Our MySpace Presentation

We're so living "in the now" that it's easy to almost forget that we all enjoyed and appreciated an expertly orchestrated, impressively informative presentation on "MySpace-the Generation Gap" hosted by a diligent group of 8th graders. The presentation opened with an amusing depiction of "The Authoritarian Parent" by "Mother" Clara Jessup, "Daughter" Gemma O'Neil and "Narrator" Lilly Cazier. From there, "MySpace Experts" - Emma McCune, Sam Skidmore and Jackie Greer took us on an informative tour of MySpace World...harkening to two contrasting pages: the Good Sally versus the Bad Sally! We were shown how to insure privacy and safe practice on MySpace and learned about the various modes of communication within that system (comments, messages, IMs...) T-Mike and Emily moderated a thought-provoking panel discussion on the generation gap created by MySpace tensions. The panel consisted of Phil McCune (Emma's dad), Stephanie Solien (Jackie's mom), and Tracie Holiday-Robinson (T'Mike's mom) as well as students Gillian, Maya, Le'Jayah and Maddy. Provocative questions about parent/child communication, cyber-fears, psychic safety and acceptable family ground rules held the audience's attention and spawned further questions during a brief Q&A period, moderated by Anja. Interspersed throughout the program were vignettes on Cyberspace Parenting Techniques by Troupe Clara/Gemma/Lilly: "The Negligent Parent," "The Indulgent Parent" and finally, "The Authoritative Parent."

I've passed on to our students the many rave reviews I received verbally right after the event and through emails in the days that followed. Like you, Bert and I were very impressed with our students' depth and intelligence as they crafted this informative experience for the SGS adult community. One audience member suggested we take our show on the road - to other schools! Now there's a thought...!

On Location!

Friday saw the entire 8th grade class "on location" at West Seattle's "Camp Long" - where we managed to orchestrate a full day of filming - capturing more than thirty discrete scene segments. Taking into consideration that each scene typically involves five to ten takes, we can be justifiably proud of our day's work!! Our students are to be commended for their impressive focus, hustle and good humor as we played a fairly consistent game of "Hurry Up and Wait!" - sharing tech resources as well as student talent. On Monday, in addition to a couple of re-takes of problematical shots, we'll dive right into scene editing as well as final editing - as we push towards our World Premiere on Friday, June 6th! (at the Museum of Flight's Allen Theater...doors open at 6 pm/curtain at 6:30...remember??)

More as it happens...

And the beat goes on!! (...til the very end!)

We're continuing to make progress on the several salient projects that should carry us to the brink of graduation - most notably the 8th Grade Production (Friday, June 6, 6 pm) and our up-coming MySpace Workshop/Presentation (May 28th 6:30-7:30) To these ends, we have averaged about 5 to 8 "on location" shots per afternoon - all the while maintaining the mornings for our core academics: Math - both Algebra and Geometry - Spanish, Health & Fitness, and MySpace considerations.
The Production involves more and more applied technology these days as students film their segments and then edit them, using both iMovie and a new program we've purchased called "Final Cut Pro." We still have three fairly large "shoots" to orchestrate before we can focus completely on our final edit! We'll carpool to West Seattle's "Camp Long" midday next Thursday (May 29th) and then all day on Friday (May 30th.) We're definitely in "Little Engine That Could" mode when it comes to the Production!!
Our MySpace Presentation is coming along as well. Not only are we crafting and rehearsing the various segments that will come together to constitute what we envision will be an entertaining as well as informative event, but we're also continuing to hone our critical thinking and close reading skills as we work with articles and various online resources. Both Bert and I were favorably impressed with our students' ability to read, annotate and discuss meaningful points in our ongoing effort to wax "clear, cogent and convincing" in our preparations - as the lawyerly among us might say!
Thanks in advance to our carpoolers for next Thursday's "shoot" - "the Colleens" - McQueen and Tremaine-Nelson, Jean Carter, Anne Fote, Grace Schuman, Stephanie Solien, Anne Hartley-Willis...oh and Marja's van!! We couldn't do it without you!! Also, a reminder that all 8th graders should be delivered to "Camp Long" in West Seattle by 9 am on Friday, May 30th...and retrieved at 3:30 that same day! We leave those transportation arrangements up to you! (5200 35th Ave SW, Seattle 98126 (206) 684-7434...Google Camp Long, Seattle for directions!)

More as it happens...

MySpace Research

In preparation for our MySpace workshop for all of you, the girls are sinking their teeth into current research on predator and privacy dangers, both the realities and the myths. Their goal is to come to the workshop prepared with specific recommendations for parents on how to engage with them around these issues. The articles they are reading come from a variety of perspectives in the national community, including the Crimes Against Children Research Center, the National School Boards Association, the American Psychological Association, and a study on parenting styles from California State University. Feel free to click on the above links to access the articles they are reading, get up to speed for the workshop and follow up with your daughter.

Making Movies Like the Pros

We have been had a variety of activities over the last few weeks to support our production work and to give the girls both a conceptual and technical grasp of how to make a movie like the professionals do. First, we spent a few days getting back up to speed on our iMovie and camera skills and also introduced the basics of our video and lighting equipment. We are excited to add this year not only professional lights for our indoor scenes, but also a full complement of cameras capable of shooting in High Definition (HD). We have already shot several scenes, and for those of you who have HDTV at home, you know - it looks beautiful!

We also were privileged last week to host SaraJennifer (SJ) Chiro, a renowned local director who has created several award winning film shorts and is also world premiering her latest film at the Seattle International Film Festival. She continued the work we started last week on techniques for framing shots and also worked with the girls on how to direct a scene and get down to the essence to the emotional needs of the whole film. She also showed us her short film "Little Red Riding Hood" which was a wonderful reinterpretation of the classic tale.

Lastly, SIFF gave us the wonderful opportunity to attend the press screening for a film by Nina Paley called Sita Sings the Blues. Not only was this an wonderful and funny film that used a variety of animation techniques, it wove in a number of the themes we have been working with this year including ancient and modern Hinduism, the continued relevance of historical blues music, and even the dangers of digital love letters. If this sounds eclectic, this movie was all that and more. Make sure to ask your daughter about her impressions.