Welcome 2010-2011 School Year

Welcome to another great year of Eagle TV! This year will be full of exciting and innovative stories and shows!

You'll learn a lot more editing skills, shooting skills, classroom management skills and lots of outside projects!

Welcome back to the Eagle TV Family!! I can't wait to see you!

Please post a comment about your outlook for Eagle TV and your contribution in here. Let me know what you're excited about for this year.

Cliche' Advice from Your Video Production Mom...

You're going to get plenty of advice your entire life, but at graduation time the advice seems to be free-flowing and generic. I'm going to give you some of my own advice, based on what you've learned in BVP. Whether you're graduating or I see you again next year, remember these words:

1. You are more marketable when you know as much as you can. Know everything about editing, shooting, producing, Final Cut Pro, Live Type, Photoshop, etc. You should know a lot of this already and if you don't, you weren't listening or learning on your own. (Learn everything you can in life. You never know when you'll need to use that knowledge.)

2. I've told you before, that every video you do should be the best that you can do...every time. Your name will be on every project you turn in, every sentence that is uttered from your mouth and every action that you do. (Do your best, always.)

3. If you get so wrapped up in your video that you find yourself so put off that someone criticizes a part of it, you're too invested in your work. You will be disappointed throughout your life if you become unwilling to accept any constructive criticism about something that you do. Distance yourself a little from your work to let in another, maybe better, idea. (Don't be married to your work.)

4. I've always been impressed by your ability to not be shy to ask me for anything. Like, going out to your car to get your cd's or doing homework in MY class for another class that you failed to do over the weekend or give you Outside Project credit for just "being" at the football game standing near the camera, but, in the words of the Rolling Stones, "you can't always get what you want." (Ask for what you want, but expect nothing...you won't ever be disappointed.)

5. Don't expect to be a perfect editor/shooter/producer/reporter if you haven't studied or practiced. Don't even pretend to be. There will always be someone better than you and you will always be better at some things than others. You have to practice your craft. Even when you don't have a video project to work on, you should be playing with the edit machine to learn more. Additionally, you won't make a lot of money right out of school in your career, nor will you have a top-level job. You will most likely have a job that entails writing something for your boss, getting him or her coffee or making the phone calls that he or she doesn't want to make. You may have to work the odd hours that no one else wants. (Work for what you get.)

6. Remember that I am always the boss in the classroom. I get to make the rules and you get to follow them. That's the hierarchy. When you grow into a place of authority in your career or your life, you can make the rules. In the meantime, remember that I (and others who love you) have your best interests in mind when we say "no" or that we have a better idea. Enjoy the guidance. (Love your parents and family and those who help you.)

7. Getting along together is always a good job skill. You don't get to pick your classmates any more than you get to pick your family. You must still get along with everyone. I've always told you that working in a group takes skill and you must have a well-developed sense of empathy. You must treat each other's feelings gently and with care, as you would want to be treated. Involve others by encouraging, smiling and starting civil conversations about your ideas and thoughts. As much as Eagle TV is a family, I certainly hope you keep in touch with each other and me forever. (Cherish your friends and be a good friend to others.)

8. There are times in Eagle TV where we evaluate each others' work. It's an exercise in developing our sense of stepping away from our videos and looking at them from a fresh eye. Most of us have very definite ideas about what looks good in a video or sounds right in a story idea. We have to communicate with each other and be kind in order that we don't hurt others' feelings. But we always want others to know that we feel strongly about something...for instance a certain way to shoot a story or a certain angle or story idea that we think is great. (Be soft in your criticisms of others and but hard in your convictions.)

9. Some of the best videos I've seen you guys turn in are videos in which you took a chance on something unusual or on yourself. You must experiment and not every idea works, but some hit spot on. Although your deadlines loom, allow yourself enough time to experiment and try something new. Challenge your comfort zone and step out of your box every now and then. (Go out on a limb every once in a while.)

10. I've always wanted you to challenge yourself and work hard on every project. One of my favorite sayings with you is that if "you aren't working as hard as me, you're not working hard enough." You are studying a field FULL of hard-core, go-getters. People who will do anything to secure a spot in broadcasting. You MUST keep up. (The race of life is very competitive and you must run fast just to keep up with the guy running next to you.)

