This past week Andrew Love, Cape Ann TV producer, has been helping to organize, copy, and transfer to various external hard drives my film projects in progress, and to also locate a plethora of render files that were on a variety of hard drives–terabytes of information and footage! He’s a gifted editor and organizer and I am grateful to him for lending his considerable talents.
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Do you have a project that you would like develop to air on Cape Ann TV? Membership is open to any citizen of Cape Ann 16 years of age or older. (Ed. Note: membership is a only $20.00 per year!). Training classes are included in the membership fee. Learn more about television production and what makes Cape Ann TV so unique.
Cape Ann Television has wonderful after school programs for students. Gloucester students can attend the after school program held by Cape Ann TV at Art Haven. For more information call Lisa Smith at 978-281-2443. For Rockport students, there is a new after school video club led by Cape Ann TV producer Andrew Love. For more information call Andrew at 978-281-2443.
My sincerest thanks Andrew for all you help this past week!
Unfortunately, I don’t have a great photo of Andrew so this will have to do. Barry O’Brien (left) and Andrew Love teaching a class at Cape Ann TV studio.
Lisa Smith and Andrew Love ~ above photo courtesy Google Image Search from the Gloucester Daily Times
As first seen On Good Morning Gloucester. The following is the program schedule for the video special that I produced for Good Morning Gloucester, which is also airing on Cape Ann TV this week.
Program schedule for The Greasy Pole Fall Classic airing on Channel 12, Cape Ann TV:
Wednesday, November 23 at 8:00 pm
Thursday, November 24 at 1:00 am and 6:30 pm
Saturday, November 26 at 7:30 pm
My Cape Ann readers know of the Greasy Pole. For my off -island readers, the Greasy Pole walk is a uniquely Gloucester Sicilian-American event that takes place every summer during the St. Peter’s Fiesta. The pole is rigged on a platform in the harbor off Pavilion Beach. The objective is to walk the heavily greased pole and capture the flag. During the fiesta three walks take place, one walk each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and there are three winners declared. Much bravado and celebrating takes place during and after walking the greasy pole. To see Greasy Pole videos from the summer of 2011 visit Good Morning Gloucester. To read more about the Greasy Pole and Gloucester’s annual St. Peter’s Fiesta visit the St. Peter’s Fiesta website.
This past autumn the platform rigged in the harbor that supports the pole was damaged first by Hurricane Irene, and then destroyed by a subsequent ‘noreaster. Roughly eighty thousand dollars is needed to reconstruct the platform. The Greasy Pole Fall Classic fundraiser, from where the video footage was shot, was held at the local football stadium, and is a one time only re-creation of the annual event that takes place in the harbor. Gloucester’s St. Peter’s Fiesta is attended by tens of thousands and is a beautiful celebration of St. Peter, the patron saint of fishermen. The Greasy Pole is a highlight of the fiesta, and just one of many religious and celebratory events.
Donations to restore the Greasy Pole may be sent to the following address:
The workshop last night at Cape Ann TV, presented by Barry O’Brien, President North Shore Communications Group, was fantastic. We covered keyframing in Final Cut Pro, basic techniques in both audio and video, and then several more advanced techniques in both. Barry and Andrew Love, producer at CATV, are extremely generous with their time and knowledge. It matters that you understand what they are teaching, and they take the time to insure that you do. Thank you Barry and Andrew for generously sharing your gifts!
Come join us Thursday, November 3rd, at 7:00 pm at the Friend Room of the Sawyer Free Library for the premiere of my new series of video specials titled Through the Garden Gate, featuring “The Butterfly Garden at Willowdale Estate.” The event is free and open to the public and refreshments will be served. I hope you can come!
Quickly posting as I am under several deadlines and determined to get all fully underway. I believe I mentioned that this past week, Lisa Smith and her Cape Ann TV After-the Beach Teen Video Club stopped by for a tour of my garden. Here’s a short clip, with a wonderful surprise visit by the friendly Question Mark butterfly, who very conveniently, stole the show.
The teens and Lisa did a great job and all very much enjoyed the beautiful creatures that flew in and out of our story. It is not easy to focus on tiny subjects using a heavy camera attached to a tripod. The full video of the garden tour and interview will air in the near future and we will keep you posted.
Join Cape Ann TV for their annual meeting Tuesday, May 24 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Sawyer Free Library Friend Room.
A Special Presentation, “Public Access and Democracy: From the Boob Tube to YouTube, A Revolution in Our Time,” gives a glimpse at the evolution of public access television, a form of mass media where ordinary people can create content cablecast through their local cable system.
I am looking forward to attending the Cape Ann TV’s annual meeting and especially looking forward to Barry O’Brien’s (founder of North Shore Communications Group) special presentation. I attended Barry’s lighting workshop last week and it was so worthwhile!! After the workshop he took the time to teach me several sound editing techniques in Soundtrack Pro. Many, many thanks to Barry for his professional advice and generosity!
This week Allen Estes Local Music Seen features Jake Pardee. The shows are taped before a live studio audience and air Wednesday, 5/13 at 6:30pm, Friday 5/20 at 1:30pm, and Sunday 5/22 at 6pm.
Dear Gardening Friends–What do think about this title for my tv show? Through the Garden Gate with Kim Smith
I am working with Lisa Smith over at Cape Ann TV and she is terrific. Lisa is teaching me Final Cut Pro. Extraordinary, don’t you think, that the same editing program used by major Hollywood film makers (Francis Ford Coppola, to name one giant in the industry) is available to any resident of Cape Ann to learn (for free!) at Cape Ann TV?
