Today the students go home. Bittersweet! We have all been working so hard. I am exhausted and ready to go home. But, as always, it's been a completely inspiring two weeks, and it's a shame we have to wait until next June to experience it all over again.
Camp is just barely concluding and I'm already having regrets. I was not as open this year as I have been in years past. I usually make the effort to really get to know EVERY counselor and try to talk to as many instructors as I can. I don't know what it was, but this year I was very closed off, and am leaving camp with the feeling that I didn't get the chance to talk and connect to many of my OSAI friends from years past or connect with new ones. Oh well.
After breakfast the students went to the ballroom and filled out their evaluations. Then everyone headed over to the PAC for the closing ceremonies. The chorus sang a song from yesterday's performance, the orchestra played a movement from The Planets, we all watched the video yearbook, and OSAI 2010 was officially over. Hugs were exchanged, pictures taken, and a couple tears were dried then the students made their way back to the housing areas to check out.
Once all my students had left, my last official duty was to drive three instructors to the airport in Oklahoma City. I drove the orchestra conductor, modern dance instructor, and ballet accompanist. Then I drove back to OSAI campus and celebrated the end of another great summer with my fellow counselors and staff.
(8:30am - 6:30pm = 10 hrs) (Grand Total for Internship = 257 hrs)
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Saturday, June 26th
Today is the final day of "ONSTAGE Weekend" and the final full day of the institute. There are performances all day today.
The day begins with the Institute Chorus performance, followed by a poetry reading, and our film screening. After all four of the films played, the students sat on stage and responded to questions from the audience, much like a screening at a film festival. Every student who spoke answered thoughtfully and professionally.
After dinner the Institute Orchestra played all seven movements from Holst's "The Planets." Each movement is a different planet. There were NASA images projected on the walls of the performance hall of each planet. And during the last movement you could hear the eerie and ethereal voices of the women's chorus. No one knew where the mysterious voices were coming from until the end of the performance, when the chorus walked down from above the stage. They had been singing in the rafters, as if from the planets above!
After the orchestra concert the students celebrated the end of OSAI at either the All Institute Dance or (for the tired) watching a movie.
(8:30am - 1:00am = 16.5 hrs) (TW = 87.5 hrs) (GT = 247 hrs)
The day begins with the Institute Chorus performance, followed by a poetry reading, and our film screening. After all four of the films played, the students sat on stage and responded to questions from the audience, much like a screening at a film festival. Every student who spoke answered thoughtfully and professionally.
After dinner the Institute Orchestra played all seven movements from Holst's "The Planets." Each movement is a different planet. There were NASA images projected on the walls of the performance hall of each planet. And during the last movement you could hear the eerie and ethereal voices of the women's chorus. No one knew where the mysterious voices were coming from until the end of the performance, when the chorus walked down from above the stage. They had been singing in the rafters, as if from the planets above!
After the orchestra concert the students celebrated the end of OSAI at either the All Institute Dance or (for the tired) watching a movie.
(8:30am - 1:00am = 16.5 hrs) (TW = 87.5 hrs) (GT = 247 hrs)
Friday, June 25th
Today is the first day of "ONSTAGE Weekend." In the next two days every student in each discipline will showcase what they have done and learned in the last two weeks. There will be performances, a gallery opening, poetry readings, and of course, our film screening.
Our screening is tomorrow afternoon, so this morning the students put the finishing touches on the films and began burning DVDs for everyone to take home.
In the afternoon class we celebrated the completion of the films with pizza and cake, then watched a movie.
Just before dinner, everyone gathered at the amphitheater for a short presentation, then made their way to the ballroom for the gallery opening of the Photography and Drawing & Painting students.
The evening's performances were Modern Dance, Ballet, and Acting. The modern dance was a crowd favorite, the girls performed with such passion! They obviously worked very hard the last two weeks, and had quite a few dances memorized in such a short amount of time!
(8:30am - 11pm = 14.5 hrs) (TW = 71 hrs) (GT = 230.5 hrs)
Our screening is tomorrow afternoon, so this morning the students put the finishing touches on the films and began burning DVDs for everyone to take home.
In the afternoon class we celebrated the completion of the films with pizza and cake, then watched a movie.
Just before dinner, everyone gathered at the amphitheater for a short presentation, then made their way to the ballroom for the gallery opening of the Photography and Drawing & Painting students.
The evening's performances were Modern Dance, Ballet, and Acting. The modern dance was a crowd favorite, the girls performed with such passion! They obviously worked very hard the last two weeks, and had quite a few dances memorized in such a short amount of time!
(8:30am - 11pm = 14.5 hrs) (TW = 71 hrs) (GT = 230.5 hrs)
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 24th
Today is the last full day of editing, the deadline for the films is tomorrow morning, and the screening is Saturday at 4pm. The students made a lot of progress yesterday while I was enjoying my day off.
