12/10 7 hours
12/12 8 hours
12/14 8 hours, total 184.5 hours
Since I only had finals on one day this week, I spent a lot more time in the office. A lot of it was spent with the brochure and the girl who came in to take pictures. Apparently she is a photojournalism student at CMU and had to take something like 200 pictures that were supposed to be able to tell a story just by looking at them. So she came in and took a lot of pictures around the studio, but since we didn't really have much going on I'm not sure how she's going to tell a story with the images. Hopefully we'll get a copy of them though, because I need more images to add to the brochure and there's bound to be something useful in a batch of 200. When/if we're going to get them... the girl said that she'd send a dvd with the images but it's really hard to count on people who have no real ties with your organization. She came in last Friday and then again on Monday, and the semester ended on Friday so it seems like it would be possible to get a dvd soon. No luck thus far, so maybe over break or the beginning of next year? I did get the opportunity to explain the background and purpose of public access television to the photographer though, which was good because it helped someone else understand the importance of what we do, and it made me feel good to know that I can explain it in such a way that it makes sense to other people and proves that I've learned something over the last few months.
The big issue this week: PA 480.
-The uniform franchise agreement that's been causing so much trouble. It's not the fact that it's a uniform agreement, because the rates at which the cable companies must pay is comparable to what it was before. It's the fact that it negates any other agreements or franchise compromises that were in existence, even though some still had between another year to 10 years left on the agreements. Which means that some townships may actually be losing money because the old agreements are now negated. Additionally, PA 480 is giving more power to the big cable companies. This is a bad thing because what the FCC created to give the common people a voice through Public Access Television, they are now rendering powerless to retain negotiation and funding abilities. That is, the cable companies now all have a uniform franchise agreement, which means that the individual communities or consortiums that used to have the power to negotiate now only get whatever the companies decide to give. The power has been taken wholly out of the hands of public access and given to the big companies who don't care about the people.
The bigger issue this week: ALMA and PA 480
-Charter has been sending out the uniform agreements to each of our member communities, which they were in turn supposed to send to us so we could finish filling them in and get everything all worked out. And if I haven't mentioned before, Alma has been giving the consortium a really hard time about everything from the old Gratiot coordinator retiring to not wanting to share the Gratiot facility. For some reason, even though they're members of the consortium, they don't really want to act like members, which is a strange thing that I don't really understand still. The main problem this week, and oh my gosh was it a problem:
----Charter sent Alma the uniform franchise agreement. Instead of forwarding it to us to take care of (which would make sense, because one of our main purposes is to serve as the legal protection for the members) THEY SENT A LETTER TO CHARTER SAYING THAT THE AGREEMENT WASN'T FILLED OUT PROPERLY. There are multiple problems with this action:
1) the parts that weren't filled out by Charter were SUPPOSED TO BE FILLED OUT BY THE COMMUNITY
2) the other 3 communities to send the agreement back were fined $20,000 for delaying the franchising process by some board or other run by the state of Michigan.
Herein lies the problem: Alma didn't follow the proper procedures and send the letter to Charter. Because they're a member of ours, this reflects poorly on us. Also, because they're a member of ours we may get hit with a very large fine which we don't need. And Charter made a point to email the letter they were sent to Jan and ask what it was all about in a tone that indicated they were none too pleased with the situation. COMMUNICATION ISSUES GALORE. When a very irate Jan called to explain the situation to the people down in Alma, they were rather surprised and actually started to cooperate with us (which is a bigger surprise). Hopefully there is no lawsuit, as our lawyer sent Charter a letter almost immediately that retracted the Alma letter; now it's just "wait and see". What a way to end the semester...
Friday, January 4, 2008
Pre-Finals week
12/3- 2 hours
12/5- 2 hours
12/7- 8 hours, total 161.5 hours
It was really cool coming to work and being able to discuss some real life experience in the field. In fact, it might have been my proudest moment so far at the station, because for the first time I not only knew what I learned here in the studio, but also was able to bring outside experiences in and discuss them with people who knew what I was talking about. I mean, it was cool explaining to my parents what I did, but they didn't really understand the whole thing because of the technical aspects of it. And here I was, having an intelligent conversation about equipment and showing off my first press pass. Victory!
