Three Vlogs Down, None to Go

Here's the link to my final video tutorial. I met with a mechanic, Mr. Axelrod, yesterday. I explain in the video a little of what I learned...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vxgs4Aig6M

Busy Last Day

This morning I had planned on spending my last day with my team of sponsors but unfortunately did not get to meet with them. I woke up to a broken computer so I headed over to Hawken early in the morning to get things fixed as creating the video is essential to my project and final presentation Friday. Although my computer is now working I did loose a large portion of my edited video and have been spending today re-creating my project. Luckily, my sponsors are available to meet tomorrow and help me with the finishing touches of my production not to mention allow me thank them one last time! (I bought them these really cool coffee mugs that look like camera lenses!!)

So if loosing my film wasn’t enough I also need to finish writing my final report for tomorrow and film my last video tutorial. Yesterday I met with a mechanic, Pete Axelrod, so today I’ll film and upload some quick mechanic tips. In addition I’ll be mailing out thank you notes that I wrote yesterday. 

Although these last few days of project have been hectic the past three weeks have been really powerful. Although the lives of blue-collar workers might seem far away from our academic school days these professionals have taught me that our worlds aren’t too far apart. Meeting with these common professions has allowed me to really value the working class. Not only do I look at blue-collar workers in whole new light but also I see myself as capable of more than analyzing literature. Hopefully, my video will show just a fraction of what I’ve experienced.

Week 4 Day 1

Today I had to look for missing products on Amazon. It was really annoying because it turned out all 450 products I looked up were all missing and I could have just written it off but as I was checking there was always that potential for there to be one or two products that I actually found. After finishing that up I started finding images for products we are planning on uploading with products on Amazon. To find these images I needed to download them with a program called FileZilla. Once I found all the images I had to reference their names in order to select the ones we actually needed and get rid of those that we did not. After finding all the one we needed I had to rename them so that they had their serial number as their name so that Amazon would know which products to assign them to. Again I feel like if people were just super organized from the start no one would have to go back and rename everything which took almost five hours. The image uploading process was absolutely ridiculous as you can only upload one image at a time and I had about 300 images to upload.

Week 3 Day 3

Today I continued working on my Amazon spreadsheets and finished them. I started to work on setting up a new computer for an employee coming in for training next week. It was kind of frustrating because I basically had to use mismatched parts from different computers to set it up. For example I used a Logitech monitor from 2011 with a desktop from like 1999 and it was really a pain to get them to be compatible. Essentially I just had to keep referencing Google and try using different cables until I finally found one that made the monitor compatible with the desktop. Then I had to figure out how to connect a Windows 95 computer to the internet, which I had no experience doing. While figuring that out I realized that if you have a problem don’t ask another person how to do it just type it into Google and actually look for the information and not just click on the first site that comes up expecting that all my answers will be there. I ended up hooking up to the internet and then found software that I needed to install, Microsoft word, outlook, office place, etcetera.

Week 3 Day 2

Today I checked and went over my inventory to make sure everything was correct and that I had everything in the office in my inventory. After that I started working on Amazon spreadsheets and basically what I had to do for that was go over every aspect of a product prior to Amazon shipping it or listing it as an available product. I had to get all the information for over 500 different products and everything from whether or not the product has batteries to what warning labels are on the product, whether it could be drop-shipped or whether it needed to handle with extreme care. I thought it was interesting that there was a category that asked whether or not the product has any radioactive properties or potential hazardous waste to deal with; just goes to show they’ll let you sell just about anything on the internet. Unfortunately this was not the most exciting of jobs as all I really did was data entry from various spreadsheets. One thing I keep noticing is if the information is organized in the right format to begin with people would have to waste hours and hours reformatting the same information

All-City Musical

Today was super exciting because I got to see a free performance at Playhouse Square in the Ohio Theater of this year's All-City Musical, Aida (a story about a love triangle between and Egyptian princess, an Egyptian nobleman and a Nubian slave). The All-City Musical is an annual event run by Great Lakes Theater that allows students from all over the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to participate in a professional production at Playhouse Square. This is especially wonderful considering that many of those schools don't have good arts programs, or may not have arts programs at all. The show I saw today was technically a dress rehearsal, so there were plenty of technical issues (but that was to be expected). The actors, however, were spectacular, and they really had a lot of talent. Many of them had astonishingly good voices. Although I thought the plot was not that strong, I really enjoyed the actors' performances and the large amount of time it must have taken to pull a show like that together. I also got a chance to usher the performance today, since their were other Cleveland schools coming to see Aida, which was exciting since I have never ushered before. The other big event of the day was that I got to sit in on a meeting about GLT's summer theater camp program, for all ages. The discussion I heard before I had to leave was mostly about the varied activities that the campers will be participating in, such as writing and acting out their own fables or practicing classic scenes and monologues, or perfecting their audition technique. Overall, it was a very fun and busy day!

