The semester is just about over. Our last day is this Friday, and then we'll re-open on January 2, 2008. 
Please be sure to thank the lab consultants who have been voluntarily staying past closing time at 9pm so that everyone can work on their assignments. 
Friday at noon, we will hold a Technically Speaking session in the Weigle Information Commons in the Van Pelt Dietrich Library Center on the new iChat videoconferencing software for Macs.
We're swamped!! (get it?? Creature from the black lagoon? Swamped?? I slay me.) When we opened the lab this morning at 10am, there were people who had already been waiting an hour to get in. 
The art is "nude-themed" (ok, there's not THAT much "nude" art, but there are a few pieces, and all of the art is worth making the trip over to Meyerson to see). In addition to art by Penn faculty and MFA students, they will also be featuring works by: Terry Adkins, Gabriel Martinez, Sarah McEneaney, Joshua Mosley, John Moore, Eileen Neff, Demetrius Oliver, Robert Pruitt, Zoe Strauss, Jane Irish, and more.
The Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival has extended their deadline to November 30. Not much time, if you haven't already started, but maybe you've already created a video that's appropriate for submission.
The Insomnia Film Festival is back—and while the world sleeps, you could be making film history.
Calling all high school and college filmmakers.
On Saturday, October 13 at 9:00 a.m. (Eastern time), Apple will post a top-secret list of elements — special props, dialogue, settings — you get the idea. Choose any three to include in your movie. Then all you and your team have to do is write, cast, shoot, edit, score, and upload your 3-minute masterpiece within 24 hours. No problem, right?
Once the films are in, your friends, family, and adoring fans will be able to watch them online and rate their favorites. The 25 entries with the highest rating on November 9 at 12:00 a.m. EST will be screened by industry professionals, including Barry Sonnenfeld, James Mangold, and Nora Ephron.
If your film is the biggest hit with either the public or the pros, each member of your team will receive a MacBook Pro, Final Cut Studio 2, Logic Studio, and Shake so you can get started on that first sequel. How’s that for a Hollywood ending?
You must register in advance, so if you even THINK you MIGHT be interested, please register ASAP at http://www.apple.com/education/insomnia/
Scrrraaaaattttcchhhhhhh! That's the sound of car keys on the scanner. If you're scanning anything other than books, magazines, or other paper products, please be extra careful with the scanner. Ask the lab consultant on duty for a piece of clear acetate (ok, technically it's "Dura-lar, the acetate alternative") to put down under the items you're scanning--like car keys, candy, paper clips, your hands and face, pens and pencils, iPods, scissors, staplers, and so forth--so we can keep the scanner glass clean and scratch-free.
Wharton Reprographics will do scanning for you
Basement of Steinberg Dietrich
3620 Locust Walk
Suite 400
215-898-1251
$7.00 per ¼ hr. labor fee
We've added a new webpage that lists all scheduled lab closings, such as when we offer open workshops to the general Penn public, or we close when a class needs to use the lab. We're hoping this helps people avoid coming to the lab only to be disappointed when they find it's closed for a class. Since we add workshops in an ongoing way during the semester, the page is somewhat dynamic and may not always be totally completely 100% up-to-date, but I promise we'll do our best. You can find the page here:
Given the popular nature of downloading free music and movies, we just wanted to pass along the following security alert from the University's Information Security Officer regarding the Storm Worm virus: 
Trying to create a poster to explain your research project to others? Wondering how to make a powerful visual statement? We will explore designing your poster in Power Point. We will look at page size options, font and color choices, Word Art, Autoshapes and drawing tools. Bring your poster information with you as well as your personal laptop if appropriate. We will share tips and tricks for poster formatting, show examples and discuss preparing a PDF for printing here in the Vitale Digital Media Lab or similar facility. This is a hands-on workshop. It will be held in the Class of 1968 Seminar Room (room 124) in the Information Commons.
Our very own Keith McKnight created the cover for this week's 34th Street insert in the Daily Pennsylvanian. Keith made it in Photoshop, right here in the Digital Media Lab. Congrats, Keith!
