According to the publisher (Barnes & Noble) "The Daily Spark Series gives classroom teachers a dynamic way of delivering stimulating and effective exercises to get students motivated at the start of class."
I think they're also a great resource for media classes. I especially enjoyed the one focused on Poetry - many of the ideas would be perfect for short films. They could also work in a music/songwriting/beats & rhymes curriculum.
You can flip through them online with a membership or head into a B&N to look at the hard copies. But these books are only available from other vendors (like Amazon) as second-hand copies.
Friday
Why Keep a Journal?
A cool list to spark ideas from online journal Penzu. These could be some great starting points for a video diary or 1st person documentary project as well...
Why Keep a Journal?: "Don’t know where to start? If you would like to achieve the therapeutic effects of journaling, writing in an expressive journal is a good place to start. Here are some quick tips from Dr. James W. Pennebaker to guide you along."
Why Keep a Journal?: "Don’t know where to start? If you would like to achieve the therapeutic effects of journaling, writing in an expressive journal is a good place to start. Here are some quick tips from Dr. James W. Pennebaker to guide you along."
Monday
Watch the Webisodes | Contest | ACT for me
Watch the Webisodes: "We asked people to tell us their AC Transit stories by creating an ACT for Me webisode. Entrants gave us a quick look at the AC Transit community and showed us how the bus plays a part in that community. The stories didn’t have to be specifically about the bus or take place on the bus, but had to take place in areas accessible by the bus. Documentary, comedy, romance, and above all, originality were encouraged."
Nice work folks. I *love* that the judges gave first prizes in both youth and adult categories.
Nice work folks. I *love* that the judges gave first prizes in both youth and adult categories.
A Little Old, But I'm Loving This Post
I'm so enjoying watching all the videos in this Archive. It's from the CR Blog which covers "News and Views on Visual Communication from the Writers and Readers of Creative Review" - a trade magazine in England.
The State of Music Video
The State of Music Video
Saturday
Why Shoot? Why Capture? Why Edit
Nice post from the always articulate David Pogue about Why We Shoot Home Videos on NYTimes.com: "Two weeks ago, writing about Apple’s new flagship laptop, the MacBook, I noted with dismay that Apple appears intent on eliminating the FireWire jack. FireWire is a connector, originally developed and promoted by Apple itself, that lets you import video from a tape camcorder for easy editing. It was a cornerstone of Apple’s “anyone can edit video” revolution."
A lot of what he writes about would apply to the average A/V club - video yearbook - after school program too. It's a risk we're happy to take: if we make it, someone will watch it.
A lot of what he writes about would apply to the average A/V club - video yearbook - after school program too. It's a risk we're happy to take: if we make it, someone will watch it.
Monday
A little tutorial on our old friend GIMP
Image Editing: Apply Antique Color Tones to a Photograph: "Antique photographs have a certain warmth to them imparted by the development process that can't be replicated by simply dumping the color data from a photograph. At wiikiHow there is a tutorial on using GIMP, a free Photoshop alternative, to take the rich tones from an old photograph and apply them to a brand new photo. The process works with both black and white and sepia toned photographs, and can easily be adapted from the given steps to work with Photoshop too. The above image is a blend of the before and after sample photo from the tutorial. If you don't have any antique photos handy, the tutorial covers where to find public domain images to lift tone samples from. If you're looking to take the opposite route and inject color into a black and white photography check out how to color black and white photos and isolate colors for emphasis."
Tuesday
Wednesday
Should Students Intern Before, After, or only During Their Studies?
Recently, this showed up in my email Inbox:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 1:09 AM
Subject: Documentary intern/volunteer needed. (oakland north / temescal)
Please be/have:
• Local to the Oakland/Berkeley/Emeryville area
• Willing to commit at least 12 hours per week initially.
• Intermediate computer skills, with the ability to make decisions about what to save where
• Filemaker Pro and Excel experienced or have the desire and ability to pick up those skills quickly.
• Consistently on time, as in, rarely, if ever late.
Additional Qualifications: Applicants must have excellent verbal and written communications skills, strong online research skills, the ability to work well independently, and a strong commitment to social, racial and economic justice. Candidates should be computer savvy (Mac) and comfortable on the phone.
This will be a 12-hour per week, 6-month or end-of-pre production internship, whichever comes first. There is potential to grow into a more substantial and possibly paid position within the next six months.
Compensation
In return for your investment of time and energy, ___ will provide you with access to video production equipment, training in filmmaking basics, opportunities to get your hands dirty on various sets and locations and access to the ___ edit suite once trained if not already.
You will be able to:
Get a detailed letter explaining what you helped with and what you learned
Sign off on community service or school mandated service hours
Be able to add something to your portfolio (highly likely)
Use ___ team, equipment and expertise at you disposal
Film treatment and other documents available to interested and qualified candidates.
Please contact us with a up-to-date resumé and short statement of interest outlining your desires for a film production internship.
this craigslist posting was forwarded to you by someone using our
email-a-friend feature - if you want to prevent these, please go to:
Which begs the question, once again, When to Work for Nothing? In fact, there's even this website dedicated to encouraging young designers to stop doing work on spec. (Thanks to Lifehacker for both of these links.)