11. If you like a story idea and it's do-able, do it! Put 100% into your interviews, your shooting, your editing, your writing, etc., but stick with it. Don't give up. If you originally thought it was a good idea and it caught your interest, than there must be something to it. Put your all into it until it's done. Don't let anyone else discourage you. See #8 above. (Follow your dreams.)

11. Smile a lot!

There are more lists of advice, but I'm going to copy one that I think is a good one. http://www.fenichel.com/graduation.shtml Take what you want a leave the rest, but know that many people have experienced many things that yo haven't and they may have a perspective that you don't have...yet. Don't be so caught up in yourself that you forget to listen to others.

With that, I want to hear you. Tell me some advice that I can take with me into next school year or into my future. Give me some perspective that I don't have about myself. Tell me what I should or shouldn't do next year, over the summer, or when I move on to another adventure. Give me advice I should know about me, about my teaching style, about the way I motivate you, about my relationships with you, about how I influence you. Tell me what advice I need to do better or what I do that's good and need to develop or tell what to never change. But, be gentle. :-)

How Influenced by others are you?

Interesting story on Dateline NBC tonight. The title of the show was "What Were You Thinking" and it was all about a few social experiments that tried to prove that most people will follow a crowd, despite feeling that it may be risky or not the right thing to do.

http://insidedateline.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/04/23/2233419.aspx

Here are a couple of their experiments: The first one (on the link above) was that they tried to convince an entire 5th grade class that their teacher had ESP. They showed the class and their teacher a video where a guy on the video was thinking about a kitchen utensil. The teacher appeared to guess correctly every single time, because when the moderator clicked on the corner of the "play" button for the reveal video it corresponded to the answer the teacher gave. The ENTIRE class was convinced she had ESP!

Another experiment consisted of a room full of people, only one of whom didn't know what was going on, filling out an application. Smoke began to fill a room from under a door and the people who were in on the experiment remained totally calm and didn't do anything but continue to fill out their forms. Although most of the subjects, victims, whatever you want to call them, became visibly disturbed by the room filling with smoke, they didn't do anything because everyone else appeared unconcerned.

Yet another one, and a little more disturbing, was one where a guy was hooked up to an electric probe in another room and he had to answer questions. When he got the answers wrong, the "unknowing subject" had to flip a switch to administer electric shocks, each one getting a little stronger for each wrong answer. There was a moderator in the room with the subject who continued to encourage the "shocker" to keep going, despite increasingly agonizing screams from the other room. (The guy in the room was never being shocked, just acting like it.) At some point as the subject increased the voltage up to 200, then 300, then 350 then 450 volts (regular house current is 120 volts), the guy being shocked quit responding to questions and the shocks, making the subject think that he or she was really hurting the guy in the other room; yet they continued. Only one person stopped the shock treatment saying that they refused to hurt someone any more than they already had.

Studies show that we are incredibly social beings and will go along with a crowd, despite our best defense that we make decisions individually. Sigmund Freud first theorized about it and called it "Crowd Psychology". Carl Jung called it "Collective Unconscious". A laymen's term that I've heard is "Mob Mentality" and although this collective thinking can bring about big social change, it also is very dangerous because individuals become unaware of the true nature of his or her actions. When you look at what is actually happening, it is not the crowd that is making a decision, it's really a few like-minded individuals or one person who is the leader who ultimately convinces others that his idea is worth supporting.

Standing out from a crowd is difficult when everyone else seems to be doing something different from you. It takes courage and strength to stand on your own against the majority. Most people want to fit in and follow the crowd; after all there is power in numbers.

However, here's some advice: I ask you that every decision you make be made with some thought, despite what others may do, or think. Don't just go along with the crowd. Stand on your own. If your decision is consistent with the crowd, then you can always say that you made the best decision for yourself, not what everyone else wanted you to do. If your decision doesn't go with the crowd, so be it. That doesn't mean you can skip Changing of the Chairs this week! Some of the best decision-makers in our history have stuck to their beliefs despite overwhelming opinions to the contrary. Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei come to mind.

