My UGC

So in the last few days of my internship at Causecast, I am supposed to be working on my UGC video (user generated content). I chose to do my video on Aung San Suu Kyi because I didn't know anything about her before coming to Causecast. I will be basing my video on a blog post I wrote for Causecast's blog.

Of course, when I wrote that entry, the verdict of her unfair trial had not yet been announced. Even though I expected her to get five years in Insein prison and she got 18 month of house arrest instead, I feel like this is just another example of how the military junta is trying to suppress opposition while keeping the international community at bay. Since the actual term she is serving is so much "less" than the alternative, people will probably not rise up in uproar. But, the real issue is that she cannot campaign for the upcoming elections while she is in house arrest and neither can her party. So really, this is a way for the military junta to legitimize themselves as the rightful government and negate her landslide victory in 1990 when they had their last election.

I never really thought I'd care so much about Aung San Suu Kyi and her plight, and her people's plight before this internship. If I leave with just this new awareness, I'd be happy but I know I'm leaving with much more than that. My time at Causecast was sometimes hard, sometimes long, but mostly happy, with lots of learning opportunities, awesome projects, great charity events, and really caring people. If everyone cared about something as much as the passionate people at Causecast, then this world would be a better place.

I'm going to be sad leaving this place. But, I feel like I can always come back or join in on their community activities. I'm only across town.

The Youngest Candidate

On twitter, #TYC is the new acronym being tweeted everywhere. It took me a while to realize it's an acronym for The Youngest Candidate. It's the first of its kind, this film premiere tweet-up thing.

Jason Pollock, the director for The Youngest Candidate, used twitter to market and mobilize his 50,000 twitter followers to come watch his film or in the least, the live streaming of his reception and red carpet for the LA film festival premiere.

Could social media really be a way to promote a film? Would people watch the live stream?

I shot the footage above and found it on Causecast's site as a place holder of where the actual live streaming was viewed. As I was filming it, I could see messages of the people watching the live streaming pop up on the little camera screen. It was an unexpectedly intimate experience to know that people were watching what you were filming and reacting to it as it was happening.

We don't know the results yet for how many people tuned in to the live stream but one thing is for sure. If this works, this will forever change the landscape for film marketing.

Jason Pollock is also a Causecast leader. Tonight I had the opportunity to help with the live streaming of The Youngest Candidate, a film he worked on for 3.5 years. He's articulate, funny, intelligent, inspiring, and...young. It was awesome to see the "big guys" in politics and entertainment make way for this guy to shine. According to new Jason Pollock converts, it was his tenacity and perserverance that got him into their doors and into their hearts. That is one take-away message I got from filming Jason and watching his film. Where would people be without failing? If you're not prepared to fail, you're not prepared to succeed.

I have a younger brother who is in law school right now and an even younger brother who brings home trophies from his debate competitions. If they saw this film, I know it would jolt them into realizing their political pursuits. One of the greatest misconceptions these days is that the youth are not doing anything or that they are apathetic. I disagree with this notion because I see how passionate teens get about the issues that affect them. In terms of politics, what would it take to get this topic to be a lunchroom discussion? In my opinion, to make it cool.

Cool to know that you can make a difference, cool to know that you can run for political office at the age of 18, cool to know that you have most of your teens to prepare for your first election, cool to know that you can prove to the world that your voice matters.

I hope you can watch this film. Oh yeah, and I don't get paid to say these things. Just in case you were wondering.

The Youngest Candidate

Synopsis:

The Youngest Candidate follows four electoral candidates on their campaign trails. There is Tiffany Tupper, an 18-year-old School Board Candidate from Pennsylvania. Raul De Jesus grew up in gangland and at 20 is a mayoral candidate in Hartford, Connecticut. Down the coast, Ytit Chauhan, a 19 year old that bounced around the country with his single mother, is running as a City Council Candidate in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Lastly, George Monger, raised in Memphis, Tennessee, campaigns as a City Council Candidate in his home town of 18 years. Not yet old enough to rent a car, the four candidates face social and racial barriers that coldly remind the audience how far our society has to come.

The premiere took place on June 25th at 7 p.m. at the historic Majestic Crest Theater in Los Angeles, California.

Here are some pictures I took of the event:

Graham Sibley, Justin Scot, Lawrence Bender, Jason Pollock, Gus Roxburgh, Shaun Murphy

Ron S. Calderon (CA state senator), Justin Scot

Jason Pollock, Katrina Norvell

Jason Pollock, Katrina Norvell

Jason Pollock, Katrina Norvell

Live Streaming Lawrence Bender, Jason Pollock

Lawrence Bender, Jason Pollock

Brandon wrote something up about the event as well. He's much more detailed in his descriptions and posted up some awesome numbers (people tuning in, etc.) so check it out here.

This just in:
Jason will be at Causecast headquarters on Tuesday, June 30 at 2pm PST for a live chat!

Other reviews and write ups:

The Youngest Candidate - Jason Pollock's Ode to Young Politicians

The Youngest Candidate: Four Youths That Voted For Themselves Before Most Of Us Voted At All

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Watch The Youngest Candidate Trailer

The Youngest Candidate Mission Statement

Befriend Jason Pollock on Twitter

Befriend Causecast on Twitter

Watch the live streaming of the premier if you missed it

New building and new learning

So we moved all the way across the street! Pretty cool and spacious place, with an open feel. The video department is not confined in our own cave anymore. We share our space with editorial in a more open space. The pro is that it's not hot and stuffy in this new space. The con is that it's less private and I can hear everyone's conversations, which is usually okay if I'm not trying to listen to something through my headphones. Memories of my time at Wellesley when I'm trying to study while others were chatting loudly by the printer comes to mind. Admittedly though, I've been a chatterer who got thrown evil looks at times, too.

