Sarah Pierantoni's Field Reports

signing off

Sarah Pierantoni — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:13:28 -0600

This year has put me in touch with so many opportunities, great people, and most of all experience in the indy media field. It was great to keep in touch with everyone, and I am off to Cali to get married before starting a 3 month volunteer gig in Denmark with an independent media program called FutureKulture.

I hope to catch you all at future conferences, and good luck with the journey.

Sarah

Breaking the Surface

Sarah Pierantoni — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:08:51 -0600

This is a video entitled "Breaking the Surface". It's a documentary of the GET: Girls Empowering Together project. Working with 15 students from central high school, the young women were taught leadership skills and worked with community mentors this school year. Program was a partnership between Aquinas College, the GRCMC and GRPS.

Sarah worked with these young women to produce, shoot and edit this documentary.

Posted by Ben Sheldon

I heart my org

Sarah Pierantoni — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:53:52 -0700

Half way through the VISTA experience and ready to start new projects for the remainder of the service year. In the education department, I will be working with youth on Tuesdays, creating stop-motion animation projects, and possibly digital stories, and integrating uploading projects online into the class. Thursdays will consist of working with a program called Girls Empowering Together. Media literacy and basic portable camera production skills will be taught. We will be working together creating a documentary about local women leaders.

In the Wealthy Theater I am working on a slam poetry night project that will be held once a month in the new micro-cinema. Titled "Flow", we are working on creating a space to voice the spoken word and also exhibit experimental video/music.

An opportunity has come up to go to New Orleans in late January to film the events of MLK day. My two best buddies are Americorps Volunteers in New Orleans and are working for relief organizations down there and are putting on some major events through Hands On New Orleans and Rebuilding Together New Orleans. I am borrowing a camera from my org to document the events, and bring it back to Michigan in hopes to spread the word of what is still happening down there. My superivisor rocks, and refuses to let me take time off for it.

I cannot believe it is half over.

post-austin

Sarah Pierantoni — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:51:44 -0700

The NAMAC conference was an experience. It was great to reconnect with CTC VISTA Project peeps, learn about new media arts happenings and experience a great new city. It is hard to say how the conference was overall. Each panel was completely different from the next, and hardly seemed related to the previous one. Some I attended hardly seemed related to anything I am working on at my organization, but still interesting to learn about. Being in a temporary volunteer position at a media arts organization, I attended this conference as an observer, quietly deciding if this is really what I am interested in and thinking about where the media arts could fall in my life path. This description of the conference applies to the back of my mind. The front of my mind got inspired to create Spanish camera classes to add to our curriculum, after attending a Latino media art panel. At this panel we (my supervisor and I) networked with an independent Latina filmmaker and discussed screening her film at our theater. She is interested in making an appearance, which would really turn the film showing into an event. Exciting and in the works. Texas is cool.

I am currently working on a gig at another middle school with the MOLLIE project. It has honestly felt like I am on a game show. We pile into a van loaded with video equipment and road trip it out to a school. We show up, the kids get pumped and greet us with helping hands. The topic of the video is unknown right up until the clock starts running. I meet these young people, and have 1.5 hours to interpret their storyboards, create a set with any resource I can find in the classroom, create a short storyline and remember to include newly learned facts about things such as volcanoes, earthquakes, surface water, anything that falls under the broad topic of earth science. While trying to envision the end product I am in charge of overseeing that every kid gets their hands on the cameras and mics, and that they learned a bit about production. At the end of the 1.5, a new group comes in and we do it all over again. It is a quick three hours.

I split my time between the education department and the Wealthy Theater. Duties at the Wealthy Theater are increasing. I have become the go-to girl for lighting info. I am currently working on a database for all of our lighting equipment that has been sitting and not accounted for for the past however many years. I am researching new equipment, and creating new light scenes for any event we may have in the future. I run the light board for every event we put on. There is no manual for our board, and I spend a lot of my time researching and testing to get things right. It is slow and grueling at times, but it feels great to go to work and be in self-learning mode. My goal is to have a manual ready for any new member or staff person to come in and look at to learn the lighting skills and help out with community events. Curriculum for a lighting class is in the future, too. I was also recently brought on board to the administrative team of the theater. I help with securing future events, which is necessary to sustain the life of the theater. We are currently battling with the GR police department to obtain a club license. If we win, this will ensure a longer lifespan for us.

Things are busy, and good. Happy Monday!

crazy?

Sarah Pierantoni — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:42:30 -0600

Hello CTC VISTAS. the Grand Rapids Community Media Center is involved with so many things, it is hard to keep track. Right now, I am in the editing process with my GLBT Digital Storytelling class. The kids are super cool. One girl is doing a documentary on her mother, a woman involved in the underground GLBT scene in the early 90s in GR. She has brought in footage from crazy fashion shows that her mom used to model at, and has done some interviews with her old lovers and friends. Her mom is a woman of wisdom, with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. This is turning into more of a documentary than a digital story, but I am totally ok with that. The student is enjoying the experience, learning about video, getting a story out there, and that is what is important. Other students are sticking to the original format, with topics like skateboarding and after school foam dagger fighting. Good stuff.

