advice needed on video camera purchase

I've been talking a bit about getting back into making short films again. For my birthday, Tracy and my family pooled money together, and I've got a little bit of other money I can spare, to buy an inexpensive digital video camera and editing software. I've got a budget of about $500 total.

I think I'm going to buy Adobe Premier Elements, because it's cheap and sounds like it'll do what I want. I just need something pretty basic. (I'm on a PC and use XP.)

I need help on trying to choose a camera. And I need advice as to what to buy, that fits in my budget. I can either go new or used (Craigslist).

Here's what I want to do:

• Make short films for fun.
• Make some low budget art that can amuse, move, and entertain.
• Post these films online (Youtube) where it can reach an audience (at least my family and friends).
• Burn DVDs for friends, family, and fans.
  
• Have fun working with fun and interesting people
• Learn and refresh my understanding of how storytelling works on film/video.
• Possibly create film versions of some of my stage plays (especially Pieces of Whitey)
• Make some films with the kids, for fun.
• Develop my eye and my ability to edit.

I don't need to create something (now) that will be broadcast via the airwaves or will be projected in theatres.

So, I have about $350 to buy a camera. I know it's not going to be fancy, but that's what I can afford. Here are features that I think it needs:

• it should record to mini-DV tapes. (that seems to be the standard, still)
• easy manual focus access (autofocus can be problematic)
• ability to do manual aperture/exposure control
• an external microphone jack
• decent resolution (but it doesn't need to be high def). (I'm not sure how to define what resolution I need.)
  

So... please help me out--What features am I missing? Do you have any suggestions for models? I've seen a used JVC GR-DVL300 that I could afford. I also saw a new Canon ZR930 today that was in my price range.

If anyone out there has any suggestions, I'm very interested. I'm starting to look over review sites and getting some ideas. I think getting a camera and software in hand and making stuff is better than waiting forever for the perfect deal. But I don't want to get stuck with something that won't do what I need.

Lateset Addiction: Lost

Tracy and I have new addiction. We're working our way through the entire TV series, Lost. I'd never been that interested until we borrowed the first season on DVD from my in-laws. Now we're totally hooked.

We even bought a little converter gadget, so we can visit the ABC web site on our computer and play the shows on our computer (bypassing the need to wait forNetflix). We're at the beginning of season 3 now. I continue to be fascinated by dramatic series like this and this whole long-form narrative that's been created.

Lost is particularly interesting because they've done a good job setting up their world in such a way that they can make some really bizarre events happen to help them work their way out of corners. And they've written a show that pays dividends to careful viewers--little details are important in this show.

I confess to often knocking television, sometimes unfairly. But one thing I haven't really thought about is the social aspect of it. My sense is that television is seen as an antisocial, isolating medium, but that seems so far from the truth. I much prefer to watch the show with Tracy, and half the fun is offering theories back and forth about what's going to happen next. The way the show is structured encourages this, and which seems very smart to me.

I think we'll be relieved when we finally do catch up to the current episodes, so we can actually watch a movie every once in a while. But for now, we're lost in Lost.

writing binge: still making progress on Constant State of Panic

I've been doing a good job sticking to my own personal writing binge so far (I only started on May 1st, with a goal of a page a day). By yesterday's Rhombus meeting, I had 11 pages of the second act of Constant State of Panic. When I heard it read by our actors, I could see that I wasn't quite on the right track, but I was very glad to have something to bring to the group and to have made progress.

That said, I'm curious to see if I'll get in my page today. I'm doing some thinking and planning for how to attack the second act. So, I did write a full page of notes and questions, so if I want to cheat, I could just say that will do for today. Otherwise, I'll have to do it after the garden tonight (and an episode of Lost), while I'm half asleep. I still might.

new writing binge/plan

I've decided that I really, really, really want to have a first draft of Constant State of Panic sooner rather than later. The first act is written, but there's no second act. So this month, I'm going to try to write some of the second act, at least one page a day, every day. I started yesterday, came up with a page, and wrote another three today. I might not keep any of it, but it's a start. It helps that I need something to bring to my Rhombus playwrights group on Monday, and on the 19th, too. The weekends are the hardest for me, but I just need to write one page, and I just have to allow myself to write it and have it be total crap.

As an added bonus, I think this'll also build up some pent-up desire to work on my new novel. I have a pretty strong urge to work on it right now, but I don't have the time (or energy) to do both, so it'll have to wait until June. Sometimes there's something to be said for suppressed writing energy coming out all at once. We'll see.

In what is probably part of my standard cycle, I'm feeling that I need to start getting better at saying "no" to meetings and other things that take my time, and try to make sure I spend more time focused on writing every day (weekdays, at least). I might just force myself to get out of the house, to the library or cafe, for 2-3 hours a day. (I figure I spend at least 10 hours a week coaching Kira's soccer team right now--it might be smart to spend at least that much a week on actual writing time, too, huh?)

We'll see how it goes. I seem to come up with new plans and strategies all the time. Some really do work for a while. But then again, my life can require a certain amount of flexibility, fluidity, like anyone's, I suppose--so plans have to change. This one will only work for 6-7 weeks, until school is out. Then it'll be time to find a new one.

