Focus on Public Access
Inside This Issue
2 Political Action
3 Tech Tips C.T.P.A. Goals
4 L.C.C. Internet More Tips
5 Nominees & News
6 Membership Info
The Newsletter of the Community Television Producers Association
P.O. Box 62207 Honolulu, Hawaii 96839-2207
BOARD OF DIRECTORS TOPIC
Brian Lee President
923-5105
Conrado Bush Vice-President
247-0831
Pedro Valdez Treasurer
534-0172
Shannon McMonagle Secretary
735-6726
Roland Walls Director
841-8229
Khaled Mujtabaa Director
625-2511
Andwele Gardner Director
671-9794
Jeff Garland Editor
239-8842
What's New?
Greetings, fellow members; there have been several changes in the C.T.P.A. since our last newsletter, so here is a brief update. Conrado Bush has been appointed as Vice-President to replace the departing Ann Hollister and Lopeti Penima'ani has resigned as Recording Secretary due to his health. We wish them all the best!
Conrado Bush chairs the Nominating Committee this year with Jeff Garland, L.A. Jones and Gwen Taketa. Together they will submit a slate of nominees to the membership for the election which will be held at the next meeting.
Law and Order
As supporters of Public Access, we need to let our lawmakers know during this legislative session about the importance of community television. The following is a letter to our U.S. Senators that you may use as a guide in your correspondences.
TO: Senator Daniel Inouye and Senator Daniel
Akaka
RE: Senate Bill 1822, the Communications Act
of 1994
Dear Senators Inouye and Akaka,
I am writing to urge your support of S.1822, the Communications Act of 1994. The C.T.P.A. is a non-profit organization serving as an advocate for the community voice. We support public access to the various modes of media that are currently dominated by large corporations and private interests at the expense of the community at large. The privilege of using the public right-of-way, an extremely valuable commodity that belongs to all of us, has been given up to private interests and has generated enormous profits for them. This privilege has the unfortunate effect of inhibiting true individual and community speech, which has often been the saving grace and the voice of sanity and humanity throughout the history of this great country.
We support any amendment which would broaden the scope of public speech, including increasing the 5% ceiling for "public communications entities." Within limits, state and local government should also be eligible as entities in Section 103, though they should not be allowed to dominate or intrude on the public's right of way either. To even the playing field in the various forms of media; telephone,
cable and wireless communications need to fall equally under the guidelines of Section 103. Your role in shaping the future of our country cannot be underestimated, and we urge your support in insuring that the independent voices of our country are not crowded out by any new or emerging forms of media and communications.
The domination of free speech by large commercial interests threaten to nullify a basic safeguard of our nation's democracy. Imagine how different our country would be if Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" could not be distributed because of monopoly control of the printing presses by British interests at the time. Ours would not be the great nation it is today if the independent voices of dissent and ideas could not be heard during the times of crises in our nation's past involving racism, war, turmoil and disagreement. If our organization can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact us at P.O. Box 62207, Honolulu, Hawaii 96839, or call Brian Lee at (808) 923-5105. Thank you for this opportunity to share our concerns.
Respectfully,
Brian Lee President, Community Television Producers Association
Tech Tips
By Brian Lee
On the Presto Character Generator, you are able to have a graphic "crawl" across the bottom of the page by typing "C" for crawl in the Sequence Play page, but did you know that you can also have the graphic crawl at the top or the middle of the page as well? To do this, after typing "C" in the "Effect" column in the sequence play screen, type in a number from 0 to 9, such as C5, and the graphic will crawl at the top, middle or bottom of the page or anywhere in between depending on the number you enter after "C." Have fun, Crawl-daddy!
Have you ever tuned in to watch your program from the beginning only to see the last few seconds or frames of the "Countdown" go over the air before your program starts? Not only is this distracting, but it makes the producer (or editor) look like he or she made a mistake and looks unprofessional over the air. This miscue happens when the tape is not toned at the right place or when the playback equipment responds too slowly to the tone. One method of preventing the countdown from showing over the air is to leave three seconds of black between the end of the countdown and the beginning of the program instead of the usual two seconds. This will remedy all except the worst miscues and will keep your program looking clean and professional!
Our Platform
The C.T.P.A. is an advocate for the community clients of Public Access television, and we share the same general goals and beliefs. Here is a quick summary to use as a reference.
