Footage from the Left Forum

My friend Scott was kind enough to shoot some footage during the panel this past weekend using a little 'flip cam' like apparatus I had tossed into my bag last minute.  The clip below is about 14 minutes long and contains the other speakers (Brianne, Nathan and Monica) talking about their respective causes.

The audio quality sucks pretty hardcore due to the air conditioning but you can get the general idea.

Contains (in no particular order):
Forgive Student Loan Debt
Default: The student loan documentary
Free U Philly
New Faculty Majority
Homeless Adjunct

It’s good to be a panelist

This year’s panel went much better than last.  I should have known it was going to be a good day between the impeccable weather early on and the fact that we didn’t have to wait in the line wrapped around the Pace building for our tickets.  Panelists got fast tracked to the front of the line.  We had our tickets in hand within five minutes and had plenty of time to grab breakfast before we went on at noon.

Just prior to our time slot we briefly met with the other panelists Brianne, Nathan and Monica.  All of them were super cool and spoke on a number of things regarding the debt students encumbered to receive a higher education and alternate forms of education (Their links listed at the bottom of this blog).  While they spoke I did my best to live tweet the event though I probably came off as some jerk off on their cell phone.

“That asshole is still on her phone. She hasn’t put it down in twenty minutes!”

I swear for those of you that were there at the panel I was paying attention. I had hoped that the Left Forum would have picked up on one of several hashtags I planted to RT them but it appears that it didn’t work. (Boo-Hiss).  So much for me being clever.

We screened only raw excepts of ‘Junct for the audience.  Most of it was footage we had shown down in DC back in December but we also added a clip from the Temple U. walk out that took place last summer.  Overall the screening was well received.  I had one complaint afterwards about the audio but it was something I had picked up on as well during the screening and can adjust in post.  Still, it was nice to get that feedback as reinforcement.

I was a little concerned during the panel when I looked out at the audience and wondered if maybe they had checked out completely.  A few of them looked like they were taking notes, but they could have easily been drawing stick figures.  To my surprise during the Q&A session people started hammering the other panelists with questions and their thoughts on the subject.  People had detailed notes and were writing down websites almost as fast as the people suggesting them.  What I found the most fascinating about this particular forum was the fact that there were only 3 people who were contingent faculty.  The rest were either students or people genuinely interested in the subject.  I have to assume that the message we are trying to present in ‘Junct is slowly creeping out.  This is no longer a subject that only Adjuncts are aware of.  The next step is to make this public knowledge.  Hopefully ‘Junct can acheive that once we unleash it, like a Kraken.

The only thing I regret about the panel is we didn’t get a chance to really talk about the next step with ‘Junct; the potential US tour.  I’m not overly concerned because we do not have any of the specifics hammered out but it would have been nice.

Default: The Student Loan Documentary

The positive thing that came out of panel was meeting with one of the reporters at The Chronicle for Higher Education.  They are interested in interviewing DLS and I about the documentary.  The reporter is supposed to contact us in a week or so with questions.  They want the real low down on the film so it should be interesting to see what they print out of my quotes.

“You do realize you dropped the F bomb 26 times in the span of three minutes?”

The randomly cool thing was the minor celebrity we had in the audience.  Captain Ray Lewis, the retired cop from Philly that got arrested at OWS was there listening to us.  I didn’t get a chance to talk to him personally but how fucking cool is that?

“27”

EDU Debtors Union

Free U Philly

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Default: the Student Loan Documentary

'Junct Movie Poster and DVD cover

‘Junct: The Trashing of Higher Ed. in America
March 31st 10a-2p (South Jersey) Need the following for the photoshoot:

Professor- (Male or Female) 40-60 dressed in business to business casual clothing.
4-5 Students- (Male and Female all ethnicities) 18-24 Must pass for this age range. Street clothes: Jeans, t-shirts, jackets (no sweats/no logos)

Non-Paying gig. In return will be food, copy and credit (thank you on ‘Junct’s IMDb page) Must have own transportation and expect to be there for the full four hours. Exact location TBD once the date draws closer. The final product will be in the form of DVD covers and movie posters to promote the documentary.

