MediaNet

MediaNet 2010-2011 Annual Report presentation

2012-01-24T13:11:00.000-08:00

MANDATE & MISSION - The mission of MediaNet is to support and facilitate the creative use of the medium of video/film as a form of communication and personal expression.

MEDIANET MANDATE
- Facilitate opportunities for individuals to develop media skills in a co-operative environment so that they may contribute their diverse perspectives in video/film.
- Provide fair access to a resource pool of equipment, skills, expertise and information on video/film.
- Promote media literacy and critical appreciation of video/film.
- Research issues of concern to the video/film community.
- Educate the public on the value of independent video/film

MediaNet’s mandate leads us to organize presentations of independent media art and artist’s talks and presentations, with the general public invited to view and discuss work. OPEN CINEMA, now a MediaNet program, includes as part of its format an open discussion with a panel of invited speakers, discussing the issues raised by the film presented. MediaNet’s equipment and facilities are used in a wide range of productions - video art, documentary, multi-media, performance, installation, and community-based projects. MediaNet actively promotes access for all artists, regardless of age, class, gender, sexual orientation, race or ability. MediaNet has a strong history of creative partnerships with other arts organizations within the Victoria area, which we continue to nurture and promote.

WORKSHOPS AND PROGRAMS:
EcoDoc (Sept-Oct 2010)
EcoDoc was a three week documentary creation program. Filmmakers of all ages are exposed to an inspirational week of workshops by filmmakers and eco-activists, designed to give them basic technical tools for expressing themselves and exposing the issues that are important to them. In 2010, eleven short films were produced highlighting diverse environmental issues.

Video Lab (July -Aug, 2011)
Video Lab was a three week interactive video art workshop where participants learned to make interactive media arts installations. Led by artists Justin Love, David Parfit and Farheen Haq, 10 participants created each an interactive work. Then the Video Lab participants’ interactive art works were exhibited Aug. 12th to Aug. 13th at Open Space gallery, who sponsored Video Lab.

PRESENTATIONS AND SCREENINGS:

OPEN CINEMA 2010 -2011:
OPEN CINEMA is our very successful documentary program combining screenings with open forum discussions featuring invited panelists. The partnership has been very beneficial, leading to partnerships with other organizations such as the AGGV, and Food Roots, and helping to fulfill MediaNet’s mandate of promoting media literacy, while providing structure and resources for OPEN CINEMA events.

Oct 13-14, 2010, Winds of Heaven:Emily Carr, Carvers & the Spirits of the Forest
In partnership with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Winds of Heaven was an impressionistic documentary on Emily Carr.

November 17, 2010: The Clean Bin Project In partnership with the CRD. The Clean Bin project: one couple’s goal to live waste free for a year.

January 19, 2011: What’s On your Plate In partnership with Food Roots. Sponsored by Vancity. What’s On your Plate: about healthy eating and urban sustainability.

February 23, 2011: The Economics of Happiness
In partnership with Transition Towns, The Centre for Integral Economics, and The Gross National Happiness Project. A documentary about the importance of localization and community-based economies.

April 20, 2011: Powerful: Energy for Everyone Earth Day fundraiser
A documentary on the possibilities of alternative energy sources.
Celebration of BC Media Art: screening on February 16 at the Victoria Event Centre.
A Sense of Place, Saturday, May 28, various locations
Funded by a grant from the City of Victoria, “A Sense of Place” was an exhibition of film and video works by Janet Rogers, Grace Salez, Rick Raxlen, Scott Amos and Judith Price, which explored the cultural and historical landscape of Victoria through the lens of personal expression. Screenings and events took place in a variety of locations in Victoria, including a discussion with the filmmakers on May 28 at Cinevic’s office.

Victoria Arts Live!
In partnership with The Victoria Event Centre and the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria, MediaNet developed an interview magazine program, streamed live to the internet four times during the summer of 2011.

Public Domain - Sept 23, at Deluge Contemporary Art gallery
MediaNet presented Public Domain, a video programme by SAW Video Media Art Centre, a media-art centre located in Ottawa. In 2009, seven artists were selected to create videos drawn from archival films and photographs from Archives Canada. Featuring local video artist, Maureen Bradley.

Community Impact
MediaNet serves the Greater Victoria arts community with access to equipment, facilitated by an open membership policy with affordable rates. This access is also extended to community organizations, which has led to collaborations with groups like VIRCS (Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Society), PPP (the Pacific People’s Partnership), ICA (Inter-Cultural Association), THAW (Transform Homelessness Advocacy Watch), Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition, the Boys and Girls Club of Victoria, Dancing with the Octopus, Positively Africa, and the Women’s Sexual Assault Centre.

Governance
MediaNet's structure is based on a Board of Directors, elected by the members at the Annual General Meeting. Any member is eligible to run for election to the Board. The Board meets 4 times a year, establishing policies that they mandate the employees to enact. As a non-profit Society, MediaNet follows the BC Society Act. The directors are empowered to manage, or supervise the management of, the affairs of the society, and may exercise all of the powers of the society. The Board forms Committees to research and make recommendations to the full Board on specific areas. Committees are responsible to the Board.

