It’s been a long and arduous journey and not everybody made it out alive, but guess what! The Intern Class of F’11 is over and all the projects are in! I must say that these final projects have got to be the most interesting batch I’ve received by far… Make sure you take a look below. I’m absolutely blown away by all the creativity!! Please join me in giving a warm welcome to our next generation of Staff & Producers, who passed with flying colors!!

Chris Chen
Katie Chen*
Gavin Fink
Akash Kataria
Edgardo Leija*
Bryan Levinh*
Rebecca Limerick
Ruben Mora
Daniel Olson
Alex Parra*
Alexa Rocero*
Chelsea Yi
Yiyang Zou

* Graduated with Producership

And now watch their projects:

Chris Chen – (Miss)understood

Feeling bad about blowing off her blind date, a girl decides to bring him an apologetic letter only to be disappointed by the fact that he has “moved on”…or has he?

Katie Chen – Mandeville Beats

Background Track: “Episode 22″ by Di Bos. Big Thanks to Greg Rorheim and Victor Shiu!

Gavin Fink – How to get the A

A classic showdown of students vs. professor.

Akash Kataria – RAW: A Love Story

A comedy that focuses on the themes of rebirth and symbolic baptism that draws heavily from experimental film styles while simultaneously combining a fictional narrative with documentary. RAW: A Love Story documents the actual washing of my raw denim jeans in the Pacific Ocean after 11 months of wear. The short also discusses the propensity for human beings to become emotionally attached to material objects even to the point of placing them in a hierarchy above other humans.

Edgardo Leija – The One That Got Away

Bryan Levinh – The New Sun

Classified video footage sent from Opportunity, a mobile robot sent out to explore Mars. NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Project.

Rebecca Limerick – Spoke-n Word

A comedic, musical, art montage video exploring a world where biking (as a form of alternative transportation) reigns supreme! Footage captured in La Jolla & Yosemite Nat’l Park. Directed & Edited by Rebecca Limerick. Produced by Triton Television. A BIG THANKS TO BOGDAN Z!

Ruben Mora – Half Full

Shortly after meeting the girl of his dreams, a guy must see her go. However, they plan to reunite after a 3 month break only if they still feel the same way about each other.

Daniel Olson – Meatless Monday

A man tries to desperately save his relationship but fails miserably and falls into a vegetarian crisis.

Alex Parra – Becoming

Photographing movement and an ever-changing transformation, BECOMING captures the unrealized as well as the realized gestures of the human mind and body. Naturally, the only consistency found within transformation is found in the relentless phenomenon of change and growth itself. DANCERS NATALIE ROSEN

Alexa Rocero – The Guardian

A seemingly typical student at UCSD leads a double life on campus…

Chelsea Yi – Desperate Houseboy

A beautiful love story unfolds when a socially weird person’s prayer is answered.

Yiyang Zou – yaD enO

A day spent in reverse time.

CONGRATULATIONS NEW PRODUCERS & STAFF!!! We can’t wait to work with you!

-Patrick

by Avo John Kambourian (Executive Producer, TTV)

I came across Kids (1995) through the music of Pittsburgh Rapper Mac Miller. His album K.I.D.S (Kickin’ Incredibly Dope Shit) in 2010 frequently samples audio from the film, and is said to have inspired some of Miller’s themes throughout the course the album.

Mac Miller - K.I.D.S (2010)

My first reaction after finding out about the film, was to search for it on Netlix, which led me to find that despite having its own dedicated page on Netflix’s site, the film was not available to rent or stream. After some quick google research I found out that the film Kids had a very bad reputation, due to  ’explicit sexual content’ and ‘graphic themes’. If I wasn’t obsessed with finding this film, I was now.

Despite being released theatrically with a NC-17 rating, the film actually doesn’t show much nudity, if not any. But the sexual nature of the film is itself highly provocative. Critics often regarded Kids as ‘borderline child pornography.’ After watching the film myself, these thoughts reminded me of the photographic style of the highly acclaimed Sally Mann, whose photographs of her own children in very adult contexts has led to much controversy over the years. Mann’s photographs have often been regarded by critics as trashy, while the art community finds them unique and refreshing.

Sally Mann's Photography has often been regarded by critics as 'trashy'. While the art community has often regarded her as 'unique' and 'refreshing'.