[Update: The black and white printer is back up and running in the lab, thanks to the good folks in the Library's IT department.]
The first set of iMovie workshops were so successful that we've decided to hold a few more, hoping to meet the demand.
We're going to be holding a few introductory workshops on creating and editing your own movies, right here in the lab. You'll be learning to capture video from a DVD, VHS tape, or from your own video camera. You will learn to organize or delete video clips, add a new soundtrack, add subtitles, and create special effects. You will also learn how to create a professional-looking DVD with menus that will play in your home DVD player so that you can share your masterpiece with others.
As you know, the lab is open to all Penn students, faculty, and staff. We even get student groups who come in to work on their websites or posters or programs or videos. Well, I'm sure you're as excited as we are that venerable comedy troupe Mask and Wig has used the software and the poster printer here in the Vitale Digital Media Lab to create signs that are actually being used in their Spring show, "Troy Story: You Odyssey It To Believe It!" (I'm told that's some sort of humorous pun) So be sure to check out their show. You can buy tickets on the walk, or at the Mask and Wig website.
Welcome to Jesse Harding, our newest lab consultant. Jesse is a Visual Studies major from Oregon and a DJ on WQHS, and we're glad to have him with us here in the lab!
The lab is closed on Wednesday, Jan 31 from 4:30pm - 6:00pm for a class, and again on Thursday, Feb 1, from 3:00pm -4:30pm. Please try to plan around these reservations, and be sure to give yourself plenty of time to save your work so that the classes can start on time. Thanks!
Just a few reservations you should know about if you're working in the lab today (thursday). All 3 flatbed scanners are reserved from 2:30pm-4pm for a class. You're welcome to continue working on your projects, but please be aware that the scanners won't be available. | Alex Meyer is an Economics major from the Philadelphia area. |
| Keith McKnight is a junior Digital Media Design major, also from Philadelphia. |  |
Since we opened last April, some of the computers in here have gotten a little...quirky, and not all of them work as well as they should. This sort of thing just happens over time, and there's not much we can do to prevent it. So now we're in the process of reimaging all of the Macs in the lab. This basically means we're erasing everything on them and replacing it with a fresh copy of all of the software, which should make things run much more smoothly again.
This is my final project from Portrait Photography (FNAR 274) taught by Brent Wahl.
For this piece, I asked each of my subjects to choose an action to perform, and then I photographed them in the act. My intention was togive them a shot at wrestling control away from me and "taking over" the images. But I didn't feel like playing fair, so I made them do it blindfolded.
All of these pictures were edited and printed in the Digital Media Lab. The black and white images were shot on film and then converted to digital files using the film scanner. The color images were shot digitally and then imported onto one of the computers. I edited all of the images in Adobe Photoshop, then printed them using the poster printer. The resources at the lab were incredibly helpful, and I was able to get all of this work done in one day.
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Announcing... the long awaited... the inspirational... the celebrational, the muppetational... (drum roll, please)
Get it? "Daze" instead of "days"? Isn't that cute? Because all the students are still in a "daze" after returning from vacation? Huh? Huh? Anyway...
By now you've heard the exciting news that Adobe has released a beta version of Photoshop CS3. There are some great new features in the software (non-destructive filters, a complete revamp of the magic wand/selection tool, auto-align and blend of layers, Vanishing Point with multiple adjustable angle perspective planes, and more). It also marks a new (and significantly improved, IMHO) beta version of Adobe Camera Raw, and of Adobe Bridge. Not surprisingly, we've received a few questions about when we'll be upgrading the software in the lab to this version.
Despite some protest (and reluctance), we're retiring the robot we've been using on our "hours" sign on the door of the lab. We'll be replacing him soon with another creation from our robot-artist-in-residence, Jesse, perhaps with more of a Spring theme (since it's Spring Semester, even though it's still cold and rainy and yucky out). Stay tuned and keep checking the door of the lab for updates.
Happy New Year. 2007 marks the beginning of the 2nd full semester of the Vitale Digital Media Lab. We're working over winter break to update the software in the lab and to spruce things up a bit for when you all return. You'll also be seeing a new face or two working in the lab, so stop in and say hello.
