Then There Were Two
 First came the ACMi sign in the ground; then the hanging ACMi sign where the Dallin library sign used to be.
Now there are two ACMI signs outside. The library sign, that once hung from its front lawn pole back in the day, is now framed and hangs in our high-tech control room as a visible reminder of our building's low-tech but noble past. There ACMi staff and volunteer directors may muse upon this majestic historical anchor and ponder the educational purpose we are bound to fulfill here at ACMi TV.
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Our Graduating AMPster
Daniel Wolf graduates from AMP to the AHS video producer group
Arlington Middleschool Producers (AMP),
the reincarnation of Ottoson News Network (ONN) that since 2006 has given
middle-school students a place to produce their own uniquely innovative TV
shows, completed its first full year of existence and produced its first graduate. AMP, which serves as
an empowering stepping stone to the Arlington High School Video Internship
Program, proudly presented Mr. Daniel Wolf its first ever Certificate of Completion.
ACMI Education Access Coordinator, J.R. Curtis, says that
the program is well suited to giving the dozen or so participants
the opportunity to rotate through all the production positions.
"This gives each one a hands-on familiarity with the main aspects of
production -- from writer to camera operator, to sound technician, technical
director, and right through to on-camera talent", says Curtis. "Danny will now go on to work with the high school video group and, after that, the possibilities for further study and employment in the field are very good indeed."
ACMi AMPsters
learn technical directing and audio skills in the ACMI control room as one AMP member controls the teleprompter script created by other AMPsters for on-camera AMP talent
being taped by three AMP camera operators informed by an AMP floor manager.
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Still Streaming
Just a reminder that LIVE online streaming
of ACMi programming is now available to anyone in the world
with a computer and internet connection. To watch, simply go to our
website (www.ACMI.tv) and click on the homepage icons there of our Public,
Education, or Govt. channels and, even if you're away from your TV
or don't have cable service, you can watch your favorite community
television programs as they are cablecast from our studio.
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A.C.E. at ACMi
The Arlington Community Education (ACE) Summer Fun program includes a week-long workshop the final week of July for a dozen 7th-to-9th-graders
at ACMi's 85 Park Avenue state-of-the-art TV production facility.
The action begins with hands-on camcorder projects, including video scavenger hunts and field reporting. Participants will then move into the studio for a multi-cam workshop. They will learn in-studio formats for news and talk-show production, and develop original scripts. They will also learn the magic of green-screen video effects. Students will then use their new skills to produce together a LIVE game show. Friends and relatives are invited to be part of the in-studio audience on the final workshop day. The workshop schedule is M-F, 10-3, July 27-31.
The offering is open to those who have not previously participated in ONN & AMP middleschool production groups.
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Town Politics
In March, the three
candidates for School Committee debated the issues of the day at ACMi TV during
a special co-produced by the Arlington Advocate and ACMi staff. Soon the three joined in the larger Candidates' Night event presented by the League of Women
Voters of Arlington and Arlington's
Vision 2020.
To cap off ACMi's March election season coverage, veteran town
chronicler, Glenn Koenig, anchored ACMi's live coverage of election results
on the evening of April 4th. Then we turned our cameras to Town
Meeting 2009. Wow!
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SUMMER HOURS BEGIN JULY 1st
9am - 7pm Mon-Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday Saturday by appointment Closed on Sunday
So you see, there's plenty of
time after work or school to
come to the ACMI TV studio.
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Not a member yet ?
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Please Remember:
ACMI TV continues to be a smoke- and fragrance-free environment. Please do your best to remember, for the sake of those with allergies and respiratory conditions, to not use scented products when visiting or working with us here at ACMI.
Thank you.
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ACMi's new directory plaque makes it quick and easy to find ACMI staff.
Spring has sprung in the land of Menotomy. Patriots have paraded, the State of the Town has been proclaimed, and local citizens now brave the twice-weekly sessions of Town Meeting to debate and determine the economic, social, and political cast of the year to come.
Arlington Community Media Inc. has embraced the spirit of spring by bringing the season's first outdoor event to the Townspeople LIVE on Patriots Day Sunday. Soon thereafter the ACMi cameras were documenting the first session of Town Meeting, with its traditional State of the Town address and the opening gavel by Town Moderator, John Leone (better known to the ACMI board and staff as "Mr. President").
