Committee Meeting Notes: May 26, 2006

Today we met at the Lexington Library to work more on the video and toolkit. We started the meeting by talking about the video. Lauree has done some checking on closed captioning options, and there is one in windows Movie Maker that we can maybe use. It’s not true close captioning, but it may work. There are a couple things we need to check on though.

We need to find out if we can toggle the captioning on and off.
The text is also a little to high on the screen and might be too distracting, so we’re looking at ways to address this.

The actual video footage has been cut down quite a bit and is about 10 minutes long. There’s still quite a bit of cutting we’ll have to do, but it’s progressing well. We’re also not going strictly by the thematic outline any more because the interviews don’t quite match it as well. Instead we’re using it as a guide, but letting the interviews tell the story more.

We then talked about the music and audio we want to use. I collected a variety of different types of music that I thought may work well for this kind of video. We listened to them all and had a few ideas. For the beginning and end of the video, we’d maybe like something a little more energetic and with a beat. For the bulk of the narration and interviews, we’d use a little slower piece that would blend well into the background.

Heartland – Has a good beat and would probably work well for the intro and/or conclusion.
Red Mustang – Our second choice for the intro and/or conclusion.
Quiet Storm – this would probably be a good piece for the narration and interviews.

One other thing we need to check on for the video is the actual pixel size of the video. For the toolkit version, it will need to fit in a browser well even at resolutions of 800x600. Google Video and YouTube might be good places to look at as examples.

We wrapped up discussion on the video by talking about some still shots right before the credits that would have websites to the various CTC’s in the video.

We then moved onto the toolkit. This past week, I’ve come up with a rough template, which I showed at the meeting. The overall design is good, so I’ll just need to do some minor editing. The toolkit will be in HTML, and work just like a regular website. The majority of the content will be on the CD though. The first page will have an introduction and the video. There’s a left sidebar that will have the different sections and sub-categories of the toolkit. This is the piece we really need to work on. It’s just a matter of going through all the links on the blog, our old toolkit, and past AU presentations and organize them all into a meaningful structure.

So here’s what we’ll be working on for the next couple of weeks.

Lauree:
Bring a rough draft of the video on CD to Jesse at the June 2 Corps day.
Check into a toggle for the captioning and options for making it lower on-screen.
Continue video editing.

Jesse
Contact Jeff about use of the CTEP logo for the toolkit.
Start organizing the various links and resources into categories for the toolkit.
Work more on finalizing the template and start adding content.

Minneapolis Public Library - Biblioteca Central

You may want to check this site out in person. The newest addition to the Minneapolis Public Libraries, has an Assistive Technology area with approximately 6 terminals. It was explained that they would be able to give you limited assistance with learning to use the equipment. They do have six terminals available with auditory equipment, magnification equipment, easily manipulated trackballs, along with several other hardware items that are available. I wasn't able to get the best look today, but I plan on going back. The best times to go to the library were indicated as during school hours least busy, after school hours busy, evening busy and Saturday very busy. The staff that will assist you are located in the Children's Library section, presently. The new library is located at 300 Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis. The library telephone is 612-630-6000, the direct AT telephone is 612-630-6280. The hours are Monday - Thursday 10-8, Tuesday - Wednesday 10-6 and Friday - Saturday 10-5.

The website for the library isn't even updated yet with the AT information. Minneapolis Libraries

Committee Meeting Notes: May 19, 2006

During the May 19 Corps day, we had an hour of committee time. We worked more on planning for the video and toolkit. Lindsey has officially resigned from the committee. Lauree now has all of the release forms for the people and locations in the video.

We talked a little bit more about what video format we’d use, and where we’d host it online. The media committee has been using both Google Video and YouTube, free online video hosting services, and they both seem to work well. It’s highly likely we’ll use one of these sites for hosting our video online.

We’re also currently working on transcribing all of the dialog from the interviews to text. This will make it easier to find good sound bites for the video, and make things easier when doing closed captioning. One thing we did find out though was the audio was only coming from the left speaker, so when doing the actual video, we’ll need to make sure it’s coming more from the center channel.

We’ll be meeting next Friday to work more on the video and toolkit. We originally planned to meet at the CTEP office, but this might not be possible.

Lauree will check with Rox to see if we can meet at the CTEP office on Friday at 9:00 AM.
Jesse will check with Lexington Library if we can meet there at the same time should CTEP not work.

This week, we’ll be working more on the video and toolkit.

Lauree will:
Continue video editing, picking the best shots and cutting the ones that we can no longer use or that don’t look good.
Check into different closed captioning tools and resources.
One idea was to talk with Kevin from the media committee and work with captioning one of their videos for practice.


Jesse will:
Transcribe the interview audio to text and E-mail it to the rest of the committee.
E-mail the music site I’ve been using to the committee.
Work more with different template options for the toolkit including finding possible buttons for the navigation area of the page.
Find a few more songs for the video’s background music.

Next Committee Meeting:
Friday May 26, 2006
Location will probably either be at CTEP or Lexington Library
Time: 9:00 AM
We’ll all bring what we’ve been working on for the video and toolkit to the meeting.
We’ll pick the background music for the video.
We’ll also place the interviews into the different topics covered in the video.

Finally, there will be no committee meeting on June 9.