Flo-rida

Hey everyone,

As I am writing this blog I just wanted to keep everyone up to speed with things happening here in DC and other places as well. Tomorrow I am flying down to Orlando area to help a friend shoot a documentary he is working on. I cant tell you how excited I am to be able to work on a project like this. Being in school and no longer having accessibility to gear like I did in HS. But that hopefully will change soon, details after jump. All I really know about this project is that it we are shooting in Orlando, and it is about paintball. I am down with both of these things. I haven't played paintball since 9th or 10th grade and I miss it kinda. Everything except the cost that is.

I will write more upon returning and having time to digest it all. This brings me to my next little tidbit.

I have made some changes to gear I wish to buy for my senior project. That's probably a sigh of relief to my parents. If you recall, the first camera I had my sights on was a JVC GY-HM700U. This is at the top of the field right now. It shoots to cheap SDHC cards in formats that work with FCP and Premiere Pro. However, the price tag on this is around $7,000.

You - "$7,000? Thats alot of money Drew..."

Me - "Your right, but its awesome. But don't worry, I have settled on a cheaper option. I am hoping to buy a JVC GY-HD200. The difference is that this camera shoots on tape rather than memory cards, and it is older. In fact, its not even made anymore, I would have to buy it used."

You - "So your compromising?"

Me - "Kinda, but I have that covered as well. Instead of shooting on tape, I am going to buy a hard drive that is designed for the JVC camera. The price will be more money, but I will save money on the many tapes I would use to record the film."

So that is that. I still need help thinking about ideas for my documentary, see my previous post for more info.

Thats all for me tonight!

Peace!

I needs your help!

Well, here I am for my weekly blog post, and I am sad to say that I am not posting more.  But I feel like this blog post is something that will be beneficial to get feedback from sooner rather than later. Let me set the scene:

            6:00pm – Start watching “World of Jenks” on MTV

            6:12pm – Start writing this blog

            6:25pm – Stopped writing

            8:00-11:00pm – Watched my Thursday night programming

            11:47pm – Started writing again

Now I have gotten to thinking, mainly because the premise of World of Jenks is this… Andrew Jenks travels the US, his main purpose is to view peoples struggles, joys, and everything in-between.  Jenks get to know the people that are making up this world, and for some reason, something so simple is so addictive.

That brings me to the main part of my blog. As I am planning my senior project, I am beginning to draw up ideas and plans. I have some ideas but I am looking for something more. The ideas I have are pretty basic. And that’s the problem; there is nothing that separates the ideas that I have from the ideas that every other communications student has for his or her senior project.

The thing I love about documentaries is that not only do they tell a story, but they good ones change peoples lives. That is something I want my documentary to do. I have plenty of time to tell a story or to look into a subculture, down the road. My only problem is, I don’t want to do something that’s been done. Part of that is when I watch show like World of Jenks, I tend to picture my documentary being pretty similar, but changing a few things. Now here is where I need everyone’s help. I don’t want to “redo” a project that has already been done. I need your help to give me ideas. What do you think would be a documentary that would affect people for the better, change people, or open their eyes to something? You can either email me ideas at davidsondrew@me.com or put it in the comment box. Really, anyway you want to send suggestions is fine with me.

Thanks for reading!!

The Technical Side of C-SPAN

Well, I cant really think of stuff to blog about, so I am going to be telling you about the equipment used at C-SPAN. 

Cameras

Well, C-SPAN is starting to edge their way into HD video and currently broadcast in HD in New York and Kentucky (Not sure why they choose the state with the lowest TV to house ratio in the US). But they are moving forward and I cant diss them for that. 

So they have a few different types of cameras that they use.

The first one that they mainly use is a standard definition camera. I am not sure the exact model but it is a camera close to the Panasonic AJ-HDX900. Its pretty cool.

They are starting to go HD, I couldnt tell you the make and model of the big cameras. They are starting to do some robotic HD camera stuff using cameras like these Sony's. They have two cameras that are remote controlled, then their signal is sent into a portable HD switcher (which actually may be this model.)

Then they have the ENG style giant broadcast cameras that are HD. Like I said, I dont know the exact make and model but I believe they do have them lol. 

Then they have the basic lighting kits, Arri and Lowel DP sets. They have the field audio mixers, some type of Shure model. CUC actually has the same model but uses them in their audio room. I was taken back to think CUC actually had something that professionals use. They also have their portable racks which contain tape decks, a few monitors, and a switcher. One portable rack holds half the equipment, so two are required for each field use. 

