Blog!

May 10, 2009

So why has it been over a week since the last blog update? Because I’ve been busy! Television production requires money and skill – and I’m trying to get as much as both of those as I possibly can.

I applied to volunteer at Rogers Television in Barrie at the suggestion of a former coworker, E.S. The next day, I got a call from their volunteer program about an orientation being held that night and I was welcome to attend. Not even 14 hours later I was operating a camera for the live-television program, DAYTIME.

During the final weeks of university I was trying to complete a paper on the value that local media provides in community, especially considering these troubling economic times. I had attempted to reach A-Channel for contact through several different venues, trying to reach a producer for comment on the story. I received absolutely no feedback, and when I was trying to find volunteer programs for media outlets in Barrie, I couldn’t quite decide if I was surprised or not that A-Channel didn’t offer one. In the days following my positive experiences at Rogers, I’ve come to understand a major difference between the two if both are to be considered local media. A news article in the Barrie Examiner motivated me to write a letter to the editor about A-Channel’ s value to the community is diminishing, and labeling itself community media is an outright lie to justify its budgetary expenditures. I was contacted by the editor to be assured the article would be published in Mondays edition, and so I’ll link to that as soon as it becomes available.

Volunteering at Rogers Television has been a tremendous experience. I never thought that on day one I would be operating a camera for a live television show. On a side note, it didn’t go very well, and I was kicked off after failing to deliver a shot that the director wanted, but that’s how this business goes. The director isn’t as mean as she sounds, I just think she was uninformed to my lack of experience on the camera.

Apparently everyone starts out on camera operating – but there are several things I’ll be learning. Directing, producing, sound and visual editing. It truly sounds like a wonderful experience that will be absolutely invaluable by the time I’ve committed a few months to the program. On top of the education, it’s got an accommodating schedule. I’m able to go in at 10am, prepare for DAYTIME and then assist with its filming and production and be out by noon. There are also so programs that film at 6:30. In short, it’s a perfect opportunity for me to learn the hands-on things that University just can’t provide. On top of that, it’s free! So in advance, thank you, Rogers Television!

I made some changes to Episodes 2 and 3. Eddie and Cain are now headed for a storage facility located near Toronto’s lakefront. I figured cops would be sitting on Davis’ house, or at least have investigated it. The point is, the Superhero Closet would be either too hard or too easy to find and thus an alternative needed to be presented. Cain and Eddie are still going to stumble upon the same wealth of information and equipment – just in a different spot.

I’m a little nervous to continue writing episode 3. It’s quite important in the scheme of the whole series, and needs to be treated with that in mind. In a nutshell the whole episode is about Derek and Riley rescuing Davis, and Eddie and Cain finding the info and equipment. Those are literally the only two important events in the episode – but they’ll shape everything to come.

Davis is on the verge of discovering what happened in 1986, Derek’s year of birth. While he’s aware of the precognitive born around the time of 1970, he hasn’t made the connection between the precognitive’s self-awakening and Derek’s birth. Derek is the result of a timeline being disturbed and a physical manifestation of its intent to protect itself. While all this information is going to be in the files that Eddie and Cain have by episodes’ end, no one’s going to make the connection for some time.

One of the most difficult exchanges I’m trying to write is Cain’s reaction to the information. He’s unaware that Derek is a superhero, he has his suspicions but they’re nowhere near the true explanation. Stumbling into Davis’ secret hideout is going to leave him with some questions about the detective, as well as Derek. Eddie, armed only with a single handgun, is either going to have to do his best to explain things to him. It’s quite the difficult exchange to write, because I mean, how would anyone react to it? I think I need to spend a little time getting to know Eddie and Cain a little bit more before I can know how this conversation is actually going to happen. Unfortunately it happens at the end of the first quarter of the episode, so it’s putting a damper on the rest of the episode coming out.

Not sure if there’s anything else to report on really. Today is Mother’s Day, so make her breakfast and clean the house!