Local Motion
The area of Western Massachusetts known as the Berkshires does a heavy tourist trade. Not surprising – it’s beautiful and serene, tucked into mountains that muffle noise. It’s where you vacation when you want to get away from a hectic life. The towns that make up the Berkshires want to keep themselves quaint and free of too many chain stores. They adopted Berk$hares as one way to encourage the growth of local businesses, mom-and-pop shops owned by people who live just down the street or in the next town over. As my Generation Money story explains, “buying local” is more than a motto; it’s a way of living that can boost the economy of your town or neighborhood. It’s the difference between buying a hammer from Al’s Hardware and buying one from Home Depot. It makes you think about the consequences of your shopping habits and how those will affect your neighbors, not just yourself.
Buying local doesn’t have to have a political motivation. Sure, a lot of our products are made in China (like on whatever device you’re probably reading this blog post), which created a push to “buy American” a few years ago. More recently, the term “locavore” has been thrown around. It refers to a person who eats food that was grown or raised locally, usually within a 100-mile radius (local + omnivore = locavore).
I joined a community supported agriculture (CSA) farmshare a few summers ago. That meant I bought a tiny sliver of a farmer’s crop yield for one season; for 5 months I got weekly boxes of organic fruits -- like the strawberries pictured -- and vegetables (and sometimes eggs and meat) that had been harvested *that same day.* Talk about fresh!
My favorite part was the field trip farmshare members took to The Farm at Miller’s Crossing. We got to see where our food was grown, meet the people who grew it and even pet a cow or two. (Yup, they’re grass-fed.) After my summer of eating fresh, I kept thinking about the benefits of eating local. I read “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” by Barbara Kingsolver; it’s about the author and her family living for a full year eating off the land surrounding their home.
The main lesson I learned: it’s very difficult, especially when you’re used to finding strawberries in the grocery store in February. For that to happen, they traveled a really long way, from another state, if not another hemisphere, just so I could thumb my nose at Mother Nature and eat an out-of-season fruit. The biggest lesson we could all benefit from remembering: food doesn’t come from a grocery store.
What Next? 101
One of the more fun parts of my job is producing What Next? segments. We love it when you write to us telling us about your career aspirations.You have emailed us saying you want to do everything from being an astronomer to a Lego designer, and thanks to your ideas, we’ve gone to Google, observed a heart surgery, and spent the day with a truck driver.
Last year 15-year-old Taylor Hamilton from Huntsville, Alabama emailed to tell us that she wants to be a film editor. We thought it would be great for What Next?
When we decided to go with it, I went into action -- I talked to zillions of movie companies and Disney agreed to let us meet with both the editor and the director of its new movie, "John Carter." One of my favorite things to do in What Next? is to surprise the teen that we will be featuring. We like to do it on camera, so I don’t respond to the emails of the people we choose...and hope that they think we have forgotten about them.
Then I work secretly with the teen’s parents and school to arrange a way to surprise them. At Taylor’s school, the video department set up two cameras near a speaker phone and we called her during a class to tell her the news that we were flying her to California to meet a successful film editor. It’s fair to say she was not expecting our call!
One of the best things about producing is that you get to go along for the ride...so I flew to California with Taylor and our anchor Scott, who I like to call "Scott-man!"
The director of the movie, Andrew Stanton has won two Academy Awards. I have never met an Academy Award winner before and thought he might be sort of intimidating, but he wasn’t at all. He was warm, friendly and easy to talk to. Erik Jessen, one of the editors on the film, showed us a lot of really cool stuff about how live action movies are made and edited.
Since it’s very expensive to shoot a film, the movie director plans out exactly what he is going to film before he starts. Then, an artist known as an animator makes what could be described as a video game version of the action before filming starts. The editor’s first job is to put that version together. Finally, based on the video game version, the director and actors shoot the film.
"John Carter" has lots of strange looking creatures, one of which is a huge white ape that is actually a computer generated image. Before the computer generated version of the ape is finished, Erik edited in a cartoon like version of the ape that is drawn by an artist so that the director can have a sense of what the scene will look like once the computer generated version of the ape is done. Finally, once all the film is edited in Erik edits in music. He says music is very important in conveying emotion and setting the mood.
After we spent the day with Erik and Andrew at Disney’s Barsoom studio in San Francisco, Taylor said film editing was definitely for her! Her family is saving money to buy her a Mac and editing software so she can get started. If there is a job you’d like to do when you grow up, email us and let us know what it is...and maybe we’ll surprise you next.
