About the Project: Evergreen Variety was the main collaborative intern project that was done during winter quarter 2012 (January-March) in the Center for Creative and Applied Media (CCAM) Studio at The Evergreen State College. Six interns, myself included, worked on the pre-production, production, and post-production of the project. The goal of the three episode run was to showcase local student talent from the Evergreen community in Olympia, Washington to the surrounding public. We had former and current students on the show, with specific segments to fill (similar to the layout of Saturday Night Live or Almost Live!). Those segments included a fifteen minute band segment, poetry, short stories, interviews with Evergreen alumni (titled 40 Years of What?), comedy, and other talent that would like to be showcased (including belly dancing). Each show was hosted by Rafferty Thompson, a current Evergreen student, and each show was one hour long (aired March 2nd, 9th, and 16th from 7-8pm). The shows were broadcast live via Thurston Community Television (TCTV) in Olympia and via web stream at Evergreen’s streams page and UStream. They were then later edited for rebroadcast via KAOS Community Radio 89.3 FM (aired one week later).
This project had many factors included in the pre-production planning, production, and post-production of the show. Proposals, treatments, scripts, public service announcements, and promotional posters were only a part of what went on during the initial stages of the planning. You can find examples of this work by clicking on the links below.
Pre-Production Public Service Announcements Promotional Posters
My Roles: I took on many roles during the creation of the show. I was involved in all aspects, including completing the final proposal/treatment to be submitted, the script for Episode 3, recording and editing (and even doing one voiceover) for the PSAs, creating all the promotional posters, figuring out how to stream our show online, helping to maintain the show’s WordPress blog, getting an allotted space from KAOS Radio to rebroadcast our show, helping to coordinate the talent to be on the show, gathering submitted digital shorts and recording them onto the XD CAM disks for playback through the switcher, loading stills for the show (that talent would refer to), and editing together footage and stills for two segments for the show (introduction and 40 Years of What? stinger).
During production, other than the normal organizing, set-up, and dress rehearsals, I took on 6 main roles from Episode 1 to Episode 3. During Episode 1, I was the Assistant Director and filled in as the Co-Producer. For Episode 2, I ran the broadcast audio board. For Episode 3, I was one of two producers and the Director. For all three shows, I entered in all the graphics pre-show (that was to be operated by the technical director).
Finally, for post-production, I created DVD menus in DVD Studio Pro and authored DVDs to be sent out to talent and those wanting copies of the show. I also took the mastered audio that was completed by the Audio, Music Tech, and Production interns after the shows were aired, and edited that into our current shows to have the best possible audio for those wanting copies. I also mastered the audio for rebroadcast that was aired one week later at KAOS Community Radio in the midst of the shows going on.
Equipment Used: CCAM Studio equipment (Ross Vision Switcher, ClearCom headsets, Yamaha audio board, Harris Inscriber Graphics System, Sony XD CAM studio cameras, AJA Video Systems, Videssence lights and lighting board – to name a few), KAOS Community Radio studio equipment (audio board, shotgun microphone, CD players).
Software Used: Final Cut Pro 7, Apple Compressor, DVD Studio Pro, Audacity 1.3.13, Adobe Photoshop CS 5.5, Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5, Microsoft Word.
Pictures from the show set-up can be found below. Photos courtesy of Chris Gray.
You can view Evergreen Variety’s website here.
The following video includes short clips from Evergreen Variety: Episode 3, of which I directed and produced with Douglas Jenkins. Featured talent in this clip includes Camp Wisdom (band), Cameron Hostetter (comedian), Samantha Siciliano (poet), and Thomas Anderson (interviewee – mixed media artist).