06-22-11 report

A pretty darn decent first meeting for M3! Thanks everyone for being there and getting riled up! Big hugs for the library staff – Keith, Aaron and Joan!

The pre-meeting schmooze was adeptly handled by Andrea Maio, Joe Carter, Andy McFarlane and Dan Kelly. The venerable pioneer of Northern Michigan film, Rich Brauer  also made a brief cameo and graciously offered his support and expertise. If that’s not an auspicious bit of cosmic blessing for our fledgling M3,  then sink me.

(Tech note) Dan Kelly couldn’t drive the library’s projectors with DVI from his Macbook Pro and had to switch to VGA. This degraded our display quality. Since showing movies is a big part of what we plan to do, this issue must be researched and resolved.

The agenda got shifted around a bit. James Weston Schaberg announced the 3 minute Micro Movie Marathon and showed some examples of 3 minute movies including The Bay Area Awareness Group, Weston’s Pencil Project and Andrea Maio’s Lore from 2010.

EVERYONE is encouraged to make (or repurpose) a 3 minute movie for July 20. Spread the word, let’s build the community by showing a slew of our micro movies!

(Tech note) We couldn’t get the Pencil Project to stream in HD off Youtube, and combined with fuzzy VGA display, it looked terrible. We’re depending on Youtube streaming to pull off the Micro Movie Marathon, so having HD streaming is a must.

Dan Kelly flailed around with Final Cut Pro 10 and raised more questions than he answered. He promised to post more coherent insights in the next few days, check http://holyboners.com. There’s also a LIVE STREAM TONIGHT (9:00 PM EST) on FCPX from http://www.pixelcorps.com/live/

Deb Lake gave us an overview of the TCFF and specifically how movie makers can help. There’s lots of opportunity! The key is getting in contact with a dude named Thaddeus – info@TCFF.org. There’s also a meet Thaddeus event on Monday June 27 at 6:00. If anyone can post more details as a comment, that would be sweet!

Just about everyone (except Louise) introduced themselves. We talked about the future of M3 – what it could be and what we’d like to co-create.

What do we want M3 to be?

• SHOW AND TELL

• during every meeting, 15 minutes. 1-3 people show their stuff, discuss, take questions.

• a regional movie maker SPREADSHEET / DATABASE

• spread sheet – skills and interests, gear, software, what are you willing to do?
• what do you want?
• who is the liaison for that (incoming production connections)
• credibility, experience, imdb, linked in
• inclusive, all are listed
• Dan says – for now, get on the M3 mailing list and register at the http://michiganmoviemakers.com
• Brad suggests michigan creative connect?
• availability

MORE THAN MEETINGS

• field trips to studios
• schmooze after show and tell

STRUCTURE FOR SUCCESS

• LLC, nonprofit, ad-hoc
• do we need legal status?

DOCUMENTATION

• minutes
• transcribed video?
• who can be our professional gossip? postings…
• our room has multi-camera capability – there’s a handy handout for how to it!
• public notice (a sign at the meeting entrance) that the meetings will be recorded and posted online, unless otherwise requested by a specific presenter. We don’t want to get too complicated with consent for every individual attendee. If you show up at this pubic meeting, then you consent, (make that sign!)

COLLABORATE

• group projects
• an M3 bumper?
• or something

CRITIQUE

• critique of projects made and not made by us

ADVISORS identified for M3 and community

• legal
• other

MEETING times and length

• 2 hours maximum
• decided – the main meeting will got from 6:30-8:00
• we have the room from 5:00 – 8:30
• perhaps use the extra time for spin off and affinity groups
• maybe admins gather before the regular meeting

•creating COMMUNITY, trading ideas

• what ELSE we can do to promote that?

Here are Dan Kelly’s pre-meeting notes on M3 objectives.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 to the Top of the Park for purposes of carousing and real business. Good times!

Dan’s Top of the Park notes. Andrea and I will find out how M3 can fit into the TCFF. Andrea and Lesley Tye should form a project enhancement clique and be handsomely compensated for their insights. Mike Kelly is a fun dude. Joe Carter is some kinda crazy genius.