Video Tape Roundup

Home Sweet Home Productions is a multi-media collective based in Pacifica, Cali-fornia, a community located fifteen minutessouth of San Francisco . Although our orien-tation has been local origination cable TV,we are able to produce light shows, graphics,video events, photographs, 16mm films, andaudio and video tapes .

To date, we haveconcentrated our energy on the programmingand production of a weekly four hour livecable television program . The show iscablecast through the facilities of Studio 70 .The Show has a low key but very definiteradical tone which manifests itself in thecommentary, in the music we play, in ourself-image as a collective, and in our useof the equipment .

Home Sweet Home Productions1806 Francisco Blvd .Pacifica, California 94044

Community cable educational literature isavailable in many forms and styles . Oneexample which has had much success inform-ing people in areas without cable is an easy--to-read booklet, COMMUNITY TELEVISIONFOR BOSTON? Copies may be obtained(we think for free ) by writing The MediaProject, Urban Planning Aid, Inc ., 639Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass .,02139 . The best example we have found forareas which already have cable is theNational Film Board (of Canada) "Challengefor Change Newsletter", #6 (subscriptionsare free) . The most useful book availableabout urban cable is still Charles Tate'sCABLE TELEVISION IN THE CITIES :COMMUNITY CONTROL, PUBLIC ACCESS,AND MINORITY OWNERSHIP ,

3.95, from

the Urban Institute, 2100 M Street, N .W .,Washington, D .C ., 20037 .

J . D . Thomas, Antioch Cable Proiect

Focus on Media (F .M ., 184 South 13th St .,San Jose, California) offers workshops infilm, video tape, still photography anddrama productiorrs to educate members ofthe community as to how these tools can beused to further their own projects . F .M .,a non-profit collective of people from theSan Jose community, is trying to gainaccess to cable and non-cable televisionstations so that local productions can beviewed . Current projects include : workingwith the San Jose Board and Care homes toprovide entertainment and self-expressionfor the residents and to expose their livingsituation; demonstrating to teen-agers atthe Job Corps Center techniques of film-making; and offering alternative learningand entertainment situations to thosecommunity schools previously unexposed tomedia .

FRED ASHMEAD

Gene Youngblood's new book, The Videosphere ,about the evolutionary, ecological, biological,social, political, technological and estheticimplications of: (I) cable television, (2) porta-ble video systems, (3) program retrieval (video-cassette and disc) systems, (4) time-sharedcomputer utilities, and (5) the domesticsatellite system, considered not as separatetechnologies but as components of a singleunified system, a "decentralized feedbackcommunication network", will be publishedsoon by E .P . Dutton, N .Y.

FOR SALE:Remember the Fobile Muck Truck?Well, here is another truck that can beused in a similar way: A 1965 GM Cabover 20 foot van w/lift gates, 2 inchQuad B & W vtrs, air cond ., GE video

camera cable, monitors galore, switch-ers, Sync generators, lots of goodies--a steal at $18,000 .00

Call 415/776-6703 for details . Ask for JonBeckjord - Holy Mountain Video .

WANTED :

Someone to coordinate andcentralize video information and definevideo problems for a photography catalogusing the "Whole Earth" format . Nomoney . Contact : Jim McQuaid, Photo-graphy : Source & Resource, Box 126,Amesville, Ohio 45711 .

Videoworks, part of the Department of Land-scape Architecture at the University of Arizona(Tuscan, Arizona, 85721), is creating a videocenter for students in environmental design touse I/2 inch video equipment for communica-tion, presentation and community involvement .Videoworks is interested in securing videoprograms for exchange and a descriptive list ofyour programs .

MATRIX, an international video meet and tapeexchange fest, took place in Vancouver fromJanuary 17th through January 21st . Topics ofdiscussion at the meeting included alternate dis-tribution systems and outlets for video informationbarriers to international exchange (censorship,copyright, customs, etc .), new developments invideo technology, corporate media (broadcastTV, cable, satellites, data and information,systems, space and 'defense' research, cassettesand cartridges, etc .) and effective video alter-natives .

For information about the outcome of the videomeet, contact MATRIX Video Exchange, 358,Powell, Vancouver 4, B .C ., Canada . Tel . -(604) - 682 - 5621 .

The Open Channel - Newsletter dedicatedto the institutionalization and expansion ofpublic access television . Published quarterly- free - 220 West 42nd Street, New York,New York, 10036

_Brooklyn College Video Village-- OnFriday and Saturday nights, the BrooklynCollege Television Center operates aVIDEO THEATER, presenting originalB .C . students' video program productionsand independent producers' work . Avail-able hardware includes SONY AV 5000A1/2 inch VTR's, SONY AV 3400 VTRsand 21 inch monitors . If you are ableto supply video programs at no cost orfor a rental fee, contact B .C . as soon aspossible : Jeffrey Nagler, Brooklyn CollegeTelevision Center, Whitehead Hall,Brooklyn, N .Y ., 11210 (212/780-5555,6,7--daytime; 212/854-6969-night .)

