Pledge Drive

It was great to be a part of FSTVs winter pledge drive, It was very informative to see what it takes to put on a pledge drive like this. I was able to help set up and get the cameras ready on some days, and I was able to answer the phones a couple of days, which was a great experience. I loved talking to people from all over, and hearing their stories about why they were donating, and how much they value FSTV; I have a much better idea of who our demographic is now. I only wish I could have spent more hours here observing and helping, having to leave for class each day at 3 kind of limited what I could do, but I was still happy to be involved, if even in a small way.

Pledge Production Over/ Occupy Begins

On Thursday, we wrapped up production for the pledge drive. Since I have to leave on 2:30 most days right now, I wasn't able to be there all day, so I wasn't able to do much more production besides setting up and helping with rehearsals. This did, however, give me the chance to answer phones which was kind of a fun experience.

Now, I believe FSTV is planning on doing a live 1 hour long show. It seems ambitious right now, but that also makes it pretty exciting. I'm guessing that means some more responsibilities for us, and/or starting to need our news 'packages' for the segment. Either way, I'm excited to see what it brings. We'll see.

- Devin

Getting ready for the Pledge Drive

Today I helped get the studio ready for the Pledge Drive- Alex and I got some lights placed, I mostly assisted due to my fear of heights, but I got two up on my own, so that was an accomplishment.

10/24

I can't believe it is almost November. I have been working on the Action Calendar, and that is going well. Other than that we have been doing Newswire packages, last week I did writing and voice over; Jordan edited our piece. We are going to be changing things up a bit with the Newswire packages, and I will be editing in the future. I can't say that I will necessarily miss doing voice overs, but it was a fun learning experience. I have been helping out with roundtable discussions, mostly in the control room, but sometimes in the studio. It has been a great experience so far here at FSTV, I hope I can contribute and learn more in other areas as well in the future.

Occupy Denver

Friday I was driving Emilie to work at about 7:00 am and saw a few cops on 13th in riot gear. I had heard that they were going to be kicking occupy protestors out of the park so I wondered if thats what they were doing, but they were on 13th so I wasn't sure. I drove back on colfax and saw all 200 in full riot gear surrounding the park. I parked my car at home and walked back down there. I thought that fstv might want to know if they didnt so i started talking to alex and eventually met him and marcy there.

10/13/11

The last few weeks have been busy for me with tasks for FSTV and my new gig working at a haunted house. I initially wanted to work as a photographer but got pulled in to do some acting. If you want to check me out as a zombie clown then come see Circus of Fear in 3D (really awesome artwork there). This week both the skype interview and round table were focused on the Occupy Wall Street movement. I'm excited that Freespeech is paying attention to the event, and I'm interested to see where both the media coverage and the movement itself lead to.

Justin T.

Wednesday, October 12

Hi Blog,

Last week I helped out compiling some lists for the Take Back the American Dream conference. I was a quiet week, so I mostly worked on weekly stuff and finding events for the action calendar. Today I caught up on the action calendar and got it taped. We are not doing newswire packages today, but we are doing a roundtable discussion. I hope I can continue to stretch myself and learn things that are out of my comfort zone in the upcoming weeks.

-Allison

Oct 12th 2k11

Today Justin T and I set up the studio for the round table, I also have been getting my weeklies finished up. everyone was gone last week for the shoot in dc, so not much happened then. The week before that I had been editing and writing the daily news packages as well as helping out for the studio shoots.

10/12

Last week everyone was at the Take Back The American Dream conference in DC. I was proud to even be a very small part of that, doing my best to assist Joe with the social media and such, and just knowing that the people at FS were covering the conference and interacting with some people with some great insight. Since everyone has been back, we've been making sure that everything was edited and uploaded to blip. I think things are now a bit more organized with that..at least what I've seen.

Now, I believe we will be getting ready for a pledge drive which I have not yet been around for. Should be fun.

-Devin

Friday!

On Monday I finished the Action Calendar for next week. I am thinking of creating a monthly action calendar for myself to have a better idea of upcoming events before I do the weekly Action Calendar, I think this would help with my timing of event, which I don't think has been bad, but it could be better. For instance, I had the Take Back the American Dream conference on the Calendar for this weeks, but not for next weeks, which I think would have been helpful in conjunction with all of the coverage. I worked on my first newswire package this week as well, I enjoy doing the writing portion. I did the voice over, which was an interesting, but fun process. I a going to need to practice a lot, I should probably speak in a lower register and control my breathing more. The other interns and Marcy were very helpful in getting me up to speed with the process. Jordan helped me with the uploading process and editing (I am looking forward to editing next time, it is definitely an area of production that I enjoy doing). I think I will be able to hit the ground running next time. I was able to floor manage and camera for the newswire, I need more practice behind the camera, I get a little intimidated when I don't do it for awhile. I had a lot of fun floor managing (Alexander was right there letting me know what to do), but I would like to do it again in the future. Looking forward to future project, and I am looking forward to the conference coverage next week.

-Allison

9/28/11

In the last few weeks we have been working on creating news packages, which involves script writing and video editing. I enjoy the writing process but the voice over is a little outside of my comfort zone. Hearing my own voice is uncomfortable but its been good to work on my own articulation and pronunciation. Also, the new film 'Drive' is amazing and I highly recommend it.

Justin Trammell

9/26

Last week I worked mostly on the action calendar, I was out sick on Wednesday so unfortunately I missed what was going on that day. Today I finished the action calendar for next week, I think I have a better handle on the equipment now, and I am able to finish the calendar on my own, so that's good. I am looking forward to working on more things this week, I am working on Friday as well, so hopefully that will give me more opportunity to expand to other areas.

-Allison

Motion graphics and more Newswire

Last week, I was working closely with Chris, in order to soak up as much MG know-how as possible before he left, and I produced a couple of short branding pieces that may be broadcast eventually. I'm sad Chris is gone already, but happy to be working with After Effects and I hope to help Megan with any upcoming MG work.
The Newswire packages are completed in 2-person teams, and so far this week I have been editing video to match the voiceovers written and recorded by the other interns. I am enjoying the editing experience and practice on Final Cut Pro, which I am not so terribly familiar with. Marcy and Megan have been very patient and helpful, and I hope to get some writing and VO experience soon.

9/21 Post

This week we have worked on a couple of newswire packages. We are getting valuable feedback and coaching from the staff and are hopefully getting better so we can start 'airing' them on the web and then on tv.

The story I wrote on Tuesday was about Troy Davis and the decision by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to not grant Davis clemency. The decision and urgency to stand against it is rather overwhelming, especially now that his execution is set for less two hours from now.

Today, I edited a package about the newly signed bill allowing for military men and women to be openly gay.

That's what is goin' on right now

-Devin
Posted by: Devin Moroney

Update

Last week Marcy led a newswire package training session. She showed us how to find news stories and footage that we could use to put together the packages, she showed us how to find the info on reuters.com. The most interesting part was trying to condense all of the information into a 45 second story. The information on Reuters was organized very well though, so it was pretty straightforward. It was fun breaking into groups and attempting to put everything together from beginning to end on our own, I haven't worked a lot with the other interns, so that was good experience as well. I also worked on the Action calendar and helped out with the teleprompter in the studio. I ran into some technical difficulties, but that's probably a good way to learn. I feel a little more comfortable with the equipment in the control room now, everyone has been very helpful! I am looking forward to the coming weeks.

Blog Entry 9/15

Last week we had a training to learn how to write and edit packages for newswire. I was excited to get to be doing that. When we split into groups, i wanted to give it so much attention that I was impressed on how fast they normally get them done.

Production seems a little slow to start back up yet. The first thing we did after the break was a mock skype shoot to make sure everything would run smoothly. It did.

Besides that, I think theres only been a regular newswire segment and a roundtable.

Other than that, I've been working on a spreadsheet with possible film selections for a fundraiser drive. I have gone through many distribution companies to enter descriptions of films, where to find the trailer, etc.

'Til next time.

Posted by: Devin Moroney

Hello Blog

I have been interning at FSTV for a few weeks now, working primarily with Alexander and Marcy (production), and more recently, Chris (graphics). I'm all kinds of excited about interning here, as I am passionate about independent media, and I think most everybody that works here is, too. Everybody seems to love their job! Or at least they don't feel guilty about where they work.

My educational background is primarily in the realm of graphics and animation, so I'm happy to be getting involved with lots of live action already. I've been working in the studio with Newswire, having fun shooting B-roll around town with Justin and Jordan, as well as covering a couple of recent events, including the NAACP Diversity Job Fair with Justin, and Van Jones' keynote address at the Urban Green Summit @ Johnson and Wales University, with Marcy.

Alexander has been great at kindly explaining things that are brand new to me, and giving me good constructive feedback. This week, I met Chris, and he's given me some great material to get started practicing some motion graphics for station branding. At this point, I'm wide open to the possibilities here at FSTV, and I'm very excited to learn more about all of them.

Aug. 31

Today Antoinette went over the action calendar process with me. I have a better understanding of what types of events we are looking for, and I now understand the entire process of inputting the information, making sure formatting is correct, how to change songs, and how to record the action calendar, etc. I feel pretty confident for next time. Other than that I have been working on weekly duties. I enjoy working in the control room, and I hope I can learn more about everything that goes on in there. I hope everyone has a great Labor day weekend!