So on a one camera shoot, the gear that is taken is a smaller portabrace bag with cables, gaffers tape, and odds and ends; two Lowel DP lights; a tripod; a camera; and a push cart thing.

For shoots when we take the portable racks, we take a giant crate on wheels with the cables and such, the two portable racks; two tripods; and the cameras. 

Now with my internship I get to see some pretty cool stuff. For instance, I got to see the best view in DC(in my honest opinion) Now, I have a video that I uploaded, and I will give it a few days if it doesn't work then I will take it down. But here (hopefully) is the view atop the Hall of States Building

Now, I hope that is enough to tie you all over until I have my next post. Maybe Ill upload some pictures this week(end)

Stay Classy

Drew

Irregular Sunday Blog Posta

Whats going on world.
Its Sunday, not much is new. Watched the Browns game in a bar with the Browns Backers in DC. That was fun, I posted up in a little upstairs by a big projector and the bathrooms. This turned out to be beneficial fr my fellow Browns fans as they could now relieve themselves, while knowing a sober someone was there to fill them in upon exiting.

The internship is going good. just going day to day. However I have alot of downtime to think about things like film school, cameras, and my future. Which I am all excited about, and I wont bore you with all of that.

But just know I am doing fine, making my way in this city... (I thought I would hyperlink that but I couldnt think of a good video)

Drew

Sunday's Fun Facts

The Rosslyn escalator measures 437 feet.

Wikipedia says is it the third longest continuous span escalator in the world. I doubt it though, those Asians are always building bigger things.

I timed the trip up the escalator the other day, standing on one step takes two minuets and six seconds... That's a long time for an escalator.

Drew The Intern

As you all very well should know, I am spending this semester interning at C-SPAN. Now in most internship situations, I would be making copies, taking out the garbage, and making coffee. Now ask anyone at my Church, as I am sure I make awful coffee. My method is to pour a lot of those little brown granules until I feel as if I have used way to much for one pot. This leads me to believe I am not qualified to be making the beverage of choice for today top television hosts. This rules out any clerical positions for me.

Now let me enlighten you with this story.

Setting: Political Communication Class

Time: about 7:30PM, Wednesday the 8th of September

Near the end of our first class, our professor hands out a packet of three to four pages, stapled. She made herself clear that this would not be graded, and I let go a sigh of relief. To me, this meant it was super easy, or super irrelevant. So this paper turned out to be an assessment of things "related" to communication while being politically correct (this is what I thought the class was about). It was, more or less, a pop quiz to make all the Non-Poli Sci majors(me) realized there is a good reason they are not Poli Sci majors. There were probably 10 ID questions, Name-The-Chief-Of-Staff (of the last 5 presidents), What is each company associated with (Enron, ect.), among other off the wall things.

Now over the course of this assessment, I probably "guessed" 3 or 4 answers right. So that kinda proves I am not cut out for any position where I would be required to show my budding knowledge of anything related to politics.

So that pretty much left me with one option. Well, it actually left me with a few options, but I wont get into that. Ok, I'll get into it a little. There is one internship opening the field of programming, and within that there is something called Field Operations. This is right up my alley. So I applied, and BAM! here I am today, well kind of. After interviewing I was offered the internship.

Yesterday was my first day on the job. It was orientation day. No orientation day is complete with out a cheezy Welcome Video. Now the video we had to watch wasent bad at all, I just found myself laughing the entire time. Now, I am not quite sure what I can talk about and what I cant, dumb I know because I am not at the FBI or anything, but I am just playing it safe. So when I find out if I can talk about EVERYTHING. I will have one awesome post for you all.

In the mean time, the shoot I was at today, probably had... 15 camera crews there. It was legit. I remember one guy was talking about how he spent the past two weeks in Afganistan, and I think he mentioned Shepard Smith, Hillary Clinton, and General Petraus. That was pretty cool.

I have to run out and buy some clothes and some new shoes. So I will have a new blog post maybe over the weekend.

Drew

Wordless Wednesday (with a few words)

This is something my sister does on her blog (still waiting for my shout out...) and apparently you just post cool pictures... which is good because I take cool pictures... so enjoy...

