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The SFCTC Grant Agreement with the City and Country of San Francisco mandates SFCTC to offer low-cost training on how to use the Access SF facilities. It also requires SFCTC to offer more advanced training so people can hone their skills.
When I first came to Access SF, I took all of the available training workshops so I could volunteer on productions. It didn't surprise me that I knew more about audio than the Access SF staff members teaching the workshops. The workshops were aimed at a lower skill-level to provide people with rudimentary skills needed to begin volunteering on other shows.
I had learned to produce television years ago in school, but hadn't used those skills since then. I already had years of experience with audio after producing and directing a public radio program. This radio show was a weekly live two-hour variety show with musicians, authors, comedy sketches, and commentary, with a live audience in a theater setting. I learned quite a bit about audio after doing that show for years.
I was always willing to share my audio expertise, and I would tell staff members that I'd like to teach an audio workshop. After joining the staff, I expected to be able teach audio as part of the existing workshops. Unfortunately, Sade Huron was responsible for assigning staff to the workshops. As a result of my using the Avid Workstation and myChristmas Wish List from 2004, Sade refused to assign me to any training workshops. People were "graduating" from these workshops without learning basic audio skills, and although I had the most extensive audio background than anyone on staff, I was not allowed to participate in any training, other than one-on-one mentoring during a production.
So many shows produced at Access SF are ruined due to poor audio. Few people at Access SF, including most staff, know how to use the audio boards or know anything about microphones. People confuse being able to hear audio through the studio monitors, with having listenable audio recorded on tape. The emphasis seems to be on video quality, yet the audience is more tolerant of poor video quality than they are of poor audio quality.
In early-2005 I found out about the master's workshops. These workshops were intended to develop skills beyond the basics. Tina Gordon had taught a pre-production workshop, but after a couple workshops, registration dropped to nothing.
I went to Zane and got authorization to create an advanced audio workshop. Zane told me I could create a workshop if I did so in my spare time. I prepared a workshop outline and workshop materials, and got authorization from Zane to hold me first workshop. After I scheduled it, Sade go angry and insisted that she is the workshop coordinator and only she is authorized to schedule workshops. I told her that Zane authorized this workshop and her argument was with him, not with me. The first workshop on June 03, 2005 was full, and I believe people learned a bit from it since I got positive feedback from the participants.
I asked Sade to schedule a 2nd workshop date, but she refused. With Zane's authorization, I scheduled the workshop a second time on August 31, 2005. Again the class was full, and everyone seemed happy to be there. Zane told me it would be scheduled once a quarter from now on.
When the training schedule came out for the 4th quarter 2005, the advanced audio workshop wasn't scheduled. I brought this up at a staff meeting and Zane directed Sade to schedule it. She never did. When I asked her about it, she said there was no room in the schedule. That made no sense to me, since the schedule included two "proposed" workshops that were never developed, as well as a monthly pre-production workshop, that was still being scheduled monthly even though nobody was registering for it. My successful advanced audio workshop was not scheduled, in lieu of non-existent proposed workshops and empty pre-production workshops.
I also developed a basic audio refresher workshop, which was meant to teach those rudimentary skills that people seemed to forget (if they ever learned them at all) from the production workshops. Zane approved that workshop, and told me that it would be scheduled once a quarter, along with the advanced audio workshop.
When the 2006 training schedule was announced, neither of my audio workshops were scheduled. The pre-production workshop was again scheduled monthly, even though registration was non-existent for months. I asked Zane about it, and he told me that that Sade was told to schedule them, but later he sent me a note claiming that Sade was waiting for me to schedule them myself and let her know. This is the same Sade that demanded that she and only she could schedule workshops, who is now claiming that I had to schedule my workshops myself.
I never got to schedule any audio workshops for 2006, since I was terminated from Access SF.
After I completed documenting the main studio light grid, asked Zane for permission to prepare master workshop on studio lighting with Bud Dillon. Bud is clearly the most skilled staff person when it comes to artistic lighting. My skills were in the planning and documentation perspective. I though we could work together on this workshop. Zane would not authorize this workshop.
Zane had months earlier assigned Bud to prepare a directing workshop. Bud never did any work on this, so I offered to prepare it. I had directed a live public radio show for years. I also directed a quite a few shows at Access SF. Zane would not authorize me to work on this workshop.
Bud had asked to prepare a workshop for the Access SF Mobile Access Studio. I had also asked to work on this workshop, since I thought it was important to expose producers and volunteers to this new equipment. Zane would not authorize us to work on this workshop.
John Sanchez has made a proposal to schedule workshops in a manner that would not conflict with show productions. Sade's workshop schedules excluded productions from the main studio 5 days each month, edit suites 4 days each month, and the field equipment 4 days a month. John was forced out of Access SF after submitting his proposal.
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