To get the Town's political season coverage fully underway, ACMi covered the April 28th public meeting about the Mass Avenue Corridor Project which took place at Hardy School on Lake Street. (Thank you Akila Padmanahan and Yuma Goodman.) And as this year's Town Meeting is slowly sifting into collective community memory, the 2009 graduating classes of the Arlington schools will be tossing mortar boards high in celebration and trepidation, respectively, of endings and beginnings.
It's a time of year full of new possibilities and ACMi too is blooming with new programs, technical capabilities, and plans.
Join us! Get involved in Arlington community television!
Produce it here; upload it to the world!
Happy Spring from...
-- The Staff at
______________________________________ ACMi TV
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What's Up and What's On
When entering ACMi TV, you will notice our new directory (top left photo in this column). Newcomers to ACMi (Arlington Community Media Inc.) will now know at a glance where each staff member's office is located.
There are new groups and new projects arriving at ACMI all the time. Most recently, Steve Katsos, former talkshow host of Missing Tooth from the pre-ACMi days at Comcast, returned to Arlington with a most ambitious project--a weekly variety show--ACMi's first. With more than a dozen other friends and colleagues assisting on the crew, Katsos aired his first Sunday evening show on April 5th. He is now (in early May) working on his sixth episode. Each and every Sunday evening at 7 PM he hosts a couple of local notables and a rising area musician. The host of Arlington's annual Town Day cablecast and a professional audio technician for several TV networks' sports crews, Katsos plans to take his show to a regional level and ultimately hopes to go national with The Steve Katsos Show.
Producer and host, Steven Kastsos, reflects and prepares
between guests on his new weekly show.
For more information about The Steve Katsos Show you may visit his website: www.stevekatsos.com.
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The Big Brothers Big Sisters Foundation (BBBSF) premiered its new Packrat vs. Purger program series to a packed house of friends and colleagues here at ACMI in April. Produced in cooperation with ACMi TV, the BBBS Foundation is currently in pre-production on its fifth episode.
The show is part of a campaign to help people give away unwanted clothing, small household items, and toys while helping others who may need these items. Visit www.bbbsfoundation.org for more information.
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ACMi's Community Bulletin Board (CBB) proved useful to Arlington's Police Department recently by helping recruit a needed volunteer via its televised notice on ACMi TV's CBB. Sarah Evans, after seeing the "Volunteer Needed" notice, answered the call and is now developing a program for the Arlington PD.
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Arlington's finest face off on ACMi. That's right, it actually took place--at Arlington's Veterans' Memorial Rink on Summer Street--the long awaited, much anticipated ice war: "Guns and Hoses for Autism". ACMi TV was there to document the historical event thanks to volunteer cameraman Michael Armanious and play-by-play commentator Walter Scott. Who won? Order a DVD copy from Cheryl@acmi.tv. Destiny on ice!
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Arlington Trivia Bee 2009 came and went without much fanfare, but fear not if you missed it. ACMi TV, with the help of its dedicated volunteers, captured the popular event on tape. Find out who were the ultimate trivia champs. Order a copy on DVD, if you like, from Cheryl.
St. Agnes 3rd graders visit ACMi. It was a quiet Wednesday morning at 85 Park Avenue as the ACMi early-bird shift sipped its mid-morning coffee. It was 10:00 AM. At 10:05 the clattering of van doors broke the relative calm and 15 3rd-graders from Arlington's St. Agnes School charged up the handicap ramp and into the ACMi reception area. They were polite and well behaved, but the anticipatory excitement they felt was palpable and contagious. Soon Studio Manager Jeff Munro was transforming energetically into his Ringmaster role. Community Outreach Coordinator Walter Locke, and Executive Director Norm McLeod welcomed the youngsters, their teachers, and the parent helper. Munro and Locke then launched into their tightly planned studio tour and TV show production that involved every single student.
These enthusiastic first-timers performed on camera and behind it with near professional efficiency and etiquette. When it was time to depart 90 minutes later, the group was ebullient with a sense of accomplishment and pride. They had each learned the stations of television production behind the camera while reciting the text of the stations of the cross in front of it. Within a couple of days a large handmade card arrived, signed by all, thanking ACMi for a great experience. Well, we would like to thank them, and we look forward to the visit of the other 3rd-grade class this spring and to working with 7th- and 8th-graders next fall.