More info about ‘Junct can be found at the following links:
IMDb
2255Films
Homeless Adjunct
2255Films on Facebook (Inquirer here at this link if interested in being a part of the shoot)

Left Forum & Beyond

My partner in crime DLS recently returned from Chicago’s AWP and I’m eagerly awaiting the next batch of interview videos via Federal Distress. I’m hoping that it arrives by the weekend so I can begin to hack and slash it to bits in time for this year’s Left Forum.  While I don’t know the contents of the latest batch I’m assured by DLS they are phenomenal.  That’s all the reassurance I need.

We (Mostly DSL talking and me showing pretty pictures barring any technical difficulties) will be heading up a panel at the Left Forum on March 17th at high noon. The panel is called: 

OCCUPY COLLEGES: Rescuing Higher Education from the Corporatized University.  

Try to say that five times fast.  Details on the location, other speakers and the panel itself can be found at the link above as well as at the end of this blog. Tickets for the day I believe are $25 dollars.  If you are in the NYC area I suggest you go, if not for us, than the many other panels being conducted over the weekend.  Michael Moore has been recently confirmed by the Left Forum as their main speaker on Saturday night at 7:30.  Hope to see some familiar faces there.

The other big news (which technically I shouldn’t be blabbing about until it’s locked in) is that we *may* have a huge sponsor to help promote ‘Junct in the form of the mother of all road trips.  We are currently in negotiations with the sponsors trying to crunch numbers to make this crazy cross country trip a reality.  So please keep your fingers crossed and your couches available.  The preliminary route includes: DC, KY, TN, LA, TX, NM, CA, WA, IL, IN & OH.  Which I’ve dubbed the music & food porn run. It will take approximately two weeks to conduct.  The other two routes consist of a NE run and a Snowbird run, each clocking in around a week give or take a day, depending on how much I mash the pedal to the floor.  I plan to vlog each day of the trip (so expect bizarre stuff here).  I’ve already got a few volunteers for certain legs of the journey to help with the driving and to fend of boredom.

Road kill bingo anyone?

That said, I have a feeling DLS and I will be spearheading a crowd funding campaign to make these trips happen.

Sites mentioned:

2255Films

Homeless Adjunct

Left Forum

Hidden River Arts

AWP

Trailer for 'Junct

I spent the majority of this evening cutting the first trailer for:
'Junct: The Trashing of Higher Ed. in America
Here is a sneak peek of what's to come.

...and so it goes...

Well overdue for an update on ‘Junct, so I will keep it to the bare minimum for those that actually have been keeping tabs.  Everything on my end as far as video work is completely caught up and catalogued.  I suspect at some point in the near future I will be taking a field trip to the national archives once the groundwork is laid out for the film.  There is also one more interview I would like to secure (if possible) but it will come down to time, money and the subject being willing to be interviewed.  I truly believe if we score that interview (along with some news footage I hope to acquire) it will be what we need to push ‘Junct over the top.

Dare I say I see the end in sight?

In the meantime there are a couple panels happening within the next couple of months.  This Saturday in Washington DC my partner in crime DLS will be speaking at a NFM event about:

Reclaiming Academic Democracy: Facing the Consequences of Contingent Employment in Higher Education

Some of the other speakers include people we’ve already interviewed for the documentary.  As far as I know I will not be in attendance but I strongly urge those of you interested in the topic and native to the DC area to go register and check it out.

The weekend of March 17th DLS and I will be back in New York City for this year’s Left Forum at Pace University.  As of right now I do not have the exact date and time that our panel is on but we will be screening more excepts from ‘Junct as well as answering questions about the film.  Also slated to be on our panel is the filmmaker of Default: The Student Loan, A representative from NFM, Someone from the Free University Movement (no link that I’m aware of), plus one other person.  The tentative topic will be Occupy the University.  As the date draws closer I’ll post more information along with a concrete list of speakers for our panel.

