Synopsis: The fight for control of carnival land will pit clowns against mimes in a musical standoff that will tickle the funny bone and excite the senses. The Ben-Hur of single shot musicals.

A couple weekends back, I helped out on a film shoot as part of the Internation 48 Hour ShootOut. I had worked with the same group of people in November on Quillions, and had a blast again. During production, I was a Production Assistant, helping by controlling music for lipsyncing (I used Remote on my iPod Touch), burning CD’s for practice, taping a mock up of the set on the floor as we only had access to the space for 4 hours, and whatever else needed it. I also worked on Visual Effects, making the mime disappear at the very end. A good, yet busy weekend.
On a different note, I will be starting full time as assistant editor at Idea Spring Editing tomorrow. More on that later.

Quillions from Alan Dague-Greene on Vimeo.

This last weekend, I worked with a great group of people to create this entry into the Panasonic HD Filmmaker Showdown, a 48 Hour Film Fest. 5 groups across the US received a phrase, character, and item to be included, as well as a HPX500 camera. I joined late in the game, and worked as a P.A. It’s an amazing feat- 5 minutes, 1 shot that moves from stairs to courtyard, across a street, into a train station. The guy controlling the iris had a big job, and pulled it off well.

I’ve found that many people get into media because they want to make the world a better place. And the media does have that power. We can create change, and do on a daily basis. Yet creating change and making the world a better place can be two completely different things. Yes, you have the power to change things for the worse. And it’s happened. I think I can safely say that media around the world has encouraged – both implicitly and explicitly – racial and gender injustice, for instance. Yet in those same areas, there has been a lot of positive change brought about by media.

An example: Today I met with a woman who I first met July 2007, at a conference in California where we showed “Fuerza”. Ben (the director) and I had a Q&A session afterwards. This woman asked what she could do about immigration. We gave some generic answers, as well as an idea to work with the Mexican economy to decrease the “push” factor of immigration.

Fast forward a year: this woman has led a discussion group on immigration at her church, traveled to the border to explore sustainable economics with Mexicans, visits undocumented immigrants at the local detention center weekly, meets with an immigrant rights group weekly, and more. And she still isn’t satisfied.

Okay, at this point, I think I must change my mind on an earlier point. The media has little to no power to make actual change. It does, however, have the power to encourage others to work for change. “Fuerza” will not change policy, comfort a mother torn from her family, or create a sustainable local economy. But its viewers can.

Now, media has a strange relationship with poverty, one unlike other genres of social injustice. Making media takes money. In general, creating media is getting cheaper, but it’s still expensive to make a movie, publish a newsletter, or even a blog.

Now, it is wrong to jump in and say, “Oh! I have a voice! I will speak for the poor!” The impoverished have a voice. They know how to speak. They simply don’t have access to the same equipment, connections, etc., that we have due to our privileges. They’re not being heard.

So you’re not a “voice for the voiceless.” Your job as a socially aware media creator is to allow the people who aren’t being heard or are being silenced to speak to those who weren’t listening. These people may be inspired by the new voice to make change.

When dealing with poverty, or any other issue of injustice, you must take into consideration the imbalance. You must realize that perhaps your video has only men, because you only interviewed politicians and other people in positions of power. Recognize the systems at work, and always look on the low side of the power totem pole for your best stories, the other side, and potential to make the world a better place.

Also, a reminder that you can watch my other video projects here.

The producers wanted a shorter, easier to access, and more fun preview than they had gotten in previous years, and that’s what they got!

Yet it doesn’t seem like it’s used very often. In searching the web, it was hard to find any good uses for this function. So, I decided to try and see what I could make.

So I’m happy to announce the release of Compressor2Attachment version 1.0. It will take your freshly compressed file and email it as an attachment to whoever you wish, automatically, and without any help from you.

Well, it will take some set up. One of my goals for this is to get more people working on this, and seeing how easy it actually is to make something that will make your work a lot simpler. So to set it up, you’ll need to get into Script Editor and make some changes. But don’t worry, they’ll be very simple ones, and hopefully explained in the Script notes.

So download by clicking here: Compressor2Attachment.dmg.

I would love your feedback on how to make it more helpful, or ideas for other helpful scripts to run from Compressor.

Notes: This has not been extensively tested. I know that it works with single files on Leopard. You will need to have your Mail set up, as it sends it through your default account. Please test it for yourself before using it for anything important. If you do not edit the script and change the recipient’s email address, you will receive an email response reminding you to do so.

This is the highest yearly award that the Telly’s give, and past winners in the documentary category include Current TV, Broadway Video (founded by Lorne Michaels of SNL fame), Discovery Health, National Geographic, ESPN, The Weather Channel, and more.

For more information, check these links:

• Article in South Bend Tribune
• Goshen College Press Release
• Telly Awards Website

I also linked to a bunch of the work I’ve done for Goshen’s TV production unit, including some more games. Check out the new video portfolio page to see them all!

Tonight I’m heading to Notre Dame to hear Gustavo Gutierrez speak.