The instructors are spending most their time focused on the two short narrative films, so I spent the day helping out the two documentary films. I watched their rough cuts and made suggestions, but tried not to loom over their shoulder too much while they were editing. I know that is really annoying for me when I'm editing and ends up slowing my work flow.
The editor of the "Making of" was very reluctant to take any of my advice. She was defending every one of her decisions to the end. This is a bit frustrating. It's good to have conviction, and believe in your work, but these students are so inexperienced they don't realize if they would just TRY and make the corrections I'm suggesting, they would really like it. I know this happened a lot in the narrative groups editing process, where the editor said "No, no, no," and the instructor made them make the change just to see how it would look, then the student editor loved the change. But I was a bit more reluctant to make the students try it my way. There is something to be said for making mistakes, so you can actually learn from them. In years past, the students have not had a very active role in the editing of the films, they hand them over to the instructor. The films come out looking great, but is that really the point? I'd say in this circumstance it's more valuable to have a flawed film, that a student edited and used as a learning tool, rather than a perfect product. That being said, I think I erred on the side of being too removed while this years instructors were involved just enough, but not too much. Like I said, you live and learn.
The evening performance was fiddle player, Kyle Dillingham, and his band Horseshoe Road. Kyle is a former OSAI student who now plays music all over the world. The performance was lively, entertaining, and hopefully inspiring to students who are looking to continue their artistic pursuits professionally.
(8:30am - 10:30pm = 14 hrs) (TW = 57.5) (GT= 216)
The instructors are spending most their time focused on the two short narrative films, so I spent the day helping out the two documentary films. I watched their rough cuts and made suggestions, but tried not to loom over their shoulder too much while they were editing. I know that is really annoying for me when I'm editing and ends up slowing my work flow.
The editor of the "Making of" was very reluctant to take any of my advice. She was defending every one of her decisions to the end. This is a bit frustrating. It's good to have conviction, and believe in your work, but these students are so inexperienced they don't realize if they would just TRY and make the corrections I'm suggesting, they would really like it. I know this happened a lot in the narrative groups editing process, where the editor said "No, no, no," and the instructor made them make the change just to see how it would look, then the student editor loved the change. But I was a bit more reluctant to make the students try it my way. There is something to be said for making mistakes, so you can actually learn from them. In years past, the students have not had a very active role in the editing of the films, they hand them over to the instructor. The films come out looking great, but is that really the point? I'd say in this circumstance it's more valuable to have a flawed film, that a student edited and used as a learning tool, rather than a perfect product. That being said, I think I erred on the side of being too removed while this years instructors were involved just enough, but not too much. Like I said, you live and learn.
The evening performance was fiddle player, Kyle Dillingham, and his band Horseshoe Road. Kyle is a former OSAI student who now plays music all over the world. The performance was lively, entertaining, and hopefully inspiring to students who are looking to continue their artistic pursuits professionally.
(8:30am - 10:30pm = 14 hrs) (TW = 57.5) (GT= 216)
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Wednesday, June 23rd
Today is my day off!
After attending the counselor meeting I hit the road with a fellow counselor and spent the day thrift store shopping, eating Mexican food, and relaxing by the lake.
I returned to campus and held my nightly "cabin" meeting.
(9:30am - 10:30 am & 9:30 pm - 10:30pm = 2hrs) (TW = 43.5 hrs) (GT = 202 hrs)
After attending the counselor meeting I hit the road with a fellow counselor and spent the day thrift store shopping, eating Mexican food, and relaxing by the lake.
I returned to campus and held my nightly "cabin" meeting.
(9:30am - 10:30 am & 9:30 pm - 10:30pm = 2hrs) (TW = 43.5 hrs) (GT = 202 hrs)
Tuesday, June 22nd
Today is the second and final day of off-campus shooting! Hooray! We are having fun and learning a lot, but this June sun is brutal, and all the crews are already baked from yesterday. I have to be even more vigilant about protecting my students from the sun!!
I did pretty much the same thing as yesterday. One of the crews got done early so they got out of the sun and into the film trailer and began to log and capture their footage onto the computers.
Tonight's evening performance was awesome. The ballet instructor, Giana Jigarhan, used her students to demonstrate a typical ballet class, with exercises on the barre and in the center of the floor. She showed a short video of an amazing ballet duet. I enjoyed the performance, although I don't think she did. She is from Russia, and has lived in the USA for 10 years teaching at various ballet companies, but her English is not very good. Actually I think it's a lot better than she thinks it is, but you could tell she was extremely nervous.