Slow Start at WSCC

The first few days at West Side Catholic Center (WSCC) were really pretty slow.  We didn't find a single lady that wanted to talk to us so we spent some time babysitting some children while their parents were at an employment clinic and we spent a lot of time at home.  We left early when nobody agreed to be interviewed by us.  There seems to be a great difference in these women compared to the men we encountered at 2100 and North Point.  I don't know if the difference is solely due to gender but it seems like the women are far more conservative when it comes to sharing their stories.  Another difference about WSCC is that it is much cleaner than either of the first places we went to.  It has rooms specifically for art and for teens and for small children.  Their's also a community room where the interviews were planned to be held.  The good news about having so much down time is that we had a lot of unexpected time for editing all of the film that we had already.  There's already a lot of film, and we're having trouble narrowing down what we want in the video because so much of it is so good.  This video is getting long.

Two Vlogs Down, One to Go

Last Wednesday I met with Ashley Bish to learn about plumbing. Here's some of what I've learned...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE2CgNN24dg

 ... Sorry again for mediocre quality.

Also last Wednesday I met with a mechanic who unfortunately was not adequate for my project. Today I met with a different mechanic, Pete Axelrod, who was extremely helpful! I'll post my mechanic vlog later. Since last thursday I've been busy compiling all of my videos and editing the film. Thursday and Friday was a lot of clim trimming - picking the best moments from the entire interview and ordering them. Monday I began to add B-Roll to the video, which is other  images over audio to make the video more interesting.

I'm headed to my sponsors house tomorrow for a final visit where I will show them my work and put on some finishing touches like music/effects. Although I'm using different editing software than Second Story Productions does I'm sure they'll critique my work and give me some much needed constructive criticism. I hope the final product comes out well!

Friday and Tuesday

So just because not much has been going on I figured I would just conjoin Friday's and today's blog post. I had the day off for Memorial Day, which was much needed since we have such a busy and flexible schedule. On Friday Mr. Dlugosz came and visited us at the home office, and I made a tiny little presentation about what I've been doing. Basically for all of you who don't understand what I'm doing, I'm her assistant. I come to all her meetings and take notes, make sure we make it to places on time, etc. It sounds like it wouldn't be fun but it is! It is going to be really sad to leave this week. We don't have much going on so this week will be focused on getting my presentation ready and finishing up some last minute work on some of the meetings that we started last week. I've learned a lot about business and have really enjoyed this area of work and I hope to do something with this during college!

events and office work

I have been continuing to make spreadsheets for various purposes for the office, and I attended another event with my sponsor.  The spreadsheets I make are mostly for logistical purposes.  I have made a list of all the townships, villages, and cities within the 14th district and their respective state representatives.  This is so that the office can refer people to the proper office when a constituent is dealing with a state issue (because we can only deal with federal issues).  I also attended a ribbon cutting event at the new Levin Mattress store in Solon.  I went with my sponsor and another intern.  The congressman was there, as well as the mayor of Solon, whom I had the pleasure of meeting.  I also shook hands of various other small business/franchise owners of people in Solon.  Aside from this, I have continued answering phones and talking to people when they call in with various issues and complaints.  One thing I have noticed and appreciated during my project is that the great majority of people in Northeast Ohio are very friendly and polite.  Other than these things, I do other basic office tasks, like scheduling.  I talked, and met a guy from the Boston Heights/Hudson FOP about scheduling a congressional proclamation for their June golf scramble outing.

Last week of project

I'm very excited yet sad about the end of project. Excited because we're graduating but sad because I've been having a lot of fun and learning a lot during project. On Thursday we ended up heading down to West Side Catholic Center where we expected to a least get a few interviews done. To our disappointment, no one wanted to be interviewed. Angela, our mentor at WSCC, said that she had asked a bunch of people but everyone was concerned about being on camera, or didn't have the time to do the interview. We arrived at WSCC at about 9:30 that morning, from 10 to noon that day we watched little kids in the playroom; while their parents were participating in a job clinic. Once noon rolled around we found Angela again, who seems to be in charge of almost everything at WSCC, and asked about the interviews. Once again she told us that no one was interested in being interviewed. I was really excited about getting a woman's perspective on the questions that we ask but we couldn't find one willing. We left just after 12pm and went to Hawken to do some more editing. Angela said she would email us and tell us whether or not we should go down to WSCC on Friday. Angela had not found any one for us to interview so we ended up spending Friday doing more editing. It seems like there is a never ending amount of editing that we can do. Tomorrow we are going to go back to WSCC and see if we can find anyone to interview. Hopefully we get at least one or two people to interview!

