"Guernsey on Speed" is a sped-up video tour of the entire coastline of Guernsey. In just 3 minutes, audiences can behold, to a stunning level of detail, a vast scope of the island's countless visual treasures.
Here's the… Continue
Added by Adam Greenfield on June 2, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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Spring 2009 is over and several of us BECA masters students are now BECA alumni. But before we surrendered our studenthood, we were given one final blazing day: Saturday May 23rd 2009. You who are still students will hopefully get to enjoy all the graduation trimmings as we did, but below is what lays in store for you.
I should say at this stage that I think that attending is a must - for the community and for oneself. This year, numerous graduating MA students didn't show up for either ceremon… Continue
"The creative project system is broken". - Ron Compesi, (then) Creative Arts interim dean, 2007
Many students give up halfway, faculty have admitted there's a problem, and there's talk about severely restricting students' access to it. But what should be done about the creative project option?
Along with fellow students Vidyut and Kurt, I'm the latest BECA grad student to emerge successfully through the creative project option (BECA 894 and its preparatory class BECA 897 - from hereon I… Continue
Victory! Yesterday, my committee approved my creative project documentary, "Generation Energy", sealing my fate as a soon-to-be BECA graduate graduate. After over a year of hard slog - late nights, weekends, and a whole lot of despair - this is a great feeling.
I've got many reflections to share with you. You're going to read my thoughts about the creative project structure at BECA and what I intend to do next with Generation Energy, but first I'm going to tell you about the twists and turns of… Continue
It's been a while since I blogged about my Montana documentary project, which I'm producing for my MA creative project, so here's an update.
For the uninitiated, for my Masters culminating experience I chose the Creative Project option. You may find the BECA department advises you not to do this, but I took the option anyway. The winds of chance pushed me towards producing a documentary. Through fortune and contacts, I found the Wild Rockies Field Institute (WRFI)… Continue
On Friday 13th March, I hosted a show on KPFA's "Terra Verde" environmental radio show about the crossover between the environmental and peak oil movements. My guests were Asher Miller, executive director of the Post Carbon Institute, which works to promote understanding o… Continue
Added by Adam Greenfield on March 14, 2009 at 10:39am —
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On Friday 27th February, I presented another episode of "Terra Verde", an environmental radio show broadcast on Berkeley's KPFA station.
This week, two guests joined me live from Power Shift 2009, a clean energy summit in Washingon DC attended by 10,000 young people. The… Continue
Added by Adam Greenfield on March 2, 2009 at 3:28pm —
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On Friday 19th December, the fifth and possibly final (see later) episode of Focal Point became a reality, ending the current run of shows on a definite high point. But what will now become of Focal Point? I'll tackle these questions and more in this installment of The Focal… Continue
Added by Adam Greenfield on December 22, 2008 at 1:30pm —
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This Friday, November 21st, the third ("The Changing Landscape of the News Industry") and fourth ("Web Television") Focal Point shows were taped back-to-back in Studio 1. Could we really do two great shows at once? Read on to find out...
On KPFA last Friday, November 7th, I hosted a great Terra Verde environmental radio show about the environmental impacts of nuclear weapons. I picked this subject because of watching Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" 1980 PBS series. In the final episode Sagan discussed the threat th… Continue
Added by Adam Greenfield on November 16, 2008 at 9:30pm —
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I was browsing through some old emails recently and came across the first email ever to mention the name of our TV show, Focal Point. Here's that email, from Travis, dated 19th August 2008:
Another idea for a show title occurred to me over my camping trip. We talked about a couple strategies for naming the show, one included using a production term that also applied in a more general way as a metaphor that describes what we're accomplishing in the show. Out of the blue as I was hiking throug… Continue
Added by Adam Greenfield on November 9, 2008 at 9:30pm —
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We stand at a crossroads
Humans have always categorized, explained, hoped, and, if necessary, denied to help us deal with reality. Which of these approaches we'll use now, when the fate of our species and the planet itself hangs in the balance, is going to be seen. Right now, thinkers across the globe are contemplating the spectrum of possibilities, from apocalypse to utopia and all between. But to what extent are we, in the age of the Internet, depending on denial for our opinions?
We… Continue
Isn't life a funny game? Sometimes, when all seems lost, a bolt from the blue saves you and success is yours. Other times, you think you're high and dry and then the unforeseen happens and you're down in the gutter. This Friday October 24th, the day of the taping of Focal Point's third show, guess which scenario happened with us?
Sadly, it was the second one. We got a jab in the ribs.
… Continue
Added by Adam Greenfield on October 27, 2008 at 1:00pm —
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The Focal Point Report, your chance to keep in touch with Focal Point, a talk show about the media.
Last Friday, the Focal Point team taped its second show. The legendary John Hewitt and Vidyut Latay, a lady who needs no introduction, joined us for a discuss… Continue
That's right, this Friday ultimate sin was committed: A new television show was made, right here at BECA. Focal Point, a talk show about the media, has been born.
You'll be able to see episode 1 soon but let me whet your insatiable appetites with this tantalizing r… Continue
Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez spoke yesterday at SFSU as part of their presidential campaign tour. I was in the audience and came away might inspired.
In Episode #3 of The Gubbins4ever Vlog, I highlight some of Nader's main points, including why we should vote for the small guy, the lack of difference between Obama and McCain, the difference between personal freedom and civic freedom, and why we all need to wake up and take action.
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Added by Adam Greenfield on October 1, 2008 at 4:00pm —
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Here's episode #2 of the Gubbins4ever Vlog, fresh out the can. On today's Vlog, I share my experience of making a TV/radio show. That is, coming up with ideas for shows, researching, finding guests, and contacting and pre-interviewing guests. It's a fun process and the outcome, contributing to public knowledge, is extremely rewarding. For my radio show, people come up to me to say how much they enjoyed it, and a teacher recently asked to use an episode in her class.
So, here are my thoughts on… Continue
[This is for the weekly BECA 770 Writing for New Media blog post, based on a reading of Todd Gitlin's article "We Build Excitement"]
The model struts unenthusiastically down the catwalk, stops at the end, stares slack-jawed into space, pivots, and strides back up the runway. Is this model post modernism's response to the challenge of identity in the modern era?
For Todd Gitlin (“We Build Excitement”), this blankness “resounds through contemporary culture like a great dead sound. Everything tha… Continue
Great news! I'm proud to present episode 1 of The Gubbins4ever Vlog. In this 5 minute chat, I discuss the upcoming Focal Point television show and how progress on my Montana documentary is coming along. If you enjoy this episode, take note: You aint seen nothing yet.
If you are not a BECA student/alum and would like to comment on this Vlog, please visit the video's youtube home here, where you can speak your mind… Continue
[Written for this week's BECA 770 Writing for New Media class. The readings were writings by Adorno (of the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School) about the repetitiveness of the culture industry]
Did Adorno also ever enjoy a giggle? One might wonder, bearing in mind his sternness towards the entire juggernaut of popular culture.
Nonetheless, this week's Adorno writings raises in my mind interesting ideas about comedy. It has been postulated that much comedy arises from the novel juxtaposition of eleme… Continue
Added by Adam Greenfield on September 16, 2008 at 1:11am —
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