On a somewhat related note I was informed that Michael Moore would be attending the Left Forum.  How funny would that be if he actually sat in on our panel?  If that happens I will try to sneak a picture of him to post on the twitter feed.

Links Mentioned:

NFM National Summit

Default Movie

Left Forum

Michael Moore

National Archives

SEIU 500

Back in February I hustled down to DC to conduct a handful of interviews for the ‘Junct documentary.  During the course of that weekend DLS was asked by AL of SEIU 500 CAL to be the keynote speaker for their 3rd annual forum in DC.  That was this weekend.  I find it amazing how quick these things have been sneaking up on us.

Roughly two weeks ago I get the email from my partner reminding me of the event and how her wish was to incorporate more clips from the doc into her keynote speech.  Initially she had wanted to speak for 20, screen for 20 and for the last 20 field questions.  Over the course of the two weeks it morphed into a speak, clip, speak, clip format.  Which was far more manageable for me since the bulk of footage I have is comprised of interviews and not much in the way of fancy B-roll. Twenty minutes of solid interviews would have been a snooze fest, despite the fact that the audience is very much invested in the subject.  I’m glad the twenty minute block was scrapped early on.

I got the clips pulled after work on Wed/Thurs night of this past week, rendering out a couple thumbnails for DLS to preview to see where we could trim the fat.  We had roughly 25 segments that she wanted to address during her speech but got it down to 15 after weeding a few out and combining others.  The runtime however clocked in at 30 minutes and it was midnight on Thursday, we had to lock it down.  I set it to render and right before the day job I built the DVD menu.  I hit the burn button and left for work, hoping the DVD would be done and playable by the time I got in that night.  Otherwise I knew I’d have my laptop set up in the backseat of my truck on my commute to DC.

Luckily it worked.  I quickly gathered my crap and took off for Philly to pick up DLS before trekking down to DC.  We managed to get turned around a couple times before finally finding the hotel at 10pm.

“Look kids...white house...dupont circle...”

Morning came too soon.  I’m impressed with the fact that I managed to brush my teeth and hair.  I looked *almost* human as I schlepped my gear into the SEIU building at 10am.  We managed to find some seating in the back of the conference room, but not together.  We had a professor, in his forties, wedged between us.  He teaches economics, at I think AU.  His day job is working for the big bad government.  This shouldn’t have surprised me considering we were in DC, but it was still pretty cool reading his business card and seeing the embossed ‘The Library of Congress’ emblem on it.  I tweet and FB status this revelation, which only solidifies what a nerd I am.

The panels were interesting.  One woman was talking a little about her archeology work in Pompeii (no pictures unfortunately) and how one college capped the amount of classes contingent can take on during a typical semester.  Because of it she was having difficulty affording the month long digs in Italy.

Another talked about the inroads she was making expanding the LGBT studies at one of the local colleges.  She did this really cool spoken word piece comparing contingent faculty to sex workers.  I’m hoping to get a copy of that speech or better, video of her performing that piece.  This chick is seriously bad ass.  Hopefully she won’t kick my ass for posting her picture ‘Wonder woman with a hard on’ and linking to her site.

Photo of Loraine Hutchins taken by Sharon Farmer

By the time we got to the keynote speech the forum was running roughly an hour behind.  It really wasn’t a big deal in my opinion and I think it’s all too common at these things to linger behind.  DLS adapted her speech a bit after listening to the other panels and we ended up running through 5-6 segments instead of the full 15.  We were pretty sure people were starving by this point, so we wrapped as quick as we could to avoid the pitchforks and torches!

We grabbed food and wrapped up round table style with about 12 people, discussing the movement and how to raise awareness.  It was interesting listening to their different analogies and discussing strategies.  In that informal little gathering it didn’t really matter if you were part of the union or some other organization.  In fact they let it slide that I wasn’t an educator.  Now that’s pretty cool...

