Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

by Robert Collins, Manager, BUMP Records

Our third day in NYC allowed us to recharge….a little. We didn’t have any screenings or performances scheduled, but we did have a little networking to do. Two of the “Going on 13” funders, Chicken & Egg Pictures and Working Films, held a reception for 3 films they produced that were part of the festival. The whole crew attended and got a chance to rub elbows with some big wigs. After dinner I had to make sure I kept my promise to Ryah to take her to Times Square. Lets just say she was on top of the world!

On the fourth day, we found ourselves back in the mix. We had a short screening and performance on the agenda. We were scheduled to visit the Lower East Side Girls Club(a very cool place BTW) and have Ryah participate in their weekly performance workshop with local female musicians. The LESGC also had a private screening of the movie trailer and film shorts that were produced by the some of the young ladies in the film.

The LESGC is an awesome space where the girls learn entrepreneurship by running a cafe, can work in a multi-media lab, and learn about environmental awareness and leadership. Ryah was asked to participate in a workshop where the girls would ask questions about her performance experience and background as an artist. Ryah was joined by Eagle Nebula and Erika Rose, both of whom are well regarded independent artists. Once the talk ended it was time to ‘Rock the Mic’ as they say. As the opening artist I wasn’t sure if Ryah was nervous about her first “show” in New York City. But, like the consummate professional that she is, she stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park.

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by Robert Collins, Manager, BUMP Records

Our second day in NYC was all about business. We had to put the sampler CD’s together. We had to prepare for the sound check. We had to shake off the jetlag. And, most importantly we had to get ready for the World Premiere Screening of “GOING ON 13.”

We met up at the production office and began the assembly line for the Bay Area Video Coalition/Vaquera Films Sampler CD’s. I was really pleased with how these turned out. Thanks to my BAVC Photoshop class was I able to design the cover for the CD(my first). As the ladies in the group got beautified we found out that Ryah’s performance at the 1st screening wasn’t going to happened as originally planned. Like a champ Ryah brushed it off. We thought about just going “Guerrilla Style” by grabbing a mic and taking over the Q&A accompanied by some beat-boxing by yours truly. We kept it professional though.

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by Robert Collins, Manager of BUMP Records

Arriving in New York City always seems to give me goosebumps. Having been there, to many times to count, I never really know why I get so excited. Is it the anticipation of how much fun I’m GOING to have? Is it the natural energy of the city? Or, is it just my own nerves getting the best of me. Who knows, and who cares. I love New York.

I was especially excited to go on this trip because I was going to have a chance to take one of my youth(Ryah Nikole) with me. Our trip was centered around the much heralded Tribeca Film Festival. Ryah wrote, produced and performed a song for a film called “Going on 13” which was being screened at the festival and they asked Ryah to perform. I would argue that it’s one of the top 5 film festivals in the US. So, the opportunity to not only attend, but also have a chance to perform is major.

The group stayed in a really cool apartment in the lower east side not far from Soho. After arriving at the crash pad the young ladies in the group had one thing on their minds……”SHOPPING.” I won’t get in the nasty details but lets just say that Canal Street received a real dose of Bay Area swap meet negotiating skills ;).

The director/producers(Dawn & Kristy who are awesome BTW) of the film had some friends that were from NYC and hosted a BBQ in my favorite borough(BROOKLYN), so the youth got to experience the New York Subway. It was a day of firsts and it was great to know that we had so much more to experience throughout the week.

More about our trip to come soon . . .

by Alicia Schmidt, Marketing Strategist

Jennifer joins BAVC after spending the last two years earning her Master’s Degree from San Francisco State University in Women’s Studies with a focus on Performance. Prior to moving to San Francisco, she lived in San Antonio, Texas, where she attended the University of Texas. Wanting to take a break from academia, we’re thrilled that Jenn has decided to get her hands non-profit “dirty” here at BAVC. As the new Office Manager, she will be responsible for making all our office systems hum including facility and supply management, some human resource management, and a little bit of accounting thrown in for good measure. (more…)

by Matt Price, East Bay Manager, BUMP Beats (a program of Next Gen Programs at BAVC)

Middle School is a lot different now compared to when I attended 15 years ago. In many ways, the world has become much more accommodating to early teens. No longer is the joke about a teenager hogging the family phone all night applicable because today everyone has their own cell phone. Embarrassing notes are no longer confiscated and read by teachers because such top secret information can be passed over text messages, typed in a pocket, without even looking at the phone!

