AYV Summit 2011

On August 2^nd, we headed to Santa Clara University where AYV Summit 2011 was going to be held for the next five days. We reached Santa Clara University and the AYV Summit organizers and the crew welcomed us. It was a great moment to see all of them whom we had been meeting online through the AYV Community! They were exited too. Then we were taken to our respective rooms. The youth were to be in a different place from the educators, so from there Hema and I were separated from Mr. Dhanaraj. We would meet Mr. Dhanaraj at the cafeteria.
By dinner time lots of other participants joined us from 17 different countries! The event organizers gave us a small presentation that informed us about the activities for the next few days and some rules to be followed. Then we had small activity that helped us to know more about our fellow participants. Later that night we had a small introductory session with our production teams. It was good to know our production team members and mentors in detail, and also their views on the topic “Education”, on which we would be making  a documentary in the next two days! Few of my group members were not interested in creating a documentary.  Mr. Gabriel Diamond our mentor promised all of us that it would not be a regular documentary that we would be doing and wrapped up the session with a hope that all of us would enjoy creating this piece!
3^rd August
We were excited about the whole idea of working with other youths from all around the world after the conversation with my production members last night. We had some breakfast along with my counselor Mr. Jamar and other Green house members. After breakfast all of us attended a presentation by Laura Ling. She is a American journalist who had been imprisoned at Korea during her on field work. She was released after almost 3 months and continues her profession as journalist still now.  Her story is great inspiration to all of us who are trying to bring change in the society through media. Hema and I gifted a painting on behalf of our school as sign of gratitude to her.
Later the houses members broke to their production teams moving to their respective rooms to work on our projects. Gabriel and Mendel showed us a documentary which they had worked on few years back. It was presented in a different style which was very appealing and our team members who were reluctant to do a documentary agreed   to create a documentary on education in the same manner. We had pitch session on “Education”. It was good to hear a lot of new views and approach towards the topic. Some adobe employs joined us to share their views on our pitch. Finally we all planned to have a have every on of us interviewed on the basis of the questions we prepared. Later the interviews would be edited to present it as conversation between the team members. We left for dinner after finishing with the pitch.
after our lunch we started of with the interviews. Before that we all took turns in learning  to handle some new equipments. By the time we left for dinner that evening we had around 2 hours of raw footage to edit. We planned the different sub group members who would work editing which part of the footage and left for dinner.
4^th August
All the summit participants gathered at the Recital Hall where Mr. Tony and Ms.Patricia spoke to us about their point of view of what they had seen last two days in the summit. The AYV crew had put together a small video of what was going around in the campus from last two days. It was a great to see some information about what the other production teams were doing and felt good to see our group’s videos. A video conference was arranged with the people who couldn’t get to the summit though they were selected. I think it gave them some idea about the summit activities. Later we got back to our production rooms along with our group members. Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Mendel had uploaded the footage we had shot the last day into 4 different computers so that we could split up into group and edit the videos faster. By lunch time all three sub group had finished their basic editing, but Nick and myself couldn’t complete it as it was long video compared to others. So after lunch nick and I finished the basic editing and felt the video needed some new eyes so that it gets better. Others finished finalizing their part and helped us out with making the video better. Finally all of us clubbed all the different videos together to make it one piece. we had a group photo session where Mr. Mendel had his camera’s auto click system on that took a hundred pictures of us jumping and enjoying. This shot was used for the credits later. Finally all us played some games in our room and created a title for our video before we left to sleep.
 5^th August
We were waiting in the lounge for the buses to take us the Adobe office for the Adobe Day! We were excited to see the office, speak to the employees and also for the reason that I was one of the panelists who were going to speak about their experience with AYV! at the adobe office three adobe employs  gave a small presentation about their association with Adobe. Next was my turn to share my experience working with AYV. I was nervous to see all the other youth participants in a dark room starring at me and a spotlight focused on me! Still, I shared my views and thoughts about working with AYV and how it has changed me. Later all of us joined with adobe employs who were keen to know about our summit activities and were happy after hearing our experience. Next we were taken on a Adobe office tour house wise. The office was fantastic. After lunch we were paired with our educators and youth to tour San Francisco. It was great to tour San Francisco and we were dropped at Pier 39 to have our dinner and shop there! It was a very good experience to be out on our own there.
6^th August
We woke up with the excitement of the AYV LIVE! That was going to take place that evening.
We meet a few people who gave us ideas on how to present our works to the audience thr0ugh different means. I still remember a line that was a new message to me. Mr.Micheal- who was on of the panelist said, “Be prepared for unexpected impacts.” Next the educators presented their work at the summit to us. They were really great videos with lots of messages. Later we met with our Education team members and mentor. We had a discussion on how to present our videos to the other summit participants. We all took our own share of the presentation that we would present and worked on till we finished our lunch. Our team had lunch together that afternoon in order to prepare for our presentation. After lunch all the groups had to present their work at the summit. It was great to watch other youth present their work, and the fact that each video was totally different from one another was cool.  Later we left for our rooms to get ready for the grand event- AYV LIVE! We would meet hundreds of guests at the event sharing our works and the Black Eyed Pease would be coming to perform for us!, that excited everyone to greater extent. All of us waited at the lounge once we had dressed for the event and had had our dinner. We all left for the event that was held at California theatre and San Jose convention Centre.

AYV LIVE !

All of us had photographs with the Black Eyed Pease before we entered the hall of the California Theater where we would screen our films. The moment we entered the hall was the most wonderful moment of our lives! There were around 800 hundred people who joined their hands welcoming us into the hall! We had the privilege of sitting in the first fur rows of the seats. It was so great and we were really lucky to be there. Our projects were screened once our team representatives briefed about the project. Then the Black Eyed Pease performed for us.
later we moved to the San Jose Convention Centre were the desert  reception hall was set up. There were loads of chocolates, sweets, cakes and a chocolate fountain there. Loads of guests had gathered there to speak to us and enjoy the party. I met a few Adobe employs whom I had met at the Adobe office had took pictures with them. all the production teams had  a group photo with the mentors. We exchanged our contact details with lots of guests. It was so much fun and thrilling to be there at the event. We all headed back to the University after a once in a lifetime party which we had never dreamed of to be in.
At the lounge the partying atmosphere had not left us yet! We had some great music and partied all the way till 4 in the morning!  Meanwhile we exchanged our contact details and left little notes on each other’s cards. It was great night as the Black Eyed Pease had said, “Tonight’s gonna be good night! ”