Quick Focus
Launch Information Service & Amateur TV System
245 Country Club Dr.
Melbourne, FL 32940-7626
Contact: Ernest Baldini
Phone: 407-757-3094
Meetings: 7:30 p.m., 1st Tues.
Video Camera Club
1339 Willoway Ave. S.E.
North Canton, OH 44720
Contact: Joe Spatafore
Phone: 330-494-9511
Meetings: Monthly, Canton, OH
Suburban Philadelphia Video Club
554 San Diego Ave.
Hollywood, PA 19046-4125
Contact: Jim Rutledge, Coordinator
Phone: 215-379-0222
Meetings: Monthly, Elkins Park Library
Seeking Group or Will Organize
Douglas Laidlaw
868 Norman Place
Los Angeles, CA 90049
R.M. Huckeby
13631 65th Street
Largo, FL 33771-4968
Andi Reti
1385 W. Solar Heights
Prescott, AZ 86303-6316
Videomaker's User Group Resources
Free Listings
Let new members know about your group. For inclusion in our user group listing, submit your request to "User Groups," c/o Videomaker, P.O. Box 4591, Chico, CA 95927; fax (530) 891-8443; e-mail editor@videomaker.com. For a list of existing user groups and/or video enthusiasts seeking or willing to organize a group in your area, send an SASE to our mailing address.
Web Listings
Expand your user group's horizons by posting your information on the Videomaker Web site. Send your request to "User Groups" at the above address or visit http://www.videomaker.com/usergroups/.
Online Forum
Visit the Videomaker Online Forums at http://www.videomaker.com/forument.htm to network with other user group members and organizers.
User Group Startup Kit
Videomaker's user group startup kit contains everything you need to start and run a successful user group: how to find members, publicize meetings and conduct screenings; sample newsletter, newspaper ad and meeting agenda; discounts off Videomaker merchandise and more. For more information, call (530) 891-8410, ext. 242 or e-mail customerservice@videomaker.com.
Web Watch
Alliance for Community Media
http://www.alliancecm.org
This national organization for public access centers has built a comprehensive Web site, incorporating dozens of helpful pages. Some examples include How to Produce a TV Program, Getting Community Media, Laws Affecting Access, and links to the U.S. Congress and FCC.
Entry Deadlines
The Society of Amateur Videomakers and Cinematographers honors amateur video
makers everywhere who create non-commercial video and motion pictures. The
International Amateur Motion Picture Festival accepts all entries that are
non-commercial and that have not been subsidized by any private, public
or charitable organization. Entries may be submitted in VHS, S-VHS, 8 mm
or Hi8 formats. Entries for the festival will be accepted for June 1 to
August 15, 1998. For a contest entry form e-mail: savac@iname.com.
The Short Attention Span Film and Video Festival is accepting entries that are non-commercial and run 2 minutes or less including credits. Entries can originate on any format but must be submitted on VHS tape only . There is a fee of $5 per entry and the deadline for entries is August, 1998. Send entries to:
Short Attention Span Film and Video Festival
P.O. 460316,
San Francisco, Ca. 94146
Quick Focus
The Other News
A channel-surfing alien in middle America might assume that we only
use our camcorders to supply videotapes to blooper and reality-TV producers.
Outside the U.S., however, a group of Dutch, British, New Zealanders and
Canadians is putting consumer camcorders to more productive use.
Small World Media is a non-profit organization that provides media support to groups working on environment and social justice issues. "If we can't get films onto TV we don't give up," is the bold proclamation on the group's Web site (http://antenna.nl/~smallwor/index.html). Instead, Small World helps activists to make and distribute their own video footage. They believe that everyone not only has the right to communicate but, with training and access to resources, the ability to do so.
The non-profit organization teams camcorder owners who are looking for subjects with local groups that need video support. Then they teach them how to get their footage aired on local and national television. Small World also distributes "Undercurrents" and "Stoom!" video newsletters that contain action reports and other features that are mostly researched, shot and edited by activists.