White People Challenging Racism class starts tonight

I start co-facilitating White People Challenging Racism: Moving from Talk to Action tonight, at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. It's a five week class, where people learn about and discuss white privilege, various forms of racism, and formulate an action plan for making change in one of their spheres of influence. I'm part of a group of nine or ten facilitators in the WPCR group who rotate teaching the class (we've had more than 500 people take it over the years).

I've helped lead the class twice before, but it's been a year since the last time. So I'm nervous. Plus, it's always a little nerve-wracking to spend one night a week for five weeks talking about the intricacies of race with ten strangers. The first night is always the hardest, but the anticipation is the hardest part. Once we get started, the time usually flies by.

Six Views roundtable wrap up

The rest of the Rhombus Six Views, Same Shape festival went well. On Saturday morning I moderated our roundtable discussion on methods and models of new play development. We had an experienced panel--Ilana Brownstein (literary manger of the Huntington Theatre Company), Gary Garrison (executive director of the Dramatists Guild), Kate Snodgrass (artistic director of the Boston Playwrights Theatre and Boston Theatre Marathon), Joe Antoun (artistic director of CentaStage), and Jacqui Parker (artistic director of Boston' s African American Theatre Festival).

We had a good turnout, in terms of audience--probably about 33 (not including our six Rhombus writers)--playwrights from all around the area, and they seemed pretty engaged in the discussion. I came prepared with a good list of questions that got people talking. I wished we'd recorded audio of the discussion, so I could post it here. As moderator, I was paying attention to the flow of the discussion and trying to figure out where to steer it next, so I didn't take very good notes (anyone out there who was there with better notes, please do post a comment here).

However, I can list a few of the highlights.

• Several panelists talked about the importance of knowing when to say no to a reading. Not all plays need every different kind of development process all the time. It's up to you, as your play's best advocate to consider seriously what is most needed for your play, now.
• In light of that, Gary Garrison posed three questions that he feels are critical to answer (or have a pretty good idea about) before you start getting into a development process (that isn't run by you). If you don't, you're at risk for easily being led in various different directions, and muddying your play. His questions were (I hope I'm getting this right):

• What is your play about?
• Why did you write it?
• What do you want to see on stage?

• Ilana Brownstein offered up an additional question--What is your nightmare version of this play? It's helpful to know what you don't want to happen to your script.
• We talked a bit about various developmental programs--the Huntington Fellows Program, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the O'Neill, and others, as well as grass roots, do-it-yourself kinds of weekends.
  
• The importance of giving a script time to grow and realizing that the first production does not mark the end of the growth of a script. Jacqui Parker talked about being able to remount or extend the run of a play, to allow her to fully realize changes she wanted to make after seeing the play on its feet.
• We also talked about the limitations of staged readings, and ways in which it's possible to explore plays on their feet before they reach production.
• Money was a topic. The expense of new play development greatly affects how it's put together, and how, because of union rules, it's actually more expensive for large institutions to put on a workshop of a new play than for a smaller group.
• We talked about the other elements in a play besides dialogue--set and lighting and sound design, asking is there a way for playwrights to better understand or communicate with designers. I suggested we put together a panel or workshop in Boston to facilitate this (and I think it could happen sooner rather than later).
• We had good questions from the audience about the history of new play development, and about graduate schools--the consensus was that attending a formal playwriting program was definitely not necessary in order to write good plays or have a playwriting career. This is from people who teach and run such programs. If you want to attend a formal program, it's important that you have a good idea of how you learn, and that you look closely at such programs to know who you'll study with and if they're a good match for your needs.

We covered a lot of ground in 90 minutes, that's for sure.

In addition to learning a lot, I was pleased with how generous and open all the panelists were. And how relatively easy it was to put something like this together. I definitely feel inspired to work on more such events in the future--to find answers to my questions (and share them with the community).

Six Views is on its feet

We (Rhombus) got the Six Views, Same Shape new play festival off and running last night, with Joe Byers' play, Noori and the Imperialists (a play about the end of the world). He had a terrific cast and a good turnout (attendance of 27, not counting the six of us writers--our target was 25, so that was good news). The audience was pretty warm and gave lots of good response, which is really what the whole thing is for.

Tonight we had Carl Danielson's play, Everloving God. I baked brownies and helped with front of the house and lights. Despite a nice mention in the Globe this morning and a mass e-mailing yesterday afternoon, turnout was very light. We had six people attend, which was too bad, because it's really hard to judge laughs with less than a dozen, really less than 20. Still, Carl got a good reading from the actors, and I'd think it'd be helpful in figuring out where to rewrite the script.

Tomorrow, we've got the roundtable on methods and models of new play development. I'm moderating and have been trying to get ready. I've got a full page of notes and questions ready to go. The time will go by fast, I think.

Then it's on to my workshop/reading/open rehearsal of Constant State of Panic. I was still making changes to the script this morning. I think I've got a decent plan worked out for what I want to workshop, though my list is long and time will be short. I'm curious to see what value this way of working (workshopping in front of an audience) will bring. Part of it will depend on how engaged the audience is in taking an inside look at the process or working on this play. I doubt this would be a way to work very often, but I can see it adding an interesting spark. We'll see. (it's at 2pm tomorrow--if you're in Boston, come by).