Wednesday links round up

Free Press invites you to contact your representatives in Washington to stop the Comcast-NBC merger.

Girl Power is a new book about 90's revolution of women in music. We really enjoyed this review by 13-year-old Tavi, fashion superstar behind the Style Rookie.

PBS is sponsoring a contest for youth 13 and up to create a video diary about their lives. The best entries will be selected to air on April 11th alongside Masterpiece's presentation of the Diary of Anne Frank.

Shortie Fest is coming! The film festival for students ages 7-18 is accepting entries now through April 9.

Bad news: the opportunities for women directors in Hollywood has actually gone down since 2008. So, despite our excitement over Kathryn Bigelow's best director nod, Women & Hollywood says 2009 was no year of the woman in Hollywood.

Sociological Images did an excellent (and hilarious) round up of stereotypes of masculinity.

Join us for the 2010 Reel Grrls Oscar Party!

Have you heard the amazing news?

This fantastic woman filmmaker has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Director!


Yep, Kathryn Bigelow, director of The Hurt Locker, is the fourth woman ever nominated for Best Director in the 81 year history of the Oscars. No woman has ever won this award. Getting more women in film and changing this has always been a huge part of the Reel Grrls mission.

Kathryn's been raking in the awards around the world- she already won Best Director at the BAFTAs and from the Directors Guild of America. As for the Oscars... Right now we can only cross our fingers and hope with all our might that Kathryn is going to win. But do you know where the best place in Seattle to be when she wins is going to be?

Why, at the Reel Grrls 2nd Annual Oscar Party, of course! You know us reel grrls are going to go bananas when Kathryn walks away with that big, bald statuette.

We've got an amazing night planned- a red carpet, gourmet food, fancy outfits, great short films from our grrls, and awards for Seattle women in film. You'd have to try really hard to not have a good time at this thing.

Click here to buy your tickets now!

Oh hai! We haz blog?

We haz blog!

Oh, it's been too long. This poor, neglected Reel Grrls blog has been languishing in the forgotten corners of the internet for nearly a year. But, rejoice, readers! We are back and we are going big.

If you've been following us on twitter, you know we have plenty to say. We have so many links and videos and thoughts to share with you! We will be blogging on a regular basis now, about all the things Reel Grrls cares about. Which is a lot of things, but that's part of being a well-rounded person, right? No one would want to read this blog if all we wrote about was chocolate chip cookie recipes!

Ok, I take that back, I would totally read a blog all about chocolate chip cookies recipes.

But here's what you can expect from us. Videos made by Reel Grrls! Articles about women filmmakers! Information on awesome stuff happening in Seattle! Media justice links! Critical responses to pop culture! Youth empowerment! And maybe even a chocolate chip cookie recipe or two!

So, won't you be our neighbor? Link to us, send us an email, tell us what you're up to. We're pretty excited to get started!

Don't Miss the Variety Pack Show this Saturday!

And just so we are super, super clear:

Reel Grrls is also hosting a FREE public Spring Showcase Screening at the JBL Theater at the EMP/SFM at 5:00 on the same day. So here is your plan for Saturday:

12:00 noon - Wake up. (What? It's Saturday!)
4:30 - Get yourself to the JBL Theater. Hang out with Reel Grrls.
5:00 - Watch amazing Reel Grrls films on the big screen, for FREE! Stay for the Q&A and learn about what it's like to be a Reel Grrl.
6:30 - Take a break, stretch, walk around.
7:00 - Walk over to The Vera Project and enjoy the show!

Questions?
maile@reelgrrls.org
lane@reelgrrls.org

Media Justice Website by & for youth!

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

Date: April 8, 2009
Contact: Lila Kitaeff
Email: lila (at) reelgrrls.org
Phone: (206) 393-2085

YOUTH FILMMAKER LAUNCHES MEDIA JUSTICE WEBSITE

“We are the next generation of media makers. We are already a generation of media consumers. We need to step up and take control of our media if we want it to accurately reflect our world. The first step towards taking this stance is learning how our current media system operates.”
-Sami Muilenburg, GenerationOfConsolidation.org

SEATTLE, WA — Reel Grrls is proud to announce the launch of GenerationOfConsolidation.org, a website created by youth and for youth, aimed at disseminating information about, and beginning discussions around issues of media justice.

Reel Grrls filmmaker and first time web designer Sami Muilenburg, with support from graphic designer and mentor Jessica Speigel, created the website, which centers on the award-winning 2008 Reel Grrls film A Generation of Consolidation.

www.GenerationOfConsolidation.org launches worldwide this week, and features:
• Flash-embedded full-length film and radio versions
• Youth-created content about Media Representation, Media Consolidation, the FCC, Net Neutrality and Broadband Stimulus
• A relatable writing style, emphasizing how media affects youth each day, and what next steps young people can take to make a difference about these issues
• Links to Youth Media and Media Justice Organizations
• An interactive Discussion Board


ABOUT THE FILM: A Generation of Consolidation, created by teen filmmakers Sami Muilenburg and Brooke Noel, explores the impact of media consolidation on news content and its effects on youth, both as viewers and media makers. The film highlights the 2008 Seattle FCC hearing on Media Ownership, and features Jonathan Lawson and Susan Gleason of Reclaim the Media, Author Anne Elizabeth Moore, UW Professor Lance Bennett, and the perspectives of numerous young people. Generation has screened at multiple film festivals, including:
• ListenUp! VIP Awards: Winner, Best Documentary
• San Francisco International Film Festival: Youth For Change Award Nominee
• Seoul Youth International Film Festival: Screening by special request
• The Social Justice Film Festival

ABOUT REEL GRRLS: Seattle-based Reel Grrls is the first all girl, year round media program in the country, empowering teen girls from diverse communities to realize their power, talent and influence through media production. www.reelgrrls.org

###

A Blog Within a Blog

Scarecrow Video just name-checked our Oscar Party (coming up this Sunday, Feb 22, 4:00 PM at Central Cinema - get your tickets now!) on their BLOG! Definitely check it out - madamecrow has some great suggestions for your Oscar viewing pleasure.

