Last day of STN Camp

You know what,  I'll put pictures up tomorrow.  

I only have 10 minutes before we leave for dinner.

37 of us survived STN BOOT CAMP.  We have told them to change the name.  Although the Description does mention the boot camp style.

Some groups were out until 2 am last night EDITING.  Yes, editing.

We were done around 8:30 and I felt proud of that.

The guys were having a hard time getting the shows done and put together by 3 today.  They didn't quite pull that off.

Yes, there were two shows about 20 minutes long of all our big packages from Wednesday and Thursday.  Luckily there were two edit guys that did nothing else, but they still had a hard time getting it all together.

Well, I'm whipped, it's 5:45 central time and we are off to dinner.

Day 3, I think can't remember anymore and Day 4

Okay,

So the last two days have been just a great big blur.  Even with them canceling the 8:30 meeting this morning.
On Wednesday we spent a lot of time all morning in different classes.  We had a guy come in from New York talking about letting the students put video up on the internet and have the chance to be on Channel One.  Well, he was in for it with our group.

The things that will go wrong always go wrong.  We gave him a LOT to think about.  He mentioned it was his worse nightmare to be in front of so many teachers.  Ha ha,  he was right.

So here we all our in the main classroom, talking about everything in our funny grey green shirts to identify us on the evil evening trip.

We were sent to Branson, MO. 

Someone described it as Ned Flanders idea of what Las Vegas should really be.  They were right, except it is in the hills much like the Dells in Wisconsin.  They even had DUCKs.  I wanted to go for a ride.

Anyway, we were out taping from 7:30 pm until 9:30pm.  Yes, the sun went down on the interview.  I didn't get quite the footage I needed in order to make the whole thing work quite as well.  The sun going down hurt us a bit.

We didn't back until 12:15 central time.  AHHHH.

Hence the later meeting on Thursday. 

And here is the man who thought up all this crazy stuff, Dave Davis.

He is been a great deal of fun.

He keeps teaching others what to do and steps back for them to do the hard work.  He mentioned that Friday he'll be more in charge as the helpers will all be up till 4 in the morning putting together the show.

Thursday - the evil day.  We wandered in a little late and ran through a ton of stuff.  Then by 11 am we were sitting at editors trying to make a news package out of the stuff we had shot last night.

Ours sounds really good, but visually it does not cut it in my book.  Not enough b-roll to show what we are talking about.

I have some really awesome outside shots of the Titanic experience in Branson.

Ok, so my shot is faked, cause my partner is in another room. 

This is my partner Sherry.   She is so much fun. 

She is from Kentucky and has the cutest accent.

She pulled out the story and I had to teach her to write conversationally.

She was pulling out all these big words.  I kept saying, make it shorter.  Make it clearer.  Make is simpler.

Then I sent the poor girl back the the sound booth to redo our voice overs.  She was being very careful and enunciating everything and talking slow.

Her second try was golden and we have a great audio track.

To bad the video doesn't quite cut it.

Things Tammy should have brought to camp.

New headphones,  Chris I need a new pair of AVG's.

My darn light and battery belt, Even though it weighs 20 pounds.  I needed the light twice this week.  It certainly got dark last night and theaters never have enough light.

Headphone splitter,  people were getting very testy trying to hear their stuff with 20 other people doing the same thing in the same room.  Both of you wear headphones and it can be quite as a church.

Hmm, I need a new tripod.  Anyone wanna get me a Bogen.  Actually I should get one through Naarah, that should be a good idea for Christmas.......

My darn rain gear, got that new jacket and totally forgot it.  That is what I get for cleaning out my car.  

I have had a great week, but I am totally beat.

Looks like I'm stopping in Chicago Saturday night, Christine and I got together finally on the phone and I'll be staying there.  Hurray.

See you all next week.

STN Camp Day 3

Another Long day......

