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

Your Voice Here - Martin Luther King Marade

Jan. 20th

Hey All!

So yesterday I got to be camera person for Your Voice Here for the first time and besides the chilly, chilly wind it was an awesome experience. I really enjoyed capturing people's opinions on serious topics. I hope I can continue to help with this so I can perfect my on the go camera skills... I need to remember I'm short and others, well aren't. I also read my two alternet articles last night after class. The first article was about the 10 most and the 10 least tolerant states in the US, had some surprises in there. The second article was about the hatred and violence we all possess in our DNA and how we address it, I don't know if I agree with all the theories but very interesting. Alright, well I hope everyone survived our mini blizzard yesterday and that you have a warm and safe weekend!

Jan 19

We did Your Voice Here today and nearly frose our fingers off! Got some good stuff that I'll be editing tomorrow (thurs). Will also be editing the MLK footage. Thanks for those who were able to go out that day!

Hi all,

I'm doing my articles from home tonight, so I thought I'd go ahead and do my blog post as well. The first article I read tonight is about how prisoners are treated in super-max prisons, like the Florence facility here in Colorado (link). The article describes how prisoners are regularly beaten and put in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. Radios and television are not allowed, and cell lights are on day and night (it goes into much further detail in the article). There is no doubt that most of the people put in super-max prisons are put there because they are a threat to themselves and others, but I wonder if such severe conditions like that would dehumanize prisoners further and even contribute to their violent tendencies.

The other article I read was about proposed laws regulating immigration legislation (link). It was definitely a more challenging read than the other article. It's looking like 2011 is going to be an interesting year for this kind of legislation, particularly because many states have seen a sharp increase in their immigrant population. Some states are trying to pass more immigrant friendly bills, and some are trying to copy Arizona's harsh and controversial legislation.

Aside from browsing these articles, lately I've been capturing shorts from the Grit TV tapes, which is a great way to see bits and pieces of up and coming documentaries and TV programs.

That's all for tonight. I'll see everyone Friday!

Last Days:

Sad to say, but these guys will be out o here soon. 

Jenny: January 28th
Adam: February 2nd
Shay: Febrary 3rd


Eliza will be taking over the Action Calendar for Adam.
Ginny will be taking over Your Voice Here for Shay.

-Lauren

PSA Research/MLK marade

This week I created a google doc for the new PSA documentaries. I feel like it's going well and I'm making steady progress finding videos. At first it was difficult to sift through the millions of videos on the web for the right content, but so far care2, currentTV, and vimeo have been the most successful resources. If anyone knows of other useful sites or search engines please let me know!

Also, I'll be documenting the MLK marade this Monday (1/17/2011) with some equipment the staff let me borrow. If anyone has any suggestions for the documentary or is going to the march and would like to help feel free to call me between now and Monday.

Thanks and have a good weekend everyone.
-Kimberly

How to be an Action Calendar Hero Pt I: Crew

Back when I started as the Intern Producer for the Progressive Action Calendar promo, I helped write a detailed instruction sheet detailing every last click and cue. Here's the short version:

It's impossible to produce the spot alone, well okay, actually it's very possible, but there's no way one person could get the results of a full crew which includes:

Talent: (the on-camera person) FSTv's very own Antoinette June is our current talent, and we couldn't be more lucky to have her.

Crew: Last week we only had a producer (that's me,) someone to cue graphics, and a floor director. Dan was the graphics person, he has solid technical know-how, so it's good to know we have the best person for that position.

Having a tight crew makes things go smooth. The atmosphere reminds me of the kitchen in Waiting (2005, Dir. Rob McKittrick) but when it comes down to production time, it's time to be professional. That it until we finish, then its back to the usual pissing and moaning. But seriously though, a good time is had by all AND we get our work done by the deadline each and every week.

Your Voice Here

I've created a instruction sheet for the next set of people to do Your Voice Here. It is saved in the edit room in the YourVoiceHere folder on the desktop and I also shared the document with some of you. Feel free to take a look!

My last day is thurs Feb 3rd

Staff Brainstorming Meeting Today

Hey Hey Fellow Interns,

Today we had an all staff brainstorming meeting about FSTV's move to producing original news content over the next six months. Eric asked us to focus on eight questions:

1. What sources will we utilize to generate our news content?
2. What type of issues will we cover?
3. What would be the strongest format?
4. What should our tone be?
5. How can we best utilize social media?
6. What online tools can we utilize for collaboration?
7. How can we use social media to fuel progressive action?
8. How can we use social media to generate news content?

After we brainstormed for a bit, Eric had us post dot stickers next to the ideas we liked the most. The sheets are hanging up in the conference room, so when you come in next make sure to take a look and post your own dots next to your favorite ideas.

Also, keep these questions in mind and share any ideas you come up with. Remember, in brainstorming there are no bad ideas so don't hesitate to share!

See you kids tomorrow,
Virginia

Jan 11th

I have changed my hours so that I will coming in on Wed and thurs from 11-4. This will clear up some time for homework and laundry, grocery shopping etc. Will be shooting another Your Voice Here tomorrow. This one will be about some of the governement trying to make it so that children born in the US from illegal immagrants will not be considered Citizens.