Allison

This Week 8/31

More of the same going on this week. Still no newswire production happening. Therefore, we've been going to get B-roll and I've been doing some more cataloguing of newswire packages. The descriptions and keywords are finally up-to-date as of yesterday.
Last week I got to go to the New Belgium brewery to interview the CEO of New Belgium as a part of this LOHAS documentary. That was very interesting and I was happy to be able to go set up for that shoot.

-Devin

Posted by: Devin Moroney

The last couple of weeks

things have definitely been a little quieter the last few weeks without newswire going on but to sum up everything I've done over the past few weeks. I shot, captured, and edited b-roll of construction workers. I helped Alexander reorganize the set. I sorted out and organized all warranties for new equipment. I edited and color corrected some footage a couple of the other interns shot and that is about all I can think of right now. Today I put a bunch of hooks into the walls for hanging cables.

Justin Knodel

This week at FSTV

This week has been a little quieter without the newswire going on, but it has given us a chance to do some cleaning and organizing. On Monday we went out and got some B-roll, we also helped out in the studio getting things cleaned up and prepared for when shooting begins again. Today we organized the editing bay, and it's looking better. I have been checking out a lot of news stories and also checking out various sites that might be good sources for the action calendar (which I will start doing on Monday). I'm looking forward to the upcoming weeks here at FSTV. I hope I can help out wherever I can, and learn as much as possible in the process.

-Allison

8/24/11

A lot of changes have been made within that last few weeks such as studio arrangement, green screen testing, and most recently Newswire's halt. I have spent a lot of time in the studio helping move lights and equipment to better suit the productions. Out of studio experiences have been mostly capturing b-roll, which most notably was the shoot in Commerce City where Jordan and I were asked to stop filming. We had good a discussion afterwards about the legality and limitations over capturing footage in public areas. Another notable experience was the shoot at the NAACP job fair last week. Sloan and I tackled this project, which was definitely a learning experience for the both of us.

Justin Trammell

8/24 Blog

So..things have been a little different this week at FSTV. Unfortunately "Newswire" is taking a hiatus so we are not working on that :(. The good news is though that we are making the studio a lot more functional for all the different kinds of shoots that we were starting to do (newswire, skype, green screen shoots, and roundtable).
Also we are getting some stock B-roll shot and edited which I did two recently, and I have also been cataloguing some newswire packages as well.

Cheers,
Devin

Posted by: Devin Moroney

My Second Day

I am so excited to be here on my second day as a FSTV intern. Everyone seems very nice and helpful. On my fist day I was already able to help out in the studio, and it was a lot of fun for me. I am looking forward to shooting in the field, helping out in the studio, etc. This is going to be a great learning experience, and I love the fact that there is so much opportunity for the interns here to gain experience in what they are truly interested in.

First weeks at FSTV

Hi,

This is my first post to the fstv intern blog. I have been here for a few weeks now, and it has been really great. I think that interning at free speech is a unique interning experience. The stereotypical intern experience is usually described as fetching coffee, running errands, cleaning toilets, etc. Needless to say, this is not the experience at FS. In fact, I have gotten a lot of good experience here already. I have gone to shoot B-roll for Newswire, as well as helped with the production of Newswire which is my first experience actually shooting in a studio.

I also appreciate how positive everyone seems to be here. It is an infectious environment for sure.

Posted by: Devin Moroney

Update for the last few weeks

Starting today will be my 3rd week involved with FreeSpeech TV. Last week I worked on capturing four tapes from the Lohas interviews, cutting them into individual segments, and creating DVDs. I also assisted Alexander and Jordan in the studio shooting Newswire as well as rearranging equipment and props in the studio. On Thursday Mark, Jordan and I went out and captured B-roll for the Newswire segment on unemployment. We traveled to the Colorado Department of Employment and a few other locations that expressed imagery of unemployment. We later captured and edited the footage down to 30 seconds, which was featured on Newswire. I have enjoyed working in both the studio as well as capturing B-roll. I feel that my knowledge of filmmaking is being used here at FreeSpeech and I have been learning more and more about media production.

Posted by: Justin

My first post

This is my first blog post. I don't know quite what to say, but all the people I have asked said to just write what I have been doing. I have only been here for 2 going on three days. The majority of my time has been spent in the studio. I have helped Alexander move various cameras, lights, wires and background props. i have also been behind camera 1 in the studio for 2 shoots. Everyone has been really nice and helpful. Thanks for all the support.

Posted by Jordan Lee

Potential For Video Work

Hello,

I haven't done too much arround the office this week so far, so today I will talk about the posibility of doing some video work for my job at Rocky Moutain Hydroponics. My Boss there told me he was looking for some new ways to advertise and I suggested that he do some video tutorials on how to build a hydroponic system and post them on Youtube. He was open to the idea and said that he had seen some videos for another Hydro shop that he thought looked good and could be a model for our own. Here is a link to one of those videos that shows the style he's looking for. It looks like the motion graphics were done on After Effecfts, which I do not own, so if anyone knows of a way to do similar things with Final Cut or if anyone knows where to pick up After Effects for a reasonable price, let me know. Basically the goal of the video would be to showcase the store and our products in a way that says "we are a legit hydro shop." This would mean making the store look as big as possible and making the product line appear extremely vast. If anyone has any tips or suggestions I would appreciate the help.

Thanks

Mark

LOHAS Filming

Hello everyone,

Wednesday I helped out with shooting at the LOHAS conference up in Boulder. It was pretty straightforward. Jon and I set up outside and shot several interviews with different business leaders. We didn't have to use the lights we brought since we were outdoors so the setup was a breeze. We were planning to get some B-roll but their wasn't too much going on outside the conference rooms so we decided to wait for Friday. I would have liked to get some footage from inside the conference rooms but apparently we were not allowed in. Well, that's all I know this week.

Bye now

-Mark

New Interns!

So I will be gearing up to hire some more interns next week. I know you are excited as much as I am. They will be helping primarily with Your Voice Here. You all are doing a splendid job on the Action Calendar, Newswire and Your Voice Here. I also wanted to take a moment and let you all know if there are any comments and concerns involving the workload around here please don't hesitate to talk to me. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

-Lauren

Wednesday Afternoon Blog Post

Hello, everyone

It's another Wednesday here, but because of pledge drive next week, there is no Action Calendar which allowed me to have a little bit more time today to post on here, get alternet articles etc. Today and Monday I spent more time in the studio helping out with cameras and getting everything ready. Alex is gone for a conference in Minneapolis, I believe, and so that made things a little hectic around the studio, but it all managed to work out fine. It was kind of fun knowing that we were running on a tight schedule, although I'm sure if that was the case everyday, it would be a bit stressful. I'm sure pledge drive will turn out to be an interesting experience. Hope everyone is having a good week!

-Andrew

Sick Week

Hey Everyone,

So this week I was really sick and Unfortunately missed Monday. luckily it was only a 24 hour virus and I was feeling better by tuesday and was able to come in today. I guess its not just me who is sick as Mark ended up being sick today. This made it impossible for us to shoot a Your Voice Here segment which kinda sucks because I really enjoy doing it and I'm just beginning to learn more about camera work and wanted to put it to the test . Although I wasn't able to shoot for you Voice it allowed me to catch up on all the newswire cataloging I missed and that for today. I hope everyone else stays heathy and has a good week.

-Weston

YVH at Denver University

Hello,

Weston and I did Your Voice Here at D.U. yesterday and I think we got some really good interviews. The topic was "Slut Walks", a nation wide effort to protest the response of police agencies to victims of sexual assault. The cops in California had apparently told victims of assault to not dress so promiscuously in order to avoid assault. This was a great topic to do on a university campus because young people, especially women, are faced with this issue all the time. I believe the statistic is one in four female college students have been the victim of this kind of assault. This issue is not only relevant to the interviewees but they tend to be well informed and educated at colleges and universities, making for intelligent responses. I would like to start doing the YVH's in different and more appropriate locations since the location makes such an impact on the quality of interviews in regards to the topic. D.U., Metro, maybe Colfax, the antique district on Broadway. These are a few that could prove fruitful. Well, that's what's on my mind today.

Peace

Mark

Hello Again!

Good afternoon everyone,

It has been a while since I have posted anything on here, but it's not because I didn't want to! It seems like every time I have been about to post, it's time to go. Oh, well, it has been a fun and eventful few weeks here. I have been able to help around in the studio a lot lately doing some minor floor directing and helping with cameras. I really had no clue how to work a camera other than the one on my phone before I came here, so that has been a really awesome learning experience. I have helped with some skype interviews that have been done here as well, and those have been pretty interesting. I never really noticed how much communication and preparation goes into those interviews. They take a while to set up and get the interviewee online, but they have been really interesting to hear so far. The interview we did today was with a former Police Chief from Seattle who was against the war on drugs, and even went as far as to say it was racist. It definitely was not something I ever expected to hear from a former member of a police department, and I'm glad FSTV is willing to show those kind of opinions. Also, I have been working the camera for our newswire shoots, which are pretty cool too. I'm glad I get to listen to what were talking about because we cover so many important topics in the news that don't get mentioned anywhere else.

