Cartie’s Kid Speaks

With so many feature films, commercials and other productions shooting in Massachusetts due to the Commonwealth’s tax incentive legislation, there is a dearth of experienced production personnel in the state. A variety of organizations, alliances and companies are working to change that. One of their first workforce development projects is PA Boot Camp, which will be held on May 3, 2008 at National Boston and sold out very quickly. If this interests you, it looks like you can contact them about attending at another time.

My Earth Day celebration includes working the script for a documentary segment that includes a section about green-collar jobs and going to Tufts tonight to hear Van Jones speak about the same topic. His lecture is part of the university’s Urban + Environmental Policy + Planning Department’s 35th Anniversary.

I started watching The Greening of Southie yesterday on cable OnDemand and plan to finish today. I really like this documentary about the development and building of the first green luxury condominium complex in Boston and range of oh-so-very-Boston characters.

The celebration actually began over the weekend when my husband and I purged our kitchen of our plastic food and beverage containers and replaced them with glass ones. Inspired by my recent visits to San Francisco where people have regular composting pickups like garbage and other recycling, I’m heading to the Cambridge Department of Public Works today to get a composting bin for our apartment. Unlike SF, we’ll have to drop it off ourselves when full, and it appear to only be a pilot program that ends in July. Hmm.

As far as I know the Boston/Cambridge area’s not having a Flickr Day of the Donut event, so this photo is my way of participating. Possibly it already felt like the Day of the Donut around here yesterday with Dunkin Donuts giving away free donuts with the purchase of coffee in support of Tax Day. Read about it in the Boston Globe.

Maybe all this donut activity will get me psyched to get back to working on my donut media project, the former long-form documentary-in-progress Sweet Dreams: The Doughnut Movie, which is very, very slowly becoming the web-based media project titled A Baker’s Dozen: 13 Essential Donut Stories. Filmmakers Collaborative of Waltham, Massachusetts serves as the the project’s fiscal sponsor. The presence of money would make things move faster…donations accepted.

MakingMedia

Originally uploaded by unit2A

Registration’s open for the Making Media Now Conference, Friday, May 30, 2008 from 9am-6:30pm at Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts. This year’s theme is “The Art and Business of Filmmaking” and features cutting-edge workshops and panels.

Nice Colors

Originally uploaded by unit2A

My husband and I were so worn out from working that we had our first non-home-cooked Thanksgiving day meal. The original plan was to have dinner at a nice restaurant, but as the day got closer and we paid more of our bills, we decided to save money and realize what had been just a joke between us. So there we were eating Swanson’s Hungry-Man TV dinners on TV trays watching TV, but not football, rather the LAW & ORDER marathon.

We are really pleased that Brian Newman could make it up here to discuss Renew Media, and it is always a pleasure to catch up with Coolidge Corner Theater’s Joe Zina. As of 4pm on Tuesday 11/13/07, there are only five seats left for our last salon of the year.

Filmmakers Workshop: November 14, 2007 New Models for Online Distribution and Audience Development

Join us as we welcome Brian Newman, Executive Director of Renew Media in New York, and Joe Zina, Executive Director of the Coolidge Corner Theater. They will be presenting two new models for online distribution and audience development that you will not want to miss.

DATE: November 14, 2007
TIME: 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
LOCATION: Bernard Toale Gallery, 450 Harrison Avenue in Boston’s South End
RSVP REQUIRED!! This is a FREE event, but, you MUST rsvp to attend.

TO RSVP email susi@documentaries.org. You will receive a confirmation from Susi that your seat has been reserved.

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I decide to take a look at Utterz last week. I was hung up on writing a treatment (again, it was last week, and I’m not in the WGA), and was thinking procrastinating and signed up after listening to a PodCamp update I saw on a Twitter stream. Since the topic of the day was the WGA strike, I decided to try it out. See my previous post. My sister, husband and a lot of other folks I’m friends with are in the Guild. Most are documentary filmmakers who joined the WGAEast to get their writing credit on their PBS documentaries. Yes, those folks are in the union, too. I agree with Jay Leno, whom I heard on the television say that most people think the writers make more than they do.

[audio http://www.utterz.com/utts/55/556c02eaf94b1638582898793abf5b83.mp3]
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If you cannot make it down to Louisiana in person to Support The Jena Six, then show your solidarity by wearing all Black clothing.