___________

Over the past two years, I have tried to allay my carbon guilt by infusing my airline travels with more environmental purpose.

As an outdoorsman, I’ve found eco-tourism to be a great way to appreciate natural and cultural attractions while traveling by plane in the U.S. or overseas.  Climate activism is another respectable way to justify a long flight, right?  (At least this seemed to be the going logic at the international climate conference in Copenhagen.)  When I went to India in 2008, I attended the first Indian Youth Summit on Climate Change.  On my recent trip to Taiwan and Japan, I brought a video camera to document interesting ways that people in Taiwan and Japan are reducing their carbon footprints.

One might call it personal greenwashing, or to be less disparaging, green PR.  Either way, I recognize that my light-shade-of-green approach to air travel allows me to rationalize my growing carbon footprint.

Before I resign myself to the austerity of simply flying less, it’s worth considering the merits (and demerits) of carbon offsets.

Elisabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times offers a largely negative review of carbon offsets for airline travel, noting that “it has proved difficult to monitor or quantify the emissions-reducing potential of the thousands of green projects financed by customers’ payments, and there are no industrywide standards.”  Kate Ravilious of National Geographic writes that carbon offsets sometimes cause more problems than they solve.  At best, they are a luxury purchase and should only be a last resort after conservation options have been exhausted.

The Tufts University / Stockholm Environment Institute Voluntary Carbon Offset Information Portal is a leading authority on the credibility of carbon offsets.  The Portal’s bottom line is this:  If you have a choice, don’t travel.  If you need to travel (and must fly), then fly a direct route in economy class.  If you have no other choice, buy carbon offsets, but take into consideration the Tufts / Stockholm recommendations and company ratings.

I have purchased offsets in the past, and I plan to do so in the future.  Still, I wonder, are offsets more about “easy green” (doing the right thing, but the easier way) or “easy money” (selling a product whether it really provides the advertised environmental benefits)?  What do you think?

_____________________

Peter Fargo, MBA Candidate

The George Washington University

“If you know it, really know it, you can’t lose sight for too long. The Beauty will always come back to rescue you.” A longtime friend and writer Ilana Laps told me that recently.

There is so much beauty in the ability to tell a story visually. Using your words and the written art is an incredible gift when done well, like Ilana, but there is something to be said about visual storytelling. I have found in recent past that I am intrigued and obsessed with the desire to tell stories through still and moving frames. I want to capture emotion and show it to others. Whatever the story, there are always characters involved, and with those characters come the faces of various facets of our surrounding world. That being said, production-wise, there are just so many ways to tell a story. You are constantly re-thrown into this box (a world if you will) and you work with what is in front of you. Then you have the opportunity to dig just a bit deeper. “Hold on a bit steadier. Turn it this way. Hold for just a bit longer,” my brain tells me. It is incredible what the slightest difference in editing and shooting can do to your piece. It can change the whole landscape. That is something I have learned being around my group mates. These two incredibly talented individuals show me new ways to look at the world, often with a more critical and keen eye. To work in an environment where I can be with others who are so driven and passionate tells me there are great times ahead.

If I had to go back and change one thing it would be to immerse myself in more environmental knowledge and specificities. I have only scratched the surface…

It’s on to new projects now. New people to meet. New experiences. New topics and most of all – new stories. I will always remember the countless hours in the fifth floor lab as well as all the time I trekked the many pockets of life around DC with my two partners in crime, hunting for faces, shafts of light, rustling leaves and trees.

Tori, Haley, and Professor Pohl – It has really been a privilege working with you.

As I sit on my bed, freaking out because I just realized this blog is due in an hour, I fondly look back upon all of the great times I have had with Planet Forward this semester. 

I remember coming into class the first day and learning a great deal, including A) I was the youngest student enrolled in the course B) I had no idea how to edit using Final Cut Pro C) I knew next to nothing on environmental issues and D) It was very likely this would be the first college class I failed.

Our first assignment was to obtain a copy of the book, “ How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint” by Joanna Yarrow and read several chapters.  After discovering that GW’s bookstore did not carry this book and being the naïve sophomore that I am, I took this to be some sort of challenge, and figured that part of the assignment was to see if we would be able to track down the book within a day’s time.  I proceeded to spend the next six hours of my life on a treasure hunt, and after several failed attempts, I was finally able to hunt down a copy in a library in Arlington.

The next class, I was then able to successfully achieve nerd status when I was the only one of my classmates with the book and Professor Sesno announced, “due to the book not being available in the bookstore, you are not held accountable for today’s readings”.

The next project was another winning adventure, as my assigned partner decided to drop the course mid-filming.  Looking back, this was the best thing that ever could have happened, as it led me to my teammates, my soul mates, Victoria Reiss and Mark Abramson.

