CUPERTINO, California -- Their intentions may have been the best. But an equipment giveaway staged by Apple and Canon has only served to highlight the differences between the luck of the rich and the luck of the poor.
More than a dozen celebrity parents and children, plus several local schoolchildren gathered at Apple's Cupertino campus on Wednesday to learn how easy it was to create short digital movies with iMacs and Canon camcorders.
Everybody appeared to be having a ball. But while the rich and famous went home with the demo equipment, the poorer children were obliged to donate theirs to their schools.
"There is some irony there, but I'm not surprised about that," said Bret Harte Elementary School teacher Bob Griffin, who escorted three students from his school in one of San Francisco's poorest neighborhoods.
"Of all the kids invited today, these kids are the have-nots of the group," said Griffin. "They don't have computers [at home]. Two of the kids' parents don't even have cars."
The children from Bret Harte sat next to six kids representing two other schools. And they all worked at desks alongside the children of Monty Python alum John Cleese, entertainers Sinbad and Gregory Hines, and the boxer Muhammad Ali.
In an adjoining room, their parents joined other "Applemasters," including science fiction author Douglas Adams and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, in a similar workshop for adults. When it was all over, the celebrity children were allowed to keep the iMac DVs and digital camcorders -- worth about US$2,400 -- that they used to record the videos. And their parents were given iMac DV Special Editions and high-end Canon camcorders, worth approximately $4,000.
The equipment used by the public schoolchildren was turned over to the schools.
Surprisingly, Cleese claimed to have been among the technologically disadvantaged.
"I've never sat in front of a computer before, except in movies when I had to pretend I knew what I was doing," he said. "I was surprised how straightforward it is. It's quite logical."
Cleese said he'd never had the time nor the inclination to learn about computers. But now that he was convalescing from a hip operation -- and had suddenly been given a free machine -- he said he'd learn to use email.
Griffin, too, said he was grateful to Apple.
"The donations I usually get are from corporations trying to get rid of their old computers, so Apple's been pretty generous," he said. "The average donation to the school is worth about $20."
In addition to the two newly donated iMacs, Bret Harte plans to buy another two computers, according to Griffin, who said the school already had 20 computers for roughly 430 pupils.
In addition to the two iMacs, Bret Harte pupils will benefit from the two days of instruction by Apple experts, said Griffin, who added he'd like to equip his students with digital cameras "but they're expensive."
In fact, Bret Harte was the first in San Francisco to have an iMac lab through its eligibility for special low-income grants. The iMac lab was the reason students were invited to the Apple seminar, Griffin said.
At Wednesday's demonstration, the 10-year-old fifth graders immediately took to editing video on the machines. Assigned to make short films about their lives, the students had taken the camcorders home to shoot raw footage last week.
"Computers in the school are mostly used for things like word processing," Griffin said. "But if a student doesn't know how to spell, how to use grammar, or how to punctuate, they don't really get started. These kids watch a lot of TV and movies.... They know how long to hold a shot or when to cut. They know the lexicon. And, because they're comfortable with it, they can be individual."
Of all the films made by the kids, Griffin said he liked the one made by his own student, Aimee Baker, best.
Baker put the camera in the sparse bedroom she shares with her two sisters and just kept it running, recording the sisters' antics in their cramped, toyless bedroom.
"It's so natural," Griffin said. "They acted very spontaneously, without pretense."
Baker's down-to-earth video was in stark contrast to the ones produced by Gregory Hines' son, Zachary -- who recorded a drive through the well-to-do community of Venice Beach, California -- and Sinbad's son's video of their comfortable home.
