To the Editor:
Three years ago, I moved to Newcastle with my daughter Bella and partner, Rich Simon. We spent the first two years here with our noses to the grindstone, renovating a beautiful 1850 farmhouse, which we bought from the Foster family.
I really feel as though I got to know the history of this house, by working on all its surfaces and structure with my bare hands. Finally, we are settling in, singing in the Common Threads community chorus and making lots of friends.
Last November, the Newcastle Board of Selectmen appointed me to the Lincoln County Television (LCTV) Board of Directors. I had seen LCTV volunteers refurbishing the facility on Sheepscot Road, as I drove past it every time I went to work on our house renovation. Considering that I make and teach video as an art form at the University of Maine, I was pleased to be invited to serve our new community in this way and thought that I had a lot to give.
While living in Yarmouth, I had served on the board of Yarmouth Arts and, for that reason, knew board service could be a lot of volunteer hours, which hopefully would be rewarding ones. Since I also have a child entering Lincoln Academy, I thought my first mission would be to somehow build a bridge between LCTV and Lincoln Academy.
As a professor of digital media, one mandate is to teach our youth to be aware of, and to form their content. When they are making a video, how do their editing or camera angling contribute to what it means? I also point out to my students how the media forms our culture, since images and sound are extremely powerful and persuasive as media.
This is precisely why our Federal government wanted to make sure the public has access to a local facility, as well as the commercial media giants. Public Access TV stations were and are being formed as a way to insure free speech on a local level.
One of the things I really like about LCTV, as a cable access broadcaster, is its “teach a man to fish” mentality. LCTV offers Saturday morning classes in field recording, video editing and live studio production, all free and taught by volunteers. Residents and eligible organizations within LCTV’s area can register and take a class for certification, then check out a camera, tape and edit (or not) an event, after which LCTV will broadcast the piece on Channel 7.
Since I know all about recording and editing video, I took the Saturday classes in live studio production with volunteer instructor, Jack Swanton. This class really inspired me, because it is in between two of my passions, theater and video. The classes helped me get a handle on the studio and understand what LCTV has to offer. As the classes ended, we decided to make a live studio show, which meant 12 people had to commit to jobs such as camera operator, sound board operator, technical director, speakers, script writer, lighting, etc.
We also needed a topic. As it happened, the Midcoast Green Collaborative was about to host the Sustainable Living Expo and, to my delight, the Collaborative heartily agreed to do the show. We made “Panel 1: The Midcoast Green Collaborative,” with five panel members and local solar guru Ray Montana as host. The show went on the air a month before the Expo, to hopefully bring lots of people in for the scheduled weekend of events.
This show is also available, thanks to our station manager Mary Ellen Crowley, to all public access stations across the country. The production crew had so much fun that we even had a screening party at my house, where many ideas for future shows were tossed about by all. People from Alna, Wiscasset, Sheepscot, Newcastle, Damariscotta and Waldoboro were involved in this production. Between us, we clocked over 400 volunteer hours. None of us knew each other before this production and now we are great friends. This is the sort of community that LCTV is facilitating, countywide.
I also volunteer to tape many local events that interest me such as the chorus concerts at Great Salt Bay, Lincoln Academy, and lectures from the Sustainable Living Expo. One of the teachers at Great Salt Bay couldn’t make the chorus concert in November but caught it on LCTV. She had tears in her eyes when she told Bella how much she enjoyed her performance.
On June 14, Newcastle residents will decide whether or not they will support LCTV financially. If you believe, as I do, that a local public access television station and its community services are valuable, and an extension of our freedom of speech, please come to our town meeting on June 14 and support funding LCTV. Then, register for a class in field recording and tape an event that interests you or is important to you, and LCTV will get it on the air.
For more information about LCTV classes, visit www.lctv.org or call 563-6338.
Susan Bickford
Newcastle