Finally, I have been working a lot on Action Calendar. I think the last couple weeks we have kind of been struggling to get it all pieced together by the time it is supposed to be done. I think part of this was a lack of communication on my part about the events. Just so you guys know, if you didn't already there's a document for the events. If you are not included, send me an e-mail and I will share it with you. We usually try to get a finished product the Wednesday of each week, so seeing events before then is a major help. Thanks to everyone for their help with it as well. Well, time for me to go watch the Stanley Cup. Have a nice weekend!

-Andrew

Summer Time

Hey Everybody,

So its finally starting to feel like summer with all if the hot weather and sunshine. This week I continued to catalogue all of the newswire video segment, which is a some what endless task as new segments are regularly being produced, but I'm trying my hardest to stay up to date with new videos a they are put on hydra. Today I was not able to do much cataloging as I went out with mark and did some shooting for Your Voice Here. This is the second time I have done with and it was a good learning experience. Also we went to DU rather than 16th street which was a good change as it allowed for more educated responses to our questions on SlutWalks. Unfortunately I think there was a slight problem with the audio, but it is a good learning experience about making sure everything is working correctly before shooting and about alway checking to make sure all of the correct equipment is there before leaving to shoot. I'm excited to continue to help out with Your Voice and cant wait to see what the future hold in terms of questions and locations.

-Weston

So long and fairwell to you, my friends

It's actually terrifying to realize I've already finished up 6 months here at FreeSpeechTV. I remember how excited and nervous I was the day of my interview, I had even brought a friend along who waited for me in the car, and afterwords I came running back down Welton to tell her the news that I was then an intern. Now what? All I can do is paraphrase my time here, thank you guys for the experiences I've gained, and offer just a few pieces of advice for new interns. I'll also try to make it short and sweet.


Prior to my internship I had only worked 9-5 customer service jobs. Although I mastered a few skills, none of them were really relevant to what I actually want to do with my life. When I started working here, I gained confidence because I saw that my efforts were placed somewhere that was valued by an abundant audience. Not only that, but the message that was sent has always been progressive, and quite literally powered by the people. The knowledge I've gained from watching countless documentaries and listening to endless news stories has been utterly humbling. The dynamic I've absorbed will last a lifetime, learning a variety of technical skills as well as an awareness of how the world really works around me and how I can virtually play a part that is beneficial to all.

I'm so thankful to have had this opportunity and meet such a versatile, well-rounded group of people. I really hope to stay in touch with all you interns, as well as our superiors in the building. Please let me know if there's ever a project I can lend a helping hand to, I strive for variety in my working experiences. My new job is only Tuesdays through Thursdays, and I plan on dropping in a few times over summer on a Monday or Friday. I wish all of you the best on whatever you wish to pursue, I'm confident that our internships have given us a strong background and prepared us with many assets that will follow us through our careers. I'll miss you guys, everyone have a healthy and adventurous summer!

Learing to be Talent

Hello all,

Yesterday was my second day as talent for Your Voice Here and I think I made some small improvements. The first time I noticed that I was bouncing around a bit which definitely looked awkward on film. The second time I made a conscience effort not to do this. In post I found that I still had a little spring in my stance but not as bad. Next time I'm sure I'll be solid as a rock. I also want to work on my voice characteristics. When shooting, it feels like I'm speaking very dynamically but in post, I feel like I sound very flat. So, next time I'm going to try to be more boisterous. Well, that's what I've got today. Anyone who sees the new YVH's can feel free to give us notes!

Mark

Your Voice

Hey Everybody,

So this week I only worked one day because memorial day was on monday which it typically a day I work. Because of this I had a busy day today and had to catch up on the keywords and descriptions of the segments in the Newswire catalog. I was also able to go down to 16th street mall with Mark and work camera for Your Voice Here which was an interesting and new experience for me. I hope everybody had a good long weekend and that the short week makes everything a little less stressful.


-Weston

Rainy Days

Hey Everybody,

So this week has been pretty grey and rainy but its helped me to focus on the work at hand. I have continued to work on the Newswire Video Catalog and update the keywords and descriptions for all of the news segments. It has been very interesting as I am regularly watching the great news segment that FSTV produces and learning more aout the world around me. I also got to work the camera again for the Newswire shoot which was interesting and a great learning experience. I hope that everyone else is having a good weak despite the inclement weather and I look forward to helping anyone who needs it, just let me know.


-Weston

The Winds of Change are a Blowin

Hello folks,

So, Virginia is no longer with us and Jackson is the newest member of our team. I look forward to working with Jackson and seeing what we can do with Your Voice Here. Maybe I'll try my hand at being talent. Kimberly is right about learning every aspect of production; it will undoubtedly come in handy in the future. Working with Aaron and Ginny has taught me a lot about the talent aspect. They are both s natural on camera and have great interviewing techniques. These are not easy skills to learn but I'm sure that with a little practice I'll be a worthy protege. So, let the winds of change keep on blowing.

-Mark

First Day

Last week I had my first day as an intern at Free Speech TV. It was pretty exciting, as I was able to jump right into hands on work. Started off by sitting in on the morning Newswire production schedule meeting, and from there teamed with Mark to film for "Your Voice Here" downtown. We asked people how they felt about the US senate continuing subsidies for domestic oil companies, and whether the system for determining those subsidies is flawed. We picked out the best handful of these responses and handed them over to Antoinette for use on that day's Newswire. I thought they turned out pretty well, despite our difficulty getting many participants. It was raining toward the end of our 16th street shoot, so we had to work with only about a dozen responses. Later on the same day, I operated camera 1 for the Newswire broadcast, which was relatively straightforward, but very exciting. It's cool when on the first day of your internship you can get so involved in the process, and so far Free Speech has been a great experience. I really look forward to learning more about the ins and outs of FSTV's daily production process.

-Jackson

Ingesting

Hey friends!

So this week consisted of a very rich amount of training for me. Earlier on Wednesday, I filled in as a talent for a trial run of another interview news segment. It was all improvised, which made it easy. I have no experience in acting and am actually very camera shy since I'm used to being behind the lens. The test run was exciting, and yet again I've gained another perspective from a different position taking a role in production. It was very interesting to communicate to both Eric from the control room in one of my ears, and my interviewees, Antoinette or Marcy in the other. For a last minute stand in, I thought the experience was enriching and at least I can say I've tried it in case some time in the future I'm needed for some kind of talent position.

As for today, Teo taught me how to ingest the GritTV shorts which will be scheduled next week. With so many machines communicating with each other, it's kind of hard to wrap your head around how it all works. It turned out to be very simple. Just like printing to tape, I record the shorts and they are relayed to the other computer where they will now be identified by a house number. Learning this aspect of broadcast production was very important and I'm sure it will apply to a job I have in the future. Technology amazes me, and it's very valuable when you know you understand it and can use it to your advantage.

See everyone next week. Hope the weather warms up!

Newswire

Hey everybody,

So this week Lauren gave me the opportunity to help out by going through all of the newswire packages and adding brief descriptions and writing some keywords down for each . I was able to do so for all of the available packages and I will continue to do so for segments posted to hydra in the future. This opportunity was a great and interesting one as I was able to learn a lot about about news thats has been happening all over the world. It also allowed me to see the great work that people have done putting together these segments. I was also able to help out by doing some Camera work for the Newswire shoots which was a good leaning experience. I hope everyone has a good week

-Weston

Timecode Mystery

Hello all,

I think we did some good work on last week's YVH's but we still encountered the mysterious timecode problem which has been giving us trouble with audio and video synchronization. This has happened almost every time we have ingested video for the last two weeks and on various different machines. This leads me to believe that it is not a problem with the decks or computers but rather with the camera or mic or possibly with the tapes. I think some serious investigation is called for on this one. So, by way of starting the investigation I will exposit on every detail that may help yield a solution to this quandary.

The tapes play fine when in the deck, but when ingested we see either a warning message saying something like... "Timecode break encountered. Must re-log clips" or "A problem was encountered..."

I first noticed these issues after we began using a new mic. Although this seems unlikely to cause such a large discrepancy in synchronization (usually about 5 minutes).

The camera has displayed the words "Auto Shut-Off" several times during shooting, although not while recording luckily, and promptly shut down.

We have been shooting in 30f instead of 60i for the last couple weeks as well. I don't know if this could be a potential culprit but it coincided with the problems.

I think that's about all I have noticed but I will keep thinking. I will also do some online research and see if there are any similar stories out there.

-Mark

GritTV shorts coming soon

Exciting news everyone! After hours of ingesting tapes (completed by previous interns Jenny and Shay) followed by hours of sifting through Grit TV shorts consisting of a vast spectrum of content, Tik and I have finally been able to start scheduling 5 different shorts a week! I assume she will just start from the top of the list in my google document, so I can't tell you exactly what the shorts will be about. Over the last couple months, Lauren gave me the assignment to sift through a long list of shorts, watch them, cut them to an appropriate time code, and add an FSTV bumper to each clip. For those of you who are not familiar with GritTV shorts, they are a series of various announcements, event promotions, short documentaries, documentary trailers, speeches, stories, news broadcasts, and other important subjects displayed for discussion and support from viewer's. GritTV is hosted by the one and only, Laura Flanders, who is an awesome lady and a close friend to the staff here at FSTV, I recently discovered.

