Copyright and Fair Use Overview

At our most recent iMovie workshop, we briefly discussed various copyright-related issues as they apply to using video clips. Alex mentioned a website at Stanford that gives a good overview of copyright and fair use, and I promised to post it here to the blog. So here it is:

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/index.html

Student Open House

[Update: Thanks to everyone who attended. We got a lot of feedback and some good suggestions. ]

The Information Commons is holding an Open House on Monday, February 26, 2007, from Noon to 1:30 pm. We'll be serving light refreshments (see how I put that in boldface? I know from experience that free food is a big draw for Penn students). Basically we're looking for any students (grad or undergrad) with an opinion about the Info Commons. We want to know what you think we're doing right and what you think we're doing wrong. The event will be held in the Seminar Room, rm 124 in the Info Commons, right next to the elevators. So please drop in for a few minutes, and bring a few friends with you!

UNFIT WASHRAG MAN

That's an anagram for "Fun with Anagrams." I came in this morning and discovered that some unnamed person had written the names of several lab consultants on the white board and rearranged them to form more...interesting words.

As you can see, in at least some of these cases, the anagrams appear to form an accurate description of the lab consultant:

Alexander J. Meyer ==> Relaxed Jar Enemy
Nick Salvatore ==> Venal Art Sicko
Jesse A. Harding ==> Jihads Enrages
Robert Keith McKnight ==>Herb Trick Ghetto Mink

Here's a photo (click for full-size):

Introduction to iMovie Workshops!

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.

This is also a great opportunity for anyone interested in the Mashup contest, but who hasn't had the video-editing skills they needed.

The class lasts 2 hours, and will be held the following times:

Tuesday, Feb 13, 10am to 12noon
Tuesday, Feb 20, 1 pm to 3 pm
Wednesday, Feb 21, 6 pm to 8 pm
Wednesday, Feb 28, 4 pm to 6 pm

Be sure to sign-up online to reserve yourself a spot.

Mask and Wig + Digital Media Lab

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.

VR Tour of the Lab

We've assembled this QuickTime VR movie of the lab. To view it, just click and drag in the middle of the image below:



You'll also notice a few hotspots in the movie. For example, if you put your mouse on the door to the lab, you'll see a description right under the movie that says, "Lab entrance." Point to other things to see what equipment we have available in the lab. (We didn't bother labelling the computers themselves, since we thought they were fairly self-explanatory). You can also zoom in and out using the + and - buttons below the movie.

Thanks to the Steve Fabiani at Penn Classroom Technology for lending us their tripod!

New Lab Consultant

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!