Work experience - Child Action North West (first shoot)

Several emails and texts later we arranged for the first interview to be shot in the college studio. However, we still had virtually no input from the HE students as to the interview or general feel of the shoot so we decided to go into the studio the day before the shoot to set it up and attempt to light it as we thought it should. This however caused some amount of confusion as we had obviously got mixed messages as to what the general feel should be. One group had been told light and positive, the other group were told formal so we obviously were struggling to agree and so advice was sought from Brian, the media department technician who in his unique style took over everything and set it up how he thought it should be (no disrespect intended - he is an extremely talented man). At this point I made the decision to step out of the studio as I did not want to cause any conflict but in my mind I knew it just wasn't right. I do however wish that I had stood my ground, but being relatively new to the filming side of things I bowed to those who had the experience in this field.
The next morning we met up in the studio and quickly set it up but it was still niggling at the back of my mind that it just didn't feel right, it was far too dark and formal and I felt that as the intention was to focus on the positivity of the work done by CANW the whole atmosphere needed to be lighter, this time one of the other crew members agreed with me. At this point Brian entered the gallery and obviously catching part of this conversation asked us what was wrong. I decided that I had to speak my mind and explained that based on the limited information that I had got that I felt that the setup and lighting were all wrong and was basically told that I should have had the balls to say so the day before as Brian had been given the opposite information and had gone with that. At this point Jamie arrived Just as Brian was mid flow and asked what the problem was. We explained and Jamie advised us that if we weren't happy then it was up to us to sort it that is the nature of the business and that we had to be professional and take control. So a quick brainstorm later we decided to take it out of the studio and onto a more light and relaxed location - Scholars restaurant, after all it could still be a formal interview in a relaxed atmosphere. We quickly got the location kit over to the restaurant and rigged up ready for the guests to arrive, hospitality was organised,roles were decided and we were ready to go as they arrived. The shoot ran smoothly and it was commented that it was done very professionally all in all a good mornings shoot.

Lessons were also learned -
I need to go with my instincts and have the conviction to speak my mind.
We are training to be industry professionals, as such we need to BE professional and take control of the shoots so that they run the way WE want them to run. If it's not right, say so and change it
Don't be afraid to leave the studio behind and shoot on location - something we are working on for the next shoots.

After the shoot, two more were booked in and so we had a meeting to decide where to shoot them. I attempted to contact CANW to see about doing another test shoot at the old orphanage but this is not possible due to their workload over the Christmas period so we have decided to seek out locations on the College site. We finally decided on the 6th form common room for the shoot with a family of service users as it is more comfortable and the two interviews with the CANW staff will be shot in one of the college offices at the suggestion of Jamie.  

Work experience - Child Action North West

Child action north west is a local charity and they have commissioned the college to produce 10 short films to raise their profile and attract funding for the organisation. Working in conjunction with HE social sciences the FAD media pathway have been brought on board to create the films written by the HE students. After spending a morning at the Child action headquarters getting the rundown of the project we eagerly awaited the brief. In the meantime some of our students went up to the headquarters to take the test shots and to meet some of the staff to discuss the project further. Unfortunately no-one from HE or child action turned up. Furthermore it was decided that the building was unsuitable for filming and we had still not received a brief. In all fairness I had given up on the project as I was concentrating on my own work and still awaiting the brief. However, Jamie held a meeting and asked Craig (the HE tutor) to join us, the students explained what had gone on and Jamie was on the verge of pulling the project but the students decided that they wanted to carry it on. This is where I came into it. Jamie asked me if I would get involved with the project and assist with the organisation side of things as aparrently this is what I like to do (mainly trying to organise Jamie it seems) I agreed and was added into the email loop so as to liaise with Craig,Jamie and child action to arrange the shoots which we decided would be done in our studio rather than on location. The next couple of weeks were spent firing emails and texts left right and centre to confirm dates and times for shooting, Booking the studio time and making sure everyone knew what was happening.

First Project - Finished Piece and Evaluation

Blackburn Museum Project Evaluation

The finished piece:

My idea was to create an audio book using my own research into the legends and stories of North Wales, based on the painting by Benjamin Williams leader ‘A fine autumn day in North Wales.’ Reading into the life of Leader I found that there was much I could connect with, He held the same passion for Wales (and in particular, the areas of Snowdonia and the Conwy valley) that I do.

The idea was relatively simple I would record some of my favourite stories of North Wales along with a selection of traditional music and put it on to a CD. Next I would design the cover and CD fascia based on a photograph of one of my favourite North Wales spots.

However, as soon as I started recording the problems became apparent. Namely, I am not a Welsh speaker (although I have picked up a few words and phrases during my time there) this led to me stumbling over several words and pronunciations and even after several takes I am still not sure that I have got them all right. But I gave it my best shot and the finished product was produced to the best of my ability.

I think in hindsight that I probably bit off more than I could chew with the whole Welsh theme and If I was to redo the project I would stick to something more visual, however I believe that I made a fair attempt at something that I had not tried before and It definitely gave me some insight into voice over and narration work.

Experimentation workshop 4 - scratch film premiere

After several weeks of painstaking splicing Brian finally managed to turn all our individual pieces of scratch film into a single 13 minute collaborative piece, And what a piece it was! Set to an authentic pre war soundtrack, the film emulated the atmosphere of those original pioneers of the film industry and I don't think it would have worked any other way. Each section was so different from attempts at actual animation to experiments with colour, patterns and distressed effects yet put together with an inspirational choice of soundtrack the result was an amazing collaborative piece of experimental film.


FAD Drawing with Light Project from Media Centre on Vimeo.

Beacon radio - December podcast update

The first thing to say is that we are heavily behind schedule, which in fairness should have been anticipated. with the increased workload and people all working on several projects of their own it has been a logistical nightmare to pull everyone together when needed and so the content has not come in as quickly as hoped. I have also probably been a little ambitious in my expectations with sourcing external content as I have spent most of the last month phoning and emailing people trying to organise interviews with organisations such as the King Georges Hall, Action Factory community arts, Blackburn youth zone and Blackburn with Darwen CVS. which has been very difficult but hey that's the nature of the industry were in after all.I also must say that we did lose a brilliant interview due to equipment failure. I have however, finally managed to secure an interview with Blackburn Youthzone which should hopefully suffice to fill one of the feature slots I had planned. I am also hoping that after speaking to the guys helping with the content that we should be able to pull things together over the next week or so.