Next up DC at the end of Jan.

'Junct on FB

'Junct Rebellion Blog

NFM

NFM Blog

SEIU 500 CAL FB group

Topaz Hotel

SEIU forum THIS weekend in Washington DC

I know I promised a blog on my lost weekend, but after about two paragraphs it fizzled out.  It might be something best saved for another time or perhaps not for the masses.  I guess it all boils down to inspiration.

Anyway, we will be down in DC this weekend promoting ‘Junct.  My partner DLS is the keynote speaker for this years SEIU500 forum.  She will be touching on a number of subjects that will be covered in the documentary along with the current political climate and the OWS movement.  She will also be fielding questions afterwards.

Information on this years SEIU forum can found here and I believe it is free and open to the public.  You don’t need to be an educator to attend the conference.

Things that begin with the letter M: Music/Marketing (the P21 experience)

After talking to one of my crew members over the weekend he made a pretty valid point about blogging my perspective on the festival as a team captain.  So here I am, doing that blogging thing.  I figure I'm overdue for some sort of update and while the documentary is still chugging along, there is really nothing to report on the subject.  At least nothing substantial in my opinion.

This is the third year my crew and I have taken part in Project Twenty 1 (Go check out their website for information on the competition).  In a way this has become old hat for us.  The schedule is usually posted around the time registration opens up and we do not deviate from it.  I’m pretty sure my cast and crew call me a tyrant behind my back during those three weeks as I screamed and carried on about not straying from the schedule.  The only change that was implemented was a private facebook group one week prior to the launch date.

The group was comprised of potential cast and crew members that I had worked with in the past.  During the week before the kick off event all of us tossed out ideas that could be turned into a short film, I posted the locations that were available, odd props and access to vehicles.  I also whittled down the group once I knew who in and who was out.  This worked out rather nice and by the time of the launch we had roughly 20 different ideas and a solid crew of 21.

By the time the kickoff event rolled around we were prepared for the element.  At least we thought we were.  When they announced the element was ‘starts with a crash’ the entire crew had a WTF look on their face for a solid two minutes.  Mainly because we were expecting ‘starts with a crash INSERT REAL ELEMENT HERE’.  After we wrapped our brains around the crash being THE element we got back into the game.  I’m guessing we should be thankful that we were all sober at the time and didn’t smoke pot because we’d probably still be sitting there at the bowling alley right now, staring blankly at each other, trying to figure out what the element was.

Adam~ “Club 27?”

Brad~ “Yeah, Club 27 idea...”

Charlie~ “What’s that?”

Brad~ “The Amy Winehouse one.”

Charlie~ “Oh...”

Adam~ “What? Too soon?”

Charlie~ “No,wait, what was that about again?”

Adam~ “The rockstars that bought it at age 27...you know Joplin, Cobain, Morrison, Hendrix and that other guy...Brian something...lying in bed, just like Brian Wilson dead...no not him.  I think this guy was in the Mama and the Papas.”

Brad~ “Jones, Brian Jones the guitarist for the Rolling Stones.”

Adam~ “Yeah, him...and now Amy Winehouse.”

Charlie~ “Are you sure that’s a good idea?  She just died the other day and the autopsy reports aren’t back yet.  What if it wasn’t drug related?”

Adam~  “Does it really matter? She’s dead...and 27.”

Alright, the dialogue didn’t go exactly down like that and I have no idea who Adam, Brad and Charlie are, but you get the idea.  The crew that made the trek up to Lucky Strikes quickly decided post element reveal to bail for some place quiet with diner food.  Personally I hate loud places where it requires me to scream like Edith Bunker at the person sitting next to me.  That shit gets old quick and is one of the primary reasons I remain in my editing cave on networking nights.  I want to actually hear the person I’m having a conversation with, not get every third word and wake up with a bitching sore throat the next morning.

During this time we had one major issue to resolve, that was finding the main character to play our dead rockstar Trent.  One of the crew members managed to coax someone over so we could talk to the guy.  I did my best to explain the premise of the short but the more I talked the more I felt as if I were recruiting him to join a cult and not star in a film.

