BHS teen filmmaker Graham Raubvogel has written and directed a short film for the high school filmmaking club that met at VCAM on Fridays during the last school year. We shot the film at VCAM with a cast and crew made up of professional filmmakers and film club students, resulting an a veritable master class in filmmaking. Eat your heart out, Maine Workshops!
Art Lovers from Graham Raubvogel on Vimeo.
If you click through to Vimeo you can watch the film in HD.
Canadian filmmaker Jack Oatmon made this great little documentary about a hackers’ collective in Montreal…
I was delighted to discover a link to this video while bouncing around on Radiohead.com. Do you remember last fall when VCAM hosted a party for the Vermont International Film Festival and in attendance was Susan Buice, co-director (with Arin Crumley) of the feature film Four Eyed Monsters? Well it appears the dynamic duo has another project in the works, and the subject of this one should hit close to home for VCAM members. As Susan and Arin are never folks to be thwarted by the perils of independent media distribution, this time they’ve decided to take the media giants head-on and have set out, armed with a documentary, to protect the future of our internet. Watch, enjoy and please help others understand why net neutrality is important.
Save the Internet | Rock the Vote
Graham Raubvogel, a local film/video director, BHS student and inspired VCAM Producer, recently took first prize at the Santa Monica Teen Film Festival with his short film Keeping Time.
Graham’s award winning piece is about a young man named Oscar who is haunted by his past and struggling to move forward with his life. It is one of Graham’s very first short films (many of which can be viewed on his You Tube channel) and was shot during his freshman year at Burlington High School. It is clear he is a talented young filmmaker with a bright future ahead.
Congratulations Graham on all your hard work and momentous award! We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for new projects in the future…
Ira Glass, producer and host of PRI’s wonderful radio program, This American Life, gives some wonderful, inspiring and reassuring advice to media makers in this YouTube video. Whether you’re a newcomer to media-making or have been producing your own show for years, this is incredibly valuable advice…
Lately Glass and the TAL crew have taken their show to TV, and are now in their second season of This American Life on Showtime. The cable show presents some of the finest short-form documentary filmmaking happening right now. The first season is available on DVD.
This is an update for all you folks out there who read VCAM’s blog post from last August about Jackie Yantachka , the senior from CVU who as of yesterday has completed her Senior Grad Challenge in Broadcast Television at the VCAM studio.
It was a delight to attend her final presentation yesterday. She was in front of a packed house, filled with family, community consultants and a sizable panel of teachers and instructors.
Jackie covered everything from the appropriate use of a lapel mic to the work flow in master control. She employed an impressive Power Point presentation that included still images of nearly every component to the VCAM studio, screen captures of her FCP timeline and bin structure, plus images illustrating the strategy behind the different shots she incorporated. She concluded her presentation with a short segment from her video project highlighting a variety of footage including interviews with moviegoers, film reviews and movie clips. The uproarious applause from the crowded room was indicative of the the quality of Jackie’s work.
It was obvious from the start she arrived at VCAM with a good deal of experience, however throughout her time at the VCAM studio her skills grew even sharper. By the end, her ability to navigate the FCP interface was quite impressive.
As part of her grad challenge, Jackie was also required to write at length about her learning experience in a final paper that she concludes by saying:
For years I’ve been interested in the production of the shows that I see on TV. At the local public access channel VCAM, I was able to take on the challenge of making my own TV show and airing it – something that I have never been able to do with my previous films. VCAM is all about encouraging others in the community to learn the filming and editing processes to make their ideas come to life. For the first time, I was able to film in a studio and learn how to work the multifaceted equipment. For CVU Filmmaker’s Club, the movies I’ve been involved in have always had crews of at least four people, so with my project at VCAM, I felt that I had more control, and there was better communication with my cameraman. I was able to create a show that incorporated footage from the field, studio, and additional movie clips, and then broadcast it for many others to see. Hopefully, I will be able to continue using my skills and explore more techniques for creating TV shows like the ones I have always admired.
There’s little doubt Jackie’s wishes will be granted as she will be attending the school of communications at Syracuse University in the fall. Way to go Jackie!
Thank you for all the hard work and best of luck from all of us at VCAM!
From the Pangea Day website…
“Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.
The 24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person’s eyes. Details on the Pangea Day films can be viewed here.
The program will also include a number of exceptional speakers and musical performers. Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, musician/activist Bob Geldof, and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova are among those taking part.”
A trio of British graphic designers spent four days filming themselves running up and down Omaha Beach in Normandy and then composited the footage to create an amazing, on-the-cheap, DIY D-Day scene. Here is the YouTube clip…