Videospace, by Brice Howard, NationalCenter for Experiments in Television,1011 Bryant StreetSan Francisco, California 94103154 pp ., $2 .00

"Process is the movement of the unformedtoward form . "

While the book is based onthe studio experience rather than the porta-pak and one could argue with the philosophical position that abstract video art willchange man's individual life, the participa-tory format and poetic style will help peopleworking with video equipment to rediscoverand redefine the natural principles thatgovern the medium .

MEDIA ECOLOGYREVIEW

Published bi-weekly by students in the doc-toral program in media ecology of the N .Y.U .School of Education . It is meant to be a forumfor research, opinion, speculations, as wellas a directory to other sources and materialsconcerned with media and communications .

733 Commerce BuildingWashington Square, New YorkNew York, New York

One year subscription, 16 issues,September through May, $8 .00

ETV Newsletter - The bi-weekly news reportof educational and instructional television .$50 annually

C .S . Tepfer Publishing Company607 Main StreetRidgefield, Connecticut 06877 .

Why is working with video tape differentfrom working with other image and soundmaking machines?

"--Video tape has a peculiar ability to helpindividuals or groups gain more objectiveaccess to their own behavior and feelings .

--Video tape is a mirror with a memory andwhen used with sensitivity it can effect aprocess of self-perception, self-reflectionand self-actualization .

--Video tape is able to record more fullyand easily than any other communicationsmedium the density of human behavior andinteraction . Hence, it becomes a powerfultool in helping education realize its mostdifficult goal - the development of indi-viduals based on self-knowledge ."

From "Videotape Making" by Kit Laybournein Doing the Media : A Portfolio of Activitiesand ResourcesThe Center for Understanding Media267 West 25th StreetNew York, New York, 10001 .$5 .00

LUNA REGIA-The Moon Goddess-Preservation

The Communications Studies Center of AntiochCollege-Yellow Springs is collecting videotapesmade by, about and for women . We are alsointerested in exchanging tapes and informationwith women tapists : who they work with, where,what kinds of things they are doing, and how theyfeel about themselves as women/artists/tapists,etc . If you'd be interested in this kind of ex-change, contact: Ladies Home Journal, Com-munications Studies Center, Antioch College,Yellow Springs, Ohio, 45367 .

People's Communication Network is a multi-media education/information organizationthat deals with third world people .

Voodoo-Video PCN is a division of the net-work that specializes in video, cable andclosed circuit TV productions for third worldgroups .

Voodoo also maintains a videolibrary of tapes pertaining to events ofinterest to third world communities .

People's Communication Network-Voodoo VideoP .O . Box 124Manhattanville StationNew York City, New York, 10027Phone :212/850-1776

TUBE, a new magazine of television, willhopefully appear monthly by April, say itseditors . Recently TVBE published a previewissue in a format similar to Rolling Stone .It reports on everything from the FCC andthe Nielsens to guerilla television andGunsmoke . You may obtain a copy of thepreview, plus a brochure and writer's guide(they need writers), from TVBE, 1826 SpaightStreet, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704( 608/241-2630 or 1097) .

THE VOYAGE OF THE WET ORCHID,"a living-learning adventure experienceaboard a 60 foot sailing yacht cruisingthe Caribbean ." On board : Three Sony1/2 inch units and two Akai 1/4 inchunits . Two major Canadian TV stationswill air productions with full credit givento student producers .

Ten students ata time can make the six week trans-cultural probe to twenty-five countries .Write : Frank Ogden, Wet Orchid,Toronto Harbor "Turning Basin", 521Commissioner Street, Toronto 2, Ontario,Canada .

CAFAM-III, Collective Action for AlternativeMedia in the Third World - Newsletterpublished free on an irregular basis .

Vernard Grayc/o Fides House1554 8th Street, N .W.Washington, D .C .

20001

Union Resource Exchange Network --UNet wasestablished to help meet the need for con-tact, sharing and feedback felt by many videotape producers .

Exchange of information isfacilitated by a large, centralized and con-stantly flowing catalog consisting of threeparts : A Catalog of Software, describingtapes on hand ;

an Inventory of Resources,allowing affiliates to share information abouttheir special projects and interests while inprocess; and a Catalog of Need, listing informational needs .