We'll be handing out ballots at the Oscar Party this Sunday, but if you want to get a head start on filling it out or doing your research, check out the full list of Oscar nominees HERE.

And start picking out your outfit for the big night!

Reel Grrls Presenting at WAM!2009!

Exciting news! RG Media Maker Extraordinaire Sami Muilenburg, and RG Program Manager Maile Martinez are going to be panelists at this year's Women, Action, and Media Conference in Boston. From March 27 - 29, 2009, Sami and Maile will gather with women media makers and activists from around the world to discuss the theme "Inside/Outside." Here's a bit about the theme:

We all belong inside some communities or networks and are new to or feel excluded or alienated from others. The tension that exists between insiders and outsiders to any given movement, identity, industry or ideology can be destructive, but it can also be harnessed toward mutually beneficial change. At WAM!2009, we’ll explore both sides of this inescapable dynamic in our relationships, organizations, societies and movements.

Sami is especially well poised to explore this theme, since her hugely successful short documentary, "A Generation of Consolidation" explores issues of media ownership and access - and tells the story of young people trying to gain access to the inner workings of "insider" media decision makers like the FCC. Sami co-produced "A Generation of Consolidation" along with Brooke Noel as part of the 2008 Reel Grrls Thesis program.

Three days of talking about increasing the access, impact, and voice of youth and women in the media world - what could be better?!

Early registration for WAM!2009 ends on February 13, so if you would like to join us, register now! Hope to see you there!

Reel Grrls is on Flickr!

Hi all,

If you have a profile on flickr, please come and be our friend there. We're adding new and exciting photos all the time, so it's a great way to keep up with Reel Grrls:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reelgrrls

Also, we would simply love it if you would join our Flickr group, where you can add Reel Grrls (or Reel Grrls-inspired) photos to our pool (please please PLEASE!!), join a discussion about RG, or just stop by to look around and say hi:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/reelgrrls/

With love,
RG

Register NOW for RGTV: Girl Produced Television

Have you ever wanted to create your own TV show? This fall, Reel Grrls is partnering with SCAN Community Media to offer RGTV: Girl-Produced Television. Choose interesting topics, interview guests, broadcast your opinion!

Who, Where? When?

• For girls, 13-19 years old


• Meets weekly after-school and monthly on Saturdays (October-April 2009)


• All skill levels

How?

Download informational flyer, program calendar, and registration form. To apply: download and complete the application form and return it to Reel Grrls by September 19, 2008. Applications may be submitted via mail, email, or fax:
Reel Grrls

ATTN: RGTV
1409 21st Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122
maile@reelgrrls.org
206 328 4466 (fax)

For more information please contact Maile Martinez, Program Manager at maile@reelgrrls.org or 206 393 2085.

Getting our HD and SD vids onto a DVD

You know that saying, "if I knew then what I know now"? Well I am wishing someone had schooled me on outputting HD videos before we decided to use HD for our four-day documentary filmmaking challenge project. You may say that's neither here nor there, especially since we won the whole darned competition, but we almost didn't even get it turned in on time due to the outputting problems we had!!

ANYWAYS I wanted to share the story of how we got around these issues when it came time to put together the final timeline and DVD for this year's Reel Grrls Spring Showcase. I was pretty worried about the headaches we were in store for, since the spring showcase this year included five SD (Standard Definition) projects and two HD (High Definition) projects. I wondered if we would be able to burn one DVD that would show the HD pieces in their true def without messing up the SD pieces, or if we would have to down convert the HD pieces to SD.


In researching all this I came across a number of hugely useful resources. Here are some of my faves:

On burning HD videos to an HD DVD

On burning HD videos to an SD DVD


On exporting HD for the internet
And this one


After reading up and asking advice from everyone I knew (HD is such a new technology that I think most people are still figuring out things like this), I concluded that:
• There are some pretty simple steps you can take to burn HD DVDs in either DVD Studio Pro or iDVD, BUT we couldn't burn an HD DVD that would include SD projects AND
• We could not burn an HD DVD if we wanted it to be able to play on most commercial DVD players.

So. No HD DVD. That left
• Down-converting the HD projects to SD so that we could put all seven final projects in one timeline and then compress them using our usual methods.


Which is what I ended up doing. Here's how I did it:

1. First I exported each HD project from their respective Final Cut Pro timelines as Quicktime files with full resolution (using the same settings as the HDV preset sequences in which they were edited).
2. Then I imported the HD Quicktime Files back into a new Final Cut Pro project and dropped them into a timeline with Standard Definition settings.
3. After this step I was forced to render the timeline, which took FOREVER (so leave yourself time for it)! What's nice is that Final Cut does all the work of interpreting the HD files as SD (including letterboxing the video and squishing it down to the right size), but the side effect is the long wait for rendering.
4. At this point if you want to export your video as a Standard Def Quicktime, print it to regular SD miniDV tape, or export it for the internet, you're all set to go from your new down-converted SD timeline. I exported the finished product using Compressor's standard settings for a DVD of the length of our final productions, then imported the compressed files into DVD Studio Pro.


Voila! I hope this is helpful for you in your HD adventures. Please comment if you have thoughts on how to improve the process.