Shout it Out
So you wanna be on Channel One News? One of the easiest ways is by recording a One Shout and posting it on channelone.com. Here's some inside advice on how to get your clip chosen to be on the show1. Include your name, school, city and state in your video.
2. When recording, hold the camera steady and make sure everyone is in focus.
3. Film in a place that is well lit so we can see your shining faces.
4. Have fun and don’t be afraid to make it creative. But always at the end say: “Channel One News starts right now!”
5. The last step is to upload it. Click here to get to the right place.
I look forward to seeing a bunch of new One Shouts in the future!
Building Green
In today's What Next? story, we surprised Nathan with a visit to the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) remarkable building. Did you know it's also the world's greenest museum? Some really bright architects and engineers worked on the building, including Alasdair McGregor, who designed the building's living roof.
We also told you that environmental engineering is an up-and-coming field, so you know that the CAS building isn't the only one creating green solutions for themselves. Check out the slideshow to learn more about other great examples of clever engineering.
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Meeting Mia
You may have seen our recent Glory Road interview with Mia Hamm. I have to say talking with her was pretty awesome. She's done everything from writing books, to setting records in soccer that no woman or man has surpassed. She's also the mom of twins girls and new baby boy who still finds time to speak to groups of young people about pursuing their dreams. Meeting her was a little like sitting in a room with your big sis because she's one of the most down to earth people I’ve met -- and is arguably one of the most successful too.
We met at the HerWorld event in partnership with DeVry University in New York City. Three hundred girls, all there as leaders from their respective schools and neighborhoods, came to listen to inspirational stories from women killing it in their fields. And in walked this woman, unassuming in Nike athletic gear and completely eager to get her chance to speak to them.
When she approached the stage, you would have thought Nikki Minaj had walked in the room. I even looked around to see if anybody was encouraging the girls to respond, but there wasn't.
These girls went crazy; excited that someone was willing to come lend their advice in order to help them succeed. And Mia didn't skip a beat -- she got right to it.
She spent the better part of an hour talking back and forth with these young women with stories about her family, about adversity and how to look it in the face and overcome. She talked about the importance of passion and diligence and about identifying what you want and then going for it. It was awesome to see the audience respond. A lot of the girls had just been born at the height if Mia's popularity, but it didn’t matter because what she was saying now was important. "follow your dreams...don’t let anyone tell you, ‘you can’t do something.’ And once you start going after it, go until you get it. It's not always gonna be easy, but it's always gonna be worth the investment, if you're investing in yourself.”
I think we could all benefit from thinking that way!
Happy Spring!
It's the first day of spring! (Even though in New York, it kind of already feels like summer.) To celebrate, here's a look at some upbeat news making headlines today.
First up, it looks like good news on the graduation front. More teens are getting their diplomas, says research presented at an advocacy summit in Washington D.C.. The stats showed that 75% of teens graduated from high school in 2009, leaving a gap of 15% to reach the goal of 90% by 2020 set by the America's Promise Alliance.
D.C. is also where you can see Cherry Blossoms in full force, like President Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron did last week when the British leader was in town. This week, the Pres is meeting with the Irish Prime Minister Edna Kenny.
Last, two headlines from the heavens, sort of. Ashton Kutcher has joined the waiting list for a trip to suborbital space with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. Tickets for that trip cost about $200k! Also, Hillary Clinton is on board with a new a expedition to find out what happened to Amelia Earhart -- who disappeared over the South Pacific 75 years ago.
What do you think about the headlines this week? Are you curious about Earhart? Do you think grad rates could be higher? Tell us in the comments.
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Win It!: The Hunger Games Skin
If the words "may the odds be ever in your favor" don't mean anything to you, you might be doing too much homework. At this point, however, it's reasonable to think your teacher may have put The Hunger Games on a list of assigned reading. That's how much people love it. As an early adopter of the series, we're thrilled about the attention for Suzanne Collins' trilogy and particularly excited about the first movie -- and all of the related buzz about casting, posters and previews. That's why even though we NEVER do this, when skinit asked us if we we're interested in taking a look at their Hunger Games themed skins, we said yes. Who doesn't want a fire-y mockingjay skin for your phone?