The Apartment

Hello everyone, Here are some pics from the apartment

 

Check in tomorrow for "Wordless Wednesday"

The Time Has Come

Well, as of right now I am settled into my condo. Bags are unpacks, clothes are hung up, and most of my dirty laundry is now clean. Had orientation today from 4 until about 7:15pm. LCWS provided pizza and pop for dinner, which does not even come close to Giordanos. After orientating, I made my way over to CVS with one of my new roommates to pick up SmartTrip cards for the metro, and grabbed some much needed razor blades (here's my pitch for Gillette Pro Glide, they truly are awesome. Go and buy them.) After that I kinda just laid around, didn't really do too much. Did some laundry and I am getting ready to head to bed. Also, I am convinced LCWS ordered twin extra short matresses. Just saying.

Well, I dont have much else, I will try to work on beefing these up as we go along. Dont forget to follow my DC Twitter account at "DrewDInDC". That will be more updated than this is.

Thanks again for all you support and prayers.

Drew

Yet Another Internship Update

Well hello Newman...
Welp, for all of you reading my blog, you know that I had an interview for a internship for my time in DC. Well, I interviewed with CSPAN and they offered me an internship. So I am now going to be interning with CSPAN this fall. This I am pretty excited about. It shall be fun! I move out in like 4 days so I am pretty excited!

Not much else is new, I will update you guys more when I get there with pictures and all.

Internship Update and My Wish List

Well, here is the scoop on the internship search. I was called this past week from Home Front Communications and told that they were afraid they would not be able to offer me the hours that I needed to meet my requirements. So we went our separate ways and I am back on the internship hunt, like Bear Gryllis on a stone bridge in a deserted location. I have a phone interview with CSPAN on Monday morning (not sure what time! Eek!). Other internship I have recently emailed information to include The Blue Wave (a film/video production company) and The Voice Of America (maybe just a straight video production internship? I am not sure haha). Also side note, whoever is posting an add on Craigslist for a video production internship where you must have your own equipment, good luck finding anyone...

So while we are waiting on internships, I decided I will reveal to the world my Wish List:

Wishlist Commencing Now: (Most links lead to BHPhoto)

1. JVC GY-HM700UXT

2. Canon BG-E8 Battery Grip

3. AKG K240 MKII Headphones

4. Adobe Production Premium

5. Apple Cinema Display or something cheaper

6. On Camera Wireless Lav

Things I want before I die:

1. A curved display

2. Reflecmedia Chromakey kit

3. Wireless Transmission System

4. Steadicam

5. Jib

Thats enough for now I would say. Stay tuned for more internship updates

The Decision

Its the final countdown; I am making some last minuet money, doing phone interviews, and firming up plans for my trip. And now I get to reveal them all to you! Well as all of you know, or should know from reading my tweets, blogs, facebook, or whatever, I will be in DC this fall doing an internship and a few classes. This blog serves as a mass text/email to everyone, so come here and read what I am up to.

Along with taking two classes (Photojournalism and Poli. Comm.) I have to complete a (mostly) full time internship. From pretty much May to now (halfway through August) I have been looking for internships. Now my internship coordinator told me most places usually wait about 6 week before the semester until they conduct interviews and such. Now if your a college student banking on finding an internship, and your four weeks out, instinctively, we begin to panic. You broaden your desired internship field, and begin searching many many more medians. By this time, I have had probably 15 leads that never surfaced into an interview. So I began searching anything I could find, one of them being Craigslist. I have been perusing CL for some time now, but have never acted on an ad or anything on their site. So I do end up on craigslist alot looking for video cameras, cars, or video projects to help out with, but never looking for internships. The first day I looked I found two companies looking for interns, one was a shady looking ad, but included a 20 dollar a week stipend. The other claimed to be a primetime television show, with the initials "AMW." Before looking into the latter internship I sent the required materials to be considered, then I decided to look them up. Apparently "AMW" is short for Americas Most Wanted. Isnt it ironic AMW uses craigslist to find its prey? I sure thought so. After getting an email back asking for a phone interview, my brother-in-law ("C" for those of you migrating from here) reminded me I should probably check out their most wanted list before responding (luckly, they missed me this time.)) But I also sent my info into this company with the 20 dollar stipend; Come on, I'm a college kid, thats alot of money. I promptly got an email back from this company wanting a phone interview, and they identified themselfs as Home Front Communications. Home Front has clients such as ADT, The AD Council, American Cancer Society, Orbitz, TSA, and US Census Bureau; so this place is pretty much awesome in my book. Well I also had AMW email about a phone interview, and WUSA9 email also. So, I plan on holding a primetime television show to announce my "Decision" (WARNING: Some souls may be crushed)

So off the records I have decided to take my talents to Home Front Communications. I will be interning from 10-5 (which means I wont have to wake up till 9!) Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesday is reserved for field trips around the DC area.