I've been making progress with the brochure too, although it's been taking a while. As it turns out, the pre-made brochure format that comes with the InDesign program isn't actually formatted to fit an 8.5x11 page. Or rather, it is but it's not clear that it is because on the page there are a lot of little grid marks that show you how far from the "edge" of the page you're getting. So I've been trying to make all the information and images fit into the little area and it's not been working, which has been one of the most frustrating assignments I've come across. So I printed a test version of the image only to find that it was too small. Apparently those grid lines actually don't go to the edge of the page, but instead there is an additional margin that isn't accounted for, so the image you create, unless you go all the way to the edge of the workable area, ends up being too small. However, I reworded a lot of the brochure, making it more concise and getting rid of some old information while updating new information. Overall, it's a vast improvement in terms of the message being sent. I also updated the images that appear in this version of the brochure. It definitely needs more images, but we don't have any that would work within the area and the feel of the new brochure, so we need to get more images that I can Photoshop to fit here. That's the task for next week, as well at tweaking the brochure more. It's improved, but by no means done. I am, however, really proud of the images on the front and back pages of the brochure because I used photoshop to combine multiple pictures to create those images, and I think they turned out really good- especially the front.
12/5- 2 hours
12/7- 8 hours, total 161.5 hours
It was really cool coming to work and being able to discuss some real life experience in the field. In fact, it might have been my proudest moment so far at the station, because for the first time I not only knew what I learned here in the studio, but also was able to bring outside experiences in and discuss them with people who knew what I was talking about. I mean, it was cool explaining to my parents what I did, but they didn't really understand the whole thing because of the technical aspects of it. And here I was, having an intelligent conversation about equipment and showing off my first press pass. Victory!
I've been making progress with the brochure too, although it's been taking a while. As it turns out, the pre-made brochure format that comes with the InDesign program isn't actually formatted to fit an 8.5x11 page. Or rather, it is but it's not clear that it is because on the page there are a lot of little grid marks that show you how far from the "edge" of the page you're getting. So I've been trying to make all the information and images fit into the little area and it's not been working, which has been one of the most frustrating assignments I've come across. So I printed a test version of the image only to find that it was too small. Apparently those grid lines actually don't go to the edge of the page, but instead there is an additional margin that isn't accounted for, so the image you create, unless you go all the way to the edge of the workable area, ends up being too small. However, I reworded a lot of the brochure, making it more concise and getting rid of some old information while updating new information. Overall, it's a vast improvement in terms of the message being sent. I also updated the images that appear in this version of the brochure. It definitely needs more images, but we don't have any that would work within the area and the feel of the new brochure, so we need to get more images that I can Photoshop to fit here. That's the task for next week, as well at tweaking the brochure more. It's improved, but by no means done. I am, however, really proud of the images on the front and back pages of the brochure because I used photoshop to combine multiple pictures to create those images, and I think they turned out really good- especially the front.
MAC Championship Game
12/1/2007- 6 hours, total 149.5
Guess who got to work with ESPN! That's right, I did! Thanks to meeting some people here at the station, I made some connections and got hooked up with ESPN for some football games. Networking in action, to be sure. My job was to hold a parabolic microphone, which looks like a big salad bowl with a microphone facing backwards in it. And it was wireless, which is good because it makes moving around on the sidelines a whole lot easier because you don't have to worry about how far the cable can reach, or coiling it back up as you move (most likely, there would have been someone trailing the mic holding the cable if it had one), and it's lighter when it's not attached to anything that's holding it down. It kind of looks like the drawing that I made here, because it's a big half-sphere (hence the parab name), and then it has handles on either side, and a little transmitter/receiver box on the top and the sides where the handles are, and then in the front there's a bar across the dome and it has a microphone positioned on it that faces toward the back of the dome. (you may have to click the little image to see the actual thing I drew, it doesn't seem to be posting properly for some reason)
Essentially, the parab focuses the sound so whatever area you point it at, it picks up that noise and kind of negates other noise around it because it has such a focused scope. It sounds really cool because you can point it at the ground where people are running and hear their footsteps from 20 yards away. It was awesome! I got paid to watch a football game and learn more about the technology that I may some day be working with.