Films and photography, like all other media, are subject to various forms of interpretation. Films especially, are often critically raved or poorly reviewed, not for their artistic integrity, but for marketing ploys. If the visuals weren’t provocative enough, the dialogue in Kids, between its adolescent characters (aged 12-17), covers highly controversial topics. Ranging from drug use, to sexuality, STDs, crime, under age drinking, and more. The film depicts these situations in a highly explicit manner, which gives off a unique sense of realism in these scenarios.

The NC-17 rating would perhaps seem understandable from an MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) standpoint. But how does this rating system affect the film’s distribution? Netflix probably had its reasons for not supplying the film to its paid members. Even though it is (in my opinion) a very crucial film of 90s American Cinema, which has also been regarded by many film scholars, as the rebirth of the independent film industry in America. Therefore the film’s distribution is a highly important factor for the preservation of its historical significance. If I hadn’t heard about the film through Miller’s music, I probably would have not seen it, let alone known about it.

Kids (1995)

The plot mainly follows a 17-year old by the name of Telly, whose life’s only goal is to have sex with as many virgins as he possibly can. Telly doesn’t know it, but he has contracted the AIDS virus.

The film also follows the experience of one of the girls Telly has slept with, highlighting the drama of her finding out that she has also contracted the virus from Telly. The Director of the film, Larry Clark said that his intension with Kids was to ”make the Great American Teenage Movie, like the Great American Novel.” I believe that Clark was successful in doing so in many ways.The film itself presents it’s audience with an very unfiltered group of facts that would make modern society sick to the stomach.

A couple interesting factoids about film’s production. Kids was made on a budget of $1.5 million and generated roughly $20 million worldwide. Making it one of the biggest Independent American Film grosses in American Film history. It also features the debuts of actors Rosario Dawson and Academy-Award winner Chloë Sevigny. As well as of the late Justin Pierce, who committed suicide in 2000 at the age of 25. It was originally produced by filmmaker Gus Van Sant (director of Good Will Hunting), who left the project in mid production, due to various controversies regarding the script. The distribution rights were bought out by Harvey Weinstein of Miramax, who is said to have personally profited $2 million from the film’s worldwide distribution.

Clearly, I’d highly recommend this movie to anyone that grew up in the 90s, or anyone hoping to get a glimpse of the era and its problems. From a filmmaking standpoint, it takes a lot of guts to make a produce a film like this. To me it’s almost reminiscent of the films of Francois Truffaut (400 Blows) during the French New-Wave, but with an American modernist twist.

You will definitely cringe at various moments throughout this movie. It will leave speechless, but that’s if your heart hasn’t been shredded to a million pieces by the end of it. Check out a clip from the film bellow. But be weary of the film’s Theatrical Trailer, as it greatly misrepresents the context of the films message.

Checkout this week’s brand new episode of TNN. We know it’s a bit late for a Halloween Special, but it’s never too late to enjoy a great episode of TNN.. eh?

We have a new video out for you today, covering our UCSD Men’s Water Polo.  Support our Triton Athletics team and come watch our games!

Check out the four newest videos the TTV Intern Class F’11 produced last Sunday’s meeting!

Shane, Nicky, Chris

Willy, Katie, Chelsea

Bryan, Rebecca, Shirley, Rameez

Alexa, Alex, Daniel, Edgardo

And I have videographic proof!!

A HUGE thank you goes out to all of the organizations and infinitely talented artists who participated, Sean Estelle and Teenah Eco for your enormous contributions to the preparation of the event, the hard-working and passionate TritonTV crew who never ceases to impress me, and everybody else who had anything to do with making this event what it was!!! Stay tuned, TritonTV is only getting started with our social events this year!!

If you enjoyed Artoberfest and would like to learn more about TritonTV, you can come to our next General Body Meeting this Wednesday (10/5) evening at 8pm in Price Center East: SLC. We always welcome new faces!

Artoberfest was AWESOME!!!! More on that later. Next up, our 2nd General Body Meeting of the quarter! Join us Wednesday at 8pm to talk about new production opportunities, internal and external progress and growth, and what’s in store for our next big social event!! Important: As the Marshall Room had already been reserved, our meeting this week will take place in PC East: SLC. Subsequent meetings will take place at the original location, PC West Marshall Room.

See you there!!

–Patrick