I'm going to take pictures of the space and upload it on here tomorrow. I meant to do it today but I was working on the Cause in 60 seconds episode on the death penalty and Troy Davis all day today. In the morning, I got to help Brandon film an episode of "Hype to Habit" hosted by Sarah Backhouse. I got to work the teleprompter today. I'm learning so much at this internship~!

In researching for the Cause in 60 seconds, I learned how to grab streaming video online. I should apply this to my Raider Nation movie. I can insert some high quality footage into my film of the Raiders winning a superbowl back in the day. Way back in the day.

I'm also using Creative Commons a lot to get media that I could use, manipulate, cut, etc. without freaking out about getting sued. I want to donate some of my stuff to it as well. Artists unite!

Where I work

And these are some pictures of my oatmeal bar concoctions that sadly, will be gone since we have moved to the new building:

The "old" video cave, featuring Brandon and fellow intern Katie.

Starring the illustrious Harmony.


My next day to intern is Wed and I will be reporting to a whole new Causecast, just across the street.

Rory Freedman

Today I got to interview one of Causecast's leaders and author of the Skinny Bitch series, Rory Freedman. When I first read Skinny Bitch, I was inspired to eat healthier and eat less meat. After meeting with Rory, I'm convinced I can actually take steps in eating healthier with more organic fruits and veggies and less meat. I found out that Rory is not only an author of a bestselling series of books, but she is also an animal rights activist. It's really inspiring to see what passions people identify themselves with aside from their claim to fame.

One of the cool things I found out about Rory is that she is into trapeze and she's pretty good at it, too. I'm pretty scared of heights so I told her I'd probably never do it. She is one who doesn't take excuses and told me that I should try it anyway. This was also her encouraging attitude when I told her I cannot give up meat because I'm Korean. When I told her I was doing a documentary on foodies and that many foodies think vegans cannot be foodies, she completely disagreed. In fact, she says she only knows vegan foodies! This is very encouraging, as I had wanted to incorporate "the other side" into the documentary. Personally, most of my vegan friends (and others who are on restrictive diets) only talk about food and it's because they have to think about what kinds of food they can or cannot eat and it's also important that it tastes good. I have a foodie friend who is organizing a vegan food marathon because vegans posted on his site to challenge his dislike for vegan food. This has been a long and heated debate within the foodie culture so I'm pretty stoked I might be able to interview some vegan foodies.

It's been a few days now since I've watched "Food Inc" and I've been shopping for organic fruits and vegetables and have cut back on mystery meat. I've also bought a small basil plant to start my own herb garden. More on that later!

RW/FF: Rewind. Fast Forward.

It's been only day 2 of the internship and so far I love it!

I got to work a bit before 10am, my "call time" which was originally at 9:30am so I definitely appreciated the extra thirty minutes I was able to spend in traffic instead. Haha. Anyway, my morning ritual coming to my internship is looking for parking, settling into my station, and then going to get a bowl of oatmeal. Yes, that's right. I get to eat free oatmeal. I never had it this good. I mean, I used to hate oatmeal but I realized it was because I don't know how to make it. Not like this. I'm going to upload a pic of it here on Monday. There is a toppings bar next to the oatmeal. Today I had two freakin bowls of oatmeal. Yes, hunny they're that good. My first bowl consisted of oatmeal, ground flax seed, raisins, nuts, honey, bananas, and walnuts. My second bowl consisted of oatmeal, fresh blueberries which Harmonie spotted from across the room, flax seed, nuts, honey, and a dash of sugar free almond. Oh yeah, they also have a coffee and espresso bar!!!!!!!!!! I'm never giving up coffee. Not when it's available like this.

Working at Causecast reminds me a little of Wellesley. No, it's not all women. It's just cozy, high-tech, food is available all day (though oatmeal is only in the mornings but coffee is all I need anyway), it's casual, they're great people who care about things and are vocal about it, they have a climate of learning, and a strong bond between the causecasters. I do hope it's not like Wellesley when it gets high-stress though (that was just crazy).

But maybe it never really gets like that here because they have fun events like tonight's party to relieve some of the tension! So I'm pretty excited about going to my first Causecast event outside of the internship. It's a party at LAX, a super "hot" club in Hollywood. It used to be hot when I went there a few years ago (it took forever to get in) but things change so fast in the clubbing scene I have no idea how cool or hot it is now. I just know a ton of people are going to be there and it's a fundraiser for 826LA so I hope a lot of people show up but at the same time, I hate waiting in line so I hope it doesn't take too long to get in.

So today, I was in from 9:50am until 2pm and I basically worked with the layout of the C60 program, which is basically 60 seconds of Cause-related videos we're going to start working on a regular basis. With the layouts, I simply had to look for different combinations of shapes so that we could make a template and drop the videos in later. Then, most of the time consuming editing is done! Man, this is such a smart way to do things. I'm going to have to learn about these kinds of strategies so I can apply them to my documentaries. One of my least favorite things in editing is doing precisely that - sitting there and resizing things and moving things around so it's not boring. Yesterday I subtitled a viral marketing strategy video and I not only got to edit, but I learned a lot in the process! It was like taking a free class.

Anyway, I'm really happy about this internship. I like the structure of it, the encouraging of ideas, and the fact that everyone there is really also new too, since the company itself hasn't been around for that long. There is a sense that anything can be done because of the newness and as we move into our new building on Saturday, I'm sure this feeling would carry over.

A few other things I'm excited about:

Meeting Aaron Cohen, of abolish slavery coalition, and reading his new book.

Joining the Bar Method next week to get back into health.

Laker games!

Cause for Comedy on June 11, 2009

Talent 1 Media Film Festival on June 13, 2009