Want the better news? And the thing that makes this post interesting? Skinit is giving us codes for three free skins for three of you! All you have to do is enter and we'll pick three winners who will receive codes to pick out your fave Katniss-themed skin for your phone, laptop or iPad (plus free shipping!).
Thanks for reading and entering -- we'll be notifying the winners soon!
419 Delegates
Ten states around the country are holding primary elections today and 419 delegates (out of 1,119 for the nomination) are up for grabs. If you live in Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Vermont, Massachusetts, today's the day to hit the polls. Watch the video to learn more, and check back later this evening -- we'll be posting results as the votes are counted.
Jessica Kumari
Clearwater Beach, Florida native Jessica Kumari cultivated a passion for news at her campus TV station at Georgetown University. She then moved to New York City and joined the prestigious NBC Page Program before serving as a production assistant for Brian Williams.
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Shelby Holliday
Shelby Holliday is passionate about all things Millennial. From politics to prom, her favorite assignments involve talking to students and discussing issues that affect young people.
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Scott Evans
Scott Evans has been working in entertainment and media since the third grade. After studying communications and theatre at Purdue University, he worked as a NBA On-Court Host for the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever. He most recently worked as the West Coast Correspondent at the millennial news organization, One Minute News.
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Jason Witmer
Producer Jason Witmer has worked in just about every type of journalistic medium including writing for magazines and producing pieces for NPR. He fell in love with video as a medium at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism before spending three years at the Houston Chronicle. He is happy to be at Channel One now, a show he grew up watching.
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Kristen Brody
Kristen Brody is a graduate of the University of Missouri's journalism school and a Production Associate at Channel One.
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Gary Hamilton
Gary knows something about that famous Texas pride, he was born and raised in Houston (where he grew up watching Channel One in Middle and High School) and then he graduated from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas and studied abroad at Oxford University in the U.K.
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Jessica Rojas
Jessica Rojas is a born and bred New Yorker whose love of all types of music, dance and entertainment took her to Los Angeles where she studied at the University of Southern California. Her love of music is what brought Jessica back to New York to share that passion with you at Channel One.
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Sarah Mirza
Producer Sarah Mirza is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Master's journalism program at Boston University. She loves to write and lives for those adrenaline-fueled breaking news situations.
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Kristin Sachau
Producer Kristin grew up in San Diego, California and graduated from San Diego State University. When she got involved with documentary filmmaking, she realized she had a passion for storytelling and she's been doing it every since.
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Evan Groll
Associate Producer Evan Groll started at Channel One as an intern. He enjoys covering international news, human interest pieces and stories centered around social injustices (or even better, a combination of the three).
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Sponsored Disney Nature
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Inside...
- Frog'ed February 22, 2012
- OneVote 2012 December 23, 2011
- Meeting Mia March 26, 2012
College
- Cool Jobs (That Pay!) January 03, 2012
- Building Green March 26, 2012
- Happy Spring! March 20, 2012
Sports
- Meeting Mia March 26, 2012
- Bring on the Wings! February 03, 2012
Giving Back
- RAK Week February 14, 2012
- Jeans for Teens February 06, 2012
- MLK Day January 13, 2012
OneVote
- The State of the Union and You January 25, 2012
- 419 Delegates March 05, 2012
- What Counts in New Hampshire? January 09, 2012
Stuff
- Win It!: The Hunger Games Skin March 12, 2012
Education
- Happy Spring! March 20, 2012
- Bully March 01, 2012
- Building Green March 26, 2012
Money 101
- Savvy Saving January 23, 2012
- Your First Ride December 01, 2011
- Cool Jobs (That Pay!) January 03, 2012
HIN
- HIN First Look: Mat Kearney November 02, 2011
- Thoughts on the Grammys December 02, 2011
- HIN First Look: Keep Your Head Up September 27, 2011
Technology
- Building Green March 26, 2012
- Happy Spring! March 20, 2012
- What's up with Wikipedia January 18, 2012
Headlines
- Tuesday Inspiration October 11, 2011
- 419 Delegates March 05, 2012
- Inside Occupy Wall Street October 07, 2011
New York
- Shout it Out March 28, 2012
- Meeting Mia March 26, 2012
- Bringing Down the House September 06, 2011
Texas
- Drought Contributes to Wildfires, but Affects Crops too September 06, 2011
- Power Trip September 05, 2011
- Go Against the Grain October 21, 2011