Recital!!!

Today was our final recital... It was really bittersweet as we are moving on to great things, but leaving our friends and studio behind. It was also great to see our hard work come to fruition. All of the last minute things fell into place (the lineup was still being tweaked yesterday and the yearbooks had a mistake and needed to be reprinted) and everyone danced well! There were no glitches with music and everyone made their changes! We had to extend the backstage dressing room, but it all worked out. The only slight issue we had was with lighting. They thought the dance was over a couple of times and turned the lights off when it wasn't time yet. We also had flashing lights during one of our more challenging dances and it was hard to complete the turns section as a result. Overall, though, it was one of our studio's best recitals yet!

This is a picture of the seven seniors getting flowers at the end of the show. Our sponsors Jordan and Ms. Mary are standing at each end of the line.

Sigal and Maddie

More Captain America (again)

I feel like I am posting a lot about Captain America filming downtown, so sorry if this seems a little repetitive. Anyways, as I was walking into project this morning, I realized that they were filming on Euclid Avenue between East 6th street and East 18th street - which happens to be right in front of the Bulkley Building, where GLT is located and where some of Playhouse Square is. My sponsor allowed me and the other intern, Jeanine, to go outside and explore the set for a couple of hours, just to break up the daily pace. We wound up seeing three high velocity car chases about a few feet in front of us, which, I have to say, were awesome. Although some security personnel were a bit unfriendly, since whenever they started filming they would force pedestrians into buildings so they wouldn't be confused with the paid extras on set, most of them were nice and rerouted the blocked off streets quite well. We kept asking if any famous actors were around on that particular shoot, but they replied that we were only seeing the "Second Unit," which consists of all of the stunt people. None of them knew where "First Unit was," or where all the famous people are. However, I think that Jeanine and I might have stumbled upon First Unit by accident - we were walking around, trying to find more filming locations, when we happened upon a horde of cameramen, trucks, trailers, lighting equipment, and general pandemonium next to the Wyndam Hotel on Eucild Avenue. Before being told to leave by security, we found out that that was most likely the hotel where Samuel L. Jackson was staying, and possibly the other actors as well. Anyways, besides our adventure into the film world, our other activities for the day were not as exciting: we mostly continued organizing the office space, shredding papers, and discussing next week's matinee performance of "Aida," which I am very excited to see!

Miscellaneous Stuff

Today was basically a bunch of miscellaneous activities. The other interns and I cleaned out the rehearsal space for the School Residency Program, which is on the tenth floor of the Hanna Building (catty corner from the Ohio, State and Palace Theaters, which form the hub of Playhouse Square). It was extraordinarily cluttered and messy, so we folded costumes, sorted props, and moved tables and chairs. Then, we were allowed to explore downtown a bit during our lunch break. We meandered over to the Captain America set once again, but I think the crew and actors were on lunch break, so we didn't see anything exciting, just them moving cranes around and rearranging lighting and camera equipment. However, we did get to see the aftermath of their filming: we saw plenty of dented and destroyed cars from car chases, bullet holes and residue from explosions they had done. I wished we could have seen it in person! The rest of the day was mostly more office work, which was not too riveting. However, I forgot to mention that this last Tuesday I visited one of the last schools on the School Residency Program of 2012-2013: Solon High School. I got to see the actor-teachers perform the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, and then have discussions about the scene, the play and the themes that go along with it. The students were very engaged and it was nice to see what they were learning about in class come alive for them on stage. I am really excited for next week though, during which I get to see a free performance of "Aida," this year's All-City Musical. The All-City Musical is run by Great Lakes Theater, and it gives schools that don't have theater departments a chance to participate in a large-scale production on a professional stage. I am very excited to see it, and I will write about my opinions of it!

Not Much Going On

So today we went to the ISES Membership Luncheon. I was not able to take photos because I broke the screen of my phone and the tape holding it together happens to be covering the lens. That will be fixed pronto! The theme of the meeting was "Hot in Cleveland", where influential members of the board talked about the upcoming Senior Games and Gay Games that Cleveland will be hosting. They mainly talked about the new convention center and how it would be utilized. They also talked about the need for a more hotels and central hub that could hold 700 to 800 rooms so that eventually Cleveland will be able to compete with 2nd tier cities. A woman from Playhouse Square was also there and she talked about how Cleveland holds the largest amount of Broadway members than any other city in the US, which is extremely impressive since our main competitor is New York City. Cleveland is definitely an up and coming city with its new casinos, hotels, convention center, and booming new restaurant industry. It seems that Cleveland will only prosper from here and that it will be a hot and great place to live in years to come.