Keep your eyes peeled for GritTV shorts on FSTV's channel, they are short! It's one thing to be able to sift through over a hundred shorts, I've learned so much and heard stories from so many individuals whom I may never be able to meet or hear from again, but to be able to play them on a network like FSTV's is so much more powerful! I can't wait for all of them to finally receive the exposure they deserve (in addition to the play time they receive on GritTV, of course). It's also very exciting to know that even the simple, donated time and work of us interns can turn into something that is distributed on an actual TV network with thousands of viewers!

Action Calender

Hey Everybody,

So last week I unfortunately had to take my final exams for the semester and was not able to come in and help out with the second week of the pledge drive. So hopefully although there is not much going on with the pledge drive this week I can help out in other ways. Just let me know if anyone needs help with anything. I'm going to be coming in all day monday and Wednesday instead of fridays and part of the day on Wednesday because I am taking summer classes on fridays and will not have any class on Wednesdays. I hope that this change in my schedule doesn't impact anyone too much. This week so far I have helped andrew with finding some events for the action calendar and helped Antoinette capture some of the text news. I'm assuming that we are done for the week doing live on air pledge drive shoots. But again if anybody needs any help let me know I have no problem helping out and I would love to learn some new things.


-Weston

News Pakage Practice and Other Things

Aloha,

So I've mainly been working on the usual YVH and other responsibilities and I'm happy to say that this week we stuck to a good schedule and the production and editing went a lot smoother.

I also had a chance recently to try my hand at editing a news package. It was cool working with a voice over and matching it to the appropriate Reuters clips. It's a different kind of challenge telling a story this way and I think I did ok for my first try. One thing that stuck out to me was the importance of using ambient sound in the appropriate places. The story I worked on had to do with Iraqi military testing and the deadline for American Troop withdrawals. There was a section about certain activist organizations protesting the potential extension of the deadline and I found that using audio of the protestors chanting made the story much more powerful. It also brought back memories of my school days in Durango, producing radio news stories. We were always told to study really good radio programs, like "This American Life", that used ambient sound effectively and try to mimic them. I guess what I'm getting at is that there is formula for good story telling that appeals to all the senses and that's what we should strive to accomplish in our work.

That's the rant for today.

Aloha,

Mark

Happy May!

Wow, time is going by incredibly quickly. Even though I'm here three days a week sometimes I can't even keep track of what my current assignments are! I'm pretty sure my blog posts have been sporadic and inconsistent but for this post I'd really like to reflect on our introduction to headline news over the last few weeks.

First of all, and I'm not trying to kiss ass by any means, the opportunities us interns have here at FSTV are rare and extremely valuable. Most other internships sound like a lot of shadow time and no hands-on time. I feel so lucky to be able to learn how to use up-to-date equipment and take responsibility for even the most fundamental roles in production. After a few runs through our headline news segments, I've gained an understanding for the complexity of technical aspects that all play a crucial role in the process before reaching a final product. At first, Weston and I learned how to roll in ques during the news pieces, but then I had a chance to direct from the studio floor and began to see the process as a big picture. I think it was easier to communicate with everyone once I understood the process from both the control room and the studio since I knew what would be expected from both parts.

I hope the pledge drive is going well for those of you who are working on it! Once again it just looks like my schedule will conflict with my ability to be much of a help during the next few weeks.

Also, if anyone would like to see what I've been working on at school all semester I would love to see your faces at my junior cinema showcase this Thursday, May 5th from 7:00pm - 8:30pm. It's in the Schomp Theater at my school:

Denver School of The Arts
7111 Montview Blvd.

Denver, CO

See everyone on Wednesday and Friday and hopefully Thursday!
-Kimberly

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I have been laggin on the blog for a while, with the Pledge Drive and News Production roll-out. Ass all of you know your roles have changed to accommodate the news section as well as action calendar and Your Voice Here. I know these tasks can be daunting at times but I am always here to help. Please write me emails with concerns or suggestions. Thanks Gang!

-Lauren

Pledge Drive

So this week as you all know is the FSTV Pledge drive. I look forward to seeing what its all about even though what I have seen from others makes it seem slightly stressful. Hopefully today I will be able to get a better understanding of the pledge drive and what it entails. Unfortunately I will be missing all of next week so I can take my finals, but I will be back the following week for two full days instead of one and a half because I will be finished with my classes. If anybody needs help with anything today or during the following weeks let me know and I will be more than willing to help out.


-Weston

Observations on Your Voice Here

Hello everyone,

So we have been doing the Your Voice Here segments almost every day for the last couple of weeks and I have made some observations that may help improve the process. I know we have talked about schedules before but I would like to see us create and stick to a schedule for each day. Right now I believe the interns are all scheduled for 11am. I think if we can all get here by 11am and leave by 11:15 for our location, which is usually the 16th st. mall, that should be plenty early enough to get enough footage for a 2 minute YVH segment. I think 1:30, or earlier if we have enough good footage, is a reasonable time to be back at the office in order to have the piece edited by 3pm. My next observation was about the camera setup. Today we used a smaller camera bag and the camera was equipped with a shoulder strap. The strap was extremely helpful because we did not need to use a tripod which meant faster setup and more mobility. You can also still get very steady shots and easily change up the angle for more interesting view points. I definitely think we should keep the camera setup this way for future YVH shoots. Any way that's what's on my mind today.

--Mark

Changes...

So this week I unfortunately missed work on Wednesday in order to make up a missed Business Law exam that was so exciting to take. I heard from Lauren today that the pledge drive is coming up the next three weeks. I can't wait to see what the pledge drive is all about for the first time and be an active part of it. Unfortunately I wont be able to help out the second week of the pledge drive because I have finals all week, but I will be here helping out the first and third weeks. Another change is that I'm also going to be coming in on Wednesdays and Mondays rather than fridays over summer because I will be out of class. I hope everyone is having a good week and I cant wait to get this pledge drive stared.

Also Sorry to copy your title Andrew

-Weston

Ch-Ch-Ch Changes

Hello again!

So we are really starting to get into the thick of news production here, and I have been enjoying it quite a bit. Sadly, I didn't get to post last week, so I will try to give the quick and dirty on my view of NCMR. It was awesome! It's always a little weird not being able to see the effect of something as instantaneous as posting online, but obviously we had some excellent results! I'm glad that our work helped expose the NCMR and hopefully bring to light some of the issues facing media today. Good job, everyone! I feel like the hardest part of pushing out the media was finding articles and blog posts relevant to the clips, but as the weekend moved on I became more familiar with the websites I was responsible for and was able to post a little more efficiently. A big thank you to everyone who helped out over the weekend! After NCMR, it's been an interesting situation getting used to pumping out more news-content. Using keynote for action calendar has really cleaned up the process, and it is taking much less time than it did in the past. Also, having only one event instead of five or six a day has made it easier to find events for the calendar. It's definitely a busy time here as we leave NCMR in the past and move on to the new production and look forward to the pledge drive.

Andrew

The beauty of hard work

I am so proud of us! Compared to the homelessness marathon (which was still successful, only more difficult due to the narrower target of bloggers and homelessness related online organizations, etc.), I'm really confident that our efforts reached out to a much broader audience of people during the National Conference for Media Reform. Not only was it awesome to see people like Laura Flanders and other familiar faces 100% engaged in this issue, there was an immense amount of people whom we may never know that care about this issue and will do what is within their power to keep our internet access equal and free.

At first I was nervous about being responsible for such a monumental event and it's potential locations where it could exist among the web. Once I got started distributing videos and reading related articles I became completely enthralled in getting it out to as many websites as possible. It wasn't hard at all to find other outspoken political activists or simply blog enthusiasts who were personally moved by some of the topics discussed during NCMR. Although sites with immediate news feeds such as facebook, twitter and tumblr are the fastest way to get our clips exposed, there may not be as large of an audience interested in watching. I felt that sites like currentTV, alternet, americablog, and bagnews were some of the most active sites with immediate feedback or articles that were already highly populated with feedback in comments or other videos. I want to apologize for getting started a little late this weekend, but once I got to work I feel like I made a lot of progress. Lauren's email after the event reassured me that we fulfilled our objective this weekend with over 15,000 unique viewers. Great work team! So glad we pulled through with such a powerful outcome. Let's hope our efforts keep media the way it is and the way it should be. See you next week!

-Kimberly

An end of an internship... but the start of a new job!

Hey All!

So sad news... today will be my last day interning. But good news! I will be starting as a part of the News Production Team this monday so you'll all still get to see my lovely face. :) I think I will eventually need to train someone else to do promos but those are not difficult at all. As far as everything else I helped with... with all the new transitions all of you seem to be doing great! So glad I got to intern with you all and enjoy(value) your jobs!!

