News
Girls Speak Out!
For two weeks 12 middle school girls explored media literacy, career opportunities, media technology, critical thinking, and public speaking skills, as part of Wide Angle’s 2008 Girls Speak Out! Summer Workshop. In addition to making a short silent film about the day in the life of a girl in Baltimore, these young ladies took field trips, and met women in the media field.
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“For the past two weeks in the Girls Speak Out! Program I have learned how to create a film and edit a video. I learned new vocabulary and the different parts of a video camera. Here in this program I have met new friends and media artists such as editors, a news anchor, and commercial producers who came to visit us. I loved the trip we went on to Renegade Studios. – GSOP participant, Summer 2008
Now in our second year, the Girls Speak Out!
program was flooded with visits from artists, producers, directors, news
anchors, and actors. Women in the field of media from Baltimore, Washington,
DC and Virginia volunteered their time and skills to share their professional experiences
with our students. In addition to guest artists and speakers, the girls also went
on field trips.
They visited Renegade Studios in Hunt Valley, and the girls were able to watch a Comcast commercial shoot. Producers, production managers, and creative designers taught the girls how to pitch and create a commercial for the Girls Speak Out! Summer Workshop and then were able to pitch it to Renegade Studio staff including Maggie Ross, Kate Reckner, and Kate Karbowniczek.
For our final event, the
young ladies traveled to the Baltimore Museum of Industry, where they
experienced what it is like to be on the set of The Wire. They toured the exhibit Local Scenes on the Silver Screen: “Featuring the
Wire” which
presents original artifacts, objects, and behind-the-scenes photographs from
HBO’s The Wire and other television and movie productions filmed in Baltimore. Laura Schweigman, assistant to David
Simon, from the Wire, provided the girls with a guided tour and allowed the
girls to act out production roles on the mock studio set.
Afterwards
in the Museum of Industry’s Theater their video “A Day in the Life of a Girl in Baltimore”
premiered for an audience of family and friends. Their video addresses issues
that girls confront every day, combats social norms, and challenges society’s
view of gender conditioning. Afterwards everyone walked over to Little Havana for a celebration over Cuban food! Wide Angle would like to thank each and every young lady for bringing so much enthusiasm and
charisma to this years’ program and we are very exited
that more than half of the class wants to continue in other Wide Angle programs this Fall.
I have enjoyed myself and had the opportunity to participate in the video of a Day in the Life of a Girl in Baltimore. My experience in the Girls Speak Out! Program will be remembered because it will help me in all the days to come. -GSOP participant, Summer 2008
The 2008 Girls Speak Out!
Summer Workshop is funded by:
The Baltimore Direct Services of the Annie E.
Casey Foundation
The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation
The
Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle
and Wide Angle Donors
Thanks
to all of our wonderful guest artists:
Beth Barbush, Art on Purpose
Sherri
Johnson, General Assignment Reporter/Anchor, WMAR-TV ABC 2 News
Dean
Radcliffe Lynes, President/Producer of D.R. Lynes, Inc.
Gay Pinder, Writer and Producer
Kate Karbowniczek, Maggie Ross, Kate
Reckner from Renegade Studios
Laura Schweigman, Blown Deadline Productions
Lorraine Blackwell, Writer/Final Cut Pro Editor, Howard University
And
special thanks to:
The Baltimore Museum of Industry, The Enoch Pratt
Free Library, Blowndeadline Productions, HBO: The Wire, Little Havana, Maryland
Film Office, Women in Film and Video of Maryland, Women in Film and Video of
Washington, DC.