L.C.C.? Si !!!
Leeward Community College recently had its funding slashed by the 'Olelo Board of Directors from $140,000 to $100,000. This is in spite of 'Olelo's budget surplus of over $70,000 this coming fiscal year, in addition to their regular one-year budget reserve. This action runs counter to 'Olelo's stated goals of decentralization and reaching out to the under-served communities of the Oceanic Cable service area, including Ewa and Central Oahu.
The C.T.P.A. is sponsoring a Petition to restore L.C.C.'s funding which will be forwarded to the 'Olelo Board of Directors. Those of us who have had the pleasure of working with Leeward can attest to the high level of service and professionalism displayed by their staff. If Leeward's funding is not restored, we will all suffer from the resulting cutback of services. If anything, the C.T.P.A. feels L.C.C.'s funding should be increased. Show your support by signing the Petition and telling others about this tragic mistake in the making. If we do not speak out and show our support, the 'Olelo Board will have no way of knowing how important L.C.C. is to the public and the vital role L.C.C. plays in serving the public access needs of the community. Look for the Petition at 'Olelo's bulletin board, at L.C.C., or gather some signatures and send a postcard to the C.T.P.A. Mahalo !
Any C.T.P.A. member interested in an Internet account should contact Jeff Garland at 239-8842. If 10 or more sign up, we get a break on the set-up fees. Let's go surfin'!!!
Tech Tips Two
By Irwin Yamamoto, Production Manager, L.C.C.
Half the battle in television is trying to make a 2-dimensional medium appear 3-dimensional. One way to accomplish this goal is to manipulate your depth of field so that your subject stands out from their background. Depth of field can be defined as the range of acceptable focus. If you compose a shot where everything is in focus (foreground, middleground and background), you have a deep depth of field. If you compose a shot where only certain elements are in focus (just the talent in the middle ground, with the background out of focus), you have a shallow depth of field. By creating a shot with a shallow depth of field, the subject seems to jump out at you, creating the 3-D effect that we are striving for. Great, but how do we do this? One way to accomplish this is to back your camera up and zoom into your subject to compose your head and shoulder shot. This method of shortening the focal distance of your lens also flatters your subject by compressing the elements in your picture, giving you the opposite effect of what a wide-angle lens accomplishes.
NEXT TIME: Utilizing the iris to shorten your depth of field.
Mr. Lockdown
If you have not been in the new facilities lately, lockers are now available for producers at 'Olelo. See the Facilities staff to reserve your locker. The C.T.P.A. also has its own locker exclusively for use by members, which is Locker # 91, the first one around the corner. We will use this as a community locker for C.T.P.A. members to exchange discs, tapes, etc. with each other. Mahalo to Kit Kawamata and the staff at 'Olelo.
And the Nominees are. . . .
The C.T.P.A. Nominating Committee has drafted a slate of candidates for this year's election at the annual meeting (see first page for date). The Nominating Committee is chaired by Conrado Bush, with Jeff Garland, L.A. Jones and Gwen Taketa also serving on the committee. Thanks for your generous service to the organization, guys!
1995 SLATE
Mara Soloway.............Corresponding Secretary
Len Ciupak........................Recording Secretary
Charlotte Savage...............Secretary (Pro Tem)
John Feil..............................................Director
Tours r' Us
Watch for notices of an upcoming tour of the new Videolabs facility, including Electric Petroglyphs, their computer animation division. Notices will be posted at 'Olelo and/or in the next newsletter as soon as Videolabs settles into their new home. Thanks go to Jeff Garland for making the arrangements. Keep an eye out for Digital Eyes, Jeff's television program for Vidiots and computer animation enthusiasts.
Next Issue:
C.T.P.A. is open to any person interested in Community Access Television. The Community Television Producers Association is a non-profit corporation which acts as an advocate for community access users.
The association provides a continuation of training and assists members in achieving quality in their television programming. Since 1987, we have been a Voice for the community.
Send 1994-1995 membership dues ($15 individual, $20 corporate) to:
C.T.P.A.
P.O. Box 62207
Honolulu, HI 96839-2207
Name___________________________________________ Phone__________________
Address_____________________________________State_________Zip____________
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C.T.P.A.
P.O. Box 62207
Honolulu, HI 96839-2207