Post-NCMR

This past weekend I had the great experience of being able to help out with the NCMR. I like the majority of the rest of you guys got to push out media clips onto independent media sites and internet blogs. I worked pushing out clips both last friday and sunday morning. I unfortunately didn't realize that we were supposed to be doing it the whole time we were assigned, but lauren let me know about an hour into my sunday assignment time. On Wednesday I was able to help out with the teleprompter on the shoot of a few news clips. I Also helped out going through and relabeling tapes of NCMR footage that Andrew and Kim had been doing. I learned a good amount about how difficult it can be to push out media clips on the internet and get a significant response.



-Weston

Today I installed Keynote to my computer and used the new templates for Action Calendar. Everything went incredibly smoothly, and we were able to finish the whole thing in less than an hour. The "new" Action Calendar system seems to run much more efficiently and effectively, requiring half the number of people to get the job done and a fraction of the time it used to take. There is a google doc (which I'm pretty sure is shared with all the interns) with all the events for each day. Before posting (or emailing me) it would be helpful to refer to the doc and see which days show up as empty for events, to save time and effort. Since we're only doing one event per day now, as opposed to 3-4, I'm having a much easier time finding something for each day, but of course, everyone's contributions are always appreciated!

Eliza

Week 2 of Increased Production

Hello friends,

This is the second week of our incresed production schedule and I think it is gonna go pretty well. Today Ginny and I put together four, 30 second, segments to be used with the skype interview that was produced this evening. They didn't have intro/outros or music so it was quick work. I think tomorrow's YVH will also go pretty smoothly. Last week we had a lot of other things going on so we didn't get to finish editing everything we shot, but now that NCMR is over I think we will be able to aadhere to the schedule. Well I guess this is gonna be a quick blog, can't keep eyes open. See you all around.

Mark

NCMR Week

This week seem to be a pretty busy one for many with the National Conference for Media reform in Boston just beginning today. However, it hasn't been to stressful of a week for me.  I was able to help out Andrew a little with capturing the newly formated text only Progressive action calendar on Wednesday, and thought it came out really well. This coming sunday I will be helping out by spreading the word on online forums about certain clips from the conference and posting them to a variety of blogs. This will hopefully help get the word out about NCMR, at least on some related blogs. I hope this will help out , and that  those who are spending the weekend in boston have a good time.

-Weston

Transitions and Mishaps

So with all the new transitions and schedules I had my first major mishap as an intern here... I completely spaced coming in Monday to kick off all the new stuff we will be transitioning to. I am really sorry about that and especially sorry to Marcy and Eliza who were expecting me and needed my help. Thank goodness Mark was here to fill in for me and I promise this will never happen again!! Anyways, it sounded like Monday's shoot went off well with only a few bumps, really glad to hear that and I'm excited to jump in and help. I am also excited about the NMCR in Boston this weekend. I was in Kansas City for the Homelessness Marathon so it will be cool to see how things are done on the other side of the coverage! Ummm promos are going well and yea, nothing else to really report about. See everyone Friday!

Transitions

Monday marked an exciting change in my work here as an intern.  Not only was it my first day (ever!) spent away from working on the action calendar, but it was also the first day of operating under the new schedule and with the revisions made to various aspects of production.  I got the chance take part in Your Voice Here, which I've always been interested in but never had the opportunity to be directly involved with.  Marcy, Mark, and I headed to the 16th Street Mall to do a story on the SEIU Solidarity march and walk-out.  After a few mishaps and getting off to a later start than intended, we ended up getting some quality material and interviewed several people with good insight on union workers' rights and the meaning of that day (the anniversary of the assassination of MLK Jr.).  I felt slightly inept as "talent" simply because I have no experience doing anything even remotely related to journalism, but I really enjoyed it.  When we got back, I recorded several voiceovers, and paid close attention to the editing process on Final Cut.  We ended up totally blowing the 3:00 deadline and decided it'd probably be best to leave Free Speech earlier than 11:30 next time.  I look forward to doing this more often, and hope I learn as much as possible about the production for Your Voice Here during the next few weeks!

-Eliza  

The Beginning

Hey Everybody,

I think I have had the opportunity to meet the majority of you guys and so far I've had some really good learning experiences. I just started two weeks ago and I'm just beginning  to learn the basics of production  of the Action Calendar. Last week I worked with Megan, and she taught me a bunch about editing and producing the Action Calendar. Unfortunately after talking to Lauren today and getting a recap of the intern meeting I missed,  the action calendar will be changing, but I really believe it's for the better. I think the change is extremely beneficial as it will still get the message across but with less use of both time and people, so good job whoever came up with that idea. So for those who I didn't meet I would like to tell you a little about myself. Im a student at CU Boulder , I love surfing and snowboarding , and I have a passion for music especially the blues.  I look forward to working with everyone and learning a lot more. Also bare with me as I'm not studying production, but I'll try my hardest to learn quickly.

-Weston

Next Steps

Hello again

Sadly I wasn't able to attend the meeting today, but I am thankful for everyone who helped fill me in on what was covered. I think I got most of it as far as internship responsibilities and how Your Voice Here and Action Calendar will be changing. I wish I could have been there to see the statistics on FSTV viewership and growth though, it all sounded really interesting. I'm very excited to see us become more news based, and it seems like everyone is ready for the transition. I guess we won't really know until next week, but I have no worries since everyone seems confident and ready to take on new tasks. Our trial run with Key Note went smoothly and I think everyone knows how to fill in different roles. I'm looking forward to seeing the transition happen next week and how everything turns out.

- Andrew

Say goodbye to the Leprechauns til next March

Hey All!

So I haven't posted in a while but I was using that time to finalize everything for graduation, which was much appreciated and it worked since I DID graduate last friday. :) Thanks for all the congrats today.

Anyway... Today's meeting was very informative and I am very excited to start these new projects. I was just becoming a pro at all the old stuff but I am really excited for this new transition and new jobs. I am especially excited to be going out in the field again, I've always really enjoyed going out and shooting. Lunch was also a blast today, thanks again Lauren! Ant and Marcy also showed most of us how to use keynote which is pretty awesome. Headline news is really neat and I feel not as stressful and large production as action calendar so I am excited to be a part of that.

Well... I hope you all have a good rest of your week and weekend and I will see you all next week for a our new schedules and assignments!!

FSTV Growing and Producing Content

Hey everybody,

Tomorrow we have the meeting about the direction we are heading as far as Action Calendar and Your Voice Here is concerned. We haven't had the meeting yet so obviously I don't know exactly what direction it will be, but it sounds like we are getting prepared to start producing more of our own content. And I think that's just dandy. I really enjoy producing the Your Voice Here episodes and would love to get the chance to work on more of that kind of thing. I think it also makes FSTV more competitive with the other major news networks. I remember Don saying at the last meeting, how he wished that Denver was higher up on the list of Cities that view FSTV, and I've been thinking of ways that we could accomplish that. One thing that a lot of people in Denver share in common is a love of the outdoors. Perhaps some kind of environmental program could be produced that would pique the interests of Denverites. Of course, it doesn't matter what programs we produce if Denverites don't even know we exist, so the next idea is some way to make our presence here known. It might be beyond our resources at the moment to host some kind of regional news conference but that was the first thing that came to mind. Another more realistic tactic, and one that was actually suggested to Ginny, Aaron, and I on the mall one day,  would be to have us interns go around to different high schools and talk about what it's like being an intern, working for a national news network, and really reinforcing to the students how important and powerful the media is. High School seniors are the generation that will be going to college soon and starting to form their own opinions about the world, so introducing them to FSTV right now might not be such a bad thing. Anyway,  it's really exciting being at Free Speech right now; I love what our goals are and I hope I can help make them happen.

--Mark

All Staff Meeting and Your Voice Here

Today we had the All Staff Meeting lead by Don. He laid out FSTV's plan for expansion over the coming year and demonstrated how much we have grown in just a short amount of time. We've gained a lot of new viewers since launching the Direct TV channel, and our social media efforts on facebook and the blog have also taken off. The next big programming task for us is the National Conference on Media Reform. We have been discussing media reform issues for Your Voice Here as well as putting together social media spots to circulate during the event. See you all next week!

Media Reform Conference

Hello,

So last week we got some more footage about net neutrality and today Ginny and I started editing everything into the longer format peice. Each time we go out I learn a little more about how to frame the shots well and what works well for backgrounds. This last time we filmed in front of an Arby's and all our shots ended up with this huge obnoxious sandwhich in the shot. Soooo, next time I will definitely take that into consideration. We also startedd handing oout stickers last week, which was a really good idea. I think it gave us a little more credibility to people who had not heard of FSTV. And who dosn't love a sticker? Tomorrow we will be asking people Citizens United and I am sure we will be getting some very passionate resopnses. Well I suppose that's it for now.

--Mark

Spring!

Hello all,
Again it seems spring is coming, and I'm sure everyone is excited including myself. Along with warm weather, spring seems to have some sense of new beginnings. For me, my new beginnings here are learning about After Effects, Final Cut, and some other random tidbits here and there. This week, I was able to see the process that goes into creating graphics for the Action Calendar. This was pretty cool because today I was able to witness the shoot for the Action Calendar as well. I've really enjoyed being able to see the whole process from beginning to end. The last two weeks have been pretty cool because I have been able to work on both the Action Calendar and Your Voice Here. I am glad that I had the opportunity to help with both. I'm not sure which I like more. The Action Calendar is fun because it's cool seeing everything come together leading up to the shoot on Wednesday, and Your Voice Here is good because you never know who you're going to interview and you never know what they will have to say. I will be out of town for spring break next week (Woot!), but I'm looking forward to keep learning new things here and excited for the last couple weeks leading up to the Media Reform Conference.

