Youth Media Thursday(ish)

This incredible short was created this past fall in our Lights, Camera, Reel Grrls! program. Several of the filmmakers traveled hours each way to participate in Reel Grrrls, but nonetheless, they created a vibrant, moving video. We were lucky enough to have these assistance of two accomplished artists as mentors, Kanaky Wynkoop and Wynne Greenwood (of Tracy and the Plastics fame). Thanks to everyone for your awesome hard work on this piece!

Summer Internships @ Reel Grrls!

If you're reading this blog, you probably already know that Reel Grrls is an awesome Seattle organization devoted to empowering young women through film.

But what you might not know is how awesome it is to work here - even as a volunteer! For example, a Reel Grrls volunteer is the genius behind our current "Awesome Movies You Never Knew Were Directed By Women" screening series, featuring Lindy West at the Central Cinema (don't miss the next two Wednesdays!)

This summer, that could be you! Check out our latest internship opportunities - you could help out with our annual fall gala and auction, or assist with programming and film festivals and video equipment. Or become one of the voices behind this very blog! Applications are open until May 14th. Download the full instructions and application info here:

• Design & Marketing Internship
• Program/Tech Internship
• Development/Auction Intern

Watch Point Break with Reel Grrls!

Wednesday night at the Central Cinema, come watch Point Break with us! It's the first edition in our three week series of Awesome Movies You Never Knew Were Directed By Women. We all know Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director this year for the Hurt Locker, but did you know she also directed this early 90's cult classic? It stars Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze as surfing bank robbers! Bank robbers who wear rubber masks of ex-presidents! Can you imagine a more perfect movie?

We'll be enjoying it with Lindy West of the Stranger, who wrote this great column about the series last week. She'll be snarking before and after the movie for your entertainment! Plus, the proceeds of the event go to Reel Grrls. See you there!

Point Break hosted by Lindy West
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 7pm
Central Cinema
1411 21st Ave, Seattle
$10

NFFTY is almost here!

The National Film Festival for Talented Youth starts next week, and we at Reel Grrls could not be more excited!

They are kicking things off with their After Hours Party at EMP/SFM, which looks super fun, and features local faves Mt St Helens Vietnam Band. You can find ticketing information about more details about the event HERE. They'll be showing youth-produced films in the Sky Church!

Here's an image of a Reel Grrls film on the big big big screen in the Sky Church during After Hours last year!


(You can see the film on the small small small screen here)


Reel Grrls has had a strong presence at NFFTY for years, and we feel so lucky to have this incredible youth film festival right in our backyard. Stay tuned for more information about when and where you can see Reel Grrls films at NFFTY, and more information about cool NFFTY events! In the meantime, check out the schedule HERE.

Fun Spring Events with Reel Grrls!

LUNAFEST: Tuesday, April 20

Enjoy 10 short films by acclaimed women directors from around the world at Seattle's Broadway Performance Hall on Tuesday, April 20 at 5:30 pm.

• Complimentary appetizers and drinks
• Chocolate tasting
• Free raffle ticket for a 10 day trip to Costa Rica
• Shorts created by Reel Grrls teens

Proceeds benefit Reel Grrls and the Breast Cancer Fund.

Reception at 5:30 pm, screening at 6:30 pm

$20 general admission/$15 student. Tickets available at www.reelgrrls.org/lunafest

Awesome Movies You Never Knew Were Directed by Women

Wednesdays, April 28, May 5 and May 12

Women have been directing films since the earliest zoetropes and have contributed to every genre in the industry. Join us at the Central Cinema for any or all of these non-chick flicks and enjoy post-screening discussions with our host Lindy West of The Stranger.

Point Break April 28 - An FBI agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfing bank robbers in this 1991 film favorite directed by Kathryn Bigelow, 2009 Academy Award winner for Best Director (starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze).

American Psycho May 5 - Christian Bale stars in this horrifying tale of a wealthy New York investment banking executive with an alternate psychopathic ego. Directed by Mary Harron.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High May 12 - Amy Heckerling's 1982 classic tale of a group of California teenagers navigating malls, sex and rock n' roll.

All screenings at 7 pm Beer, wine and dining options available from the Central Cinema.

$10 individual tickets, $20 series pass (net proceeds benefit Reel Grrls).

Tickets available at www.central-cinema.com

Reel Grrls Spring Showcase: May 16

This is the best opportunity all year to take in the latest films created by girls ages 9 to 19 in our 2009-2010 program. Enjoy a wide array of styles including animation, music video, autobiography and narrative. Come show your support for the first year-round filmmaking program exclusively for girls.

When: Sunday May 16th, 4:00 pm

Where: Market Theatre, 1428 Post Alley, Seattle 98101

How Much: $10 adult/19 and under free.

