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…
Forest, Bill, Paul and Charlie from The Advocacy Team were in the VCAM studio today recording their 100th episode. Above is a snapshot from their preproduction session where they met with their special guests from the Green Mountain Self Advocates. As you’ll likely notice on their website, the GMSA is:
a statewide self-advocacy network run and operated by people with developmental disabilities [and they’re] building a movement for self-advocacy through public education and awareness, peer mentoring, support, advocacy and direct action.
The Advocacy Team is sponsored by Champlain Community Services and can be seen Sundays at 8:30am, Wednesdays at 10:00am and Thursdays at 9:00pm on VCAM Channel 15 . We’d like to congratulate to all the members of the Advocacy Team for reaching this milestone and thank them for all their hard work and ongoing commitment to community media.
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!
VCAM, CCTV and RETN are once again collaborating on the Vermont blogging experiment, Exit Voices.
If there was a comments section on your ballot on election day, what would you say? What do you think about the issues, ballot measures and candidates this election? Exit Voices is your forum. On Tuesday March 4th, Exit Voices will host a series of open threads, giving any Vermonter the opportunity to say his or her piece. Some of these comments and video entries will be highlighted on the blog and during CCTV’s live election night coverage on channel 17 and over their live web stream that evening. Stop by Exit Voices and speak you mind. The floor is yours.
Leading up to the 4th, Exit Voices will be aggregating content from all over the Vermont blogosphere and soliciting essays, photos and video posts from Vermonters across the state, discussing Town Meeting Day and the Vermont presidential primary.
Tonight at 7:30 pm Vermont Public Television is hosting a live web chat with Vermont ACLU director, Allen Gilbert, and assistant US attorney, Bill Darrow. The focus of the chat will be “Civil Liberties in a Changing World.” In an email, Gilbert writes…
I’m a panelist with Bill Darrow, an assistant U.S. attorney here in Vermont. The topic is “Civil Liberties in a Changing World.” Darrow, as you may know, is pretty aggressive in defending government actions in national security, drugs, death penalty, etc.
The chat on Wednesday will focus on national security, and I’m sure Darrow will try to belittle claims that civil liberties have been diminished because of the war on terror — or that if they have, the Bush administration has structured security programs in a way that minimizes civil liberties impacts while maximizing protection of U.S. citizens’ safety.
Go here to log into the chat — you can comment anonymously if you wish.
The Nation posted an article this week about the Al Jazeera satellite news network and its growing popularity around the world. The article’s author, Ned Lamont (yes, that Ned Lamont), mentions that despite Al Jazeera English’s widespread acceptance overseas, there are precious few TV channels in the US that carry its content…
Al Jazeera’s most recent offspring, Al Jazeera English, is more like PBS on a slow day. Al Jazeera English is available around the world and even on the Israeli cable systems. But it is barely visible in the United States–Buckeye Cable in Ohio and Burlington Public Access in Vermont are the only channels that carry it.
By “Burlington Public Access,” Lamont is referring to VCAM’s sister organization RETN, which runs a 1/2 hour of fresh Al Jazeera English programming every weekday at 6:30 pm. RETN operates channel 16 on Comcast and Burlington Telecom cable systems in Chittenden County.
Burlington filmmaker Nate Beaman has been shooting a bunch of short films with local filmmakers on his tricked-out Panasonic HVX200. He collaborated with VCAM Production Manager Bill Simmon on a short documentary called Digital Pamphleteer, which recently won the Goldstone Award at the Vermont International Film Festival. He also recently shot three short films for Vermont filmmaker Michael Fisher. These films and Nate’s rig are featured on the Redrock Micro cinema accessories website. Nate is Redrock’s “featured filmmaker.” Nate uses a Redrock-manufactured lens adaptor that allows him to use 35mm prime lenses on his Panasonic HVX200 HD camera. The result is an astoundingly shallow depth of field that accentuates the camera’s already very film-like look. Our congratulations go out to Nate for the recognition.
To see the films Nate shot for Michael Fisher and to read all about his set-up, check out the Redrock profile. Bill’s film, Digital Pamphleteer, will go online in a month or two and we’ll link to it here when it does. Stay tuned.
As we are being treated this week to a string of warmer-than-average weather here in Vermont, VCAMers are brainstorming new ways to enjoy the beautiful outdoors while maintaining our healthy dose of movie watching. With winter steadily galloping over the horizon VCAM is sounding the call: DIY’ers unite!
With just a few tools and a projection-friendly exterior wall anybody can create their own drive-in theater. For a tutorial on how to set up your own drive-in visit MobMov.org.
For a more eco-friendly approach to outdoor movie-going, watch this video on a bike-in theater hosted by Public Access Television in Iowa City. See you in the great outdoors!
UVM has a course this semester called Composing Digital Narratives. It sounds fascinating. Seven Days blogger Cathy Resmer posted about it a couple of weeks ago and I’m linking to it here because you can see some of the work the students are doing online. Check out this amazing piece by student Young-Hae Chang. It’s called “What Now?”
If there was a comments section on your ballot on election day, what would you say? What do you think about the issues, ballot measures and candidates this election? Exit Voices is your forum. On Tuesday March 4th, Exit Voices will host a series of open threads, giving any Vermonter the opportunity to say his or her piece. Some of these comments and video entries will be highlighted on the blog and during CCTV’s live election night coverage on channel 17 and over their live web stream that evening. Stop by Exit Voices and speak you mind. The floor is yours.