- Andrew

Your Voice Here 3/15!

Hey Guys. Right now we are prepping to shoot Your Voice Here. Its another absolutely gorgeous day which usually means lots of interest in getting interviewed. Last week we departed from the usual format of picking the biggest headline story of the week to discuss, and instead talked about net neutrality in preparation for the up coming media reform conference in Boston. The topic was tricky because few people are familiar with it, and its hard to convey concisely. It took a bunch of tries to get the wording down, but by the end, I felt like we were nailing it. Went something like this:

" Excuse me, can I ask you one quick question about the internet?" (a complete lie of course because I proceeded to talk their ear off for five minutes straight.)

"Are you familiar with the term net neutrality?"

If no, "There is a piece of legislation in Congress right now that threatens net neutrality. The bill would allow corporations to purchase large portions of the internet and sell it back to internet providers in exchange for faster and easier access. This would create a two tiered internet system between sites who can pay such fees to internet providers and those who cannot."

Then, finally, we get to the real question: "What would you like to say to your representation about this legislation?"

People continue to surprise me with wacky, left field responses but that is the nature, and fun, of man on the street interviews.

I felt like I was only doing a so so job of explaining the issue, because its so complicated. We didn't even touch on the fact that the corporations making internet purchasing could be one in the same with news media content providers AND internet providers, which I think it the bigger, more problematic issue at hand. but maybe we'll get there this week. The real challenge is finding a way to phrase the question that is both concise and comprehensive.

Wish us luck! See you all around

Looking Forward to Boston

Hello friends,

So, I worked on the Your Voice Here last weeek that will also be used for the Conference for Media Reform in Boston. We got a lot of really good interviews and I believe we are going out this week to get a bit more. Bonnie and Gisselle checked out the footage from last week gave me some good tips for what to look for this week. They also tasked me with editing the longer format peice that will be used for the Media Conference. I feel like I'm getting better with Final Cut each time I use it, which is very cool. I still want to learn After Effects and get more into some of the fancy things that can be done with all this software. Anyway, I cant wait to see how everything plays out with the Media Reform Conference. I'm sure it will be a crazy, hectic, success.

--Mark

Hey!
It sure has been a while since my last post, but in the past few weeks I've developed a growing appreciation for (and familiarity with) the action calendar.  It's rewarding to feel totally comfortable with After Effects, the IDDR, and other aspects of production.  Last week, Megan showed me how to transfer the capture footage to tapes and upload to blip.  Hopefully this Wednesday's shoot will run smoothly despite her being gone!  I spent all of today finding remaining events for March 17 - March 23, and was also able to do the graphics for each days' events and write out a rough script, so Wednesday morning I will only need to focus on timing it out.  I've been really appreciating emails with events you guys find, so thank you (and keep up the good work)!
-Eliza  

Working With Your Voice Here

Hey everyone

This last week I was able to work on Your Voice Here, and despite some minor difficulties had a really good time with it. Last Wednesday I was supposed to work the camera since Mark wasn't able to come. It was a good experience and nice to be outside, except our combined camera skills weren't sufficient to focus the camera! So, despite some really interesting comments we had to do interviews again on Thursday. Luckily, Mark was able to be there on Thursday, and that helped a lot with the camera, especially making sure it was in-focus. Also, it was nice to be able to do new interviews because we wanted to go in a direction with the interviews that would help lead up to the Boston Conference, so we were asking questions on net neutrality. It was interesting to hear what people had to say, right before we left we had a man who worked at Qwest come and share his comments. He said that he sees the internet following more closely to how cell phones developed. I don't know how accurate the comparison is, but it was interesting to hear someone compare net neutrality to cell phones.

- Andrew

Looking Forward

Wow, can't believe I've already been here for almost four months! I've learned so much, and been trained in many different internal positions. Today I may even be floor directing for our headline news! (I'm never on the production team because I'm always in that prison they call a school).

Earlier this week I actually started fulfilling Jenny and Shay's positions for ingesting GRITtv tapes. I've learned a lot from watching those as well, I think it's important for me to stay in touch with the world and voices that may be left unheard without networks like us to document them. The list of GRITtv tapes is quite hefty, I'm about a fifth of the way through I'd say, but that includes the videos I've had to "disqualify" from the race. So if anyone ever has spare time between projects or production, feel free to help us get these over to Tik and eventually on the air! It's simple, Lauren or I can show you if anyone is interested.

I think this new task of mine is actually my favorite, I love working with final cut, and it's exciting to get a preview of short clips that are television bound on the FSTV network. One in particular stuck out to me, it was a short about communities of colored people that seem to be singled out by authorities, and executed through cruel and unrealistic punishment. It was interesting to hear the three personal stories mentioned in the clip, that otherwise I never would have known about.

Also, did everyone get that forward about media that matters? It's something I've been thinking about lately, and I'd really like to brainstorm for a film to submit. If anyone is interested, let me know, I've got my own equipment and all that good stuff.

I have so much to look forward to for the next few months, it may be hectic, but I can't even think about summer yet! So many projects, and then Boston!

-Kimberly

IDDR for Action Calendar...

Hey All!

So, I know the Homelessness Marathon was like two weeks ago but I haven't posted since then so I shall start there...

The Homelessness Marathon was a great event and experience. It was a long night full of heart-wrenching stories and all I have left to say is... I can't wait to do it again. It felt really great to be a part of something so amazing and it also was a much needed reality check to just stop for a moment and really look at everything you have and just be soo thankful for all it.

Anyways, this week's Action Calendar went really well, minus some technical issues. Shifting gears a bit, as of right now, I think I am the only intern who knows how to load and run the IDDR... let's change this! I will not be here next week as I am trying to finish all of my school work so I can graduate at the end of the month... But any other week, anyone interested in running the IDDR, let me know and I will show you! I also made a google doc with written instructions but I think it will make more sense with a run through... if you aren't shared on the google doc let me know and I will add you. Last thing for Action Calendar... Keep emailing Eliza your event research!! 4 events every week and make sure they are lined up with the dates we will be covering... meaning, the script outline is done on Monday, finalized events on Tuesday and then the actually shoot on Wednesday. Today we shot March 10th-16th, next week we will shoot March 17th-23rd, so on and so forth.

Umm well, I think that is all I have to say for now. See you all around!!

CHOMP! And re-cap of last week

Hey friends!

The night of the Homelessness Marathon I must have been so enthralled in the stories and struggles of the homeless that it just physically impacted me - and resulted in tonsillitis, lol. Convenient, right? Well hope you all didn't miss me too much. I'm so done with my immune system, I think it's time we break up actually.

Anyways, the Homelessness Marathon was quite the experience. I've grown up into a world that has been taken over by social media. I remember myspace, at least for my age group, was the first sensational form of youth and adult networking and communication via the web. Now there's got to be thousands of sites that operate similarly to keep the world in touch. When we dove into this project I was pretty confident about my communicative skills.
I created a twitter account and mass followed any group or person that had been tagged or interested in matter such as homelessness, poverty, social justice, etc. Most of these organizations have a tool that allows them to immediately follow back, which resulted in almost 200 people following my new account over night. I was really amazed at the feedback and support I gained solely from groups on twitter. I would tweet about our embed player, and have an inbox full of DM's about the embed code in minutes. Can I just say, having a droid at this time was the most beautiful yet frustrating thing to have? My phone was literally, "blowing up" with contacts. It was the first time I had really utilized a social network for well, exactly what it was designed for. These people who had never even met or seen or even knew I was a real person at all, trusted me enough to share media for a one night event and loan a place on their sites for our embed player. What a good feeling! We even had viewers from Ireland, IRELAND! Isn't that awesome? I was talking to a few of them and it was 6am where they were and we were only a few hours into the marathon. I believe those viewers also stayed tuned for all 14 hours!
Well, overall, I enjoyed watching the marathon for the several hours I managed to stay awake. The live streaming was a lot easier than I expected, and I probably annoyed the shit out of all my friends on facebook, but if they knew what was good for them....just kidding! I gained a few "likes" on the clips I posted. I am so glad I was a part of this, and I can't wait to grind out another night of clip posting, tweeting, streaming, topic discussing, instant messaging and other utter awesomeness for the Boston media event!

In other irrelevant news that I love to include in my intern posts, I'm doing some filming tonight for my friend Josh, the owner of Plants & Animals Denver. His organization hosts a delicious vegan dinner, "Chomp!", the first Wednesday of every month, and you can even win door prizes or take home free recipes! I usually try to include this in the action calendar, but I done goofed this week! Tonight it's at Green Spaces at 7:00pm. Check it out if you're interested!

