Getting Involved

Community2025.org Update: February 11, 2008

Hi All,

I hope everyone lived through midterms and is enjoying settling into ‘the rest of the year…..’

I would like to give you all an update of what is going on. Sometimes I feel like nothing is moving but, when I stop and look around a lot is changing. Enclosed are some copies of the CD you can give to Grandparents, friends, etc.,  some of the CD’s have an extra clip on them of the Mayan village visit.

OK, so what’s happening:

1. Playa for Presidents Day - Cindy, Whitney and I planned a little vacation weekend.  Ted called from Pueblo Sacbe to congratulate everyone on the video and he also told me that his solar powered boat was in and on the lake in Bacalar.  

So, Michael is now joining us and we are headed down to the Belize border & Bacalar to shoot the bamboo plantation, the solar boat and see what Ted’s new community looks like.

2. Saturday’s starting in March -  We  have agreed on  a format to begin some regular shooting and program development.
   
   In cooperation with the Count Basie Theater Cool School we will begin 3 regular Saturday Programs:
   1. 
      
   2. Acting and Interviewer orientation – This will be a weekly skills development program for anyone wishing to get involve with ‘in front of the camera’ Talk Show or interviewer video
   3. 
      
   4. Vocals and recording – Specific songs that will be rehearsed for recording or recording and video. (vocal to start in April)
   5. Weekend Clubhouse shoot / palmcorder / editing – There will be a shoot every Saturday, subject posted in advance. Core kids and ‘guest kids’ from the training programs will tackle topics, interviewer guests, create in the shop, etc.
      
3. Trinity Solar Systems – Eric is in the Director's chair for this.  Trinity is the 9^th largest solar installation company in the United States. We will be filming a video segment with Trinity as our guest in the studio during March and then we will travel to Maryland to visit & film in their demonstration center.
   
   This will be a studio and on-site shoot. Video content / no song planned.
   
4. The Mayan Village – Both George and Michael got great footage the first day we were out. We shot a lot of Mayan village footage. I have asked Drew to take a look and hopefully he will tackle creating a segment for us.
   
   If you would be interested in helping script or direct this please let me know.
   
5. Community2025.org – We have started to configure a website where we can let people know what we are up to and when it is happening. Initially, we will distribute our music, video, ring tones, etc from it. We will also post rehearsals, casting calls and sponsorship information.
   
   Please take a minute and register. I hope as we move forward the kids will contribute to their own blogs and discuss their work in the project. REGISTER NOW!!!
   
6. Intern hired, meet Joseph Aerts -  Joe is joining us Feb 21 and will work in the studio every Saturday as an assistant to our Pro camera and the palmcorder kids. He will also work a couple days a week doing light editing, maintaining the video library and helping us keep the web site up to date.
   
   Joe is a junior in high school and lives in Colts Neck.
   
7. Bio’s on the Web – Is someone in the group up to collecting bio’s from us all and posting them to the website?  I have some of them and I am sure we can get the rest.

Over the past 6 weeks we have done a lot of talking among the team to address the ‘organization’. This included the ‘who / how / what / why / when’ of actually producing content as well as how we get it done effectively. The Saturday scheduling seems to give us all a firm target.

The classes will be available to core kids before we fill the rest of the spots. Yvonne and I agree the classes should be ‘limited call’ by invitation. We are not necessarily looking for acting kids but more ‘real kids’ with an interest in the subject matter. Kids are going to have to know the subject matter.

OK, thanks it for now. Enjoy the CD’s if you need more let me know.  We also have raw footage if you would like to see it.

I am back on Feb 20^th (-:

Russ