For this blog week, I would like you to describe two things: a moment in school (or in video production) where you went along with the crowd or with someone else even though you knew it wasn't the best thing to do.

Then, describe a moment in school or in video production where you stood up to the common opinion and expressed yourself even though it may not have been the popular decision. When you went against the grain, so to speak.

And, still.....NO you can't skip Changing of the Chairs!

Be the Change You Want to See in the World...

You have a lot of power. Even though we've all been through a tough span of time lately, I see change. I see you getting more and more excited about the senior video, your video projects and your future. This change has begun a domino effect of EVERYONE changing. I feel it. It feels good. You're attitude and the way your carry yourself affects all of those around you. In that way, you have enormous power.

The thing that I've wanted you to realize this year, with some of our struggles, is that in order for things to change, you must change yourself, not others. You have to change the way you look at things, the way you interact with others, the way you think about things; you can't wait for others to change....it has to begin with you.

As most of you embark on the next chapter in your life, I want you to remember something: when things don't seem to be going well, look inside yourself first. Don't blame all the others around you for your discontent. As you look inside, you might discover that you didn't understand your perception at all and that the problem was with you all along. Most of the time, we are not always the best judges of ourselves.

I want you to read the article attached. http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/spirit/archives/be-change It's a short article. I want you to carry these ideas with you as you head into your next adventure. I hope that you always enjoy learning new things in your life, but that you stay grounded and remain the person that you are; aiming to improve yourself each and every day.

You can do this...I've just seen us make a big change in class and I think it took us looking within ourselves to be able to make it. The senior video deadline looming was probably a motivating factor too! :-) We're still not out of the woods. We have another 5 weeks, but we can forge ahead with this newfound energy.

Let me know what you think about the article and tell me what thoughts go through your head as you read it and reflect on how it applies to you. How can you be the catalyst for change in your life and in the lives of others around you?

Dreams and Aspirations

Let's talk about something that's doesn't have anything to do with Video Production lessons. We will be completely immersed in it for the next 6 weeks, so I thought I'd give you a short break and start off the last few weeks of the school year talking about.... dreams.

Face it...our Eagle TV seniors will be leaving us in the next month and a half to pursue the rest of their lives. Certainly, we've all had dreams about our future and as a tight-knit Eagle TV family, it is our responsibility to propel each other into greatness. We need to see to it that none of us falter as we pursue that hard-knock road to success.

Even as you go head first into your future, there will be other things that you'll want to accomplish in your life that aren't necessarily career-related. Please don't ever tell yourself that you can't do these things. You MUST do them. It's your bucket list, of sorts. Always follow your dreams with enthusiasm and vigor and guide your life towards those dreams.

What is it that you want to do as a career? What are you most suited to? What do you want to do for fun? What do you want to be good at? What experiences do you want to have? What parts of the world do you want to see and why? How can you make your mark in the world?

I'll start:

All of you know I love to write and am working on a novel and another book. I would like to be a published book author.

I want to be a mommy.

I want to learn to surf.

I want to go to lay on a beach in Tahiti.

I want to ride on the back of an elephant and swim with a dolphin.

I want to be a public speaker and continue to teach others.

I want to travel overseas with my dad and brother again.

I want to hang glide.

I want to see the great pyramids.

I want to bike ride through France.

I want to learn to dance to African drums with an African band. (Actually, I've attempted this one!)

The list can go on and on.

I've thought a lot about my life lately and what would I do if I didn't have much time left and I can't imagine not doing all these things. I also heard a favorite author of mine say last week at a book signing that if you don't do those things that grind at your very being before you turn 80, it will be very sad for you. You will have had a lot of good things that happened in your lifetime, but you will be focused on the regrets. Lastly, another author...Wayne Dyer, says that "it is rarely those things that you do in life that you regret, it's the things that you didn't do."

So tell me what you're going to do. You have your whole life in front of you, don't waste it! What do you want to do? What are you thankful for and who are you thankful for? Have you told them? Tell me what you are passionate about and how will you fulfill your dreams? Then, get back to video production!