Guess who got to work with ESPN! That's right, I did! Thanks to meeting some people here at the station, I made some connections and got hooked up with ESPN for some football games. Networking in action, to be sure. My job was to hold a parabolic microphone, which looks like a big salad bowl with a microphone facing backwards in it. And it was wireless, which is good because it makes moving around on the sidelines a whole lot easier because you don't have to worry about how far the cable can reach, or coiling it back up as you move (most likely, there would have been someone trailing the mic holding the cable if it had one), and it's lighter when it's not attached to anything that's holding it down. It kind of looks like the drawing that I made here, because it's a big half-sphere (hence the parab name), and then it has handles on either side, and a little transmitter/receiver box on the top and the sides where the handles are, and then in the front there's a bar across the dome and it has a microphone positioned on it that faces toward the back of the dome. (you may have to click the little image to see the actual thing I drew, it doesn't seem to be posting properly for some reason)
Essentially, the parab focuses the sound so whatever area you point it at, it picks up that noise and kind of negates other noise around it because it has such a focused scope. It sounds really cool because you can point it at the ground where people are running and hear their footsteps from 20 yards away. It was awesome! I got paid to watch a football game and learn more about the technology that I may some day be working with.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
After Thanksgiving
11/26- 2 hours
11/28- 2 hours
11/30- 6 hours. total 143.5 hours
By Friday of this week my Microsoft Office package still has not arrived, which is frustrating because it is very difficult to complete projects without the appropriate software on my computer. However, I do have InDesign, which is very important because I officially started the brochure this week. I've been planning the layout and wording for the last few weeks, though it wasn't actually put into motion until this week. It's going to be an interesting experience because I've never worked with InDesign before- the good thing is that it is very similar to Photoshop and so it shouldn't be that hard to figure out. This version of the brochure isn't going to be much different from the last version except that the fonts will be different and the information will be more up to date.
I've also been working on collecting more information for the upcoming conference that we're to be hosting late next year. While it seems like a year is a long time to plan something, in reality it's a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. One of the benefits of hosting the conference though is all the publicity the TV station will get, which is good because having a community television station that not a lot of people know about is kind of pointless. Like I've been reading in a lot of the articles about public access television, the station is only as good as the community, and if the people of the community are not interested or involved, it's not going to be a very good station. In addition to planning for the conference, we've been trying to figure out how to revamp our training classes in such a way as to include more media literacy information. The most important aspect that we have to incorporate into the training is the part about HOW to get people's ideas out- how to communicate clearly and get the point across in the way in which the producer intends. These are ideas that have been kind of lacking in the research articles- there's information about the technology and getting people to show up, but a lot of the articles are lacking in I guess it would be diversity, in the idea that people have differing opinions and goals when producing shows and there doesn't seem to be a good way to get the people to understand how to be creative and actually communicate their main ideas effectively. "Making Public Access Television: Community Participation, Media Literacy and the Public Sphere", authored by Donna L. King and Christopher Mele, published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media/Fall 1999 kind of hit on this idea but it seem so far to be the only article addressing this issue. That is, the issue being public access television being dismissed as amateur television with no depth when in fact it could have depth, if the people producing the shows were better prepared to express their ideas.
