VTC News

eMerge News Seeking Crew for Fall

2007-09-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

eMerge News, Tincan's after school youth journalism program, is set to start meeting again October 1st. This will be a general meeting for all interested teens. There will be grilled cheese sandwiches and lots of info about what will be going on this year.

What's going on in eMerge this year includes some exciting new changes. We are switching from just creating news packages to doing bi-weekly newscasts, covering a wider spectrum of stories. The newscasts will be videotaped and distributed online via the emerge website, myspace, youtube, and itunes. They will also be available as a video and audio download for portable devices. Our focus this year is on developing teens ability to watch and analyze their community for stories that are newsworthy, and then communicate them in a simple fashion that is widely available. News crew members will be required to attend city council and other community meetings, read and watch local news as well as independent national newscasts that provide an alternative to the nightly network news.

In addition to participating in putting the newscast together participants will also have the opportunity to complete training courses in journalism, video production, and web publishing. We are also organizing trips to journalism and film departments at local colleges and universities, festivals and conferences.

As always we are looking for adult volunteers and participants. If you are interested or have any questions call Hannah Whitmore at 744-0972, or email at hannah@tincan.org.

2007-06-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

By Anya.

To all of our utmost dismay, eMerge News is over. But because of popular demand, it will return next year and continue to rock the streets of Spokane. But the even better news is that YOU could be the next star eMerger. Yes, you. We all know how you've been dying to actually make news. Because honestly, how cool is that? The only lame part is that YOU aren't joining us in the fun. It makes us sad that we're having all of the fun and we can't share it. But we're totally willing to. So please, do us all a favor and join eMerge next year. You would make the world a better place.

Circle Documentary wins regional award!

2007-05-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

Teens participating in Tincan’s video production program won the Regional 2007 National Student Television Award for documentary for their film “The Circle Documentary.” The documentary explores teen parenting through interviews with Spokane teens who are parents, and looks at public attitudes toward teen parents. Teens who produced the documentary include Ian Petrofski, Sophia Lawhead, Nora Taylor, Anya Klyukanova, Jessica Hammil, Amanda Edwards, Zac Kelty, and Stephanie Cooper. Nora Taylor said about the project “I learned a lot about film and teen parenting and met a lot of cool people. It changed my perspective and inspired me to pursue film.” The award will be presented at the Northwest Regional Emmy Awards ceremony held in Seattle on June 2. Tincan Media Integration Coordinator Hannah Whitmore will attend the ceremony with four of the teens. Tincan’s video production program also won an honorable mention in the news category for their video segment “Scene Kids”. There will be a showing of the videos and a chance to talk to the teens who produced the video on Tuesday June 12 at 4 p.m. at 827 West First Ave, Suite 110.

Claymation Mania!

2007-04-09T10:21:00.001-07:00

Our Claymation camp for middle school age youth took place over spring break at East Central Community Center. Participants wrote, shot and edited six short claymation videos. Besides learning the fundamentals of clay animation they were encouraged to think about what messages are being sent by the media they watch and create and to make videos with a positive message. Be sure to check out their videos online at www.virtualteencenter.org!

What camp are you in?

2007-02-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

Tincan has a bunch of fun and community oriented youth camps coming up this year. For middle schoolers this spring break is the Claymation Mania week long camp at East Central Community Center. Prepare to get your hands dirty and let your imagination loose as we learn filmmaking through the art of claymation. For more information, to sign up, and for a list of the other exciting summer camps go to http://www.tincan.org/camps.htm!

New Community History Project

2007-01-22T08:10:00.000-08:00

The Virtual Teen Center and Odyssey Youth Center have partnered on a new community history project, Today and Yesterday: A Century of LGBT Faces in the Inland Northwest. The project, also known as QHP (Queer History Project) for short, is collecting and archiving this portion of local history with the help of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.

Students interested in volunteering can receive training in gathering oral histories and digital archiving through an internship with Tincan.

We are also looking for elders willing to be interviewed about their experiences here in the Inland Northwest, specifically pictures and stories of LGBT people from the early half of the 20th century in and around Spokane, including any rural members of the community.

To find out more go to www.virtualteencenter.org/qhp

New Program for Girls Starts in February!

2007-01-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

Tincan has recieved a grant from the Inland Northwest Community Foundation for a program that will teach girls business and web design skills. The students will then be partnered with local women business owners who will provide mentoring and real world work experience. The project, Growing Women Entrepreneurs and Growing Neighborhood Economies, merges Tincan's popular e-commerce training program and the resources of the Women's Business Center.

