Mt hood narrative

II. Project Narrative

Film Freek

[a Free Geek digital media project]

At the turn of the millennium, Free Geek created a way to stand between two really big problems and combined them in a way that could 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 can volunteer for just 24 hours and be 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 GNU/Linux and other Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS), 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. All of these organizations can benefit from the five plus years of 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 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 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. 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.

Phase I

Introduction to digital video using open mediacasting.

Week 1 – 2

Students learn the basic of composition and lighting using low-cost, low-resolution digital cameras to produce 3 minute personal projects videos and publishing them on the web. Instructors Will Luers, Chris Dawson and Ed Stansty 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 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, Chris Dawson and Jeff Johnson will guide students in creating a short nonfictional video segment. These 5-10 minute videos will demonstrate training of Free Geek practices. 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, Will Luers and Blank will guide the students in working on a collabertive project, 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 cable access showcase of samples of the students videos from various phases of the project as well as original content. Instructors Phil Sano, Ed Stansty and Dave Slay, 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 100 hours of volunteer time working on Free Geek digital media projects.

Process of chooisng students will provide of underserved populations

• Teaching future classes for FreekTV and to train new students to continue project
• Provide additional content for FG ed videos, FreakTV, other F/OSS ideas
• Assist PCMTV with their project needs

Project Coordinator

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.

• Phil Sano: Film maker, graphic artist, zoobomber, Free Geek volunteer teacher and outreach coordinator for more than 5 years.

Instructors

Free Geek has arranged for the talents of several local film makers, video documentarians, webcasters and Free and Open Source Software advocates to help with this project. The following instructors will be donating their time teaching one or more of the four phases of the course:

• Chris Dawson: Film maker, founder of webcast in a box and advocate of F/OSS software.
• Jeff Johnson: Programmer, advocate of F/OSS audio/video software
• Blank: Film editor, Indymedia volunteer/video journalist.
• Ed Stansty: Pod-caster, 10 years experience with digital media (including Flash, Shockwave) and has also made a movie about Rev. Phil and Darth Vader.
• Will Luers: Pod-caster, Instructor at PSU, Will knows oldskool but is pumped about the new.
• Dave Slay: Studio operations instructor at Portland Community Media.

Guest Instructors

Guest instructors will teach short courses in specialized skills to help round out the education that the students receive.

• Brady: Typeface, titles and credits.
• Amber: Plot, scripting and storyboarding.
• Mykle Hansen: Principles of audio.

Educational video content for student projects and broadcast on cable access

• Starting a new Free Geek - oso
• low cost/no cost living, urban salvaging survival techniques – revphil/ tony dias
• Install Ubuntu for just about any neogeek (wo/man off the street?)
• Install/update software on your Linux system.
• E-waste- oso
• Free Software Foundation.
• Volunteering at Free Geek.
• The History of Video Games - Covering the three eras of video gaming: From the first era encompassing Pong and other early coin operated games. The second era consisting of home gaming consoles such as the Atari 2600 and Intellevision game systems. Era Three: Nindendo, Sega and the age of innovation of hardware and software. Classic gaming artwork from original boxes - Dave Haskins: video gaming historian, Free Geek build program coordinator, he also organizes one of the top Dungeons & Dragons games in the Portland area.