Be sure to use the online registration to claim your FREE seat at “Playing With Ideas.”

We have five speakers, including Scott Dugdale of WaveGroup Audio-creators of Guitar Hero, Dave Master of The ACME Network, helping to connect college and high school students with professional animators, and Donna Eyestone, a podcasting teacher and former Apple content creator.

The event is in the Shasta College Theater building, Reddig, Friday April 3rd from 8 am registration to 2:30 pm. Check it out.

“When a community provides art, it creates artists.”

This really captured the spirit of the event, and it spoke to the dedication and generosity of all the volunteers and event sponsors.

The lead-off film was “Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park” by Tristan Howard. This 30-minute documentary did an excellent job of describing and showing the ecology of this area on California’s northern coast. This film was shot between September of 2008 and January of 2009, and produced from more than 6 hours of footage.

I was impressed with the excellent cinematography and natural sound, particularly of the elk. It was obvious that it took a great deal of painstaking work to get this footage.  “Prairie Creek” showed us the spectacular males, which have razor-sharp antlers and can weigh up to 1, 100 pounds. These are not animals you want to annoy. Yet Howard was able to capture the natural activities. Impressive. The film also also covered the area’s bird and plant life equally well.

Howard is a filmmaker and a scientist, and his narration did justice to his striking images. This film is more than a visual treat, it is a substantial nature documentary. For those of you who didn’t catch this fine film, or would like to see it again, it is scheduled to air on our own PBS station on April 11, 2009 at 8 pm. You also can visit his website for a DVD of this and other films. It’s worth marking your calendar. A footnote for my students, you might want to look at his collection of documentary scripts to get an idea of how you write for a documentary.

Chase Jensen’s fourth entry, which his assistant-directed, was “No Love in Berry County.” Jensen described the film as a “revisionist murder mystery–loosely based on a true story.” Jensen said that the film was challenging to shoot because of snow.

Despite it’s title, “No Love,” is a love story of sorts. Since it is a murder mystery, you can’t expect a happy ending, though. The film also affirmst the old saying: “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” The film’s protagonist demands answers… and gets them at a cost. If you’d like to see a clip of this film on YouTube, look no further.

Filmmaker Will Lascelles was not able to introduce his film, so his father, Mark, had to do the honors. Mark said that Will’s original entry grew to be “too big” to fit festival rules, so Will has to quickly put together another entry. He turned, for his subject, to a friend who does underwater photography. The result was “I Am Rodrigo.” This is a film that does NOT look “quickly put together.” It is visually stunning, and I can only hope that Will makes this available to the general public.

“Rodrigo” is at times a humorous film about a rugged outdoor photographer, and an underwater fantasy of exotic fishes and marine life on a coral reef. Either one of these elements would have been satisfying on their own, but the combination, elegantly arranged with underwater motion and still images and an uptempo music track, was brilliant. My only regret is that Will wasn’t there to receive the recognition due him. Maybe next year. Until then, you can see what Will is up to by looking at his work on YouTube. No word on what Rodrigo Ardanaz’s plans are…. but you can check his facebook page.

The “Spirit of the Himalayas” was a graceful, captivating mixture of interviews and footage from Will Parrinello, and the cast of subjects was impressive, including Sir Edmund Hillary, who first conquered the mountain with his Sherpa guide, Norbu Tenzing Norga. Parrinello also interviewed former President Jimmy Carter.

This was one of those films that treated a topic in a way that opened up new awareness of the life of the Sherpas.  It was shot on location in Katmandu, Nepal, and has vivid footage of the monasteries there and the restoration projects that are helping to preserve them. Most impressive to me was the work done to provide clinics and schools to help protect the young women of Nepal. Here’s the Mill Valley Film Group’s web page.

The last scheduled film came with a burst of energy in the form of “5 Days.” Christoper Parks introduced his film by explaining that the title was really a description of the production schedule. He heard about the competition just days before the entries were due, and he “handed the entry to the last person leaving the Rotary building” minutes before the final deadline. “5 Days” carried the disclaimer that it was “edited to remove material not deemed appropriate for the festival.”

Parks claims that his style has not been confused or deadened by formal instruction. And the film reflects a mixture of extreme skateboarding, tumbles and falls, skirmishes with security guards played in a “Keystone Cops” fashion, and more. The flim veered between locations, styles, including a bit of animation, but it all worked and the crowd loved it. Parks is a communications major at CSU Chico, and says his next entry will be called “362 days…” You can see more of Park’s work on YouTube.

The Festival ended with the film chosen by the audience as their favorite, and so Jesse Rosten once again addressed the crowd to talk briefly about his hit, “The Cart.” Rosten said that he had the idea some time ago, when he and his wife had been looking at a forlorn shopping cart while they were listening to some melancholy  music. But, says Rosten, it took the film fesitval’s contest to spur him into action.

“If not for this festival, the movie would not have been made,” Rosten said. ”

We can only hope he feels the same way next year, and that we’ll all be there able to see the results.

I’m Robb Lightfoot, the webmaster here, and a teacher by trade. I’m a communications instructor, teaching everything from debate and speech to journalism and multimedia.

In short, I’m a utility player. I have long had a passion for the spoken word, hence my degrees in speech. Vox is, of course, Latin for “voice.” It also has another meaning that I cherish. It’s a shorthand expression from radio, ham radio in my case, for “voice-operated transmission.”  This is where, when you start talking, the radio kicks itself on.

This was a new thing when I first hit the airwaves in 1970, and I thought it was pretty cool. Talk, and the technology is there with you.

We’ve come a long way since then, and I’ve changed with the times to follow other passions, including documentary film making and music.

The great thing about New Media is that it is a “big tent” sort of discipline. All of those pursuits will be found here as we develop this networking site. I encourage you to participate.

Thanks for checking us out. You can expect blogs on the local music, media andarts scene. Cool local businesses will be featured, too, as will interesting classes, instructors and students.

I an be reached here, or via my home web www.robblightfoot.com.