One small step…
sleader
November 12th, 2008.
The Street ….nice!
Field Equipment Training…nice
General Election…..nice
It’s all Good!
20 YEARS OF SAN FRANCISCO COMMUNITY TELEVISION
Without Access SF There Is No Access
The Street!!
Brennan
November 05th, 2008.
So its been a while since I’ve been on the blog, but we have been keeping busy with the citizen journalism project. We all have been making awesome 60 second pieces and now we finally have a name for the project,The Street. So far we have an awesome 60second trailer made by Nolan. Overall the project is going well we just need to work on the form of the project.
On->going
aiko
October 18th, 2008.
Our team has continued to work on our citizen journalism clips through the past few weeks and I am happy to say that I am definitely feeling a lot more comfortable about the whole process. Although at times exhausting, I really enjoy producing the clips. Also, I feel that the habit of always carrying a camera on me is making me a more attentive city dweller.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtains…
sleader
October 14th, 2008.
Last Friday I Crewed my first SF LIVE show which went quite well alhough I could not find a graphic for the guest that included the show’s phone number….you need to be a mouse with a magnifying glass to read the thumbnail graphics on the computer. Running CG in the ’80’s was easier. We also closed the show too early But our gracious, glamourous host was calm, cool and collected. The strangest moment for me came when the Guest decided to ask ME a question! Flsh Studio cameras are fixed so anyone in the audience would be treated to a disembodied voice caught off-guard!.
It looks like Citizen Journalism is now going to be called:
(sfx drumroll)
Guerrilla JournaliZm
I find the process of documenting how we seven core journalists hone and critique our reports as interesting as the individual reports themselves. The raw talent of my co-workers is astounding! I’ve recorded the critiques of our meeting and intend to post them it on youtube. Everyone can then take a good look at men and women behind the curtains…
Please stand by…
sleader
October 08th, 2008.
I’m experiencing TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES.
Over the last few weeks we have several very productive meetings thrashing out the groundwork for Citizen Journalism now tentatively called Guerrilla Reports).
However I’m finding the process of editing on Final Cut Pro very frustrating. I have had at least four edit sessions and discover, too late, that audio disappears from my raw footage …and the final edit, allegedly a quicktime movie…unreadable!!!!
I would use my PC at home but…it seems my SATA drive (that’s the one with six month’s worth of media on it) has gone south.
It’s enough to put the GRRR in Guerrilla Reports!!!
CJ mtg
aiko
September 28th, 2008.
In all honesty, the Citizen Journalism assignments make me a little anxious. However, I believe this challenging process holds the exceptional potential to yield valuable lessons. Already from this first week, I realized the essentiality of organization, setting identification, and story closure. After each segment showing, the exchange of reactions was constructive, making the viewing more active and bringing forth helpful feedback. I am excited to see each member’s pieces develop as we work together to discover our definition of Citizen Journalism… of which I am still rather confused… Does the process entail this: the development of a story and call to action through the collection of visuals and audios? How are we to develop news stories that don’t out date themselves? Isn’t this notion a contradiction in and of itself? It is my hope that as we continue, these issues will clear and the productions will become easier.
Notice of Public Meeting
Arnel
September 24th, 2008.
Access SF Board of Directors Meeting
Monday October 20, 2008 at 6:00pm.
Limited space!
Meetings are open for the public and members in good standing.
Questions regarding the meetings of the Access SF Board of Directors may be addressed to zane@accessf.org
QUESTION: What does “Citizen Journalism” have in common with The League of Women Voters?
sleader
September 23rd, 2008.
ANSWER: not much except that they are both projects on which I’ve worked in the last week and they show in their diversity how exciting it is to volunteer here at Access SF.
As I’m still basking in the after-glow from a month respite from technology in New Mexico (which means I still haven’t bothered to fix my PC), I’ll keep this blog entry short.
