Committee Notes: April 21 & 22, 2006

Corps Day
Almost the full committee met on Friday April 21 at the beginning of Corps day. We started by having a casual conversation about our video project and how powerful video can be; what point of view do we want to get across with our tone; and what each of us are thinking the video will look like. This turned out to be a loose and fun chat about our perspectives. Soon, we found ourselves talking about food and how it can both alienate and bring people together. I think this was a tangent from talking about murals at Centro, and how they create a welcoming and safe environment for the people who work and visit Centro. In addition we discussed such things as cliches, and use of "well known" phrases that might be associated with stereotypes.

We decided that two members would work at El Centro later in the afternoon to do a video shoot, and two members would do the shoot at Waite House on the 28th. We also agreed that all of us would meet on Saturday for the Lexington Library video shoot, which we did ... read on to hear about it.

Saturday at Lexington
When we met on Saturday it was to get shots of the Accessibility and Usability options in use at the Lexington Library Outreach branch, along with an interview with Jesse. The clips and shots were easy to get done, as we have become accustomed to the camera and familiar with setting up our shots. We got some great footage of Jesse using the assistive software, the accessible mouse, the adjustable table, signage, outside shots of the building and the cross street signs. We remembered to adjust the white balance and change the light settings after coming back inside. The interview went well, Jesse made several very good points, including the free assistive tech software AND training available at the library.

From there, we decided to push on and discuss what our next steps were. We still needed to begin editting, complete shooting, work on the script (narration), credits and even some legal paperwork.

Here's our timeline:

• April 28th - Shoot video at Waite House (Linda & Lauree). We'll also interview John about how the computer lab has improved accessibility for clients; challenges to getting this done (or starting it);
• May 1st, 1:00 at Intermedia Arts - initial viewing of footage, start identifying shots; practice capturing video (remember to bring all signed waivers to this meeting)
• Week of May 8th - editing (Lauree & Linda)
• May 12th - preliminary video viewing (committee)
• May 19th - we show the Corps our draft to get feedback (can they identify our key messages?); possible demo of Freedom Box

We also assigned roles/tasks:

• Sound Clips - Jesse (Linda will get CDs to Jesse)
• Legal - Lindsey
• Credits & writing subtitles - Lindsey
• Narration - Gina? or someone with a good voice who is willing
• Scripting - Lauree/Gina/Jesse
• Closed Captioning/entering subtitles - Lauree
• Director - Gina?

We ended our day by each talking about our thoughts for the finished piece, just to get a feel for how diverse our expectations could be. It seems we have a lot in common:

• remember to make it people oriented, not just about technology. Do this by pairing a shot of a person after/before a shot of an object.
• highlight both successes and challenges to creating accessible environments/programs
  
• empower the viewer to know that there are changes that can and should be done to make their places more accessible
• make it visually accessible
• include closed captioning
• use music, voice over, and video embedded audio to help create tone
  
• be friendly, not preachy
  

Remeber, Lindsey will be out starting May 6th and not able to attend the next regularly scheduled committee meeting on May 12th. Committee will review the progress made thus far on the edited video, and talk about next steps. An update should be sent to Lindsey about the results of this meeting. If possible, post a draft of the video on Google Video and send the link to Lindsey.

Committee head's reminders -- week of Apr. 24

Hi everyone.

Linda suggested I put these notes up on the blog, rather than send them via e-mail, and I think that was a great idea. I couldn't think of a better title than "committee head's reminders", though -- so if you have any ideas, put them in the comments!

First, I'd like to welcome our new committee member, Gina! We've enjoyed working with you and look forward to continuing to do so.

At our Saturday shooting session, we hammered out roles and schedules and talked about our vision of the completed video project. Current schedule is as follows:

Sometime this week -- Linda (and Gina?) interview Marlina
Fri 28 April -- Lauree and Linda shoot (at Waite House). Anyone else who wants to help out at this shoot should coordinate with Linda.
Mon 1 May -- review footage and decide on a preliminary list of shots (at Intermedia Arts) . Please put this on your calendar now. It's important that we all attend.

The schedule for the editing process will depend on the parties involved. Just remember that our goal is to show a rough cut to the rest of CTEP (for feedback) on May 19. As we continue to work on this project, think of questions you'd like the rest of the Corps to think about/answer. It's going to be easier to get useful responses from our fellow members if we provide some guidance!

In addition to the shoot at Waite House and the interview at Intermedia, this week we are also going to decide what kind of blank DVDs we'd like CTEP to purchase on our behalf -- I'll need tech specs from the IA lab, as well as any other committee input (Jesse, do you have any thoughts?), before I go to Jeff and ask, ok? I need this by Wednesday, as I'll be unavailable both Thursday and Friday.

On Saturday, we discussed roles for the remainder of the production process. Here's what we came up with then. (Gina, please feel free to say yea or nay to any of this -- or to jump into another role if you like!)

Editing -- Linda, Lauree
Sound -- Jesse
Scriptwriting -- Lauree, Gina, Jesse
Narrator -- Gina (?? would this be okay? We don't want anyone's voice who is already speaking on camera)
Credits and Subtitles -- Lindsey
Legal -- Lindsey (this means I need your release forms, folks! Please contact me if you have any problems with either individual or location releases!)

On Saturday we also discussed our visions of our completed video project. For details, see Linda's forthcoming fabulous committee notes.

Have a great week!

LMF

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