Aside from my internship, classes, and field trips, I am not sure if there is anything to do in the MD, DC, or VA area. So I stumbled upon a casting call for extras in Micheal Bays upcoming Transformers 3D. When I saw this my hand (metaphorically) shot up. I have always wanted to be around a film set, and now that its coming to my city I don't want to miss this. So tonights docut includes taking some headshots to send with my info to a casting agency in hopes of getting some screen time. 

Now comes to the part of this post I am looking forward to, here I get to tell you what I am gonna buy and when. Currently I have a Canon T2i with a Tamron 18-270 mm lens. I hope to get a battery grip by Christmas. That will pretty much complete my photography spending. Next summer, assuming I land the head guard job, I hope to bring in enough to purchase a used camcorder. Option A and Option B. I was able to use "Option A" at the LCMS NYG and was please with the results. I have never held "Option B" but it has great reviews and looks like it handles well. I will probably be dropping $3,000 to $4,000 depending if I can work out a deal with whoever is selling it. I also decided I am going to purchase another monitor, 24 inches at least, to edit on. I will use my laptop as my editing computer, and use the BlacX with WD 1.5 TB HD I recently purchased for storage. And I can pick up Adobe Production Suite online with a student discount for about $400. This way I will be able to do my entire senior project without have to use CUCs equipment (thank God). I will mill around with my Senior Project idea and will get back to yall on that.

Stay Sweet,

Drew

Getting excited for DC!

Whats up gang?!?!


I am getting so excited for Washington DC., I recently purchased my DSLR so I can start doing photography and take my photojournalism class. Now that I have that I am going to start exploring opportunities to start practicing doing sports photography. With that said, I am going to work on that now...

DC Update

Hey Yall,

So this probably wont be very interesting but just so everyone knows I am still in the process of landing an internship. I have sent out Demo Reels and Resumes and I hope to hear back from some companies soon...

I cant think of anything else that is pertinent to this post. Good Day

Drew

Mr. Davidson Goes to Washington

Did you really expect me to not make a single movie reference, let alone forget a great Frank Capra film? OK, so I really didn't pay attention to that movie when we watched in 8th grade history class, but people say its really good. However, I can assure you that this blog will be the best way to keep up with my escapades in DC.

Now most, if not all, of you are saying to yourself, "Wow, I forgot Drew is an excellent writer, this will be awesome!" Well, you are most certainly 50% correct. I am not the best writer, but this will be awesome, "You have a Harding Guarantee on that." Already Larry King has called it "the best thing since War and Peace" and Charles Krauthammer, FOX News All-star, has referred it to as "the reason I know everything I do." (If you didn't pick up on it, Krauthammer has an eerie resemblance to my former principal Mr. Roberts. Those are some pretty big powerful words from two of the front runners in all things important.

So sit up, put on you bifocals, and strap in for the ride of my life. Second to the Top Thrill Dragster.

This blog is simply going to serve two main purposes.
     1. This blog will allow me to look back when I am cramming to write my journals at the end of the semester. (I'm only kidding Prof. Hayes) (Or am I? We'll never know...)
     2. Keep you, the reader, (Mom and Dad) aware of my treks around Washington DC.

I plan to write about the things I do in preparation, while I am in, and when I wrap up my semester in DC. But before we go any further, we need to establish some ground rules:

Ground Rules
1. Talk about DrewDInDC. Tell all your friends. Follow me on Twitter. If you don't, you are subject to persecution... Yeah I meant persecution, not prosecution.

2. I will try to follow some form of a format, such at daily topics (apparently its what bloggers do, like "Wordless Wednesdays".) However I will be renaming said day to something more masculine, and less alliterationy. Name is TDB.

3. I am allowed to blog about things unrelated to Washington DC. I spent 5 hours on 5/21/2010 editing the layout. Until I have the drive to create a second design, this is my main blog.

4. No Correcting Drew's grammar. Drew is a communications major, not a spelling major.

Now with all that out of the way, lets have some fun shall we? I may not be posting all the summer, but I will try to keep my blog updated with information on my internship search.


Stay Sweet,
Drew