I cannot thank Tori and Mark enough for teaching me how to edit, as it was a tool that was vital in the creation of several of our pieces. Together, we have been able learn about the environment, pinpoint how to take a creative angle on environmental issues, and develop videos that approach the topic of “how to reduce our carbon footprint” in a way that is interesting and relatable.   From our Hydrogen Fuel Cell video, to our final documentary on education, I really feel that we were able to contribute to Planet Forward’s efforts through our pieces. 

This class has not only made me a confident editor and greatly expanded my knowledge on new and pressing topics, but it most importantly has enabled me to work with an incredible team and produce videos that will hopefully make a difference.

So heres to Planet Forward! L’Chaim!

While interviewing people on the street, I’ve found I tend to hypothetically put myself in their shoes, asking myself the same exact questions, e.g. “What is a carbon footprint?” I’ve found this is a great way to learn. Thus, I’ve prepared a short set of self evaluation questions.

What have you learned from Planet Forward?

Planet Forward has made me more environmentally aware, as well as knowledgeable on current topics, such as “cap and trade” and “carbon sinks“.

What was the most challenging part of the course?

Before this class, I had never written a blog post before, nor had I posted a video on YouTube.

Getting used to writing in a more “fun”, web-friendly manner took all the creativity I could muster, at very odd hours of the day. I remember I had gotten up at 6 a.m. just to submit my first blog post. I am thinking of starting my own blog.

The class opened up a whole new digital world I had never thought of tapping into before, called YouTube. Thanks to the skills I’ve gained from Planet Forward, I now have my own YouTube channel (sezd36 – check it out!).

What’s something you’ll miss?

Though I hate the late hours now, I will definitely miss staying up editing footage that took weeks to gather, alongside my amazing partner, Mallory who has taught me so many new tricks on Final Cut Pro this semester.

Since I am graduating in a couple of weeks, this is definitely a class I will look back on and miss easily, via YouTube videos.

Being a perfectionist, weeks and even years from now when I view the videos we made for class, I know I’ll wish I had done that one thing differently… But Mallory has taught me that sometimes you just have to let go.

Planet Forward has been a fulfilling and interesting experience. In my final semester of college, I look back on all my experiences from the past few years. Every class I have taken has their own qualities. Each creating a memory. Planet Forward is no exception. Taking two production classes at the same time is no easy task. Especially when due dates for video projects tend to fall on the same day. I spent many nights in the smaller editing room going from one computer station with Sezen to another.

Planet Forward gave me the opportunity to experience things and meet people I never would have before.

When Sezen and I decided to make our final project based on the Anacostia River, we were nervous and didn’t know what to expect about the area. Through the project and the class I met many great people. I also learned more about DC and video production from going out on the shoots. Perfecting production skills was my end goal in the class, and I really feel like I was able to advance from where I was before.

I remember the first day of class when I found out we had to blog. BLOG. I don’t twitter, I gave up keeping up with facebook, and now I was expected to blog. This is definitely an aspect of the class that taught me something new. With out Planet Forward I would still be in the dark about the world of blogging. While I doubt I will start one of my own, it was an interesting and new experience.

Anyways, I thought I would include a few haikus (Paige….Your poem gave me inspiration about how to pass the time in the lab tonight! Thanks!) I wrote while waiting for my mini doc to render:

1)

Planet Forward is

An environmental class

Pohl and Sesno taught

2)

Anacostia

In south east we go at night

Waiting for taxi

3)

Blogging I do not

But forced I am in my class

Someone please help me

Now that you have enjoyed some fine haikus, please go to youtube and check out The Forgotten River. We put a lot of effort and time into this project. I hope you enjoy the final product.

I came into Planet Forward very blind. On the one hand, I thought I had more production skills than environmental knowledge, but on the other, I was a born hippie! My liberal father dropped out of college to play music in Ithaca, NY; I spent every summer of my childhood at Camp Jewell, picking up “bendos” (litter) in the woods; and my first concert was Woodstock ’99.

But after a semester’s worth of reading about and promoting sustainability, I have realized that being green is not about party lines or drug-rugged hippies. At its very core, the movement has more to do with consumerism and waste.  My parents were both raised on very little because their parents lived through the Great Depression! To this day my grandparents add water to shampoo and drink powdered milk.