Here's a copy of my response to that original email.
In general, I'm not a big fan of asking people to work for free on films - including documentaries.
I think it is an old holdover from the days when filmmaking was restricted to a small group of privileged people who "paid their dues" as a way of working off favors from the nepotism that got their "foot in the door".
If you can go through the process of becoming an internship site for a local school or university that has a film program I think that's the best way. Then the young person is being paid for their time in course credit and can easily document their un-paid work experience.
This also allows for some oversight. I know you all at _______ would never exploit free labor, but others have and do and youth need their rights protected. (Many of them don't even know the rights they have.)
That's just my two cents. But don't be surprised if you get flagged on Craigs List. They're pretty sensitive over there too.
As for local schools with internships, here's a list off the top of my head...
___, ___, ___, ___
I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of them right now. Good luck with your project. Funding is always a good indicator of your eventual audience/impact. So I'm glad to hear that folks have been making that investment.
ps -
I think it's a little different to ask people for a short amount of time or to work on/complete one specific task, like logging 10 hours of tape in your spare time.
Also, people will often do work here and there for their friends for free.
But the big red flag here is that you're looking for someone to work 12 hours a week for 6 months or so for no pay.
Can you think of any other industry that would ever ask for that? Not a restaurant, not a factory, not an insurance office...It's only done in the 'glamour' fields like Film, Television, and Magazines.
Sincerely,
Ms. Smitty B
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 1:09 AM
Subject: Documentary intern/volunteer needed. (oakland north / temescal)
Please be/have:
• Local to the Oakland/Berkeley/Emeryville area
• Willing to commit at least 12 hours per week initially.
• Intermediate computer skills, with the ability to make decisions about what to save where
• Filemaker Pro and Excel experienced or have the desire and ability to pick up those skills quickly.
• Consistently on time, as in, rarely, if ever late.
Additional Qualifications: Applicants must have excellent verbal and written communications skills, strong online research skills, the ability to work well independently, and a strong commitment to social, racial and economic justice. Candidates should be computer savvy (Mac) and comfortable on the phone.
This will be a 12-hour per week, 6-month or end-of-pre production internship, whichever comes first. There is potential to grow into a more substantial and possibly paid position within the next six months.
Compensation
In return for your investment of time and energy, ___ will provide you with access to video production equipment, training in filmmaking basics, opportunities to get your hands dirty on various sets and locations and access to the ___ edit suite once trained if not already.
You will be able to:
Get a detailed letter explaining what you helped with and what you learned
Sign off on community service or school mandated service hours
Be able to add something to your portfolio (highly likely)
Use ___ team, equipment and expertise at you disposal
Film treatment and other documents available to interested and qualified candidates.
Please contact us with a up-to-date resumé and short statement of interest outlining your desires for a film production internship.
this craigslist posting was forwarded to you by someone using our
email-a-friend feature - if you want to prevent these, please go to:
Which begs the question, once again, When to Work for Nothing? In fact, there's even this website dedicated to encouraging young designers to stop doing work on spec. (Thanks to Lifehacker for both of these links.)
Here's a copy of my response to that original email.
In general, I'm not a big fan of asking people to work for free on films - including documentaries.
I think it is an old holdover from the days when filmmaking was restricted to a small group of privileged people who "paid their dues" as a way of working off favors from the nepotism that got their "foot in the door".
If you can go through the process of becoming an internship site for a local school or university that has a film program I think that's the best way. Then the young person is being paid for their time in course credit and can easily document their un-paid work experience.
This also allows for some oversight. I know you all at _______ would never exploit free labor, but others have and do and youth need their rights protected. (Many of them don't even know the rights they have.)
That's just my two cents. But don't be surprised if you get flagged on Craigs List. They're pretty sensitive over there too.
As for local schools with internships, here's a list off the top of my head...
___, ___, ___, ___
I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of them right now. Good luck with your project. Funding is always a good indicator of your eventual audience/impact. So I'm glad to hear that folks have been making that investment.
ps -
I think it's a little different to ask people for a short amount of time or to work on/complete one specific task, like logging 10 hours of tape in your spare time.
Also, people will often do work here and there for their friends for free.
But the big red flag here is that you're looking for someone to work 12 hours a week for 6 months or so for no pay.
Can you think of any other industry that would ever ask for that? Not a restaurant, not a factory, not an insurance office...It's only done in the 'glamour' fields like Film, Television, and Magazines.
Sincerely,
Ms. Smitty B
Tuesday
The Digital Future Looks Bright
LAFD's One-Man Geek Squad Brings Web 2.0 to Firefighting: "Firefighters are known for their bravery (and their popularity with the ladies). But geek cred? Not so much. Brian Humphrey is trying to change that. From a decommissioned bomb shelter four stories beneath Los Angeles City Hall, this 23-year veteran is single-handedly hauling the city's fire department into the Web 2.0 era. He has about 80 projects in the works—involving everything from Twitter to BlogTalkRadio—that will not only help broadcast urgent information to the public but also gather crucial intel to assist first responders on the ground."
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