The program will be run in two Spokane neighborhoods after school starting in February. Girls 13-18 or local business owners interested in participating should contact Tara Neumann at tara@tincan.org or call 744-0972.

If you are interested in volunteering with this program email Hannah Whitmore at hannah@tincan.org.

eMerge News keeps on rolling cameras

2007-01-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

eMerge News, Tincan's high school tv journalism program in partnership with KXLY, is continueing at three locations this semester. Informational and sign up days are being held at the following times.
Rogers High School - Room A124 - Monday, Jan 8th, 3-5 pm.
Downtown at the Courtyard Office Complex (827 W First Ave) - Room 110 - Tuesday, Jan 9th, 3-5 pm.

Regular meetings will start the same week:
Monday and Wednesday at Rogers, room A124, 3-5 pm
Tuesday and Thursday Downtown, room 110, 3-5 pm
Tuesday and Thursday at Crosswalk, 10am-12pm

In November and December students learned basic news gathing skills and video production. We watched local newscasts, toured the KXLY station, read local papers and discussed local issues. Then using their new skills they produced a variety of news packages. To view, click here.

To read and see more check out the eMerge Myspace, www.myspace.com/emergenews.

Creativity at Crosswalk

2006-12-13T12:34:00.000-08:00

IMG_3005.JPG
Originally uploaded by noisytincan.

Katrina, a student at Crosswalk uploads the day's newscast to the eMerge MySpace while her daughter, Madi, takes a nap.

Students at Crosswalk, often struggling against great odds and balancing school, providing for themselves and others, and teen life, exemplify the creativity and determination needed to succeed in life. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings a group gathers to do the news. They disect local papers and rewrite the stories they think are of most importance to other teens. They also write original news stories and find ways to incorporate their other studies into the newscast.

To see their work go to www.myspace.com/emergenews.

Circle Project Brings a Crowd

2006-11-13T12:52:00.000-08:00

A showing of the Circle Project Documentary at the Shop, Friday November 10th drew a crowd of over 50. The project which interviewed local teens about teen pregnancy, culminated in a 15 minute documentary video sharing the perspectives of these teens.

IMG_3035.JPG
Originally uploaded by noisytincan.

eMerge News starts again

2006-10-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

Tincan's eMerge News program kicked off again this month. Four teams are working on producing video news packages on subjects ranging from "scene kids" to the Roger's High School Construction. Look for their packages in the future on KXMN and our website.

Expanding Your Horizons 2006

2006-10-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Tincan was proud to participate in this year's Expanding Your Horizons conference put on in Spokane by Girl Scouts.
Click on the picture to see a slideshow from the Media Masters workshop.

Hi from DC!

2006-07-28T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hey Stompers, and Adam, and Freddy.... We miss you all! The conference has been cool so far. We saw presentations about other people's summer camps, and learned about things like net neutrality and black fiber (we'll bring back a special prize for whoever can explain what those are to Julia, so look it up!) After the conference sessions yesterday we walked around capitol hill. It was impressive, even though there was a lot of construction and security guards everywhere. We went to Union Station, the Supreme Court, and the Capitol building, where we decided to invent the "official" STOMP pose.

Filmmaking camp starts with a clatter

2006-06-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

IMG_1370.JPG
Originally uploaded by Hannahjoy.

The upstairs room of the East Central Community Center was filled today with the sounds of clattering chairs "attacking" an actor who desperately dove for cover under the tables.

Photo: Two students employ their variation on the zooming/trucking shot made famous by Alfred Hitchcock in Vertigo. They are shooting "Furniture Fury" a scary comedy about disturbingly alive household objects.

Students in TINCAN's filmmaking camp dove into various creative worlds this week, with ideas ranging from a historic theater mystery to a Mad Libs game that comes to life. The theme for this summer's camp was "Think Small, Act Big." With the increasing popularity of portable media content via ipods and cell phones in mind, teens were asked to create a movie for the small screen.

Today's digital filmmakers face a new landscape of distribution possibilities. Instead of needing viewers to come to a central location like a theater to see their films, today's storytellers can send their artwork out to individuals, reaching many more people than possible before. Where there is a way though, there are many people willing to try it, and so the new challenge becomes making a film that will stand out from the vast media clutter of the internet.