Once we got situated at the diner a few blocks over we tag teamed the idea.  The question of the evening was what determines ‘rock star status’.  That’s when everyone pulled out their phones to post/text the expert on the subject; my mom.

Sad, but true.  Ask anyone who knows her.  She’s cooler than Christopher Walken reading ‘goodnight moon’ and Samuel L. Jackson reading ‘Go the fuck to sleep’ combined.

Serious.

David~ “That guy you talked to to play Trent. You get his information?”

Eddie~ “Uh, no...but I gave him mine.”

*laughter*

Eddie~ “Awww...crap.  That guy is so not adding me on facebook tonight.”

David~ “We probably scared him when we surrounded him like vultures.”

Eddie~ “He did sort of look like we were asking him to drink the koolaid, didn’t he?”

David~ “He’s so not calling...”

Eddie~ “Yeah...no.” *pauses*  “I wonder if it would made a difference if we told him we didn’t have it in the budget for the matching sweats and sneakers....right...no.”

David~  “Okay, we need a back up Trent.  Ideas?”

After we were watered and fed we had a pretty good idea the structure of ‘Club 27’.  I left it up to one of the writers on the crew to bang out a rough draft for the following morning.  I had it waiting in my inbox by 10am the next day.  Another writer tossed in his ideas before finally the last writer laid down the gauntlet.  What I found interesting was seeing how one idea could spark so may different tones just between the writers yet be the same plot.

During the week I did get confirmation from the guy I had networked with during the kickoff event.  From the correspondences I was pretty sure we didn’t scare him off and he sounded pretty excited once he read the script.  Unfortunately, a family emergency came up and his role was regretfully recast.  He turned out to be a pretty cool dude and hopefully I’ll get the chance to work with him on a future project.

With New-Trent in place it was a go for the first shoot weekend.  We had a few hiccups, like tracking down our ‘Janis’ and ‘Hendrix’ for fittings pre-shoot and finding hillbilly attire for Trent.  Though a majority of us grew up during the grunge era we have since thrown out our flannels.  Big mistake.  Luckily for us one of our newer crew members owns a shop: Church of Vintage which deals in vintage threads.  She has since received the moniker ‘Wardrobe Goddess’ because she rocks that much.  I can’t begin to tell you how awesome it is to have access to that much stuff.

Hendrix Attire ~ Check

Cobain Attire ~ Check

Joplin Attire ~ Check

Cow Costume ~ Wait, what?

The cow costume came from one of the other crew members.  It had been in the trunk of their car for quite some time and we figured why not.  Trent’s day job could be working for a Chick-Fil-A knock off named Big Slab O’ Cow as a sign holder.  we even made a page for it on facebook.

EXT. STREET - DAY

TRENT in a cow costume, holding up a sign advertising some sort of restaurant. Two HOODLUMS start harassing him, and he hits them with a sign.

INT. POLICE DEPARTMENT - DAY

TRENT, still in his cow costume, having his mugshot taken.

While this scene was funny we had a problem, only one hoodlum to beat him up.  In my opinion it wasn’t funny enough.  Then I remembered the lobster costume I had in storage.  Don’t ask why, I just do, okay?  The person who was my hoodlum had no idea I found the costume and that he would be wearing it until a few minutes prior to the shoot.  I refer to him as my MPB (Multi-Purpose Bitch), my gaffer to actor.  The difficult part was not convincing him to get into costume but trying to find queen-sized black stockings that weren’t see through.

Franco~  “Actually these tights are quiet comfortable...”

SURF VS. TURF

We ended up doing that particular scene in two takes.  The first nearly caused a fender bender when some little old blue hair slammed on her breaks and the second had amassed a crowd of roughly 20 illegal immigrants.  I wasn’t pressing my luck with a third take. Plus, it was the first shoot of the second day.  Bigger fish to fry, or chickens to pluck in our case.