To become a member ofthe network and/or obtain the first UnionResource Exchange Network Catalog, contactDinah LeHoven or Rick Newberger, UNet,Union for Experimenting Colleges and Uni-versities, Antioch College, Yellow Springs,Ohio, 45387 . (513/767-7331 x 233)

Indiana University Video Cooperative -The recently established Indiana UniversityVideo Cooperative request 1/2 inch tapes,peoples' experiences working with 1/2inch tape and funding and networkingschemes .

The contact person is JamesMizell, 421 South Woodlawn, Bloomington,Indiana 47401 .

VIDEO EXCHANGEDIRECTORY

A catalogue of video folk and their interests,Free

Note :If you are trying to produce alternatevideotapes in a community context anddo not want to be identified with com-mercial mass media, do not stencil yourhardware with the initials of your in-stitutional affiliation . We made thismistake at Livingston College ; every pieceof equipment carried a day-glo UCTRC,for Urban Communications Teaching andResearch Center .

Good for identificationpurposes (with rip-off potential alwayshigh,) but also good for reinforcing thoseinevitable questions : "Can we see thistonight on TV? You're from where?WCTC? WNBC? ABC-TV?" A bunch ofletters together in a logo seems to havecome to symbolize commercial media .

Barry Orton

Appalshop is a group of Appalachianyoung people portraying their history,culture and heritage through the mediumof film, video tape, still photographyand audio recording . Appalshop isusing 1/2 inch video tape as part of theeffort to expand communicaions in themountains . Research shows that manymountain communities are 100% sat-urated by cable TV and that 65% ofmountain homes receive TV by cable .Appalshop would like to talk with anyindividual or group in the mountainsinterested in utilizing cable TV, andwants to exchange video material andsuggestions for video tape subjects .Contact Appalshop, P .O . Box 743,Whitesburg, Kentucky 41858 (606/633-5708)

VideoMaker is an attempt to combine theneed for universities, schools, cable TVstations and other groups to develop agreater insight into the Appalachianregion and its people through Appala-chian studies materials, and the greatneed for mountain people to communicatewith and learn from their own experience .Through the Living Newsletter, portable,half inch videotape equipment is used tomotivate an educational dialogue or ex-change among groups and individuals inthe mountains . Mountain people who,past or present, have confronted problemsand concerns central to Appalachian liferecord the experience that they as agroup or community that shares the samevital concerns, and they in turn respondon tape to other mountain people . Thisproblem-oriented, problem-centered tech-nique expands on the oral learning tra-dition of the mountains and widens theconstituency and framework for funda-mental problem solving in Appalachia .

For further information and an annotatedtape list, write to VideoMaker, 132 SouthWashington, Cookeville, Tennessee, 38501

(615/526-8410)

A publication available for people interestedin the use of video in the mental health fieldis :

TV IN PSYCHIATRY NEWSLETTERInstructional Resources DivisionDepartment of PsychiatryUniversity of British ColumbiaVancouver 8, B. C . , Canada$10

Experimental Television Center Ltd .

The Experimental Television Center Ltd . i sa not-for-profit educational corporationsupported in part by grants from the NewYork State Council on the Arts . The Centeris involved in three areas : television andthe community, uses of television in formaleducation and the artist and television .

The Center's activities provide the possibilityfor a broader base for television programmingand alternatives to what is available frommost networks .

The intention is not a rev-olutionary replacement of broadcast tele-vision but an attempt to increase the rangeand types of programs and to provide theviewer with a method of direct involvementwith television .

Any interested individual or group from thecommunity can borrow, without charge,portable 1/2 inch video tape equipment forboth recording and playback purposes . TheCenter functions as a resource area to pro-vide access to equipment, technical infor-mation, and advice if it is sought . Eachindividual is encouraged to do the actualtaping . The Center generally does not actas a production crew but will consult andprovide assistance in recording if needed .Playback equipment can be used for showingsat the Center or can be taken out . TheCenter also has a weekly show, ACCESS,on the local cable channel, and anyone canproduce programming for the show .

Experimental Television Center Ltd ., 164Court Street, Binghamtom, N .Y ., 13901,(607) - 723 - 9509 .

Communications for Change

Communications for Change develops anddemonstrates applications of video tape insocial action settings and tests the viabilityof a video center designed to provide serviceand consultation to not-for-profit agencies .

Its work will be undertaken at cost on acontract basis .

Provided is a range of videoservices to social agencies unable to eco-nomically support their own video tapefacilities or to agencies interested in devel-oping such facilities .

In addition, experimental funds are avail-able to carry out a limited number of pro-jects designed to test the usefulness ofvideo tape in goal oriented social actionprograms . Such projects will, for example,develop techniques to effectively com-municate widely disparate points of viewamong groups to help them move past apoint of confrontation .

Tedwilliam TheodoreCOMMUNICATIONS FOR CHANGEIII East Wacker DriveChicago, Illinois 60601(312) - 664/2460