Another issue I've come across so far this semester is the fact that I have ideas for TV shows but not quite enough time to get them produced. I'm considering waiting until next semester and just producing a series each week, which would be something similar to the Colbert report or the Daly Show. I had the idea for the "Bubble Wrap" show where I did a quick little skit on different ways to pop bubble wrap, which would have been funny but overall not any kind of intellectual contribution to the channel. Then I had the idea to do something like a series of random flash animations/short cartoons, which would also have been interesting or amusing but not really any useful kind of contribution to the channel. It was then that I realized, if I were to have a show that was like a half hour each week, I could incorporate these mini-ideas into the show, and even have (the coolest thing ever) Alice Appreciation time, where during each show we play an Alice Cooper song and discuss how great Alice is (because he's my favorite musician ever, by far). In addition to all of the trivial ideas here though, I would also format it into a sort of talk show, where I could discuss real issues, whether it's something to do with public access, school, customers at restaurants who should be nice to their servers, etc. It would be a show that is both amusing and somewhat informational, which is more of a contribution to the sphere of public access. Giving opinions and backing them up, and hopefully getting a response. I could have guest appearances- so far the only person I have lined up is TJ, the other guy who works here at the TV station, but it could expand. I've decided though that this must be a project for next semester, which is kind of bad because I know I had put in the objectives that I wanted to produce my own show, but it just seems like it would be better to learn more technical stuff about running the equipment and stuff now and making a better show later on. I do, however, have a flash movie that I've been working on partially in my art class and mostly here at the station that I could use as a show; as long as we put it on TV it counts as a show, and this is a real possibility. For my Digital Art Studio we had to make a flash presentation of our family heritage project, and mine totally rocks. It's got animations and narration done by TJ and myself. It's pretty funny, and I think that it shows a lot of my technical skills that I've learned this semester. To do the audio, we hooked up a microphone to a video camera, and then connected the camera directly to the editing computer so when we recorded the audio it went straight to Final Cut Pro. I also got to use my Photoshop skills to make the initial image, and then the best part was using the skills I learned at the conference to animate and incorporate everything into Flash. When it was all finished, I had a 3 minute video about my dysfunctional family history. Even though it's kind of fulfilling two requirements for different classes, I think it's impressive that I used the skills learned in my internship to do my homework.
This kind of ties in with my realization that I didn't do a very good job when writing my objectives at the beginning of this semester, partially because I just didn't know what to expect. I think it'll be easier next semester, now that I know more about the functions of the station, my personal functions as an employee and other related topics.
11/28- 2 hours
11/30- 6 hours. total 143.5 hours
By Friday of this week my Microsoft Office package still has not arrived, which is frustrating because it is very difficult to complete projects without the appropriate software on my computer. However, I do have InDesign, which is very important because I officially started the brochure this week. I've been planning the layout and wording for the last few weeks, though it wasn't actually put into motion until this week. It's going to be an interesting experience because I've never worked with InDesign before- the good thing is that it is very similar to Photoshop and so it shouldn't be that hard to figure out. This version of the brochure isn't going to be much different from the last version except that the fonts will be different and the information will be more up to date.
I've also been working on collecting more information for the upcoming conference that we're to be hosting late next year. While it seems like a year is a long time to plan something, in reality it's a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. One of the benefits of hosting the conference though is all the publicity the TV station will get, which is good because having a community television station that not a lot of people know about is kind of pointless. Like I've been reading in a lot of the articles about public access television, the station is only as good as the community, and if the people of the community are not interested or involved, it's not going to be a very good station. In addition to planning for the conference, we've been trying to figure out how to revamp our training classes in such a way as to include more media literacy information. The most important aspect that we have to incorporate into the training is the part about HOW to get people's ideas out- how to communicate clearly and get the point across in the way in which the producer intends. These are ideas that have been kind of lacking in the research articles- there's information about the technology and getting people to show up, but a lot of the articles are lacking in I guess it would be diversity, in the idea that people have differing opinions and goals when producing shows and there doesn't seem to be a good way to get the people to understand how to be creative and actually communicate their main ideas effectively. "Making Public Access Television: Community Participation, Media Literacy and the Public Sphere", authored by Donna L. King and Christopher Mele, published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media/Fall 1999 kind of hit on this idea but it seem so far to be the only article addressing this issue. That is, the issue being public access television being dismissed as amateur television with no depth when in fact it could have depth, if the people producing the shows were better prepared to express their ideas.
