Friday, January 29, 2010

High School Community Rallies in Support of Tolerance & Diversity

MC volunteer Scott Van Duyne grabbed the camera and I jotted down notes to capture the rally at Gunn High School this morning on behalf of tolerance and diversity. It became known that some agitators from a church in Kansas would be picketing out front of the school to voice their opinion that a godless gay-tolerant community is what is behind the recent suicides. The assertion is by definition ridiculous and should not be dignified by anybody even showing up -- that's one approach and it has its merits. However, 400 people felt it was important to show up, be counted and drown out the fringe message. The following video, I hope, will share the strong sense of community that was engendered this morning on the campus of Gunn High School.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

2nd Practice Show Features Chiquita the Dog and 4 Different Directors



Last night Media Center volunteers produced the second PRACTICE SHOW where volunteers have a chance to practice the jobs they want to try in a safe setting that not only forgives mistakes but encourages them as the valuable learning tool that mistakes are. Remember the entrepreneurial adage? Fail often fail fast. Well that's what you can do on the Practice Show. And you can have a good time, too. Last night's guest set the stage for a good time. Chiquita, my dog, was camera shy at first and insisted on facing the back wall most of the time. However, a succession of practice show hosts soon put her at her ease and she relaxed and gave the cameracrew something to work with.

Last night's focus was honing directorial skills. We ran a series of eight 2 minutes show where the goal was for the practice director to get all the tapes rolling, the graphics up and down, the cameras ready, the mikes up and the talent cued all in the right order -- Stan, Bill, Leena and Hannah took turns making it happen. I wanted to stay out on the floor and work on my camera skills. I was much better this time as I learned how to work the contrast, brightness, and peaking settings on my monitor to get me the best picture to work with to practice the art of focusing. I spent a lot of time out of focus and trying to get back in focus as fast as I could. Also working on camera out on the floor were Fred, Hannah and Anis. There was also ample time for people to try their hand at audio, so Fred, Anis, Bill and Hannah got in some time on the audio board, setting the levels and bringing the mics up and down.

You can watch the eight minisodes of the Chiquita Practice Show starting Thursday, January 28 at 7 pm on Channel 30.

If you want to crew for the practice show, keep an eye on the Yahoo Groups for an announcement of upcoming shows or send Scott an email at Scott.vanduyne@gmail.com.

An interesting outcome of this show was that Anis in a moment of weakness volunteered to draw up an electrical grid of how the control room is wired. When audio maven Eric crawls behind the console, what is he doing? Anis is planning to help us find out.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Catch the High Speed Rail Meeting LIVE on Channel 26 Tomorrow Night



Our state senator Joe Simitian is co-hosting a special meeting to discuss the new business plan released by the California High Speed Rail Authority last month. He will be joined on the podium by Long Beach senator Alan Lowenthal. The meeting takes place tomorrow night, Thursday, January 21, at 7 pm in the Palo Alto City Hall in the City Council Chambers. If you can’t make it out, you can watch the meeting from the comfort of your own home. We are playing it live on Channel 26! And we will be scheduling playbacks on Channel 27 in case you miss it live. Get the inside scoop on the proposed plan on our channels!

For more on the meeting click here to visit Joe's website and the article about the meeting.

Friday, January 8, 2010

THE PRACTICE SHOW WAS SHOT LAST NIGHT, DEBUTS THIS WEEK





MC Volunteer Scott Van Duyne produced the first PRACTICE SHOW, the show where crew practice and rotate through crew positions they want to learn. The plan which we executed was to perform 3 9-minute shows. The set up was simple. Tech Nancy Brown suggested a no fuss approach to lighting, so we set the host and guest chairs up basically where they had been for the prior show, so the spots were already lit. That got us going fast.

There was about an hour of mentoring where studio pros helped out people wanting to improve their skills. Bill worked with Patricia on graphics. She reported that it really helped to do 3 shows. By the third show she was really getting it.

I worked with the hosts going over possible scenarios and questions for the guest.

Audio pros like Scott and Steve worked to teach microphone set up for a two person show with singing microphone and guitar microphone.

Executive Director Annie , volunteer Stan, Tech Nancy and volunteer David all gave me pointers on camera which I hadn't run in over a year. I learned I had forgotten a lot! I know what not to do, and what to do, but I think I need more practice! My fast zoom on Show 2 made everyone seasick in the control room, and my soft focus on Camera 3 during Show 3 showed me where I need to "focus."

The guest in the studio was Victoria Van Duyne who performed some original songs and was interviewed. Crewbies (New crew) Brian, Anis and Marty set up her microphones, did sound checks and ran the audio board. The show hosts were Eiko for show 1, Andrey for show 2 and Stan for show 3. Making their directorial debut last night were Stan, Leena and Kamla. Exec. Dir. Annie ran camera for the first two shows to keep her camera-tone. And I was really glad to see Floor Director getting some respect. I really think that FD is undervalued sometimes and we had standalone floor directors who learned fast that you have to get into the line of sight of the host and not expect the host to come looking for you! FDs were Anis, David and Bill. Great job guys!

I could go on and on. It was for the most part super-fun. It was relaxed with the emphasis on trial and error and learning. Scott would like to run these monthly but is looking for producers to step and plan the guests. He plans to to track who attends and does what position. So he'll keep the list and track progress.

I plan to keep coming until my camera skills are great. Then I can't do that job any more on the Practice Show and I'll have to try something else.

You can watch the practice show starting Thursday January 14 at 7 pm on Channel 30. Click here for show times

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