First Post: Freespeech tv

Ahhh well well well, here I am again working on graphics in after effects here in the intern dungeon, witch I swear was supposed to be a storage closet. Listening too Devil Makes Three, ever heard of em? If not look them up they're awesome. Ive been here for quite some time now and its very relaxing and it give me time to think,  just sitting alone in near darkness in front of a glowing liquid crystal display. What was the purpose of making controlled substances illegal? was it because people overdose and die sometimes? Or because they are addictive?.... But cigarettes and alcohol were proven of both of those things but no one gets locked up for drinking a beer or burning one down. Also why do you get kicked out of residential parks? Why is that off limits if you don't live in the neighborhood? What you want to segregate your self from the rest of the world? I went to Ken caryl Vally and a Rent-a-Ranger told me that this park is only for rich people and that I should just head home before he calls the "Real Police" what would Pierre-Joseph Proudhon say about that?  at least the ranger off offhandedly admitted he's a joke. Any way I hope organizations like this will help to change things like these, just little things just enough to make America better in some way... any way.


-Dan Rachlitz

First Post

It's my first day at the office, and I've been trying to familiarize myself with the Action Calendar and blog, in addition to reading several Alternet articles.  I found the article "Guns Don't Kill People: Cowards and Lobbyists Do" particularly interesting.  In light of the recent shootings in Tucson, author Drew Westen urges us to consider the strong causal links between the fear-based rhetoric of right-wing conservative news media, such as Fox, and the motivations of Jared Loughner, and similarly those behind the murder of physician George Tiller who had performed legal abortions, which inspire such heinous acts.  In almost all the Alternet articles I read, whether about social justice, environmental issues, or the economy, there seems to be strong emphasis placed on addressing salient issues and bringing the media and our political system under scrutiny when it needs to be, to engage its readers in the broader discussion.  I will look forward to reading more articles on a weekly basis, and am excited about all the other opportunities that lie ahead here at Free Speech!

 Eliza

Happy January!

I actually have a blogging addiction, so I'm really excited about having a blog for us interns and other staff members. Each of the articles I've read on Alternet so far have been unique and I appreciate the editors' opinions about current events. Stroome is also something I'm considering for my own use, I really like the objective of their network! Overall it's been a great week and I'm excited to get the new year started with some new information and resources. See you on Monday!


-Kimberly

Vision, Mission Statement & Progressive Statement

FSTV Vision

Seizing the power of television to expand social consciousness, FSTV fuels the movement for progressive social, economic, and political transformation. By exposing the public to perspectives excluded from corporate media, FSTV empowers citizens to fight injustices, to revitalize democracy, and to build a more compassionate world.

FSTV Mission

Working with activists and artists, FSTV uses television to cultivate an informed and active citizenry in order to advance progressive social change.

FSTV Progressive Definition

To empower global citizens, by exposing abuse of power in all its forms, and by highlighting efforts of resistance.

To join in the struggle for social and economic justice, respect for the environment, peaceful conflict resolution, and the protection of animal and human rights.

To honor diversity, and provide a platform for voices and points of view traditionally excluded from television, including those of women, people of color, indigenous people, those made poor at home and abroad, GLBT communities, people with disabilities, and youth.

To promote participatory democracy, independent media, grassroots organizing, and cross-community dialog.

To celebrate creativity and to value artistic expression as a vital part of any healthy society.

-Lauren

First Post

This afternoon I checked out the articles on Alternet.com while I worked on converting the midterm election coverage to quicktime files. The alternet articles were very interesting and a good read. I will be delving into Stroome over the weekend, I looked over it a little bit and it looks like there's a huge variety of different videos to watch.

Prepping for next week's Action Calendar

This week I hope to have the shooting workflow down solid. Last week was another late night after hammering out as many problems I could. Wednesday is the only day most of the interns are together, so all of our "day of" preparation got pushed back by an hour.

My plan was to capture directly to disk, but when I set up to capture there was only eighty gigs left on the scratch disk. We've had problems with memory space before, so I recall mumbling something like "well, that's shitty..." and decided record directly to tape. This ended up taking another hour in post, the big trouble was mostly finding a working VTR and making adjustments to mislabeled graphics. So that put us two hours behind last week.

This week is going to be different. For the first time in action calendar history, I'm gonna try squeezing four events in one day. I'll make up a backup graphic in case it's just plain impossible for a one-minute sequence. Next week, we'll have a full crew, no more meetings, and I found that the scratch disk was somehow switched to the backup drive. Now there's well over a terabyte left, so we're good disk space.

With all that said, I'm excited to have a normal shoot since the end of september.

Today's kind of my cutoff day for new events, but keep a lookout for events happening January 20th through the 26th.

First Post

The first week back after the holidays came sudden and too soon but no worries, it went smoothly and well. After our all intern meeting on Wednesday I checked out both alternet.org and stroome.com, both are very cool and interesting. I am looking forward to my use and research on both. Til next time... have a great weekend!!

Websites from the Meeting

All of you please play around with the interface and let me know what you find:
Stroome.com
Please read 2 articles a day, and identify the source. I will email you the google doc shortly. 
Alternet.org

Thanks!
-Lauren

Welcome Back

Hope all of you had a splendid holiday break. Let's work together to make 2011 great for FSTV and everyone that plays a role in independent media.
-Lauren