I have also starting working on a project with the Allegan County Mental Health Association. We are making a documentary on people with mental illnesses and trying to debunk the word "crazy". We have interviewed six people that are bi-polar and some who have dealt with schizophrenia. They are functioning in "normal" society just fine, and they are coming forth with their personal stories. It is awesome.

I am also working with the Mayor's Youth Council, a program where high school kids have a voice in the Grand Rapids community. We are following the kids through the interview process of getting on the council, and will continue to document events throughout the fall.

Kids from the summer programs are returning, and have taught them how to use Lunch Boxes, which are devices used for stop-motion animation.

Since the many churches of GR have a monopoly over our public access station, us gay ladies have decided to hop on the train. We are starting a queer tv show that will highlight issues on GLBT topics, and do movie and music reviews on GLBT culture.

Tomorrow we have a show at the theater called HipCool. It is a tribute to the Beat Generation where we will have poetry readings, experimental video, and live music. As the lighting director I have been setting the lights for the show, and have gather experimental video to project on various wall spaces.

So, overall the GRCMC has kept me busy and always learning. Soon I will be teaching a lighting class to youth and adults, and will begin an adult GLBT Digital Storytelling class.

Excited for the NAMAC conference, look out Texas, yeeha.

It's all good

Sarah Pierantoni — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:54:55 -0600

Hola everyone. This morning the Grand Rapids Community Media Center held a teacher orientation for the public school system in GR. We basically let the teachers know how to use our Media Center to help them in the classroom. I presented on digital storytelling and talked to a Spanish teacher about helping out in his classroom. I never thought that I would be able to use Spanish this much during my VISTA year, and it has really been helpful in a lot of situations. We did demos on how to use cameras and iMovie. Overall it was a success.

Summer is winding down, and the two youth programs we had going on are finished. It was pretty intense, working with young artists in the morning and then at-risk youth in the afternoons. It is nice to actually have a lunch hour these days.

The GLBT digital storytelling program is up and running. I have 6 youth involved, they are all high school, and really fun to work with. The word is getting out, and I have a lot of requests for adult classes on digital storytelling. Digital storytelling has been such an easy way to get in touch with people who want to make a smaller, non-intimidating work of video.

The GRCMC has been awesome to work at because as a staff member I can pretty much do what I want with the resources they have. Everything is volunteer based, and we just need people to put the time in to do things. For example, we have a new sound system in our theater, and have been putting on music concerts. I started setting the lights and programed the light board, and so far have lit 14 bands from GR and beyond. I am trying to take advantage of everything I can here during my year of service.

I am pumped for the NAMAC conference in OCT. and hope to see some familiar faces there!!

Pre-production for fall projects with youth are in the works...

Have a spectacular day!
Sarah

booya

Sarah Pierantoni — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:43:38 -0600

Things are in full swing over at the Grand Rapids Community Media Center. My supervisor is gone this week, which has been an opportunity to show the rest of the staff that I can handle things. I am currently working on a project with a program called ArtWorks. I am creating a PSA in Spanish for the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts with my new high school aged friend, Brenda, from the Dominican Republic. It is great to be practicing Español again....

In collaboration with the UICA, I recently put together a digital storytellig program for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) youth. It will start Aug. 11th and go for eight weeks, every Sat. for two hours. I am SO excited to begin, and bring these kids to our organization, show them how to create their own stories, use their voice and then exhibit their work at our theater and on our t.v. station.

I found the networking and set up for the program to be easier than I thought it would be. I will be done come Oct. with the first session, but we are looking to have a large number of students who want to sign up. Possibly multiple programs will take place, and reaching beyond the GLBT community throughout the year will hopefully make this digital storytelling program a lasting success.

Have a great day, everybody...

Sarah

Getting Started

Sarah Pierantoni — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 13:19:05 -0600

Under two weeks working at the Grand Rapids Community Media Center and things have been busy. I am jumping in and helping out with a summer program that is already in existence called ArtWorks. I ride around in a production van filled with high school kids and equipment, and we have been filming interviews at the Urban Institiute for Contemporary Arts, to make a project for their capitol campaign. So far so good, they need my help and I am glad to give it. I have contacted local youth GLBT groups and explained that I want to teach the kids how to create their own digital stories. I have had good responses but it looks like things won't start until the school year. I am making my own digital story this week and will spend some time trying to figure out the best way to exhibit it. Meanwhile, I am working with inner city kids on a new project. They are 16-19 year old males who have are on the fence between jail and a job. We plan to teach them video basics; production, planning, how to do an interview, how to use equipment, etc. The challenge here is forming a relationship with them, gaining their trust, finding common ground to start from. It will take time, and I am working with amazing people who luckily have been doing this for a while. I know that this year I will constantly be learning, and I am really excited about that. My supervisor is awesome, and we get along great. My organization is broke, and financial support for a conference is out of the question...boo. Happy 4th to all...