	1368 26th ST Denver, CO

-Kimberly

Homelessness Marathon and First Week

Hey all

I think I'm starting to get in the swing of things here. I am getting used to posting for the action calendar and the alternet articles.
I feel like the homelessness marathon was a great experience, and it was cool to see everything we were doing being used by others and spread around the internet. I really enjoyed helping post videos and enjoyed being part of something that was helping to give more information to many people on the topic of homelessness. I'm a little nervous for the Boston event, knowing that we will have a lot more to post, but I am excited to be a part of the process.
I'm enjoying my time here and I want to thank everyone for helping me get adjusted with everything - Thanks!

- Andrew

Your Voice Here 2/2/11

Hey y'all. Today's Your Voice Here was a blast. We had Aaron on talent, Mark on camera and me producing. We had great luck finding informed people wanting to talk about the labor rally's going on in Wisconsin. I learned a lot about the issue I hadn't previously understood. While the budget cuts to education are a crucial facet of the issue, people seemed to concur that collective bargaining was by far the most important point. Legislating away state employee's right to collective bargaining completely undermines the power of labor unions. Many people seemed to think the political agenda behind the budget rhetoric is to render unions obsolete.
Right before we were wrapping up, a man approached us, and said, "You definitely want to talk to me." Turns out, he was labor union rep from D.C. He provided the most informed, articulate interview I've gotten yet for a Your Voice Here.
Once again, the beautiful weather served us, people were friendly and easily convinced to talk to us. However, Aaron pointed out that our bunch of interviewees were completely homogenous, entirely white males, except for one female high school freshman. Its an important aspect of production to keep in mind.

Post Homelessness Marathon

Hello everyone,

I thought the Homelessness Marathon went smoother for me personally than I thought it might. Posting video video from the from livestream was pretty straight forward; I did have a little trouble figuring out exactly who was in each clip though. I had to go back and change the names a couple times to make them accurate, which makes me a little nervous about the Boston project since we will be getting a lot more clips a lot faster. But I'm sure we will be able to handle it just fine now that we all have some practice. Thinking about the homeless lately and working on this affordable housing video that I'm doing on the side has been making me think about sustainable and affordable living in the Denver Metro area. I know that that there is affordable housing around but I also know that there isn't enough. I'm trying to think beyond the typical, large, cheap, apartment buildings that we usually design to house homeless or near homeless individuals and families. I look at the way the world is changing all around us, technologically and socially, and wonder if there is not a solution or at least a better way to sustain our society. Changing the way we think of urban living is a huge part of changing our society. Meeting the food requirements of the homeless and low income should be a major priority. I love hearing about people in poor neighborhoods that take matters into there own hands and create community gardens in once vacant lots to help feed their families and neighbors. I would like to know more about projects like these in Denver and I wonder if there is an opportunity for a unique story here somewhere. Anyway, that's sorta what was on my mind today.

--Mark

Homelessness Marathon!!!

Just wanted to add to Bonnie's note, and say a big thanks to everyone that came together to make the Homelessness Marathon a great success. First off, Alex did an amazing job producing this event, as well as being our on air talent, coordinating with Jeremy's team, taking care of Megan and I and well bringing me coffee, he was a pleasure to work with and I hope to again. Megan did a splendid job on camera,  she really pulled through on such little sleep and I commend her professional nature when we were slowly burning out. Another great thank you to Eric for helping with quality control and suggestions and Than for making himself available for all of the technical issues. And finally, the Social Media Team. Thank you so much Bonnie and Giselle for taking the lead on rounding up the interns for blogging and pushing out to social media sites. Leland and Colleen deserve a thanks for helping with social media as well. Without the pre-production planning, this event would not have been so successful. Last but not least, Andrew, Eliza, Mark and Kim. Thank you so much for taking the time to learn Livestream, research radio outlets, create blogs, and carry out the tasks for the event. I'm so glad you could be a part of the Homelessness Marathon.

Well another Big Thanks to everyone!
Looking forward to Boston!

-Lauren

Radio Outreach

Today I finished up my half of the radio station outreach. I called up stations all over the countries and explained that I was offering them our video embed codes for free. When I actually got someone on the phone, people were really grateful and receptive. It pleasant knowing that I was calling people out of the blue and offering them something valuable. It most be the opposite of how telemarketers feel. After that, I dug in researching blogs on homelessness and poverty for our social media push. FYI, there is an entire blog out there about someone's homeless Sims characters. People are strange.

See you all tomorrow!

Editing, Researching, and Blogging

Hello,

I spent the afternoon editing the Your Voice Here (Egypt Episode), and I think it turned out pretty well. I did have a couple ideas to try out next time though, that I think will improve the final product. I think next time it would be better to try out some different shot angles for the interviews. They were fairly static this time around it didn't really add to the excitement of the piece. I also want to make sure that we are getting the best lighting possible. It was kind of tough to get people to face directly into the sun, so their faces tended to be half in shadow. I guess that problem will subside as we move further into the summer and the sun moves higher into the sky. I would also like to try out some more complex motion effects next time, like the way the the Martin Luther King Day YVH was done. Other than that I've spent some time researching sites and blogs for the homelessness google doc and have found that their are quite a few resources out there. I posted some tonight and will continue to research before this Wednesday rolls around. I guess that's it for now. Also, here's a video I came across on youtube that has a few facts.

Social Media Reminders...

Hey Guys,

I posted this on our internal publishing blog for the Homelessness Marathon, but wanted to post here too.

Just a few things to keep in mind while working on social media for the Homelessness Marathon...

• Please create a FB and Twitter account if you do not have one already. Again, if you do not want to use your personal FB or Twitter accounts, please create new ones to use for work.

• On Facebook, please “Like” Free Speech TV (http://www.facebook.com/freespeechtv) and the Homelessness Marathon (http://www.facebook.com/HomelessnessMarathon). When posting on FB, please tag Free Speech TV and the Homelessness Marathon in your posts (you can write @Freespeechtv and @homelessnessmarathon in your posts and will link back to both FB pages).

• On Twitter, please follow Free Speech TV (@freespeechtv) and the Homelessness Marathon (@homelessradio). When tweeting about the marathon, please include the tag #hmkc and @homelessradio and @freespeechtv in your tweets.

Please refer to the shared google doc “Social Media – Homelessness Marathon” for the task list, team contact info, and blog/website list.

Stroome

Hey Everyone,

Can you all make it a priority to research and test out the Stroome site. The site is http://stroome.com/
You can also use this tool on the Action Calendar as well as Your Voice Here. Thanks!

-Lauren

Returning from the dead...

Sorry for being out almost all week, guys. I tried to keep up with my work here as well as school and my other job, but apparently my body just needed a break.

Today I created a blog specifically for us interns covering the Homelessness Marathon event. You all should have received an author invite for the blog. We will be using it as new media and information is updated, and using those posts to transfer videos, pictures, interviews, links, etc. to other social networking sites. We should all be adding new sites to the document sent out by Bonnie. She mentioned that it is more important to keep adding contacts to that document (even if it is unlikely they will support us or let us partner with their website for this event) than to not have enough potential contacts to branch out to, to share our coverage with. We want this to be a successful broadcast, and our generation is more than capable of allowing videos and popular information to go viral in a matter of 14 hours. I think the key is to find sites that are already heavily populated with active followers and subscribers and searching hash tags for homelessness, poverty, etc. to lead us to other sites or users that are oriented around this issue. I know the blog isn't fancy, but I ought to be heading out soon and I will customize it later. See you guys next week, can't wait to talk more about this in detail!

-Kim

Homelessness Marathon Social Media

Hey-O!

As you guys know, the 14th Annual Homelessness Marathon is coming up very soon. Thanks to everyone for pitching in and helping out.

Giselle and I are planning on meeting with you all next Weds, but please take a few minutes to get started on some research. I've started a google doc that I'll share with you all. Please use this doc to list websites, blogs, etc where we can post info about the event and approach about possibly embedding our player to stream coverage of the event. Please list the org name, the URL, and any contact info for the org (Media, Development contacts) if you can find them. Any websites or blogs about poverty, homelessness, etc would be great.

Please let me know if you have any questions! Let's try and get a jump on this list before our meeting next week. Thanks again for all of your help. Looking forward to working with you guys on this!

bonnie

Snow makes everything better

So, I just finished the graphics for tomorrows Progressive Action Calendar shoot and with that hopefully tomorrow's production will start sooner and run smoothly. I have also been looking at the Action Calendar on Free Speech's website and we are lacking events!! We have whole weeks with NO EVENTS listed and I know there are events for those weeks happening somewhere in the nation. ALL INTERNS need to help by researching events, posting them and emailing the links to Eliza. Also, look at the Calendar before you start doing research and see what days have only one event or no events posted. Now I am off to work on Promos... Stay warm!

-Megan

Yesterday was the first day I was truly on my own working on PAC/in the intern room, and I'm excited have a lot more responsibility over the Action Calendar.  When I started interning last month, I had never seen or heard of After Effects, and Final Cut Pro was just something I had seen on a shelf at the Apple store.  Now, After Effects is not nearly as scary, and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with using the template and tweaking graphics as I enter the events.  It's also a great relief knowing I have Megan, and that I am surrounded by lots of other interns who are more technologically competent than I.  Finding the events has been going smoothly for the most part, but still, it would be a HUGE help if everyone could send me just a couple of events for the upcoming weeks.  Before he left, Adam sent me a folder containing about 20 links to other action calendars to find events.  It's been handy for the most part, but I've noticed many of the sites are either outdated or just infrequently updated.  So over the next few weeks I'd like to find new sites that can be used to find events for the PAC!  

