunity to utilize and better acquaint myself with Drupal, as we developed the IMC Production Group and IMC Film Festival web site.

Despite the cold, empty climate, there was considerably demand for training, and I ended up delivering nine sessions to individuals or small groups, on audio editing for radio (in Audacity and Reaper); live radio broadcast; digital photo editing; field audio recording; and mastering. As much as I have wanted to stick to the goals of "training trainers," this is in part dependent on the attitudes and goals of those being trained. In our organization, in which everyone is volunteering whatever free time he or she has, most people just want to quickly be empowered with the knowledge and tools to accomplish some aspect of media or technology. They do not often have the time to train others after I have trained them. I suspect that other VISTAs in training positions have observed this scenario in their workplaces. It's not necessarily bad or good, but just the reality of working with busy and ambitious colleagues.

By the end of this period, we welcomed a new Program Development Intern to the IMC, and oriented him. I also continued to coordinate volunteers who produced IMC Video News for Urbana Public Access Television, and updated radio training materials, including a draft plan to revive IMC Radio News, which had been a successful project several years before I began my service.

A Swing State Update

Elizabeth Goussetis — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:58:49 +0000

This story takes place in Ohio. I know some of you coastal VISTAs are longing for more Ohio news and charming Midwestern commentary, like you were getting before the election. Perfect timing for me to wake from my procrastination hibernation and write my very first field report!

I am serving as Youth Channel Facilitator at Media Bridges www.mediabridges.org, a community media center that operates Cincinnati’s four public access television stations. My job is to develop a youth media program that will allow Cincinnati youth (ages 12-25) to run Media Bridges’ youth channel. The youth channel, called the Youth Block, airs youth-created programming on Media Bridges’ education channel. Part of my job is to acquire 10 hours each week of programming to be played on our Youth Block (currently we have about four hours), and to develop a plan for volunteer youth to run the Youth Block.

Our goal is that youth who participate in the program will learn the tools to understand how media represents youth and constructs messages which affect them. We hope that students will gain the confidence and ability to use video and radio production skills to represent themselves and get their voices out to the community.

My first month here I worked with the kids in our summer video and radio camp. Each class finishes with the production of a video or radio show by the kids. Right now, the summer media camp is the only established youth program at Media Bridges, and a primary source of our Youth Block programming, so I am hoping to expand on that. I’ve also been taking crash courses in all the cool technology toys we have here: I’ve learned to use a video camera, operate studio cameras, lighting and sound equipment, run a live studio show, and edit digital video. Yay!

The past few months have been spent researching existing youth media programs in other cities and meeting with local organizations that work with youth in order to build partnerships and get the word out about the Youth Block. In September I organized an event for One Web Day at Media Bridges (http://mediabridges.org/onewebday/). In October, I attended the Alliance for Community Media Central States Region conference and I also supervised a high school student who interned with me for a week as part of a senior project. In November I have been helping to revamp Media Bridges’ volunteer program to help recruit younger volunteers, and I am taking a proposal writing course online and working on writing grant proposals.

That’s just the basics, but stay tuned for more lively and detailed reports from the heartland as I get caught up on my field report quota. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Hey Danielle here are your links.

Will Quinones — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:56:57 +0000

I work for Reel Works Teen Filmmaking. its a great youth media organization. I learned about Reel Works two years ago when i was an "At Risk" kid In High School. they helped me make two award winning films. we recently blew away an online youth media competition at Listenup.org. oh yea, we are having a screening on the 24th. if anyone is in the New York area and wants to see our latest movies. email me at will@reelworks.org. thanks.

you can find our work on these sites

http://Reelworks.org

http://Listenup.org

http://uthtv.com

http://movies.aol.com/truestories/reelworks