Post #3 -The First WLE Experience

9:30am - 2:00pm
4.5 Hours Total

This week was the first time I had done a WLE since Junior year. It was startlingly different from my previous experience at the work place because the environment was very much the same as what I was used to five days a week. (i.e. School)
When I first arrived at the school I checked in with my co-mentor/WLE partner Angelica. She was writing the lesson plans for her art class so I decided to check out the camera(s) that I would be using to film the experience. So i went to the tech room and talked to my other mentor Brian (the technical coordinator for Metro). He showed me the Panasonic AG-DVC20p, which is an over-the-shoulder style camera. The video quality is quite an improvement from the mini-camcorders that I am used to using. While learning how to use the camera I decided to get some practice interviewing students. I talked to Ismael and asked him a few questions about his WLE: why he chose it, did he feel it was a possible career choice, etc. After i finished this I wanted to learn how to edit the footage I had just taken and started using iMovie '09. This verion of iMovie seems completely overly complicated and was completely beyond me. After a half hour of frustration I tired another program called Live. Live is a program that is mainly used for audio editing, but can also be used for video. I took one of the built in lesson and by that time I was finished. I left. Went home. And Slept.

Post #2 -If Only...

Ideally, I would have loved to Internship at an Equal Vision Records. Sadly, they're based out of Albany, New York so I don't think that would have worked. The label has had an impressive list of artist's including Converge, Bear vs. Shark, The Fall of Troy, Portugal. The Man, Chiodos, Coheed & Cambria, Circa Survive, and others. They are a label that supports the Hardcore genre of music. During my internship at Equal Vision I would have learned to record, mix, and master songs. I would have also met The Fall of Troy, Portugal. The Man, Converge, and Coheed & Cambria. Within the process I would have become good friends with all of the members of these bands and partied like crazy with them in Albany. During that time I would record a song for the Fall of Troy and get a drum lesson from Andrew Forsman. That would be the life. At the end of it all I would bring all of the above mentioned bands back to Metropolitan and have the most amazing concert ever. I would be the sound guy for half of the show and for the other half would be on stage with the bands and at one point play bass and/or drums with The Fall of Troy.

Post #1

My WLE mentor is Brian the technical coordinator at Metropolitan Arts & Technology High School(my school). The school is located at 400 Mansell Street. My WLE consists of making a documentary on the WLE experience. I will be traveling around to different WLEs and interviewing the students partaking in their WLE, their mentors, and any other person who has an opinion on the subject.

I got my WLE rather by chance. I had been looking for a WLE in Sound Design/Recording/Studios. I wanted to learn how to master my own tracks and hopefully record my own material using the skills I learned, but every place I contacted either didn't respond or wanted nothing to do with me. Most of them were looking for high school graduates who were working on degrees within the sound industry. I thought this was understandable, but I didn't give up...until the week before the WLE was supposed to start. I was tlaking about my predicament with my friends and actually lucked out. Angelica was looking fro someone to document her experience within her WLE. This gave me the idea to do the documentary and I'd be helping a friend out. Sweet.