See you all on Wednesday!

-Eliza

Week 2

Hello everyone. This my second week at FSTV and I can't wait to start learning new things. Last week week was Dan and Shay's last day working on Your Voice Here, so I didn't get to go out and work on that yet. I wasn't entirely disappointed  considering the weather was staggeringly cold. I do look forward to going out this Wednesday though! I was reading and watching some of the coverage on the Egyptian uprising on freespeech.org this last week, and comparing it to the coverage i've been seeing on some of the major networks, like Fox News. It struck me how the mainstream media coverage of this historic event has portrayed it as a state of chaos, while the coverage from Al Jazeera and NPR has shown a much more peaceful revolution. I also found myself wondering what it would be like if this had occurred 20 years ago, before the advent of youtube and camera phones. It would undoubtedly be a much more violent, much less publicized event. Those average citizens on the rooftops in Tahir Square, shooting and streaming video, are the true muckrakers of today. It seems like corporate media and government will almost always skew, spin, and withhold information, so it is up to the people to refuse to be owned and misinformed. Well, that's what was on my mind today. Bye now.

-Mark

Excited to Get Started

Hey y'all, I really excited to get out on the streets for Your Voice Here this week. Last week, Aaron, Dan, Shay and I got some fascinating footage at the Denver Rescue Mission for the Homeless Marathon later this month. People's stories and thoughts about the experience of homelessness were diverse and thought provoking, but once again it was difficult to get people to agree to interviews, especially when the subject matter was so personal. It got me thinking a lot about how important it is to ensure that the way we approach people is respectful and not abrasive. Every time I've done a Your Voice Here shoot, we've gone to the 16th Street Mall. This week, I'd really like to try a new location and would love to here suggestions for where else we could go. Also, for every shoot we've been under a serious time crunch because we usually don't leave the office until well after 12. This week I'd love to ensure we leave ample time to ensure we can get at least ten interviews.

See you all Wednesday!

Ginny

Bye Bye!

It's my last day. I've really had a great time working here with everyone. I will miss this place. I hope to stay in contact with everyone, so feel free to hit me up!

Shay

Too Cold for a Zombie Apocolypse...

I hope everyone is staying warm in this crazy cold weather! I know I am and it was kind of nice waking up and having all of today responsibilities notify me that it is just too cold out to do anything and to stay home! I am really excited for tomorrow though and to keep being a large part of the Action Calendar. I actually remembered to research my events this week! Well that is all for this week, I suppose, you stay classy, Denver!

Watch Freespeech's up coming coverage of the zombie apocalypse....any day now..

Hey it's Dan My time at freespeech tv is coming to an end, I'm gonna miss this place!

Lone Wolf

As you all know, today was officially Jenny's last day. :( Now I will be the only intern working on Friday afternoons! Upon her departure I will be taking over her responsibility of ingesting the GRITtv tapes. Hopefully the tape decks will not challenge their new manipulator; I have heard they can be quite unruly. It sounds like I will be doing this on Mondays and Fridays, as well as continuing my PSA research. I'll still be here on Wednesdays as well to help with production for the action calendar. I was thinking that since I'm in school while both production of the action calendar and Your Voice Here take place, I could edit, print to tape, and upload the action calendar to blip. I can also help edit Your Voice Here, however I don't know when that usually takes place nor have I been familiarized with how we usually cut that series. This might give the rest of the interns a nice break after working all day. I know this last Wednesday I didn't feel like much of a "team player" after everything was already finalized shortly after I came in. Let me know what else I can help out with on Wednesdays guys!

See you all next week. :)

First Week at Free Speech TV

I started my internship this week at Free Speech. I'm prettty excited about learning more about video and TV production. I've never worked on producing television content before and and can tell that it is something I am going to enjoy. On Wednesday I took the directors role for the Action Calendar. This meant communicating with the control room, operating the camera, and queing Anoinette. It was pretty straight forward but definitely good to learn. I was also assigned my regular responisiblities for the duration of my internship. I will be handling and operating the camera for the weekly street interviews. This is cool with me; I love cameras and filming and will have a lot of fun with it. I am hopeful to learn more than just the camera aspects though. I want to get better with Final Cut and would really like to learn as much about After Effects as possible. I'm going to be producing a film for Mestro West Housing this spring, about their role in providing affordable housing, and I am hoping that the experience I gain from working at Free Speech will benefit this project. I am also hopeful to meet new people who are working in the same field and can share some of their knowledge with me. That's about it for now.

-Mark Hinchey

Action Calendar

Just wanted to do a recap of Adam's meeting regarding the Action Calendar. Way to take the initiative to put this together Adam, I think this was needed to iron out some kinks. First and foremost. Eliza and Megan with be taking producing roles for the Action Calendar. Eliza will deal with the posting of the events, scripts and floor directing. Megan will deal with graphics, IDDR and production. Please make it a priority to post 4 events for next week and send your links to Eliza at eliza@freespeech.org. After events are posted Eliza with the help of Ginny can create the scripts for the day. Then Megan will create the graphics with the help of Dan. Then graphics will be transferred to the IDDR,  then checked. On Wednesday, graphics will be scanned though, scripts timed, mic check and production will begin. Looking forward to a new and improved Action Calendar. Thanks for all the hard work guys.

-Lauren 

Just another Tuesday...

Hey All!

So, I just read my two Alternet articles today and I have to say, I love this website! It covers just about everything. One of my articles today was a review of MTV's version of a British television show (Skins) that debuted early last week. I thought it was interesting because it focused on America's love/hate relationship with sex, especially teenage sex. Sexuality is nothing to be ashamed of and everything that made Britain's Skins amazing, compelling and relateable has sadly been stripped out of MTV's version, boooo MTV!
Anyway... last week Shay showed me how to edit Your Voice Here and we were able to edit out the MLK marade and go through the footage we shot about anchor babies and how they are evil and must be stopped! Just kidding, its a serious topic for a serious problem that our government just doesn't seem able to address in a proper way.
Well, that is all I can think to say today, so everyone have a great rest of your day and I hope to most of you tomorrow!

MARK!

Hey everyone! We will welcome Mark tomorrow to start as our new intern. He will oversee the production tomorrow, so please help make him feel welcome.

-Lauren

Hey friends, I'm baaaaaaaaack

Hey everybody, I was out last week with strep but I'm fully recovered and ready to rock this week. Sounds like, in spite of my absence, everything went smoothly last week.
Tomorrow will be one of our last shoots with Adam, Dan and Shay around so we should all make sure we take full advantage of their intern-y wisdom and pummel them with as many questions as possible because before long they won't be around to run the show for us.
Sorry I've been slacking on the action calender (Adam). I promise to post events today.

Peace out!

January 21

After getting lost going east on interstate 270 (trying to find gas, watching my dial creep closer and closer to that awful letter "E") I'm here on a lovely weathered Friday to finish the week. The next few hours I will be grinding out some event posting (so Adam doesn't have to worry about us anymore) for the Action Calendar. Although I'm not much help for the production of the Action Calendar, I enjoy looking through all the awesome activist events going on in the country.

Speaking of activism, our chaotic misadventure that took place on Monday at the M.L.K. "marade" was actually a successful turn out. Lauren saved the day by letting us into the locked building to get a new camera. Aaron, Dan and I reached Civic Center Park right before the ceremony was over and had a chance to talk to some really passionate groups of musicians, activists, students, doctors, etc. Everyone was really receptive and had so much to say about their causes! I had never really taken part of an event like that, and I am going to make an effort from now on to attend events with a camera at hand, because you never know what kind of monumental moments you may capture.

In other news, I attended a free screening of a fiction feature film last night called Bold Native, a film about animal liberation directed by Denis Henry Hennelly and Casey Suchan. I've never seen a narrative film about animal liberation, and it was a nice change from the raw, underground documentaries that are produced to convey the same message. Anyways, even if you aren't interested in the movement, it might be a film worth watching (or at least supporting). It won't be screened in any major theaters or submitted to any festivals, but you can read up on it or watch the trailer at boldnative.com.

How to be an Action Calendar Hero Pt II: Events

For anyone who hasn't seen the calendar promo: its a 60 second spot detailing the activist events and goings-on all around the country.

Ideally this would all be user generated, but usually I have to research events. This is my second favorite part next to production. It gives me a chance to put my favorite issues to the forefront. I swear there's some sort of runner's high for activists when they see their objectives go viral, which is what happens nearly every time an event hits the calendar.

I enjoy listening to Democracy Now! and hearing about the protest that I listed making a good ruckus. I don't enjoy hearing about the people I report on getting smacked down by the police, but that all comes with the territory.

My point is: This shit really works!

The best part is that anyone can contribute to the action calendar simply by shooting us an email a week or so in advance giving us all the who's what's and where's or going to the website, singing in and posting it yourselves. It's just that easy!

We can only report on three events a day, so check out the calendar at freespeech.org/calendar

What events we do report on go though a detailed technical process of entering the info into AfterEffects templates, timing and chroma keying. I'll spare you the lengthy details until the next part