Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission

Overview

Grant for community media (must utilize INET) projects. Range is $3,500 to $280,000. Requires 50% matching funds.

Proposal

Free Geek creates industry partnership to provide matching funds for education program expansion. Funding for:

• Finish classroom - construction, acoustics, lighting ($7,500).

• Complete sound system installation ($4,000).

• Purchase DV camera(s) for broadcast quality production ($3,000 - $5,500).

• Sublimental hardware for video editing system (Cinelerra) ($1,000)
  • ideally, we would have the capability of having 2-5 edit stations working at once, this would likely increase the editing station budget to $5,000.--Revphil 10:36, 6 Jan 2006 (PST)

• Program "staff" - Internship ($18,000).

Rough estimate of ask: $34,500 - $41,000

Goals

• Provide series of education videos from Free Geek programs.
  • Card sorting
  • Evaluation
  • Build
  • Adoption Class
  • Recycling Techniques and Ideals
  • Commandline Class
  • Advanced Linux Class
  • Printer Repair Class (in production now)

• Provide volunteer opportunities/trainings around community media projects using Free/Open Source Software.
  • Production
  • Editing: [1] Cinelerra, or FinalCutPro (Probably not until it is open source)
  • Camera use
  • Lighting
  • Streaming

Partners

brainstrom list

• Flir
• Infocus
• HP
• Intel
• OSDL

• Gus Van Sant
• PCM how much might they "charge" for using their space?
  • classes for studio camera/lighting and studio audio are $20.00 per student and last 3 hours
  • 600$-1000 / day for space, + crew, we would have to go though their orentation
  • michelle works with the nonprofits, give a call tuesday 10-6 ext #16
  • Ray Larson Engineer/Technical Director would be able to give more exact estimes
  • each camera is about 20k and that is cheap
• post gracies productions
• infocus
• MNR

teachers

• Chris Dawson podcast [2] http://webcastinabox.com/founders.htm
• Jeff Johnson jeff -at the old- comfrey -doot- net, [3]
  • Jeff is a OpenSource advocate and will help keep Free Geek honest by sharing his knowledge of F/OSS audio/video software
  • Transcode is a suite of command line utilities for transcoding video and audio codecs, and for converting beween different container formats
• blank, other indymedia folk
• ed stansty, Mac podcast video [4]
  • ed has a lot of background in 2-D art and has made a movie about me and darth vader
• Will Luers taylorstreetstudio.com Mac, podcast video [5]
  • Will knows oldskool but is pumped about the new
• dave slay teacher PCM, knows the studio 503.282.3708 slayvid [at the] comcast -dawt- net

Classes

• fonts and titling -brady
• studio production -dave slay
• podcasting -0ed, will, chris
• Camera operation
• principles of editing
  • in camera
• 2d design/video art

Narrative

Film Freek - a Free Geek digital media project.

At the turn of the millenium, Free Geek created a way to take two really big problems and combine them in a way that would solve them both. The problems of ever growing piles of computer e-waste and the lack of digital inclusion come together and cancel each other out as computers destined for the landfills are diverted for either no cost/low cost reuse or responsible recycling. Individuals who do not have access to computer technology volunteer for just 24 hours and are rewarded with a personal computer and the resources and support to use it effectively. Individuals with the desire to learn how to build computers are given that opportunity with a free comprehensive education in computer assembly and introduction to Linux and other Free and Open Source Software. No prior experience with computers is required. A free computer is available to all who finish the basic course. It is in this spirit of community problem solving, free education, hands on skills training and no cost/low cost technology that we want to create the Film Freek project.

Free Geek is spontaneously and rapidly expanding around the country. There are nascent Free Geek Community Technology Centers operating at a variety of levels in 5 states (Portland, Oregon; Olympia, Washington; Columbus, Ohio; South Bend, Indiana; Chicago, Illinois and Ephrata (Lancaster County), Pennsylvania). Free Geek is currently engaged in serious discussions with the community of Gresham to expand our operations with a second facility that could be in place by the end of this year. There are dozens of communities that are asking "how can we do this?" and are just waiting for the right opportunity. All of these communities can benefit from the five plus years of Free Geek's experience. Until now, we have only documented things in writing with the occasional still image or diagram for publishing on the web. For the uninitiated, there is a nearly overwhelming amount of information and some of the basic educational content is lost in all that clutter. Creating digital streaming videos of Free Geek course content will allow organizations that haven't fully developed their education programs to quickly and easily train volunteers to become first rate instructors.

The Film Freek project is designed to teach student volunteers how to create digital media projects and learn professional production skills in a cooperative environment. The selected students will work on a series of progressively more complex projects, while learning to use cost effective methods to produce quality end products. The classes will be free for the students, in exchange for either helping to teach future classes or working on additional content for other projects outside of and in addition to the class projects assigned.

The 12 week course will be offered three times to 6 new students over the course of one year. The course consists of 4 phases from a basic introduction to digital video to helping produce a 1 hour episode of a cable access show, showcasing their work. Final projects for each series of students will consist of documenting education courses that are currently happening at Free Geek.

Phase I Introduction to digital video using open mediacasting. Week 1 – 2

Students learn the basic of composition and lighting using low-resolution digital cameras to produce 3 minute personal projects videos and publishing them on the web. Instructors A and B will work with students to teach them compositional and lighting techniques to create high quality short, 2 minute video projects using simple low-resolution motion cameras. Students will learn to use Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) for all post-production, editing and mediacasting of their individual projects.

Phase II Introduction to documentation Week 3 – 5

Students learn the basics of documenting a single subject. Instructors Phil Sano, B and C will guide the students in creating short segments of one class, training or other educational content. Students will use a F/OSS software basic editor (Kino), with an introduction to iMovie.

Phase III Class projects Week 6- 11

Students assemble the content created in phase two into complete, broadcast ready educational video segments. Instructors Phil Sano, B and C will guide the students in creating, editing and producing the video. Students will use professional editing software, using both F/OSS (Cinellera) and proprietary editing software (Final Cut Pro).

Phase IV FreekTV Show Week 12

Students help produce a one hour segment of FreekTV, a showcase of samples of the students videos from various phases of the project as well as original content. Instructors Phil Santos Al Halper, D and E, working alongside volunteers from Portland Community Media will train students in the various tasks associated with producing a cable access show. Students will also contribute or work on content to inform the public of the Free Geek mission and other computer technology and recycling interviews, news, opinion and educational feature segments.

Students

The students will be selected through an application and review process. Each applicant will submit an essay stating why they want to participate in this program. Candidates essays will be read by a selection committee comprised of the instructors and guest film makers. Selected candidates will be interviewed by a committee of instructors and final candidates will have to agree to perform XX hours of volunteer time working on Free Geek digital media projects.

Project Coordinator

• Phil Sano: Film maker, zoobomber.

The project coordinator will be responsible for scheduling classes, recruiting student candidates and volunteer instructors, tracking student progress and volunteer hours and producing final reports.

Instructors

• Chris Dawson: founder of webcast in a box.
• Jeff Johnson: advocate of F/OSS audio/video software
• Blank: Indymedia volunteer/video journalist.
• Ed Stansty: podcaster. Ed has a lot of background in 2-D art and has made a movie about me and darth vader.
• Will Luers: podcaster. Will knows oldskool but is pumped about the new.
• Dave Slay: teacher at Portland Community Media.