Jan 8, 2005. 11:30am. Heavy downpour. We trudged towards Manhattan Neighborhood Network for a tour around their studios.

Manhattan Neighborhood Network, or MNN, is a public access channel that belongs to Time Warner Cable and provides all Manhattan residents access to film studios and equipment. Chumz is collaborating with MNN on our spring reality TV show project. MNN will provide free training, editing facilities and film equipment throughout the whole process — pre-production, production, and post production.

We have started preparing for our May deadline. Our tour guide was Andrew Lynn, Training Director of MNN; he met us there and brought us around the exciting premises. He showed us the three main studios they have in the building and the editing devices they have available for the public.

At the end of the tour, Mr Lynn presented a series of productions done previously by teenagers that were geared towards a teenage audience. We were intrigued by the process of filmmaking. The different styles achieved by different teenagers were a great inspiration to us. After showing us the wide selection of facilities and equipment MNN has available for us, we were exhilarated at the thought of making our dream project come true!

At 3pm, we split for the day. It rained hard but it sure did not dampen our spirits of becoming true filmmakers. Reshmi Saha, Assistant Director of the Crew and a Senior at Cathedral High School, proclaimed, "Now like true filmmakers we are on the road to reality show heaven!"

We are looking forward to the training workshops MNN has scheduled for us in March and April. So for anyone out there who's been keeping tabs on our progress, stay tuned!