Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

by Carol Varney, Director of Development at BAVC

The Development Department at BAVC – (we’re the ones behind the scenes raising the money to make all the programming happen) – had a pretty great year in 2007. Raising funds for the myriad programming at BAVC is always a challenge, not because we don’t have some fantastic funders, but because there is never, and I do mean never, a lack of fantastic new programming ideas. With a budget hovering at a little over $5 million, it’s always hard to determine which cool new ideas we should seek out funding for and which ones we need to place on the back burner. In 2007, we were able to secure significant financial support for some of our staple programs, and to venture into new territory due to some tried and true as well as some brand new supporters who helped to make it all happen. (more…)

By Nooshin Navidi, BAVC Development Associate

Joel Bloom, founder of TVMoto, took some time out of his busy production schedule to answer a few questions about his work, film, the Bay Area, and life. Don’t forget to drop by BAVC’s On-the-Make Membership Mixer at Sports Basement ( 1590 Bryant St. ) on Tuesday, January 29th from 6:00-8:30pm for complimentary drinks and the latest in cutting edge motorcycle film/television production and the techniques of unique, fast-pace sports-action filmmaking.

Name: Joel Bloom

Introduce yourself in one sentence:
A driven producer with companies in all aspects of production.
TVmoto.com / DigitalZoo.tv / FortitudeEditorial.com / GoEdit.tv / Sillywood.com

Why did did you create TVMoto?
As a TV producer and an avid fan of motorcycle racing, I was very disappointed with the state of motorcycle programming…so I decided to start something small and build something big…making top shelf programs…telling good stories and building the TVmoto.com community. It seemed like a good way to combine a few passions. (motorcycles, travel and filmmaking)

What other projects are you working on?
Currently working on a Music video, a TVmoto half hour special for World Superbike (airing this June), an xmas tree special, an animated short film, Supermoto DVD series, a TVmoto travel show pilot, a Kids Motorcycle Training Video, nine more Passion.com commercials and the list goes on…busy busy busy…

What’s your favorite sports film?
“On Any Sunday”
http://www.montereymedia.com/sports/sunday.html

Home Town
Atherton, Ca. (before it was full of really rich people)

How long have you lived in the Bay Area and Where?
All my life…except for 5 years in Los Angeles.

Favorite place to spend time online
http://www.youtube.com/silliwood

by Wendy Levy, Director of Creative Programming

As Director of Creative Programming, the focus of my attention is bringing the most promising stories and media makers, new media projects and video archives into the world of BAVC; and creating partnerships and programs that impact the field of public media and independent filmmaking. 2007 was a big year at BAVC, full of opportunities for artists and institutions to explore innovative approaches to new work, and creative solutions to challenges in postproduction and preservation. These programs included: Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, Mediamaker & Mediamaker Advance Awards, and the Womens HD Artist-in-Residence. (more…)

by Alicia Schmidt, BAVC Marketing Strategist

I’m a white girl who grew up in capital “S” suburban Maryland where a hot, high-school Friday night included sipping wine coolers in the parking lot of the Friendly’s Ice Cream store and tipping cows at the Naval Academy dairy (no lie). When I left high school, I went straight to Washington, DC, and straight into an indie punk scene that pretty much saved my life. I even hooked up with a few anarchist punks who crossed over into hip-hop and graffiti writing. They let me “tag” along when they bombed walls in Eastern Market (near the Capital building) and it pretty much started my obsession with graffiti and street art.

Needless to say I was psyched last December when an old friend from DC invited me over to a holiday “throwie” party at their house in the Western Addition. When I walked in to a table full of little multi-colored LED lights, lithium batteries, and super strong magnets, however, I have to admit that I was a little worried that maybe he was going a little Weather Underground.

(more…)

by Carl Weichert, BAVC Training and Curriculum Strategist

We here at BAVC have been feeling rather nostalgic of late, having recently turned thirty, turned twenty-nine, uhm, been told we don’t look a day over 26. So we decided to fix ourselves a hot toddy, wrap ourselves in our snuggliest housecoat, and make our way into the cold, dark recesses of the BAVC archive, where we store a copy of every video that’s made its way through our well-preserved youthful halls.

Once there, however, we found it to be a great temperature for archival tapes, but a bit too cold and dark for our tastes, so we skedaddled right back out of there - and sent our intrepid intern, Clay, in our place. And Oh! the memories he’s brought back! Those were the days, my friend, we say to Clay the Intern, wiping a tear from the corner of our eye as we watch three-quarter-inch tapes together; we thought they’d never end. True dat, he replies, true dat.

Here’s just one of those precious memories of days gone by, a clip from a 1991 doc named Burning Man, made by none other than Larry Harvey, one of the founders of Burning Man. This clip contains footage of one of the earlier burns at Baker Beach here in San Francisco, as well as the first burn to take place on the Playa.

That reminds us, did we ever tell you about our first Burn…..?

by Wendy Levy, Director of Creative Programming at BAVC

I admit it. I read all technology news through a distinctly independent lens. The new gadgets and functionalities and trends interest me mostly in how they can, or will, impact documentary and creative storytelling, advocacy, communities without access, and people in need. At BAVC, we regularly invite tech geeks, filmmakers and activists to sit at the same tables in the same rooms to share vocabularies and concepts in nascent stages. It’s like herding really smart, creative and sometimes resistant sheep. Things have been changing - new platforms are now more deeply connected to content and audience than ever before.

That’s a good thing.

Looking ahead to 2008, to where media technology is going, and what independent producers are thinking about and creating, I just wanted to put a flashing yellow post-it on a couple of areas that need some attention from those of us devoted to world-changing independent media. (more…)

by Ken Ikeda, Executive Director of BAVC

It is always difficult to describe BAVC in a simple sentence. The back of our business cards say Art + Education + Technology, but those are merely starting points for a larger and more complex conversation about the range of services, programs and value that we bring to diverse communities. BAVC celebrated 30 years of service in 2007, and that milestone served as an internal awakening. We opted to pass on a one-night gala event so that we could invest in the tools that would allow us to better serve our community into the future: a new website (launching in early March), an internal database (by the summer), and a fiber network to support next generation applications and real-time remote collaborations. While they aren’t super sexy, we hope all of these resources will make it easier for our constituents to find classes, engage programs and staff at BAVC, and find value in our organization. These changes, however, are only the beginning. In the last year, we also launched our community Innovation Lab (and the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies), expanded our Advanced Digital Pathways media training program for low-income youth, saw significant changes in our staffing, completed the build-out of our preservation suite, improved the networking of our classrooms and desktops, and developed and implemented a plan to become a greener business. I’m proud to say that even with our challenges, BAVC made significant progress in 2007, and we will be sharing those program highlights with you all in a comprehensive annual report in a few months. (more…)