After going a morning of asking each other questions and learning to focus down to the 3 word focus statements, we were sent out to shoot more footage.  It was a silent movie.  We did a lot of pantomiming.

Me freaking out at a bee.  Ok, laugh now.  I'll try to put footage up later.

After lunch and a little meeting we went back into the edit suite to mess with some really bad footage.  We survived and I am getting quite quick with Adobe Premier.  I know I bought the Mac I should be working on the Apple.    But my  group were all adobe people so I am happy to use whatever they wanted.

Once we finally got done, we went to the world famous Lambert's.   Home of the Throwed Rolls.  TOO FUNNY.  Yes, they throw food.  It was fun and it was all you can eat.

No I did not get seconds on my steak.

There we are standing around waiting to go in.  44 of us.  You should have seen the unhappy line behind us.

The last picture is the outside of the apartments.  I know the guys staying in the corner room.  You will probably see my partner in video later.

I am having a good time.   Working my butt off.  Everyone went out to dinner and I did Laundry.  They are all still gone, its 10pm here.  I'm getting ready for bed.  Have a great night.  I'll try to get video up later.

Few days maybe......

Day 2

They had us working our butts off last night.

We were in class from 6:30 to 9.  We were out shoo

ting already.

This morning we started at 8:30.  We went out and shot

 stuff again.

Then had to edit it.  No Audio which made it a little easier.

Then we watched them and got slammed.

Then we did an editing assignment.  It is 6:20 and we are getting ready to leave for dinner.

Here is a couple pictures of my room.

The apartment dorm is awesome.  I wish they had these at MSU.  4 bedrooms with good size closets, 2 people share a bath and one kitchen for all 4.

Locks on your own rooms.  I love it.

so, here are a couple pictures....

St. Louis

Road Trip......

On my way to STN Camp.

Ok, So I'm already at camp- but this was Sunday in St. Louis -  I had a few hours to kill so I went down to the river and to the Arch.  It was cool.

630 feet in the air.  The little bubble thing you go up in is really strange.   Check it out online.

I got a few good pictures.

Then I drove to Springfield.

I got the surprise then.  It is all up and down hill from St. Louis to Springfield.   Think about driving North Kentucky on 75.  That was most of the trip.  Very Tiring.

3 hours and well, cheap gas.  3.79 was the cheapest I saw.  Hopefully I'll find that on the way back.

The Party --

I have been informed I must put up pictures from the party.Ok, so until I get permission, you'll mostly see my friends. Some

people brought their young ones and well, I prefer not to

put little kids pictures on the web. Ok, so Andrea said it was ok. But my mom got the

good pictures of Jilly, so you'll just have to wait.

Lets see, the first one is my brother, trying to turn into grisly adams. Then Jason, we had fun in the corner talking for a while. A decent picture of my mom, and picture of Greg eating, but of course.

And a picture of Andrea, Gilly and Carmen. I hope everyone had a great time.

I was a bit busy. I have a job for

the summer, and well with house cleaning going on, I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I have plenty more to do, so don't fret. Plus I have to get started on Lesson plans for the fall.

I haven't heard if my situation is changing yet, but one can only hope.

I don't

even know if we are getting the equipment we desperately need for the students to move forward in their work.

I leave tomorrow for Springfield MO. Yeah, its way out there in the middle of the country. I get to see St. Louis. So chalk up two more cities that I have visited. I should get to work on my pushpin collection....

Why, you ask?

Television Teacher classes at Drury University and a local high school. A weeklong workshop thing. I am looking forward to it. We'll see how much I remember and how hard they push me. Looking forward to it.

Fireworks

So,  The 4th of July has come and gone again.

We managed to make it to the Wixom Fireworks and had a lovely evening.  I wanted to go to a few more shows, but Tom basically nixed those ideas.  

We went to Cirque Du Soliel on the 4th itself, out in Chicago.  There are lots of tickets between now and August 10th.  Make the trip, it is totally worth it.

Hope to see many of you at our party on July 12th.