Tickets: www.reelgrrls.org/showcase

Reel Grrls Programming Update: Music Video Camp

Last week marked Reel Grrls' first-ever Spring Break Music Video Camp: new and experienced teen media-makers joined us over their spring break to conceive, shoot, edit, and animate music videos for four local bands - in only five days.

The videos are now up on our Vimeo Workshop Page - check them out! I think you will agree that the grrls were able to complete pretty amazing work in such a short amount of time. Many of the participants had never shot video on an advanced camera or edited on Final Cut Pro!

One thing we really enjoyed about the camp was the opportunity to introduce the grrls to amazing local (and female-anchored) acts Canary Sing, the Young Evils, the Nextdoor Neighbors, and Another Perfect Crime. Thanks so much to all of the bands for providing us with songs, and giving the grrls the creative freedom to run wild on the videos!



Reel Grrls participants, mentors, and staff all agreed that a huge highlight of the camp were the visits from local filmmakers (and music video producers) Zia Mohajerjasbi and Lynn Shelton. Zia brought along his friend Ben (also known as Macklemore). They showed their recent video for The Town, and talked about their process in creating it.



Lynn Shelton is best known most recently for her phenomenally successful feature film, Hump Day. But she has also produced a number of excellent music videos for Seattle artists, all of which are viewable on her website. Her presentation was incredibly informative - she walked us through her entire process, sharing with us her call sheets, treatments, and other preproduction tools. It was amazing!

When all was said and done, the grrls really blew everyone away with what they were able to accomplish in just a few days of shooting. One group even managed to shoot over three minutes of stop-motion animation with paper cutouts in just two and a half days! That was a lot of scissor work!



Here's their finished product. All of the music videos were just outstanding. We can't wait to run this program again!

The Next Door Neighbors: Liars from ReelGrrls Workshops on Vimeo.

Tech Tip Tuesday: Version Tracker

For this week's tech tip, I want to point you to an incredibly useful website called Version Tracker.

Basically, this website is a way to track the many different software releases coming out every single day. It provides links to up-to-date software/update downloads, user reviews and lists of the most popular current downloads. But it is so much more awesome than that!

Version Tracker lets you search for software by keyword and operating system. So you might go there and search for "audio recording" within "Mac OSX" and come up with a whole slew of different programs to choose from.

As you can see, the search return gives you tons of relevant info: A brief description of each program, whether or not it is free (!!), user ratings and how many times it has been downloaded. This way, you can make an informed decision about which software will work best for you.

Best of all, Version Tracker only posts download links that are safe and up to date.

Can you tell I am a total Version Tracker groupie?? After trying it, I bet you will be too.

Weekly Links Round Up!

Jenny Hagel has posted a new episode of Feminist Rapper! Go watch it now, it's hilarious.

Groupon has a great 50% off deal on one day passes to the Nation Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY). But hurry, you have to buy it by the end of the weekend!

Speaking of NFFTY, Reel Grrls is sponsoring a panel on women and minorities in Hollywood on April 30 as part of the festival.

The Women's Media Center explains why Net Neutrality is a feminist issue.

One of our fave blogs, feministing.com, interviewed Reel Grrls Executive Director Malory Graham. Read it here.

X Factor Film is sponsoring a short film contest on Vimeo. Upload your short of five minutes or less and be eligible for faaaabulous prizes.

Our very first video blog!

Maile (the RG Program Manager) and I had a long conversation the other day about Bristol Palin and her now anti-teen pregnancy PSA. Then we realized, hey, we like making videos, let's turn this into a vlog! And so we did. Enjoy!





So what do you think of Bristol's PSA? Let us know in the comments!

Tech Tip Tuesday: Paste Attributes

This week's tech tip is for all of you Final Cut Pro editors out there. If you don't already know about pasting attributes on your clips, then get ready to jump for joy. This is one awesome tech tip!

Pasting attributes is when you take something that you have added to or changed about a clip (like filters, motion, audio levels etc.) and paste it on to one or more other clips. Here's how you do it:


• Step 1: Select the clip that has the attributes you want to use on your other clips. Copy that clip.

• Step 2: Select the clip or clips to which you want to add the attributes (you can do many clips at once).

• Step 3: Right click anywhere on your selected clips (or if you don't have a dual-click mouse, click while holding down the "control" key), and choose "paste attributes" from the pull-down menu.

• Step 4: In the dialogue box that pops up, click the boxes next to each attribute you want to paste.

"Basic motion" refers to scale, rotation and location (center & anchor point). Keep "scale attribute times" checked if you are pasting keyframes to clips of different lengths (it keeps the keyframes scaled to each clip, meaning that if you're pasting from a longer clip with keyframes at the start & end, the shorter clip you paste to will have the keyframes scaled down to its beginning and end). If you don't have keyframes to paste (or don't know what they are), uncheck that box.

Note that you can also paste the levels and pan for your audio. This is a great help for audio equalizing!

• Step 5: After checking all the attributes you want to paste, hit "OK."

• Step 6: Jump for joy at all the time you've saved!