Mountains of forms and meandering through awkward questions

Making this ‘3 Minute Wonder’ is definitely teaching the whole crew a lesson in patience; did we do a nice tame subject with adults and public locations? Nope, we did one with an army of children, a private swimming pool and at a school.

This means for this first week rather than shooting we’ve been explaining to parents the issues of swimming education, asking their opinion of their child’s lessons and yes: “please may we film your child & will you sign this form?”

Well, the response has been fantastic, I would say 99% of parents have complied and we have the forms all signed and sealed. Additionally, it was incredibly gratifying to see how much opinion and strength of feeling there is out there on the issue of swimming education.

Speaking as someone who really supports the idea of more facilities and more hours for swimming lessons in school; the team and I am going to have to be really self-disciplined to make this documentary balanced not biased!  

BBC Radio Cornwall with Laurence Reed

Thanks to the organisational powers of Mr James Harwood (producer extraordinaire); I was able to go on Radio Cornwall this afternoon and have a little chat with Laurence Reed about our ‘3 Minute Wonder.’

I was dead embarrassed, went bright red, but it was a very worthwhile exercise because we were able to promote the MATV course for University College Falmouth, talk about the aims of our documentary and appeal for contributors!

I’ve said it once but I’ll say it again “any stories relating to swimming, swimming education, trouble in the water, triumph in the water and or your opinion on school swimming lessons” should be brought forward; we’ll make you look fantastic on camera I promise!

BBC Radio Cornwall - The Laurence Reed Show

Mr Reed's Twitter

There’s nothing better than messing about near water

…well, actually no, because ‘one in 5 children and one in 5 adults in the UK cannot swim.’ Not only is this a shame for those individuals but it is also a pain for lifeguards, Coastguards and wannabe ‘David Hasslehoffs’ nationwide because they are forced to drag out flailing paddlers either by the chin, shoulder, arm, rope, hand or stick, (depending upon location and sustained injuries of course.)

So, I decided to pitch this topic as a ‘3 minute wonder’ to my class last week and it got a good response so I am now working in a team of four to develop and make this project for Unit 130.

I am taking on the role of director with Michaela shooting on the JVC, James producing the whole project and Melissa making sure it arcs in a sensible sequence through the powers of the Avid editing suites.

As you may be able to tell, I am a tad excited about this development and our first production meeting this afternoon justified the feeling; we are in the process of commandeering radio air-time to look for contributors, starting a shooting schedule, scouting for LEA officials and searching for an appropriate pool which does not glow with orange light. (My hair clashes with the colour; it has nothing too do with shooting honest!)

So any of my readers, (of which I acknowledge there are only a few) , who have good, bad, scarring, or an irritating story or opinion about swimming, swimming lessons or about any poolside experiences that they wish to share…should.

British Swimming

British Gas - Pools 4 Schools Scheme

'Best of British' - Blind Football

Thank you very much to Director/Producer Chris Williams from TwoFour for his lecture and interview on Friday.

It cannot have been easy walking to the TV Studio with me armed with my questions, two lights and two P2 cameras pointed expectedly at you but you rose to the challenge like a natural and really conveyed how passionate you are about film-making.

If you have not seen the ‘Best of British’ series there will be more episodes coming out next year, especially watch Chris’s episode on the Paralympic Tennis champions and please do check out the link below.

Best of British

Twofour

Work experience, work experience and more work experience

Those who know me, or have read previous posts, will know that I get very excited if I get to go to events especially if they are out-of-county (& in well-furnished/well-catered surroundings!)

So I really enjoyed the ‘Breaking into Media and the RTS Awards’ at Plymouth University on Monday; travelling up in 50-60 capacity coach with only 19 passengers on board was a giggle but more critically the panel discussions were really enlightening and the student entries into the regional RTS award categories were very compelling.

Nuggets of information such as “in applications for junior positions you will be expected to bring 5 or more prospective programme ideas” are obviously useful to know beforehand as well as practical gems like “pay attention to sound” are also vital but the overshadowing advice was “if you haven’t got work experience you haven’t lived!”

I will keep you up-to-date as I scrabble around to infiltrate production companies, channels and shoots for work/life experience – candidate will make good cup of tea or coffee, make calls, work in the rain and generally do whatever she is asked and that is a promise.

All in all, a very informative experience and I have huge admiration for the diligent researchers on Channel 5’s ‘The Hotel Inspector’ who will make a ridiculous amount of phone calls to find dingy hotels for their series. (I am very much downplaying this because the production team seemed really on the ball and the programme is a stupendous success.)

Congratulations Plymouth Media Partnership on another event well done

Plymouth Media Partnership

Channel 5 - The Hotel Inspector

‘Britain in a Day’ @ Land’s End

Fantastic opportunity to wheel out the camera equipment, as my friends and I chose to be part of Morgan Matthew’s ‘Britain in a Day’ project; so took a little jaunty trip to Land’s End to capture Michaela, James, Vicky and yours truly talking about what is important to us etc. right now. (Ref. the project questions on the ‘Britain in a Day’ website)

Looked like a right plant pot frankly perched on the edge of a block of concrete which holds the Land’s End finger post in place but it means if I ever get any whiney contributors in future I have ammo to say “I’ve been interviewed on camera too; you whinger!”

The real hero of the hour was the little photographer who sits up there and charges innocent tourists for pictures next to the fingerpost. (I know I thought it a little harsh too) However, I think he took pity on us and not only did he not charge for us to film at the landmark, he also changed the sign to read ‘Britain in a Day’ so if you ever meet him please pat him on the back, give him a pasty and smile for my sake.

Anyway look out our little group on BBC2 in the near future but if you don’t like what you see; please do not report us to Offcom because I’ll just quote the ‘Human Rights Act’ back at you; thank you very much Labour and Media Law!

Britain in a Day

Britain in a Day @ Land's End

Eight Films in Four Weeks!

Congratulations to Technical Group B/Production Group 4 for successfully submitting our production paperwork and DVD!
Drinks all round and Unit 120 to start on Tuesday!

Chain-saws, treading on toes and lighting for TV

Brief 4= “each group will produce 1x1” of “actuality” using only the contributor on location”

More ‘live action’ filming this week, however, all the groups need to be careful to not shoot ‘profile’ sequences or ‘instructional videos!’ This is a tough assignment because the action needs to drive the story rather than the interview but you need to ensure that there is a strong human element in your story so your viewer does not lose interest. 

Well, I decided to contact my old-colleagues at Trelissick Garden and we filmed the very kind, very patient, garden team splicing, chopping and chain-sawing wood ready for the winter. It proved to be quite a successful shoot, we got some great audio from the cutting equipment and the gardeners were really communicative and interesting contributors; many thanks to Dick, Ivor and Tom.

In terms of the production team, we had a bit of a reshuffle this week, Tim took on sound, while Dan and Catherine each took a camera and I liaised with the Trelissick staff in the background also trying to interject shot-suggestions over the machinery noises.

Overall, I was disappointed that I did not have the opportunity to shoot this week, because I do intend to put camera down as my technical speciality, however, three cameras would have excessive.

Memo to self: do not be timid about trying new things or treading on other people’s toes!

Excellent lighting session with Pete today, practiced three point lighting on Katherine seated in the middle of the TV studio on an office chair, and it was surprising how flattering, how ‘televisual’, good lighting can make a person look versus standard indoor/domestic lighting.

Editing tomorrow, Unit 110 hand-in on Friday so new modules next week and tele-tastic three minute wonders to come….