Another issue I've come across so far this semester is the fact that I have ideas for TV shows but not quite enough time to get them produced. I'm considering waiting until next semester and just producing a series each week, which would be something similar to the Colbert report or the Daly Show. I had the idea for the "Bubble Wrap" show where I did a quick little skit on different ways to pop bubble wrap, which would have been funny but overall not any kind of intellectual contribution to the channel. Then I had the idea to do something like a series of random flash animations/short cartoons, which would also have been interesting or amusing but not really any useful kind of contribution to the channel. It was then that I realized, if I were to have a show that was like a half hour each week, I could incorporate these mini-ideas into the show, and even have (the coolest thing ever) Alice Appreciation time, where during each show we play an Alice Cooper song and discuss how great Alice is (because he's my favorite musician ever, by far). In addition to all of the trivial ideas here though, I would also format it into a sort of talk show, where I could discuss real issues, whether it's something to do with public access, school, customers at restaurants who should be nice to their servers, etc. It would be a show that is both amusing and somewhat informational, which is more of a contribution to the sphere of public access. Giving opinions and backing them up, and hopefully getting a response. I could have guest appearances- so far the only person I have lined up is TJ, the other guy who works here at the TV station, but it could expand. I've decided though that this must be a project for next semester, which is kind of bad because I know I had put in the objectives that I wanted to produce my own show, but it just seems like it would be better to learn more technical stuff about running the equipment and stuff now and making a better show later on. I do, however, have a flash movie that I've been working on partially in my art class and mostly here at the station that I could use as a show; as long as we put it on TV it counts as a show, and this is a real possibility. For my Digital Art Studio we had to make a flash presentation of our family heritage project, and mine totally rocks. It's got animations and narration done by TJ and myself. It's pretty funny, and I think that it shows a lot of my technical skills that I've learned this semester. To do the audio, we hooked up a microphone to a video camera, and then connected the camera directly to the editing computer so when we recorded the audio it went straight to Final Cut Pro. I also got to use my Photoshop skills to make the initial image, and then the best part was using the skills I learned at the conference to animate and incorporate everything into Flash. When it was all finished, I had a 3 minute video about my dysfunctional family history. Even though it's kind of fulfilling two requirements for different classes, I think it's impressive that I used the skills learned in my internship to do my homework.
This kind of ties in with my realization that I didn't do a very good job when writing my objectives at the beginning of this semester, partially because I just didn't know what to expect. I think it'll be easier next semester, now that I know more about the functions of the station, my personal functions as an employee and other related topics.
Pre-Turkey Day
11/19- 2 hours
11/21- 5 hours, for a total of 133.5 hours
This week was full of communication issues. First, we have been having issues with Charter and the new resolution that has been passed, which pretty much cancels our franchise and makes the whole state of Michigan adhere to a uniform franchise agreement or else forfeit funding. This wouldn't be too bad, because the payments aren't any lower, except that Charter is now sending all of the money to the townships and then making them cut the consortium a check, which is a pain for everyone, will most likely cause tensions between the communities and the consortium, and will also limit the information we receive about the community subscribers. Charter used to break down the franchise payment schedule and pay the communities 3% and the consortium 2%, which is the agreement that we have between the communities and the consortium. Charter also used to send us a detailed breakdown of the monetary amounts, which made tracking easier. Now, in an effort to deter communities from being members of the consortium (because there is power in numbers) they are sending the whole 5% to the communities and then the communities have to cut us a check. Needless to say, the community members are not super happy with seeing how much money they send us each quarter; even though they agreed to the percentage as a tradeoff for being a member, its hard to see the use of sending off thousands of dollars. While we're convinced that this is a underhanded ploy to deter membership and ultimately the knowledge of the member communities, there is nothing we can do about it and so we're sure to be looking at some rough times ahead.
Additionally, the computer that I use here at the station does not have the Microsoft Office package installed on it. Will (the volunteer who is always around) called and ordered it from some supplier, and it took a very long time to place the order because he insisted on getting the government pricing for the station (being that we are a sort of government entity). However, this was a very long process and involved a lot of calling back and forth between the station and the supplier, and I'm pretty sure that the whole thing wasn't worth the effort in order to save a few extra dollars. However, hopefully I will be able to have full use of my computer by sometime next week, which would be nice because I wouldn't have to use multiple machines to get simple tasks accomplished.