[SFX:Champagne cork popping]
Friday saw a very exciting meeting concerning a concept whose time has come: Citizen Journalism. But more on that …later.
Saturday was an opportunity for me to help crew an all-day shoot for the League of Women Voters in which the various measures were discussed in a debate format. I was on camera 2. It wasn’t the sexiest of television shows…but it shows how Access SF can perform community service … and do it quite well. The most entertaining approach which made Ballot measures more interesting was taken by PBS’s “California Connected”in which vintage stock footage was used as visual “wallpaper” while the measure was described. For example, if a measure dealt with new housing, viewers would be treated to “dream homes of the future” - clips from films first shown at the 1939 World’s Fair. Much of this material is FREE (check out archive.org). Also the text of the proposal could be put on screen. However SOMEONE would have to research (which would be fun) - and edit the footage.
Speaking of editing, I have to run as I’m editing my first “Citizen Journalism” piece this afternoon.
I love the Weekend!
Brennan
September 22nd, 2008.
The last two Saturdays have been some of the busy and most enriching weekends I’ve had. On the the 13th I got to help out at a PSA shoot for City Clinic. The PSA took two days two shoot but I could only help with the Clinic shoot because the first day was shot at a bar (darn no one over 21 rule). At the Clinic Jim ( he directed the PSA) showed me how to make certain lighting setups with the lighting kits. I was pretty nervous at first with the lighting setups but by the end of the day started to understand how to create a good even lighting set up. Aside from lighting I was an extra in the PSA fun watching how Jim direct the lead actor (Ronnie) interact with the receptionist. So that was the first of the busy Saturdays. On the 20th I crewed for the League of Women voters debates. The LWV shoot was super long but very interesting. I was in the control room working with the CG computer and operating the tape deck. Being in the control room was great just y learning how to balance what the League wanted and keeping up with a tight time schedule. Aside from a timecode issue (that was my fault) the production went by fairly smooth. As busy as the last two Saturdays were they have been great times for learning about time management and lighting.
Stephen Leader week 2
sleader
September 08th, 2008.
Took the Flash Studio workshop (thanks Arnel!) July 25th and practiced in the same the following Tuesday. It was a good idea. The pre-printed class notes, though excellent, did not cover how to switch on the audio mixer. Once I figured out that, everything worked fine except Mic #1. So I took a deep breath, reassured myself that this is a simple matter of technical troubleshooting, and plunged into the murky depths under the counter in search of a loose cable. Everthing looked fine…Mic #1 was hooked up in the same way as the fully-functional Mic #2.
At this point, Matt wandered in and quickly discovered that the phantom power switch on the back of the mixer was off (Thanks Matt!).
It was a bit lonely with just myself to practice on …which shows how easy the studio is make operational and use…if you happen to be an octopus.
My first assignment is to come up with a Power-point presentation for the display in the front-window. I intend to follow some of the workshops with my digicam and hope to capture some of the excitement of producing and putting on a show. Power-point can do video…but I’m not sure what the limitations are..no audio of course and there may be issues with timing of slides and video. What WILL work and will be quite effective would be a kind of ‘Pseudo-animation’ - for example dissolving from one slide to another with the “ON AIR” sign changing from unlit to lit. I’m not sure what’s on the display at the moment…I need to find out. Speaking of lighting, I hope to take ‘beauty shots’ of the racks and equipment with no flash to enhance that high-tech “Star Trek” effect which I, for one, find sexy. After one shot, my camera battery gave up the ghost.
I was leaving Sunday August 3 to go to Zuni Mountain Sanctuary with the un-intended reuslt of over-scheduling myself that Tuesday. So even though my camera battery was re-charged I was not, and decided that I needed to stay home for the rest of the day…missing out on the opportunity of taking photos of the workshops with people (sorry Arnel!).
I hope to do lots of Video while in New Mexico (got 10 DV tapes & will treat myself to some new SD cards).
See y’all in a month
Stay Tuned
Stephen