So far their solutions to this problem are to find topics that appeal to everyone, and show them in a "cool" way, create original stories, and tell a story with a lesson. Will they succeed? You be the judge. Watch their finished films online at the virtualteencenter.org this Friday!

Odyssey Lobby Day

2006-06-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to a shorter version of Odyssey's Lobby Day 06 video. It's a large file (56 megs) so it will take a long time to load if you click on it. To save it to your computer instead, right click on the link, and select "save target as" or "save link as" ...something like that. It should then open up a download box.

"Broadcasting from the heart of Spokane..."

2006-05-12T10:34:00.000-07:00

At the start of every Tuesday afternoon the digital photography room at Rogers High School is bustling with activity. Students hurry to write stories and
setup cameras and computers.

Three students prepare the weekly newscast.
What follows is often hard to keep a quiet through. The students participating in this after school project are making news, their way. Each week dedicated teens scour the web for the most interesting news stories, rewrite them, and videotape a newscast for web broadcast. What qualifies as "most interesting" makes for a lively discussion of the current news, which is exactly what the program is designed to encourage. The day's anchor rarely makes it through a story without cracking up, but thats ok, bloopers are included in the cast. This news team thinks that makes it more fun for teens to watch. After the newscast is completed the rest of the afternoon is spent working on individual video projects for their online tv channel. Topics include piercings in the workplace, the Rogers drum corp, and video game reviews. TINCAN's Virtual Teen Center has partnered with KXLY tv to provide opportunities in the near future for teens to learn from professionals and have their voices heard by a larger audience.

To see the Youth channel from Rogers go to the eMerge Channel. Powered by Broadcast Machine.

SUMMER PROGRAMS ARE HERE!

2006-05-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Get them while they last, they're going fast! The VTC has an exciting lineup of FREE programs for teens 13-18 this summer. Registration is required and space is limited. You can check them out and register online here. All our programs integrate technology while encouraging young people to express themselves and get involved in their community.

It's Alllliiivvve

2006-05-08T17:18:00.000-07:00

After being down for most of fall and spring... the blog is alive again!

The Virtual Teen Center has also had a makeover. Not only is it looking a lot snazzier, you'll find it easier to navigate and it is quickly being populated by the multimedia creations of teens from all over the valley. Check it out here: Virtualteencenter.org

2005-10-21T16:04:00.000-07:00

VTC at the Oct 19th Youth Issues Forum at City Hall

October 19th the Chase Youth Commission's Teen Advisory Council (TAC) held it's 5th annual Youth Issues forum for local City Council Candidates. Questions were provided by TAC and submitted by youth only during the forum. Below is a three-part podcast of most of the forum.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

The forum was also taped by CityCable5. Go here for information on viewing a copy.

Another Youth Forum for Spokane Valley Council Candidates will be held October 24th from 6-8:30 pm at the Valley Community Center Auditorium.

I was happy to hear the amount of interest expressed by all candidates in creating a safe location in downtown Spokane for youth to hang out at. One of Tincan's goals is a centralized teen center in Spokane which could permanently house programs and provide a safe and fun place for teens to be.

2005-10-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Digital Jam Sessions Start!

Tincan & Unified Groove Merchants have started Digital Jam Sessions Monday afternoons (3-5) at 2607 N. Monroe. The easy going atmosphere of Unified Groove Merchants music store makes for a great place for teens to hang out, be inspired and create music. The backroom comes complete with coffee bar, a dazzling selection of Thomas Kemper soda, foosball table, couches, tables, and wireless internet. And that's just everyday! Monday's you will find several laptops sporting the program Fruity Loops for digital composition, and a Tincan techy to help you learn it. If you're lacking the muse for that next great piece of music, you can walk all of 15 feet and browse through an amazing collection of vinyls and cds, or talk to any one of the tunes-driven employees who's love for music is contagious.

2005-10-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the VTC news blog!

The Virtual Teen Center is the online home for Spokane teens and teen programs by Tincan. Tincan is The Inland Northwest Community Access Network. Its teen programs bring together community members, professionals, and teens in a variety of projects that educate, activate, and empower.

This blog is designed to provide our latest news to community partners, educators, parents, teens and anyone else interensted in the work being done at the teen center. Check back often or subscribe for updates, information on upcoming programs, opportunities to help, and pictures and video. Also be sure to visit the Virtual Teen Center at www.virtualteencenter.org to see the exciting and creative work Spokane's teens are doing. See you soon!

Hannah Whitmore
Media Integration Coordinator
Tincan