Monday, June 09, 2003
High schoolers swimming through the iLife
Patrick Insko wrote in to share an inspiring story of how iLife was used by the swim team at his local high school. I wanted to pass it along to readers. It's been my theory that iLife, when used meaningfully, can greatly assist in the proliferation of Macs in schools, and Patrick helped prove it:
Mr. Palmer,
I just read your article, "Fifth Graders Living the iLife, Part 3: which way is the middle school?" I thought I'd share a story of my iLife experience.
My friend Brian is the head girls' swim coach at a large high school in my area. He asked me one day if he could borrow my digital camcorder to film his female athletes as they approached the end of their season. I was somewhat reluctant, knowing that my precious camcorder would be so close to a pool without my supervision, but I nonetheless agreed. I should also mention that I burned out of school when I was in fourth grade, so I typically have a very cynical attitude toward anything related to academics, scholastics, or extracurricular activities associated therewith. Simply put, this was not a project that interested me; this was not a project in which I wanted any involvement at all. So I surrendered the camera, glad to absolve myself of any participation.
A couple of weeks went by, and I wanted my camera back, pure and simple. Brian told me to wait. In just a few more days he would have what he was looking for on "film." OK, fine. But I hadn't anticipated what was to come: as I was the only one with a FireWire-equipped G4, iMovie, and an iTunes library of over 5,000 songs, it was my duty to assemble the footage into a fully-produced movie for a surprise presentation to the girls at their awards banquet.
I dreaded the prospect of pouring through hours of footage at first. But once we started importing the clips, and adding transitions, music, sound effects, and titles, I was thrilled to finally be making use of all of this incredible equipment I own. As it turns out, Brian had given the camera to various swim team members at various times throughout the couple of weeks, each choosing what they wanted to film. There were clips of bus rides to competitions; intense training heats; exhausted, post-tournament laziness on gym mats; competition close-ups; giggly, teenaged-girl skits; personal dedications and soliloquies; the obligatory teasing and jabs at Coach Brian; and lastly, the triumphant footage of victorious competitors and trophy presentations.
Once we assembled the footage with all of the titles and transitions, it was time to add the music. We chose an upbeat selection - songs like "Gettin' Jiggy With It" by Will Smith (for the warm-up sessions), "Jungle Boogie" by Kool and the Gang (for the competition shots), "March On" by Robert Cray (for the anxiety of waiting for the final scores), etc. During the skits and made-up cheers, we let the audio speak for itself.
In the end, we wound up with a fifteen minute video, which to the naked, untrained eye appeared to be professionally produced. And unlike your recent iLife project, we unabashedly promoted the Macintosh with pride. We ended the video by fading away from the girl with the first place trophy by slowly scrolling the following:
"Hononegah High School Girls Swim Team
2002 Championship Season
Great Season, Girls!
Filmed by the Hononegah High School Girls Swim Team
Produced and Edited by Coach Brian McGuire and Patrick Insko
Powered by Macintosh"
The presentation of this video at the awards ceremony was viewed by many, many faculty members. After the presentation, the high school purchased its own digital camcorders and a G4 iMac to produce movies for all of the athletic departments. I believe that not only did we start a trend, we re-introduced a Windows-centric high school to the indisputable superiority of the Macintosh computing platform. From what I understand, there are now more Macintoshes at Hononegah than ever, even exceeding the number of Macs that existed prior to the school's "switch" (wink, wink) away from the Mac several years back. Ah, iLife has never been better to be a Macintosh user.
Sincerely,
Patrick Insko
When I read this story, it made my day. I know that iLife stories like this one must be taking place all across the nation, and around the world. If you've got an inspiring iLife story and you'd like to see it published here, go ahead and send it in. The more people who share their experiences, the easier it is on the next person who decides to jump in and try to make a difference in the lives of children.
Patrick Insko wrote in to share an inspiring story of how iLife was used by the swim team at his local high school. I wanted to pass it along to readers. It's been my theory that iLife, when used meaningfully, can greatly assist in the proliferation of Macs in schools, and Patrick helped prove it:
Mr. Palmer,
I just read your article, "Fifth Graders Living the iLife, Part 3: which way is the middle school?" I thought I'd share a story of my iLife experience.
My friend Brian is the head girls' swim coach at a large high school in my area. He asked me one day if he could borrow my digital camcorder to film his female athletes as they approached the end of their season. I was somewhat reluctant, knowing that my precious camcorder would be so close to a pool without my supervision, but I nonetheless agreed. I should also mention that I burned out of school when I was in fourth grade, so I typically have a very cynical attitude toward anything related to academics, scholastics, or extracurricular activities associated therewith. Simply put, this was not a project that interested me; this was not a project in which I wanted any involvement at all. So I surrendered the camera, glad to absolve myself of any participation.
A couple of weeks went by, and I wanted my camera back, pure and simple. Brian told me to wait. In just a few more days he would have what he was looking for on "film." OK, fine. But I hadn't anticipated what was to come: as I was the only one with a FireWire-equipped G4, iMovie, and an iTunes library of over 5,000 songs, it was my duty to assemble the footage into a fully-produced movie for a surprise presentation to the girls at their awards banquet.
I dreaded the prospect of pouring through hours of footage at first. But once we started importing the clips, and adding transitions, music, sound effects, and titles, I was thrilled to finally be making use of all of this incredible equipment I own. As it turns out, Brian had given the camera to various swim team members at various times throughout the couple of weeks, each choosing what they wanted to film. There were clips of bus rides to competitions; intense training heats; exhausted, post-tournament laziness on gym mats; competition close-ups; giggly, teenaged-girl skits; personal dedications and soliloquies; the obligatory teasing and jabs at Coach Brian; and lastly, the triumphant footage of victorious competitors and trophy presentations.
Once we assembled the footage with all of the titles and transitions, it was time to add the music. We chose an upbeat selection - songs like "Gettin' Jiggy With It" by Will Smith (for the warm-up sessions), "Jungle Boogie" by Kool and the Gang (for the competition shots), "March On" by Robert Cray (for the anxiety of waiting for the final scores), etc. During the skits and made-up cheers, we let the audio speak for itself.
In the end, we wound up with a fifteen minute video, which to the naked, untrained eye appeared to be professionally produced. And unlike your recent iLife project, we unabashedly promoted the Macintosh with pride. We ended the video by fading away from the girl with the first place trophy by slowly scrolling the following:
"Hononegah High School Girls Swim Team
2002 Championship Season
Great Season, Girls!
Filmed by the Hononegah High School Girls Swim Team
Produced and Edited by Coach Brian McGuire and Patrick Insko
Powered by Macintosh"
The presentation of this video at the awards ceremony was viewed by many, many faculty members. After the presentation, the high school purchased its own digital camcorders and a G4 iMac to produce movies for all of the athletic departments. I believe that not only did we start a trend, we re-introduced a Windows-centric high school to the indisputable superiority of the Macintosh computing platform. From what I understand, there are now more Macintoshes at Hononegah than ever, even exceeding the number of Macs that existed prior to the school's "switch" (wink, wink) away from the Mac several years back. Ah, iLife has never been better to be a Macintosh user.
Sincerely,
Patrick Insko
When I read this story, it made my day. I know that iLife stories like this one must be taking place all across the nation, and around the world. If you've got an inspiring iLife story and you'd like to see it published here, go ahead and send it in. The more people who share their experiences, the easier it is on the next person who decides to jump in and try to make a difference in the lives of children.
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