WGN Tour: A Photo Blog

On August 25th, 2010, The Cabrini Connections Video and Filmmakers Club was fortunate to get a tour of WGN Television Studios. The tour included conversations with weather reporters Tom Skilling and Mike Hamernik, a look at the newsroom, being able to sit on the stage where the morning news is shot, a tour of the creative services department, and a talk with Cris Allen, Supervising Producer (and a whole lot more).

What a great opportunity!!! Thank you to Juana, and everybody else who took time out of their busy day to talk to us. Below are some pictures from the trip. Enjoy!

Our Summer Music Videos!

And so you have it... the fruit of our labor over the last 8 weeks. Reel Talent Productions is proud to present our finished music videos! These videos were entirely conceptualized, shot and edited by our teenage talents.

This is a music video for the popular song by Lil Mama called Lip Gloss.

Lip Gloss - Music Video from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.

Yu-Gi-Oh! is a music video based off the opening theme song for the Japanese animation, Air Gear.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Final Battle - Music Video from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.

Go Bears!

The summer session may be over, but the fun certainly hasn't stopped! Over the course of 8 weeks, our Reel Talent Productions members earned Frames (points) for good attendance, participation and performance. You read last that our overall winner Sean very kindly donated his prize to our third place winner, Reggie. So second place winner Melissa and Reggie were the lucky ones who got to take a trip to watch the Chicago Bears live at the magnificent Soldier Field!

To keep our trip green, we decided to hop on the El and bus there. As we approached the stadium, we witnessed the streets just flooded with hundreds of bears fans decked out in blue, orange and white. It looks like Chicago came out in full force to support our Bears as they took on the Oakland Raiders. We were also awestruck at how big and grand Soldier Field was. Simply amazing!

We got seats really high up, so the view of the thousands of fans in the arena was fantastic. Being close to the goal line was great too! We got to witness Matt Forte score that brilliant touchdown for the bears, after sprinting a whopping 89 yards! Pure stunning action.

We also couldn't resist checking out the view and enjoying the breeze blowing in from Lake Michigan during halftime... and of course, taking a few photos for memories. And to complete our live sports experience, we bought a ton of snacks... nachos, fries, popcorn, peanuts and pop! :)

One of the highlights of the night was when the crowd went crazy doing The Wave! It took a couple of tries for it to get around... but we eventually got it going not 1, not 2, but 6 times around the entire stadium! What fun!

Though it was a bummer that the Bears weren't able to beat the Raiders, we're proud of them for putting up a good fight anyway. There's always next time! And maybe by then, we'd have successfully memorized the Bears fight song! Haha.

Bear down, Chicago Bears, make every play clear the way to victory;

Bear down, Chicago Bears, put up a fight with a might so fearlessly.

We'll never forget the way you thrilled the nation with your T-formation.

Bear down, Chicago Bears, and let them know why you're wearing the crown.

You're the pride and joy of Illinois, Chicago Bears, bear down.

By the time we got home, we were tired, but definitely happy. Thank you, Cabrini Connections, for this opportunity!

Video and Filmmakers Club's Summer Session at Cabrini Connections (A Photo Blog)

A fun and educational summer session: Making Music Videos

Editing Air Gear Opening in Final Cut Express

Club Leader Jane Giving Input: We will miss you Jane!

Editing the Lip Gloss Video in Final Cut Express

Creating a DVD Cover in Photoshop

Students Earn Points for Attendance, Behavior and Performance

The Frame Game

Watching a Rough Cut of the Lip Gloss Video

Photos by Yong Shu Ling and Jane Wang

That's a Wrap!

Over the last two weeks, we've wrapped up our first summer session. Last week, we started with a little show and tell. Club Leader Jane brought in her Canon 7D DSLR to give our young filmmakers a first look at the type of camera that a lot of independent filmmakers are using these days. The Canon 7D shoots full HD quality video at various frame rates, at a reasonable price, and can be found on many movie, music video and commercial shoots, so our young filmmakers were getting a look at the latest technology.

Later the students wrapped up the editing of their music videos, and created a DVD cover in Photoshop (see below). Then we said goodbye to Club Leader Jane as she was leaving for the rest of the summer. She will be missed.


We started our final day of the summer session by gathering permission slips for our trip to WGN studios and discussing "The Real World," which included copyrights, and getting a job/internship (making a reel, making a resume, and making business cards).

We then played a game we like to call "Film Terminator," where our young filmmakers get points for guessing film terms based on clues (kind of like the old television game show, $10,000 Pyramid). These points went towards a point system that we started this summer called The Frame Game. Students get points for attendance, good behavior, and performance, with the top two performing students getting a ticket to the Chicago Bears game this weekend.

After Film Terminator, they had pizza and snacks, and the students showcased their music videos (we will post links to their works at a later date). You got the feeling that our filmmakers were really proud of their accomplishments, and they should be. They have come a long way in a short period of time, and personally I am looking forward to seeing how they progress in the future.

Production, Post Production, a Production Company Name and Logo and a Planned Field Trip

At Cabrini Connections Video and Filmmakers Club, we have had a busy July. The young filmmakers shot their first music video. They were up against the clock, only having one session to shoot, and you could tell they all realized that shooting a music video can be quite challenging. See below for more production pictures.


Also, they have begun editing their music videos, and we are excited to see the results.

In addition, they came up with a production company name to put on all of their productions from here on out. They brainstormed and voted on production company names and talked about what they thought goes into making a successful production company. The name they agreed upon was Reel Talent Productions.

Below is the logo for their production company, which they designed and created in Photoshop.

















We also found out that we are going on a club field trip at the end of August. We will be taking a tour of the WGN television studios. This is quite an opportunity as WGN has a storied history in both the Chicago area and nationally, and it will be great experience for the young filmmakers to see television production up close.

Everybody loves Music Videos!

On the first day of Film Club for the summer, we (Shuling, Drew, and Jane) revealed to the kids that our big exciting project of the 8-week program is to create an original music video. Why a music video? Because they're AWESOME!

Good music videos can tell a story, can be a spectacle, or even both, but most importantly they enhance the music through visuals. With the producing of a music video, we'll learn about camera movements, set design, directing performers/actors, all the preparation that goes into planning before the shoot (pre-production), editing, and so much more.

This first week we went over some basic film concepts such as framing, storyboarding, director of photography...and the list goes on. Then after going through same basics of film concepts, we watched many cool examples of music videos to get our creative juices flowing. One of the main questions we asked the kids was: How in the world did they do that? The kids thought long and hard and were able to figure out some of the cool effects that were used in the music videos!

Here are some of the music videos we watched and you'll know what we mean:

OK GO's "End Love"-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2fpgpanZAw

MuteMath's "Typical"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XVWR-5fiG0

Sour's "Hibi no Neiro"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfBlUQguvyw&feature=related

After being amazed by the numerous crazy, mind-boggling videos, we took on the difficult task of choosing two songs as our music video inspirations for our two groups. With 14 potential songs, we finally narrowed it down to:

Lil Mama - Lipgloss

Air Gear Opening

If you listen to them, you'll find that they're completely different songs with their own very unique feels (one of them even has Japanese in it!). The three of us are super excited to see what creative ideas the kids come up with.

In the upcoming week, the kids will pitch their ideas for the music videos and we will decide which ideas to pursue. We're off to a great start! We've chosen two songs. We're excited. We're pumped. Now, we need to get prepared!