Additional candidates for the title:
Kim Smith’s American Gardener’s Journal
Welcome to the Wild Garden
Wild Gardening with Kim Smith
P.S. I am under strict orders not to mention by name who is the person singing Bizet’s La Chanson du Fou, uncovered in my itunes account. I am sure you can guess. Don’t you think the evocative layer of warmth and beauty added by her voice compliments perfectly the lush gardens and movement of the pollinators?
We are sending our most heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the Japanese people. Viewing the broadcasts reminds me that it was just over a year ago that the devastating earthquake struck Port au Prince. Can a person ever fully recover from such an event? The utter destruction of the tsunami is confounding, now coupled with threats of nuclear meltdown. My wish for the people of Japan and their nation is as speedy a recovery as is possible.
We are so very blessed living where we do. Perhaps I mentioned that I am developing a television series, which will air on our local cable television station, Cape Ann TV, as well as other cable stations. I believe it was early last summer that Donna Gacek, the director of Cape Ann TV, approached me about the possibility of creating a show based around my writings and butterfly photos. A tv show would be a magnificent medium to share about the joys of creating organic habitats designed for people and pollinators. We can visit gardens, fields, meadows, and wildlife sanctuaries–and connect how to translate habitat information found there to our own gardens, examine gardening trends, loves, and literature, conduct interviews, undertake how-to projects–the possibilities are limitless. I hope, too, for some room for spontaneity and fun–once I get a handle on the process. I knew what I was getting myself into and knew it would be enormously time consuming, which it is, however I am so pleased with our initial progress and thought I would bring you this trailer for the first episode as well as behind the scenes updates.
Instinctively it was clear that the first step in development would be to film and photograph as much as time would allow, especially as this past summer, gratefully so, was THE summer to photograph Lepidoptera–day after day of hot, dry, sunny weather–a butterfly, and a butterfly photographer’s, dream conditions The past few months have been spent organizing all photos and footage from this summer, as well as footage and photos from previous summers, into handy categories from which I can draw, while simultaneously writing the first script, and thinking about future scripts.
I chose the butterfly garden I designed at Willowdale to be my first subject for several reasons. I know the grounds and garden intimately; the Lepidoptera seen there are the same species seen all around the northshore, and throughout New England for that matter; the setting is undeniably gorgeous; over the past few years I have shot many photos there and some video footage; and because the garden is on occasion open to the public.
While writing the script I tried to imagine how the information would relate to, and be of interest to, a wide audience. Creating ‘wild gardens’ (by wild gardens I mean to say gardens that utilize native wild flowers that support wild life) is meant to be joyful and easy for everyone– for the millions as well as the millionaire! The next phase was to organize the video and still photos, loosely, around the script. Then, and this part was really new and challenging for me, came layering the narrated voice tracks and precisely synching it to the footage, and still retain existing ambient nature sounds audibly. Much tweaking was necessary. Have you ever wondered where your speaker is on your computer? It took me the longest time to locate mine (iMac)– a pinhead-sized hole in the center of the top, right above the camera lens–and they do not produce very good or usable quaility input sound. All the audio will have to be redone at the tv studio, however, it was time well spent as I was able to experiment and learn the basics on my own time.
The first production meeting with Donna went really well. The next phase will be to redo the audio tracks, under the guidance of the staff at the tv station, and continue to work on the next two episodes. In developing a series, it is suggested that you have at least three to begin with – getting all your ducks in order, so to speak. I am working furiously on all because spring and summer are my peak seasons for garden design work and for presenting lectures and programs.
So far, everything has fallen into place, from the gorgeous weather of last summer, to finding a beautiful recording for the into and outro, to working with Donna and the staff at CATV!
My mission for this wonderful project is to create as vibrantly beautiful, and as informative and interesting, a viewing experience as is possible. I am also very interested in working in collaboration with anyone who may have an interest.
Perhaps after reading the above you can help me decide the title of the show–so important to get it right! I love the title of my book Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! because there is no other like it. Perhaps I shall call it The Garden of Fresh Possibilities Show.
Some other candidates:
The American Gardener’s Journal
Through the Garden Gate
Garden for All Seasons
Welcome to the Wild Garden
Any comments, thoughts, or suggestions would greatly appreciated.
Butterfly Days are Here! This gorgeous stretch of warm weather has allowed myriad species of butterflies to thrive. Yesterday in our garden I filmed a Red-spotted Purple, Black Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, two male Monarchs, a Question Mark, Pearly Crescentspot, Red Admirals, Painted Ladies, many clearwing moths, and, at dusk, a female hummingbird. This is highly unusual to have so many and I will be posting photos to help you identify what you may be seeing in your gardens.
Our daughter Olivia was home from Tanglewood for the day last Sunday. We celebrated her 22nd birthday with fabulous lobsters fresh from Captain Joe’s. She was here with her friend and accompanist, Michael Sherman. While they were rehearsing for the beautiful concert they gave later that evening, I was videotaping a male Monarch in the garden. You can hear Michael in the background playing Maurice Ravel’s Jeux d’eau. I peaked in and captured Liv and Michael rehearsing Mozart’s Exultate jubilate.
Lastly, I am creating a new show for Cape Ann TV, about butterflies, gardening, gardening for the pollinators—I haven’t decided what to call it. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Gardening for People and Pollinators, something like that. Donna Gacek, the director at Cape Ann TV suggested the series and I think it is a great idea. The beauty that surrounds here on Cape Ann has provided me with a million ideas. I will be writing, editing, filming, photographing, interviewing. What I need help with is finding one or two people, who on a regular basis, can help video tape the parts that I am in—the introduction to each segment as well as interviews on location. Please pass the word around if you know of someone who has this skill, or who would be interested in learning. More information will be forthcoming and we will be talking about it with Heidi Dallin on the Cape Ann Report, which airs August 4th at 6:00pm.