I am proud to have been a part of Planet Forward in its first semester, and I know we have all made a big impact on what this class will be in the future. I have learned more about video-production and Final Cut Pro than I anticipated, and the Planet Forward team became friends due to long nights on the 5^th floor. Professor Pohl helped me pick out my first Digital SLR and my GaGa-tastic partner Juliette and I have job-hunted and created our first websites together. Through the videos Juliette and I have made—from following a teacher around DC, to slightly risqué statistics and finally green-dining (with a slight interruption from the Washington Post)—I have learned green solutions aren’t always what they seem, and agreements need to be laid out in advance.

Juliette and I "on a roller-coaster." Thanks, Photobooth.

This class has taught me skills and morals that will last my lifetime. I am certainly not an over-enthusiastic, preaching, environmentalist, but in the same way this class has opened my eyes (quite literally) to the visual world, I do go out of my way to ensure a bottle is placed in a recycling bin. It’s not conscious; it’s habitual. And once actions are on that level, the green-movement stops being a movement—it becomes your life.

Previously on The Paige and Jackie Show: Paige and Jackie were paired up to create movies about eco-friendly related topics in their Planet Forward class at GW. They knew very little about how to use a camera and even less about each other. They quickly became friends and began producing quality material for class.

This week, Paige and Jackie hand in their Sony 2100 for the last time and say farewell to Planet Forward and room 510. Reflecting on the past semester, I have learned a lot. I came into class with very basic knowledge of Final Cut Pro and minimal production experience. I was extremely nervous to begin our first assignment, man-on-the-street interviews asking people to describe a carbon footprint, but after we finished filming that first day, I knew Paige and I were going to be fine.

Not only did I gain production experience, but I was exposed to opportunities and knowledge that I would never have known otherwise. We got to drive in a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, make movies about the food industry, play with pets and learn how to make them “greener”, and talk to kids about what they know about climate change. Thanks for Professor Pohl and Professor Sesno, I had the opportunity to hear from established journalist about their every day activities and responsibilities. I truly enjoyed this part of class because the speakers had a lot to say about how they got started. I plan on continuing in the direction of production so their speeches made an impact on my future career choices.

My favorite part about this class was the people I met through Planet Forward. It was great working with a group of people with the same passion as me about production. Late night edit lab sessions would not have been bearable without my classmates. There seemed to be a pattern among us during those nights. Everyone would come in eager to work, with new ideas forming every second. About an hour into the evening, it was break time. Someone would order pizza and we would congregate on the floor for gossip hour. Then back to being productive, followed by a brief period of delirium (this can include, but is not limited to, rolling on the floor, doing handstands, or, depending on the evening, even tears). By this point, some groups would start peeling off and the night would wind down. The average time of departure was around 3am.

I am really glad I enrolled in this class. I am extremely thankful for the skills I gained and for the friends I made. As for Paige R. Hansen, I couldn’t have done it without her. I expect big things from her in the future, perhaps in the form of a duel host talk show… you never know. Although it is unclear when season two of The Paige and Jackie Show will commence, our dedicated viewers should expect great content. It can only get better from here.

To be continued….

I have learned so much this semester about how to tell a story.  I feel like I understand how to find characters and revolve a story around them.  These are the skills that will really affect my future in the industry so I feel fortunate to have gained them and look forward to learning more as I continue to work.

I have also gotten more comfortable behind the camera.  I have trusted my editing skills for a while now but behind the camera I used to feel unsure.  I think because aside from the “rule of thirds” I don’t know much about camera composition.  However, I feel like even though I may not be able to explain the composition of a shot, I can set one up and find interesting ways to look through a lens much more readily than ever before.  This confidence came to fruition during the taping of “It’s the infrastructure, stupid” during which I literally hung outside of the moving hydrogen fuel cell vehicle in order to get shots of the wheels moving and the reflection of the road in the side of the car.  We were going for “sexy” car commercial-like shots and I think we accomplished that.

I am also honing my skills as a producer.  On shoots, I am constantly thinking about how the footage we tape will fit with the footage we have and tell a story.  This was most challenging for our final project, “Engage, Enlighten, Educate” because we had a rather detailed story to tell.  We could not let viewers get confused in the jumble of two different elementary schools, different authorities from several institutions, and the story of just how important education is to creating strong habits for the future.  We’ll find out how successfully we did this during our class screening on the 17^th.

One thing I can work on is allowing my partners to edit more.  I successfully did this when we edited “Trashed and Wasted” as I only touched final cut pro to do finishing touches like detailed cuts or minute audio mixing.  Haley and Mark edited the piece.

I’m going to miss always working on a piece.  I loved having something to always be thinking about and working towards with regards to video production.  When one project finished, the next one had already begun.  It was really challenging being that consumed with the pieces, but incredibly rewarding and fun.