MediaNet Board of Directors, 2011:  President, Scott Amos; Vice President, Trudy Pauluth-Penner; Secretary, Monique Cartesan; Treasurer,Tom Shandel; Members at Large: Cyrus Block, April Ingham, Colleen Craig, Nicole Sorochan, Kristina Campbell, Tania Muir.

Farheen Haq at Video Lab, summer 2011

2011-11-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

MediaNet member, Farheen Haq was one of the artists giving artist talks at Video last summer. She is currently exhibiting work at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Check out this well done split screen video!

2011-07-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo.

VIDEO LAB!!

2011-06-09T13:40:00.001-07:00

Indie online distribution!

2011-06-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

http://distrify.com/about

Video Lab is coming!

2011-06-02T12:30:00.001-07:00

Open Cinema April 20th - "Powerful"

2011-04-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

MediaNet presented the last screening of the 2010-2011 Open Cinema season, the documentary film "Powerful - Energy for everyone", by filmmaker David Chernushenko. The evening opened with a statement by the filmmaker via Skype (see pic below).

You can see a trailer for the film at this website.
The film was followed by an open discussion with the audience about alternative energy resources, led by the guest speakers Adam Kreek Donna Morton, Guy Dauncey (pictured below, left to right), and moderator, Hugh Kruzel (unfortunately not pictured). Many thanks to Open Cinema Program Director, Mandy Leith, MediaNet staff, Catlin Lewis and Kirk Schwartz, as well as all the volunteers who helped out over the year.

Attention span in the Facebook/Youtube era!

2011-03-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

Attentionomics Captivating Attention in the Age of Content Decay

View more presentations from Edelman

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

2011-02-25T21:04:00.000-08:00

MediaNet 2009-2010 Annual Report presentation

2011-02-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

2009-2010
An enormous challenge faced our organization a year ago. Due to provincial government funding cuts to the BC Arts Council and Gaming grants, MediaNet faced significant reductions in grant funding.

To meet this budget challenge we reduced staff hours and moved to a less expensive office in the Dance Victoria space, right next door (suite #110). We hope for a restoration of some of the BC Arts Council funding, and to be able to balance our budget next year.

Therefore, it is a success of the past year that we have managed to maintain our equipment rental services, and screening and workshop programs.

There were many highlights from our past year, but four in particular would be:

1) our increasingly successful "eco-doc" program that helps participants make short documentary videos on environmental themes. In 2009 eleven short films were produced highlighting issues as diverse as animal rescue, green building, park preservation and even language preservation (human ecology) in the Chilcotion. For both the 2009 and 2010 eco-doc programs screenings of the completed work were presented at the Victoria Event Centre.

2) The Pulse Interval video and audio art installation exhibition at Open Space. Pulse Interval was the first joint media arts installation by MediaNet and Open Space, and, presented the work of three video artists (Farheen HaQ, Azin Seraj and Andrew Forster) and a sound artist (Jamie Drouin) who investigated how movement, images, and data are used to navigate our geographic, psychosocial and political locales.

3) The Dance for the Camera program: this past year's Dance For the Camera video program was held at Open Space gallery. In two weeks experienced dancers and choreographers produced more than a dozen short films. On July 17, we a screening of works by participants, and 95 members of the Victoria Community turned out to see the videos.

4) The OPEN CINEMA program, a very successful program combining screenings of topical documentaries with open forum discussions featuring invited panelists. After MediaNet sponsored OPEN CINEMA for a year, it officially became a program of MediaNet in October of 2009. The partnership has been very beneficial, helping to fulfill MediaNet’s mandate of promoting media literacy, while providing an infrastructure of resources for OPEN CINEMA events.

Other programming:

Pauquachin Youth Video Training project (Jan/Feb 2010)
In cooperation with Dawn Lindsay-Burns, from the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, MediaNet offered a youth video training program for youth leaders from the Pauquachin First Nation. We conducted a training session with the youth in January, 2010. and lent equipment to make a video in their community. Finally a screening was held at their community centre in conjunction with a feast for the community.

Youth Film Production with the (ICA) (Jan 2010)
Working with

Victoria InterCultural Association's
after school program for immigrant youth MediaNet supplied the equipment and Tech Director Kirk Schwartz to enable two groups of youth (ages 11 to 16) to produce the one minute films "Racism: Stop It" and "Racism: Erase It". The videos were shot and edited by the youth, empowering both their voice and their self confidence to tell their stories. MediaNet also held a youth video production workshop during spring break in 2010.

Workshops

Workshops are offered under various technical and thematic streams:
- Final Cut Pro editing (several workshops were given)
- Blender animation software inter
- Camera, sound and lighting
- Burning Data and Movies to DVD
- Compressor and versioning
- HD workflow
Using QuickTime Pro and Final Cut on the Mac
Basic Colour correction
Intro to DVD Studio Pro
Key Framing in Final Cut Pro
For the coming year, we anticipate balancing our budget and launching a capital campaign to help purchase some new equipment. We look forward to upcoming events, such as our continued Open Cinema program, and undertaking our eco-doc program again in 2011.
Report prepared for the Board of Directors by Peter Sandmark, Executive Director