Weekly Wrap-up (with a Shout Out)

Being closed Monday for Patriot's Day was really nice and our staff took full advantage of the three day weekend to travel to all kinds of exotic places like NYC, New Jersey, and, of course, a goat farm in Shelburne Falls.

We hit the ground running on Tuesday morning, however, with Community Action's Mediation & Training Collaborative (TMTC) beginning an almost day-long shoot in our studio. Thanks to a grant, they were able to hire two of our independent producers (Jimmie Bailey & Drew Hutchison) to set up the technical aspects of the production and run cameras. Drew & Jimmie helped the shoot to proceed smoothly and, as Betsey Corner of TMTC said, "they were worth every penny".

On Wednesday, our studio was again in use most of the day---this time by three separate shoots and a tour. In the morning, we recorded a video statement, for our website, by one of the candidates in Greenfield's upcoming election (Don't forget to vote June 8, 2010!). After lunch, a group from Ludlow Public Access Television (LPTV) in Vermont stopped by to check out our facilities. They are about to move into a new space and were visiting several nearby stations to get ideas for their architect to use in the planning and renovation process. Not long after they left, Mayor Martin and Sandy Shields (Director of Greenfield's DPW) came in to tape a new "Mayor's Memo" focusing on Greenfield's Solar Farm project. When they had finished, Philippe and Alicia spent the rest of the afternoon setting up for the Town Council Meeting which was broadcast live from our studio that evening.

Thanks to a respite on Thursday, Alicia finally had time to evict most of the dustbunnies from our studio. Her thorough sweeping job means that when the crews for "Silly Wizard" and "Kid Trivia" come in to record shows this afternoon their feet will not be producing crunching sounds as they walk across the floor. Yay!

In other news, "Valley Homegrown" director Richard Roy is participating in the World T'ai-Chi and Qigong Day Celebration here in Greenfield this weekend. A group meditation for world peace and awareness of T'ai-Chi and Qigong will be held Saturday, April 24th, from 10AM to 11:30AM at Beacon Field. The event, which is sponsored by J. R. Roy Martial Arts Studio & Dial/Self, will be held rain or shine. It's free and Richard hopes that he'll see many of you there.

Alphabet Soup---GEF & GRF

Don't know what those acronyms stand for or why they are in the title of this week's wrap-up? Well, let me tell you about the three events we covered this week.

On Monday, Philippe & Scott followed up on our story from March 17th by attending the grand opening of the new Veterans' Resource & Referral Center on Main Street. In addition to filming all of the ceremony, they recorded a second set of interviews with Mayor Martin and Director of Veterans' Services Charles Loven.

Continuing this theme, yesterday was a busy day around here. At 3pm, the brand new Greenfield Education Foundation (GEF) held a live press conference in our studio to introduce themselves to the general public. The President of this endeavor, Robby Cohn, explained that he and the other members of the board had already raised around $22,000 to assist the Greenfield Public Schools. (Now is probably a good time to say that GCTV is a great place to hold a press conference. Think about it; lots of space, the ability to broadcast your message LIVE on television, and the public can watch your event online anytime they want. Oh, and did I mention the fact that we're FREE?)

Later, Owen attended the Green River Festival(GRF)'s press conference revealing the music line up for this summer. He got a chance to listen to one of the bands play and speak with some of the event's coordinators. We hope to have that story on our homepage this evening.

The other two pieces are already on our website, and the full events will be rebroadcast on Cable Channel 15 this weekend, so be sure to check them out if you haven't yet.

New! Weekly Wrap-up

We put our heads together here, after the tempestuous time we had last week, and decided that posting a synopsis of life at GCTV each Friday wouldn't be a bad idea. (It also might be cathartic for our staff.) To that end, I bring you, (dah, dah!) the first GCTV Weekly Wrap-up:

Our week started as usual on Monday morning with a "Dukes of Sports" shoot. Producer, and co-host, of the show Russ Brown brought us a huge bag of freshly popped popcorn---for which we thanked him greatly. (Always feed the bears in our office!) The only event that marred this day was the final fallout from our technical heck week in which we found that the March 11th Greenfield School Committee Meeting's video file had been corrupted beyond saving.

Tuesday was a boisterous one around here, with about twenty students from Federal Street Elementary School in our studio to help Jonathan Mirin's Piti Theatre Company film "Salmon Falls". Piti Theatre's website describes this show as, "an interactive theatrical event where audience members ages 5 and up are invited to help us tell the Deerfield River's story with movement, song and storytelling." Tuesday evening, a different group filled our studio. The Greenfield Kiwanis Club held their monthly meeting here, and got in some camera training, ahead of their two day auction extravaganza which will be shown live on Channel 15 on May 5th & 6th.

Four shoots rounded out our production week---"Encore Body Art" & a Greenfield Town Council Meeting on Wednesday and "Local Bias" & "Healthbeat" on Thursday. The town council meeting lasted 3-1/2 hours and Alicia would like to profusely thank volunteers Jal, Donna, & Shawn for going the distance. (A belated thank you goes out to Tom Roulston who stepped in at the last minute, last week, to run a camera for two hours at the Greenfield School Committee Meeting.) Al Norman was Drew Hutchison's guest for the "Local Bias" episode that will begin airing on Wednesday and be on the lookout for April's "Healthbeat" which will focus on Advances in Obstetrics and National Volunteer Month.

So far, today is relatively quiet, though I know I shouldn't really type that. Check back next Friday for the second installment of GCTV's Weekly Wrap-up. ---Alicia