I came into the Planet Forward class on a bit of a whim. In my last semester at GW, I had a few extra credits to fill and wanted to take a course that interested me. Having completed my journalism minor, I didn’t really need the journalism credits, but a class that combined learning about the environment and multimedia reporting seemed too cool to pass up. Most of GW’s journalism coursework is limited to political reporting, because, well, duh, we’re in DC. That said, creativity in visual storytelling is not as taught or recognized as much as I would have liked. But this class combined the qualities of accurate and thorough reporting by telling stories in unique and different ways , which inevitably encouraged encouraged creative visual journalism.

Me & Madeline, and our chalkboard illustration of Planet Forward.

My truly amazing class partner for the semester, Madeline, and I have come a long way since our first assignment, when we hit the streets of Foggy Bottom to ask people about their carbon footprints—manned with only my camcorder, a miniature tripod, and no external mic. We quickly grew from novice student reporters to visual journalists with a valuable set of skills. We traveled to Arlington to interview a third grade teacher about her hydrogen fuel cell car. We somehow used a Natural Light can and a condom to illustrate a statistic about waste in college. And we spent an entire afternoon at the farm-to-table LEED Gold certified restaurant, Founding Farmers, to learn about greening the food industry.

I’ve learned about what individuals, communities, and companies are doing to reduce their carbon footprint. And I’ve learned how to tell a compelling multimedia story and all of the logistics, time, and effort that go into producing such stories. I’m graduating at the end of this semester and a big part of me is going to miss the late nights in the edit lab, forming friendships and working with people committed to social change through visual media.

Planet Forward has definitely been a unique and challenging experience here at the George Washington University.  It’s one of those great classes that you’ll take with you when you leave- which is why looking back on this class must involve looking forward to the future.  SMPA 195-15 Planet Forward presented the perfect mix of journalism, video, and multimedia.  Sure, there are things I wish I could’ve done differently- although I’m not sure I’d chalk them up to any failings, per se.  Planet Forward is a big project that demands big ideas, and to that end some of the ideas we may have had may have been too big for us to consider (if for nothing but logistics).  That being said, I do not regard the end of the class as the end of my involvement with Planet Forward.  And that may just be the beauty of it all- just as the conversation doesn’t end with the end of the show, the end of this conversation won’t end with the end of the class.  The climate is still in crisis; NGOs, big wigs, and BINGOs are still wrangling over minor details in a treaty that doesn’t do nearly enough; and monster jellyfish still threaten the lives of people everywhere. To give up on it now would be to give up on possibly the biggest challenge ever to face the human race.  To give up on Planet Forward would be giving up on moving our planet forward.

Before this class I took what I knew about making movies for granted. While I knew all along what it took to make a movie, I was surprised by the amount of effort it took. In college I study environmental science so when I immersed myself in editing and filming I quickly realized I was ill-prepared. Now that this roller-coaster of a class is coming to close I’m glad to have some firm footing again. That being said I do walk away having learned a decent amount of Final Cut Pro as well as certain concepts and techniques that I had never thought of. Besides the technical advancements I’ve made, I really come away with a better understanding of group dynamics and what it takes to be a team player. My group stuck with me through thick and thin and we created some pretty interesting films despite our lack of Final Cut Pro abilities. We distributed the work equally and really enjoyed working together and for this experience of above all I’m grateful. What I would have done differently is to structure the class to produce fewer films with more quality and depth. Initially, the class appeared to be designed to divide students by their areas of expertise in order to have content, film, and production experts together creating masterpieces. Looking back I enjoyed everything from the late nights in the lab to the fascinates guest speakers. This experience will undoubtedly stay with me for a long time to come. I learned so much and am so grateful for the experience.

More than anything, I learned how to create, produce, and upload a video. I had almost no prior experience with Final Cut Pro before taking this class. I had to learn on the fly, but that was the best way for me. I had almost no experience working the video cameras or  framing shots properly. I learned by doing, not by watching or reading or taking a test. That was the most valuable skill I took from this class.

What I enjoyed the most was getting a chance to go out into the city, and do things I otherwise would not have. I had the opportunity to ride in a hydrogen car and go on a home energy audit. Those were two entertaining and educative experiences that I will not forget any time soon.

I think if there is anything I would have done differently, it would have been to prepare more before I go out and shoot. At the beginning of the class, I would just grab the equipment and go. As I went along, i learned that knowing what you want, and having an idea of what the final product should look like in your head before going out, means you will have better footage when you return. You can build your story as you shoot, rather than shoot and try to construct it from limited material when you get to the edit lab.

It was a unique class. I have never taken one like it, and I probably will not again any time soon. I will not forget those long nights in the lab, working on little sleep and with much frustration with all of my classmates, the night before the projects were due. All in all, it was a fun experience.