11/21- 5 hours, for a total of 133.5 hours
This week was full of communication issues. First, we have been having issues with Charter and the new resolution that has been passed, which pretty much cancels our franchise and makes the whole state of Michigan adhere to a uniform franchise agreement or else forfeit funding. This wouldn't be too bad, because the payments aren't any lower, except that Charter is now sending all of the money to the townships and then making them cut the consortium a check, which is a pain for everyone, will most likely cause tensions between the communities and the consortium, and will also limit the information we receive about the community subscribers. Charter used to break down the franchise payment schedule and pay the communities 3% and the consortium 2%, which is the agreement that we have between the communities and the consortium. Charter also used to send us a detailed breakdown of the monetary amounts, which made tracking easier. Now, in an effort to deter communities from being members of the consortium (because there is power in numbers) they are sending the whole 5% to the communities and then the communities have to cut us a check. Needless to say, the community members are not super happy with seeing how much money they send us each quarter; even though they agreed to the percentage as a tradeoff for being a member, its hard to see the use of sending off thousands of dollars. While we're convinced that this is a underhanded ploy to deter membership and ultimately the knowledge of the member communities, there is nothing we can do about it and so we're sure to be looking at some rough times ahead.
Additionally, the computer that I use here at the station does not have the Microsoft Office package installed on it. Will (the volunteer who is always around) called and ordered it from some supplier, and it took a very long time to place the order because he insisted on getting the government pricing for the station (being that we are a sort of government entity). However, this was a very long process and involved a lot of calling back and forth between the station and the supplier, and I'm pretty sure that the whole thing wasn't worth the effort in order to save a few extra dollars. However, hopefully I will be able to have full use of my computer by sometime next week, which would be nice because I wouldn't have to use multiple machines to get simple tasks accomplished.
After Conference
The week after the conference we didn't work on Monday because some of the employees went to Chicago for a short vacation. I had to stay behind and go to classes, but we resumed business hours the rest of the week. Wednesday, 11/14 I worked for 2 hours and Friday 11/16 I worked for 6 hours, which brings the contact hours up to 126.5 hours. Both of these days were spent reviewing what we learned at the conference, which was actually a whole lot. Additionally, we will be hosting the 2008 ACM Regional Conference here in Mt. Pleasant, which means that a) it is very important to make notes of what we liked and what we didn't like about this conference, b) start making lists of where we could hold the conference, where people could stay, who we could get as a keynote speaker, etc etc. Our first choices: hold the conference at the casino and hopefully cut a nice deal with the tribe so we can get cheap rooms for the conference guests. Also, get Jeff Daniels to come as the keynote speaker, because he is very involved with public theater and community events. For the Philo Award ceremony we will use the Broadway Theater downtown, which is partly why we want Jeff Daniels. This will tie in the public with the event and since we are closely tied with the Broadway it will be easy and cheap to use. There is so much left to do, and hopefully we can get our first choices of locations and such, but it's looking hopeful because we still have a year to plan. Luckily, the tribe is very involved with MAC3TV in terms of productions and community activities, so we're hopeful that this will work to our advantage. I've started a file in my drawer at the station with any relevant information or ideas that pertain to the next conference. We were thinking about having it right around Halloween week; the elections are in November so that would be an inopportune time to host it on account of low attendance rates. The cool thing about having it around Halloween is that the theme could be "Philoween" and we could do a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture show at the Broadway. I've started on a few ideas for the Philoween graphic, which I think will have a pumpkin "carved" with an image of a television with Philo T. Farnsworth's head in the screen. I'm pretty sure I can use Photoshop to design the image; I've had enough classes with graphic design that I can work the program pretty well- I'm excited about the whole idea and it's going to be fun seeing how it progresses.
Book keeping info
Starting from where the digital journal left off before break, I had a total of 118.5 hours. However, this was only up to 11/9/2007. which was while I was at the regional conference- I've been keeping a journal in a notebook as things happen but in terms of transcribing it into here, it has been a slow process. I'm going to add the rest of the entries over the next day or so, which will get the journal aspect of the internship fulfilled. I think I've learned something for next semester, which is that I really should just get my journal done once in the digital format, instead of writing it in a notebook and then trying to transfer the ideas afterward, or at least keep up on it better than I have been this semester.
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