During the course of that weekend we were winging Trent’s song.  My cousin had only done the chorus at that point and our reference was a cell phone message for the harmonies.  It proved to be a challenge for him and considering the lower back pain I’m feeling right now I’m beginning to think he might have constructed a voodoo doll.

Grace~ “You down for making some music for the film.”

Harry~  “What do you have?”

Grace~ *Brief Synopsis* “So, I need a country song...”

Harry~ “Does it have to be country.”

Grace~ “Yes, but it has to be a shitty country song.”

Harry~ “Aren’t all country songs shitty?”

Harry~ “Fine.  I’ll see what I can do.”  *Grumbles*

Not only did he put together a shitty country song, he managed to weave in the lobster battle.  I was told it took him nearly 30 takes to sing the lobster line without laughing.  I made sure in post that I placed that line in during Trent’s accident scene.

The shoot took a total of two days.  We were wrapped by Sunday at 6.  The cast and crew went home and I started post.  This was the first time I shot with two cameras.  I had my trusty SD panasonic DVC-30 for audio as well as back up and I had purchased a Canon 7D (outfitted with a lens EFS 17-85mm I had for my previous camera) a week before the shoot.  I wasn’t sure how the footage was going to turn out on the Canon and I didn’t want to rely on the native audio.  It was too big of a risk and while I shot I had horrible visions of blurry footage due to the lens unforgivable depth of field.  I didn’t even want to think about the sound.  Overall, the footage was great and the sound was ass.  I spent an entire weekend syncing audio and then spent two nights after work ripping all the audio from the paramedic scene.  I pulled in one of the actors for his voice over and for the one that couldn’t make it I had another friend step in to do his voice.  It took 3 takes for both of them to nail the audio.

Audio clean up

With the film in the can we set our sights on marketing.  I really didn’t think we had a shot of being in the running for the award and unfortunantly some of our best stuff never saw the light of day.

• We created a profile for Margaret Maines (aka Trent’s biggest fan) on facebook.  Gave the entire team the email and password to log in and see how many people we could friend.  Everyone worked on her profile, chatted with people, added games... (Okay, it was just me that added the games).  We made her birthday the same day as the P21 awards ceremony.  She currently has 66 friends.  Not bad for being imaginary.

• We uploaded Trent Nash Tuckers top ten hit in Liechtenstein; Ain’t Life Grand to reverbnation, made a fan site on facebook and set up a twitter account.  The song is #9 in Cooter, AR (Yes, that’s apparently a real place).  He has 30 fans.

• Our graphic design god made up really cool posters which we rolled out the week before the screening.

• We killed Trent off the morning of September 31.  One of my crew members made up a CNN-looking webpage with the hopes people would RT it.
• Interviews with the cast and crew about who their music idols were (Found Here at 2255Films fan site on facebook).
• a trailer which made the previous years entries look like comedies (they weren't)

• Made up demo CDs of the ‘Ain’t Life Grand’ song to hand out at events prior to the premier.  The CD sleeves also included business cards of the people that worked on the film as well as the postcards to promote the screening.

• Swag bags for the cast and crew.  The bags included the DVD, poster, coffee mug and these light up clappy hand things my mom found at the dollar store.  It’s the little things in life that keep us amused.  

Isaac~ *Holds up clappy hands*  “Shiny!”

Jessica~  “I knew when I saw them I HAD to buy them.  I know you said 16 but I bought more than that.”

Little did I know the original Susie Filmmaker liked them too (original pictures courtesy of @ice2cu):

Anyway, we were nominated for Best Music and Best Marketing at P21 (Results here).  It was pretty cool despite it not being a win.  My cast and crew made a fun film with little drama and as far as I know we are all still on speaking terms.  I call that a win.  Now wake me up when it’s July 2012.

'Junct Update

Brain is fried so check out this clip.

UPDATE:  Information to help can be found here at the latest entry of 'The Homeless Adjunct'.  Please RT and forward to those that may be in a position to help.