this weekend's missions

As I think through this minor filmmaking project (the 10-minute "interview" video that I have to send to Gachon University in a few days), it occurs to me that asking my little brother David to help out is going to be time-consumptive (I'd have to drive to DC to his company's recording studio) and arduous (editing and polishing take plenty of concentration). So after having initially asked David for his help, I've changed my mind and have decided to go it alone, with my own meager tech. I've got an 8-megapixel Android smartphone at my disposal, as well as a 14-megapixel Olympus digicam with video capability. I've also got a Macbook Air laptop with a decent camera, not to mention my Mac desktop computer, which has iMovie, an editing program that I need to learn how to use, anyway.

So the plan for today and this weekend is:

1. Go to Winchester today, visit a Best Buy, and purchase a tripod for the Olympus.

2. Write up a shooting script (direction and dialogue) on Saturday.

3. Also on Saturday, shoot some random scenes of me teaching—shots for which I can do voiceovers.

4. Sunday: after tutoring, shoot the actual video.

5. Monday: take all day to edit and polish, then upload the vid to YouTube and email Gachon U. the URL.

Tonight, I've also got a dinner, with two of my YB students, at Bonefish Grill. These are the Science Chicks: little science-averse Kristi, about whom I've written, and her "Big Sis" Sybill (mentioned in the same post), who's been accepted to MIT. I had originally paired Kristi with Sybill as a way to inspire Kristi to think seriously about science, since Kristi's stated ambition is to get into TJ (i.e., the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology—TJHSST). I've wanted to meet with these two young ladies for some time now; arranging a meeting hasn't been easy, given everyone's disparate schedules, and I doubt we'll be able to do this again. But at the very least, I wanted to check on Kristi's progress through the curriculum I'd designed for her (in the two weeks I've been back, I haven't seen her at YB, which is worrisome), and I wanted to find out what she's learned from Sybill. Did she have a chance to visit a real lab? Did she get involved in actual experimentation?

So it appears I've got a full weekend ahead of me. Dinner's at 6:30PM; I need to hit Best Buy soon so as to give myself plenty of time to prep for Bonefish Grill. As you can imagine, I'll be hitting the Grill hungry. To that end, I'm skipping breakfast and lunch.


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