After Giana's presentation, was a performance by our percussion teacher Valerie Naranjo. This is her third year to teach at OSAI. The woman is amazing. Not only is she an extremely talented musician who travels the world learning songs from remote tribes in Africa, but she is also amazingly warm and gracious. Her credits include being twice named world percussionist of the year, she did the percussion arrangements for the Lion King on Broadway, and for over a decade has served as the percussionist on Saturday Night Live. All this is over shadowed by her shining spirit. Naranjo began the performance with anecdotes intertwined with solo percussion pieces. Later the OSAI percussion students joined her, then the 58 person OSAI chorus took the stage, and finally she invited the entire audience to join them on stage and dance.
Needless to say all the cabin meetings that night were a buzz with enthusiastic and inspired students..and counselors!
(8:30am - 11pm = 14.5 hrs) (TW = 41.5) (GT = 200 hrs)
I did pretty much the same thing as yesterday. One of the crews got done early so they got out of the sun and into the film trailer and began to log and capture their footage onto the computers.
Tonight's evening performance was awesome. The ballet instructor, Giana Jigarhan, used her students to demonstrate a typical ballet class, with exercises on the barre and in the center of the floor. She showed a short video of an amazing ballet duet. I enjoyed the performance, although I don't think she did. She is from Russia, and has lived in the USA for 10 years teaching at various ballet companies, but her English is not very good. Actually I think it's a lot better than she thinks it is, but you could tell she was extremely nervous.
After Giana's presentation, was a performance by our percussion teacher Valerie Naranjo. This is her third year to teach at OSAI. The woman is amazing. Not only is she an extremely talented musician who travels the world learning songs from remote tribes in Africa, but she is also amazingly warm and gracious. Her credits include being twice named world percussionist of the year, she did the percussion arrangements for the Lion King on Broadway, and for over a decade has served as the percussionist on Saturday Night Live. All this is over shadowed by her shining spirit. Naranjo began the performance with anecdotes intertwined with solo percussion pieces. Later the OSAI percussion students joined her, then the 58 person OSAI chorus took the stage, and finally she invited the entire audience to join them on stage and dance.
Needless to say all the cabin meetings that night were a buzz with enthusiastic and inspired students..and counselors!
(8:30am - 11pm = 14.5 hrs) (TW = 41.5) (GT = 200 hrs)
Monday, June 21st
Today was our first day of off-campus shooting for the narrative shorts.
The instructors found the locations for our narrative films yesterday. They are both just off some country roads not too far from the OSAI campus. Both groups had a full day of shooting in the hot sun. I tried to get everyone to put on sunscreen often, stay in the shade whenever possible, and I held an umbrella over the students running audio and the camera. Despite my efforts we had many sun burnt students on our hands by the end of the day. When I wasn't on sun patrol, I was transporting teachers and students between sets, and making runs to campus for lunch and to refill the water jugs.
The set I was on for most of the day had the younger, more inexperienced director. He quickly got the nickname "One Take Wonder." His editor is not going to be very happy with him when he brings back one take from each shot size. Also, instead of letting the actors play it out, and giving them space for dramatic pauses and good reactions, he was always eager to yell "CUT!" Hopefully our director and his team learned from his mistakes.
After wrapping up the first day of shooting, we ate dinner, went to the faculty chamber music performance, then all the students and counselors went to the ballroom for a thank-you note writing session. For two hours the students expressed their gratitude to seven different people (each) who have made OSAI possible whether through time, donation, advocacy, or volunteering. The counselors were all there to help students as they needed. I love writing letters and I think the people who receive these notes really appreciate it, so I loved helping out.
(8:30am - 11:00pm = 14.5 hrs) (TW = 27 hrs) (GT = 186.5 hrs)
The instructors found the locations for our narrative films yesterday. They are both just off some country roads not too far from the OSAI campus. Both groups had a full day of shooting in the hot sun. I tried to get everyone to put on sunscreen often, stay in the shade whenever possible, and I held an umbrella over the students running audio and the camera. Despite my efforts we had many sun burnt students on our hands by the end of the day. When I wasn't on sun patrol, I was transporting teachers and students between sets, and making runs to campus for lunch and to refill the water jugs.
The set I was on for most of the day had the younger, more inexperienced director. He quickly got the nickname "One Take Wonder." His editor is not going to be very happy with him when he brings back one take from each shot size. Also, instead of letting the actors play it out, and giving them space for dramatic pauses and good reactions, he was always eager to yell "CUT!" Hopefully our director and his team learned from his mistakes.
After wrapping up the first day of shooting, we ate dinner, went to the faculty chamber music performance, then all the students and counselors went to the ballroom for a thank-you note writing session. For two hours the students expressed their gratitude to seven different people (each) who have made OSAI possible whether through time, donation, advocacy, or volunteering. The counselors were all there to help students as they needed. I love writing letters and I think the people who receive these notes really appreciate it, so I loved helping out.
(8:30am - 11:00pm = 14.5 hrs) (TW = 27 hrs) (GT = 186.5 hrs)
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