However, with all these modern conveniences come modern distractions. I teach middle school students how to make digital music on a computer using the software Reason. Since we are on computers about 75% of the time, the Internet is a constant distraction. In my first year teaching the class, I fought the use of the Internet and turned it off while the students were doing their lessons. This year, it wasn’t so easy since I couldn’t just pull out an ethernet cable like I could in my old classroom. This lead to daily battles for students’ attention between lessons on how to make drum beats and the newest online games. At some point, I had enough. I would never win a fight against the Internet. Instead, I decided to embrace the Internet and put the lessons online on a blog. This way the students would get the satisfaction of being on the Internet, but also keep focused on their daily lessons. I took it a step further and working with middle schoolers’ natural social tendencies, I asked each student to create their own blog so that they could have a place to post their songs, thoughts and interests. Right now I am in the middle of the second class in which I’ve incorporated personal blogs and so far, I like the results. The underlining goal of my classes is to improve the computer literacy of the students and the blog has been an excellent way to meet this objective.

You can check out the lessons online at bumpccpa.blogspot.com or ccpabeats.blogspot.com.

By Mindy Aronoff, Director of Training & Resources

Does meeting director Morgan Spurlock in person help one like the movie more? Hell yes. Well, let’s put it this way: about 13 minutes into the screening at SXSW in Austin where Mr. Spurlock was in attendance, a spring thunderstorm knocked all the power out. When the lights came back on, the projectionist was having a hell of a time re-booting the digital projector, so Mr. Spurlock–oh, let’s call him Morgan, shall we?–shouted out, “drinks for everyone on me!” Sure enough, 10 uniformed ushers began passing out cold cans of Tecate to the entire theatre (thank you, Texas liquor laws).

If you saw SUPERSIZE ME, you know Spurlock has the same kind of fun Michael Moore does (but he’s a lot cuter). In this doc, which premiered at Sundance in January, he shleps us through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jerusalem and other colorful Middle Eastern sites, shoving the mic in people’s faces and querying them about bin Laden’s whereabouts like he’s asking if the food is good at Moti’s Falafel Stand.

Is the movie a joke? Not really, although I did laugh a lot. True to character, Spurlock comes across as the guy next door, an everyman who tells it like we would if we had the cajones. We see him, pre-trip, going through a rigorous faux-FBI training program aimed at teaching rookies when to duck and how to avoid being blown up into shwarma bits. It really is silly at times—outside of a Tora Bora cave he sings out “yoo hoo! Osama bin LAH-den…!” Ridiculous. But isn’t that kinda what you would want to do? (more…)

by Carl Weichert, BAVC Training & Resources Strategist

At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas this week, Adobe is previewing some exciting new functionality in the upcoming CS4 version of Premiere, its editing software – automatic transcription of the audio track of video files.

This is exciting in so many ways I could practically faint –

First, instead of sending off hours of documentary footage to a transcription service, you can now do it yourself.

Second, although not mentioned in the CNET article where I read this, I’m sure that it’ll be able to generate closed captioning and subtitles based on that transcription.

Third - Aargh, I’m so excited I can barely type anymore – as it says in the article, it will make video searchable by text while editing. No more shuttling back and forth looking for a particular word or phrase.

Fourth, this frame-based metatagging will not only be available while editing, but also in the finished product, making web video searchable by names or other terms. As the article says:

For example, a person could search a CNET video review for a product name and a specific feature, such as camera zoom.

All right, I’m going to go sit in a quiet corner of BAVC and hyperventilate a bit. Anybody have a paper bag?

By Alicia Schmidt, Marketing Strategist

Okay, so looking back, the folks at the National Association of Broadcasters(NAB) probably should have thought twice about asking a very famous, politically left, actor named Tim Robbins to give the keynote address at their 2008 show. Apparently, Tim decided against a planned “dialogue” on new media and instead launched into a humorous, expletive-laced tirade about the state of both the country and our media.

Sadly, I couldn’t find any video of dear Tim, but you can listen to his rant here.

Or you can check out other accounts of the day at Broadcasting and Cable.