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QCSchool: Introducing qcli
With the release of QCTools 0.8.0 comes an exciting new satellite feature: qcli (pronounciation is currently under debate). We asked developer Ashley Blewer to walk us through the basics. For more about QCTools, check out our preservation tools page. You can also check out her qcli Recipes document developed for the 2017 QCTools Tester Workshop. QCTools reports can now be generated via the command line. This feature will allow for quick and easy generation of QCTools reports for larger-scale digitization projects through simple scripting, using bash or a programming language like Python. This task can be run in the background and loaded [...]
The Power of Place and Community in 2016
We call the small area off the lobby at BAVC Media “the Conference Room.” It seems like an odd name for the space because, when I think of a conference room, I think of dark walls and people in suits. This doesn’t describe this space or the people who meet here. The room is compact but its high ceilings lined with vents make it feel breezy and spacious. Walls of windows and sliding glass doors brighten it even on a dreary day. The other walls are painted a happy green apple and crayons sit on the table for doodling. The [...]
2016 National MediaMaker: Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz
Around 4am on the morning of December 12, 2016, nearly 30 men, women and children were swaddling themselves in their warmest winter shawls, preparing hot beans and hot cocoa, and scooping up candles, toddlers, and guitars to step out into the Central Valley pre-dawn frost to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe. A few miles north, at a hotel in the center of Stockton, two filmmakers had traveled a distance to line up their batteries and SD cards, slip on their coats, and map their way in the dark to the Artesi II Migrant Family Housing Center to record this ritual. For me. And I, 3,000 miles away, was [...]
2016 National MediaMaker: Kevin D. Wong
The truth is, I was about ready to give up on the project when I was accepted to the BAVC Mediamaker Fellowship program. I had spent the previous year and a half submitting to funder after funder and the seemingly endless stream of "No's" was taking it's toll on me. Three days before the applications were due I got home from a job that had run into overtime, opened my computer to the half completed application and thought to myself “why bother? It’s just going to be another no.” I knew that I was going to be on a shoot [...]
2016 National MediaMaker: Jethro Patalinghug
I applied for BAVC Media’s MediaMaker Fellowship full of doubts that I would ever be picked. I had previously applied for grants and fellowships and had been rejected by all of them. I thought it might have something to do with my ethnicity: I’m Filipino. But I continued to apply. Navigating the filmmaking process is a very daunting and isolating experience. I really needed support, whether it was through funding or mentorship. I didn't have anyone to talk to about my film. I didn't have the necessary critical feedback that could bring my skills to the next level. I found [...]
2016 National MediaMaker: Rob Rooy
Almost by definition, we documentary filmmakers work in siloes of our own making. In making a film, we may only be meaningfully involved with a handful of other people – subject/s, a few crew members perhaps and maybe an editor. But to stay within the silo is the kiss of death; total immersion can be wildly distorting. There’s a numbness that can set in as you wrestle with moments on film again and again and again. As artists and storytellers, we must reach outside our siloes if we are to maintain a healthy, creative perspective on our work. This need [...]