After that meeting we cleaned out and organized her office. We did some other busy work but nothing too exciting. I am really enjoying the business aspect of this internship. I like being able to socialize and network with all these fantastic people. They have truly built an interesting and fabulous empire that our generation can definitely build off of. The party scene is booming and people love it here in Cleveland!

One Vlog Down, Three To Go

Thought I'd try a video log today but the blog website won't let me upload the video. Instead I uploaded it to youtube. Heres the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK1d_ezZclU

Sorry for the poor quality! 

Off to West Side Catholic

Our last day at North Point was promised to be filled with lots of interviews, but that was not the case.  In reality when we showed up, neither Ed nor Jan were there to let us into their offices to get the papers we were supposed to use.  We just set up shop in the cafeteria and started doing our editing.  We just did the introduction-type parts and started to put together the organizational skeleton of the video.  It's still in the early stages but its been coming along.  We ended up spending essentially the whole day doing that and finishing up some flyer work we had started earlier in the week.  Then today we were prepared to go to West Side Catholic Center, but Angela Spring, our contact there, told us at the last minute that we should wait another day to come in.  So we ended up spending a second day in a row editing.  Ultimately I think this is a very good thing because we originally didn't plan for a lot of editing time, but we're quickly realizing how much we are going to need.  So tomorrow morning should be the beginning of the end of our project!

Last Day at Northpoint

Yesterday, Tuesday, was the last day that Andrew and I spent at Northpoint. On Monday at the end of our uneventful day, Ed had told us that on Tuesday we would go out with a bang. Unfortunately, Ed was not there when we arrived at 9:30, which wasn’t totally uncommon. Then we checked to see in Jan, the next person in charge, was there but she wasn’t present either. Not knowing what to do Andrew and I walked down to the lunch room and started our editing process. We began thinking of rough outline type ideas for the video. Soon enough we put together a skeleton for the video and started editing. During this process we would periodically go check if Ed was there yet. But to our dismay he didn’t show up. Fortuitously, we caught Jan in the hallway who told us to go help out with lunch again. Once again though there was nothing to help out with in the kitchen. Since Ed wasn’t there we didn’t have any interviews set up for the lunch period either. After lunch we caught up with Jan again who had us making more copies. The printer had actually been serviced that morning so it was up and running again. We successfully printed out and distributed the rest of the packets. In the midst of printing, we spotted Ed. He looked like he was in a hurry and told us that he was on the way to a meeting. He also apologized for not being able to be there. We spoke with Jan after that, and she told us that we were done for the day and could leave. All in all it wasn’t too slow of a day, minus the fact that we didn’t get any interviews. Inadvertently, this caused Andrew and I to get some necessary editing done which is good since we hadn’t thought too much into it yet. Next we are off to West Side Catholic Center to interview folks there with Andrew’s mentor from the intensive, Angela.

Exciting Day!

So today we mulled over an RFP that we may or may not want to send. We essentially made a rough draft of what we wanted to send and decided to sit on it for a couple of days to see if it felt right to continue on with this event. Today I learned that Cleveland is a small town in regards to business. Even if someone messes with you or wrongs you, you have to be very careful about your actions because it could have some serious consequences for your business if you get on the wrong side of someone. After that we went to Root Candle in Medina for a personal tour from the CEO. It was just fantastic. He was so nice and accommodating. I learned a lot about their history and that their founder, A.I. Root, was the first person to write an account of the Wright Brother's first flight at Kitty Hawk and that this account is currently at the Smithsonian. A lot of their production is done by hand and the CEO knew a majority of his workers, which is very rare in this day in age of mass machinery production. Root Candle was generous enough to donate an enormous ton of candles for a Hopewell event in September. I am very thankful I was able to find this new business and make new connections!

Final Recital Adjustments

The past two days we have been finalizing the recital lineup. Our studio has four guest artists coming in and we had to add in all of their pieces, which has actually improved the lineup. There are a few dancers who had several one-dance changes, and today we were able to strategically add guest performances so that these costume changes were made easier. The guest artists are Rachael Leitson (the studio owner's daughter who goes to Chapman University as a dance major in California), Joe Chantry (one of her friends from Chapman), Jonathan Fors (another one of Rachael's friends), and Justin DeBernardi (a huge choreographer from Toronto who has been choreographing for our studio for a few years).

We also mopped the big studio (there are three) today after taking adult tap today at 10:00 to clean the tap dust, and then we worked on updating the ticket sales and recital lineup spreadsheets. After asking parents to return any tickets that they weren't using, we still have 37 people who need tickets. We are hoping to get them all seats, however, we are already sold out at a maximum of 640 tickets, which includes folding seats in the aisles. 

In the next couple of days we will be rehearsing for recital on Saturday, and making final adjustments for the dress rehearsal on Friday. 

Sigal and Maddie