DV for Teachers

It’s America’s Independence Day, which many celebrate as the 4th of July. Well, you could celebrate every day (“Happy October 6th!!”), but it’s the day we celebrate our Declaration of Independence, when the founders openly stated we weren’t going to be a colony any more.

It’s also the date of my wedding anniversary, and this year makes the sixth. Good years, and we’re hoping for many more. So as you eat your food from the grill, wave the flag at the parade, and watch the fireworks, we’ll be celebrating our interdependence while we all celebrate our independence.——-

The fall semester starts today. The lab PCs are fully reconfigured, the carpets have been cleaned, and we’ll be doing lots of orientations this week. Welcome to new folks, and welcome back to old friends.——-

“The DLexpo is a unique education and awareness program involving the latest tools and solutions in digital technology. It specifically targets the areas of digital video, photography, music, the Internet, wireless communications and home entertainment.”

I am very interested in this; there’s an Atlanta date in November; Long Beach and New York first. If this comes to your area, consider it. Many high-profile multimedia gurus will be presenting (at least in Long Beach; no details yet for Atl dates), and the prices for educators are cheap. More info on the Atlanta expo when I get them.——-

The Campus MovieFest is coming to Georgia State University in March 2004.

——-

Ralph Fairweather died last week. He was a Final Cut Pro guru, a real
evangelist who tirelessly and selflessly supported anyone with
questions about the program. I never met him, as he was a west coast
guy and I’m in Atlanta, but I have emails from him in my inbox. He and
I had a good idea at about the same time: I started DV for Teachers just two days before he started the DV for Teachers forum at 2-pop. Go read the obituary at LAFCPUG.org.
——-

Quote: “Make your very own church sign, kinda like the ones you see here. Just enter some text and click the ‘Go’ button.”

Comment: This
is just silly, but I like it. Ellen in her travels is collecting
pictures of church signs. Some of them are pretty good. I’ll let her
post those on her site when it’s up and running.

——-

The National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. More at farmountain.com.——-

I went to the screening tonight of some entries to the Atlanta edition of the 48 Hour Film Project. Former ITC assistant Matt Lewis and current assistant Philip Dido had an entry, 48, and a tasty morsel it was, too. Clever parody, timely references, good visuals.

Last Friday at 7 p.m., teams picked a genre from a hat (they got mystery) and were given the required line of dialogue (“All my hopes and dreams are coming true”) and a required prop (a snow globe). The finished (or kind of finished) films must be returned 48 hours later. Some really were weak, but Matt and Philip and their friends and crew did very good work. A couple of them, especially the “mockumentary” Revelation and the Atomic Wedgie, the “romance” Snowblind, and the “fantasy” 8.5×11 were quite good.

This is a great way for students and young filmmakers to get immersed in the medium. I hope it comes to your town.

Of the 12 or so short films I saw tonight, only Matt worked in a Citizen Kane reference with the snow globe. Go boy.

Here’s the heart of downtown Atlanta this morning, just a block away from Georgia State’s College of education.

——-