The Arlington High School video production group is gaining momentum this year under the leadership of junior, Jared Bessette-Kirton. The group of some seven AHS students plus an incoming freshman AMP graduate are now producing a weekly news show called Arlington Update that focuses on school happenings and other items of interest to the AHS student body. The group collects news stories, writes on-air copy, and performs all the major technical functions of a network or cable news program, plus the remote on-camera reporting and program anchoring in the studio. This group has also recently committed itself to cover the upcoming American Cancer Society's Relay for Life-- an all-night relay race at the school's track on May 30th. For more information, contact j.bessettekirton@gmal.com.
On the new equipment front, we are pleased to announce the acquisition of a new DVD dub machine with
which to increase the speed and efficiency in producing DVD copies of our programs for our producers and viewers that request them.
A final note on keeping the Free Press free: We cannot fulfill our obligation to our viewers without keeping them (you) up to date on conditions that may affect freedom of speech and the press--for that is what community media access is charged by its communities to do. In that spirit of keeping our viewers informed, we offer the following link to the organization which brings to you the program "Democracy Now!" -- Free Speech TV. Thank you for your interest in free and independent public information media. For more information, please click here.
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NEW Membership Year 2009-10 Coming Soon
July 1, 2009 marks the beginning of ACMI's third full membership year.
WOW ! Time flies when you're having fun.
It's hard to believe, but it's time again to renew your membership in the greatest community video production and media literacy center in town. On July 1st our list of active membership (paid members) returns to zero and those who live and work in Arlington have a renewed opportunity to take fair advantage of the Town's best bargain in technical training and creative expression in digital video communication.
Chief among the perks that attend ACMi membership is free registration in all ACMi workshops. See our current schedule at www.ACMI.tv. And, if you have a documentary or dramatic project that you have been wanting to see on the small screen, we have what you've been waiting for--top quality digital equipment and the free training to put it to work for your project. What do we get out of this amazing deal? We get interesting, informative, and creative programming for our Public Access channel. So wait no longer. Beginning Monday June 1st, we are accepting new applications and renewal applications for the new 2009-10 membership year. For new members that means an extra month of belonging. Come make ACMi TV your launching pad to the world of new media and to new community connections. The doors are open here. We look forward to seeing you soon.
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Not a member yet, or haven't yet renewed?
Download a membership application here and mail it, or come to 85 Park Avenue to deliver it in person! REMEMBER, the new July 2009 - June 2010 application will be downloadable beginning on June 1st. |
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Workshops at ACMI
ACMi TV offers workshops in single-camera and multi- camera field production, digital editing, and studio operations. See the current listing and schedule of these offerings here.
All workshops: 6:30-8:30 PM (unless otherwise stipulated).
(Final Cut Pro editing workshops often run longer.)
All our workshops are free to ACMI members.
Reservations required. Non-member fee: $30.00
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Featured Interns
Arlington's community television training and production facility depends heavily on the generous input from local volunteers and interns from area schools. During the Spring semester of 2009 ACMi hosted two interns from the Minuteman School of Lexington.  We wish to thank Clark Jackson and Sean Keane for their production of a short promotional video about ACMi TV and for another short video about their school--a welcome legacy of their work for both organizations.
Clark Jackson
Both Clark and Sean learned skills and performed tasks at ACMi TV that made the production of their final videos possible. They acted as production assistants, camera operators, soundboard technicians, voice-over narrators, writers, video editors, and assistant directors.
Sean Keane
As we say goodbye to Clark and Sean, we look forward to new incoming interns from other local schools. If you know someone who would like to be considered for internship at ACMi TV, please contact us at 781-777-1115 or norm@acmi.tv for more information. |
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Arlington Community Media Inc. was conceived and founded by Arlington citizens to ensure fair and equal access to programming from all of Arlington's cable television providers and to provide the training, equipment, and transmission facility for Arlington's residents to use in making themselves seen and heard townwide. You are the reason we're here.
We're always happy to welcome you at ACMI TV.
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