the mantelpiece - mark waddington blog

Free 12 week video story telling course from Oblong Media Collective, Leeds

Busy day today at The Woodhouse Community Centre in Leeds. The Oblong refurbishment is almost complete and the centre opens for business on Monday, but there are piles of things still to be sorted out. A monumental task.  

As part of our commitment to funders we will be developing the Media Collective to dream up new ways of supporting communities through multimedia communication. We are aware that having a website or a Facebook page is ok but that we need to be thinking much more creatively about how we use a whole range of technologies and new ideas.

Next Wednesday the 25th of January we will be offering twelve free places on a video production course being run by Abdul Al-Marsumi who has worked for the BBC in Bagdhad and directed for the Arabic Service. The course, which covers the fundamentals of video storytelling, will be for 14 weeks each Wednesday between 4pm and 6pm. It's open to anyone local to Woodhouse/Hyde Park area so if you know of anyone interested drop a note to me at markw@oblongleeds.org.uk

The Media Collective also has plans for an online radio station, hireable editing facilities as well as the existing web and print design services. We're very keen for people to hire rooms, by the way.

And looking forward to the announcement of the Norther Art Prize winner tomorrow so may pop in to see the works tomorrow morning.

Salts Mill

Salts Mill, Saltaire.  Home of Pace Electronics and David Hockney gallery

Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL: f/5: 1/40": 17.0mm: ISO 1600

29 ways to stay creative

Here's a nice little video on ways to help you keep up the creative thinking.  I like number 25 - stop trying to be someone else's perfect.  It's got more than a million plays on vimeo which isn't bad.

Every Day Counts - Improving School Attendance

Like to say how thrilled I was today at the launch of the Every Day Counts campaign at the Keighley Picture House.  Fifteen schools in the central Keighley got together to form the campaign and I had the pleasure of producing the film.

See the report and part of the film on the BBC website

The film was a collaborative affair with the schools and students providing much of the effort. I think making films with the schools - as opposed for the schools - is so much more rewarding. What has impressed me most has been the way the schools in the locality have been able to work together. Decisions are made quickly and without fuss and support can readily be found for good ideas. All the teachers, students and parents were a joy to work with.

The event at The Picture House was was the focus for much of the publicity. A number of newspapers turned up and BBC Look North reported on the event.

Yorkshire was recently recorded as having the highest level of truancy from secondary school and the second highest overall truancy rate behind only inner London. And within Yorkshire Keighley is not performing at all well overall.

You can follow the campaign on Facebook.

Tips for dealing with conflict and "row" stories in the press

This week has been marked by a series of conflicts.  Family, work, community, church - there have been people who have complained, challenged and upset. I thought I'd reflect on these events and see if I could find a positive angle. 

I won't go into the details but they concern a decision made by a two community organisations, a sensitivity which emerged in a formal complaint and a long term family relationship. 

What interest me is how people react to conflict.  Sometimes it's a small thing which sets in motion a chain reaction of claim and counter claim.  Often the conflict has a history behind it of simmering dissatisfaction which surfaces in something quite trivial. Conflicts can also be divisive and strategic.  Both the press and gossips revel in conflict, (all good stories have conflict).

As I was thinking about this was reading a book by Shane Hipps called The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture.  In the book he discussed the idea the the electronic media has the power to bring people together but also pull them apart.   The global implosion, he says, presents us with opportunities for interpersonal conflict unlike anything we are accustomed to.   He says that cultures that are used to living as communities also become adept at handling conflict, and in fact the conflict is a force for good which is welcomed.  But we are still living in a largely individualist culture and hence a territorial one.

The challenge here I think is to recognise that as we move forward we are bound to expose difficult choices and points of disagreement.  This presents us with an opportunity to re-affirm our values, reach genuine understanding and to bravely enter territory which is new to us.  If we build a strong community conflict will turn to advantage; we can learn to listen and adapt.   I can't think of anything more boring than a place where everyone agrees - a sort of bland retirement. 

As an example, Shane Hipps uses the Anabaptist who have developed a robust theology of conflict.  He also points to a document used as a pledge or covenant for Mennonite churches.

Here are some quick examples of the a advice given:

• Go directly to those with whom we disagree
• Avoid behind the back criticism
• Own our part of the conflict
• Listen carefully, summarise and check what is heard
• Suspend judgement
• Generate a variety of options

 So get yourself a theology of conflict.

Download  Agreeing and Disagreeing in Love - commitments for Mennonites in Times of Disagreement

 

 

The wonder of the Photoshop Layer Mask

Photoshop is just the most wonderful application isn't it?  Even if you don't know how it works you can just sit back and gaze at it in wonder.  Just ask it to make the tea and it will.

The Layer Mask is one of its party pieces. A layer is just one image on top of another.  Masks are simply a way of including or removing areas of a layer so you can either see or not see what's beneath.

Another wonderful thing is the video tutorial that you sometimes see on YouTube explaining a particular piece of software - I'm sure you've seen them, the commentary is usually done in an American accent.

I've been practicing an American accent so I'll be able to do these mayself but haven't quite got there yet.  In the meantime I thought I'd prepare a little video to share my enthusiasm for the Photoshop Layer Mask - in English.

 

Televising the revolution

A bit about the Media Team plans (one or two people have asked). Next week I'm kicking off a video focused team at Our Lady of Victories School in Keighley.

Many schools have radio stations and a few even do TV shows. OLV school already has a successful radio station which is brilliant.

Some projects, and those in higher education as well, seem to be modelled on very old production formats. Even the term TV has a lot of old fashioned baggage. So I hope the children will use the tools in a free and imaginative way - not just produce a show that looks like BBC regional news which has been around for half a century.

Thankfully I detect there is a loosening of old style media skills teaching. I don't know where it will go but I hope the media team next week will come up with some real innovations about how to organise, film, edit, present. Looking at all the potential platforms and audiences.

The plan is to achieve the following:

• Employ and develop a full range of creative skills within a complete team, not just the obvious technical bits like cameras.
• Allow the team to innovate and change for the better how media is made - doing it their way.
• Produce a high quality product.
• Have a real purpose for the product - e.g. enhancing communication between parents and school.

I am sure we are getting to a point where children already have a place in the media environment - without needing to be employed by it. So this would be no simulation.

We are aiming to do a termly show at OLV school and will be setting this up next week. I'll let you know how it goes.

Leeds Best City - Media Collective growing

You may know that I'm spending a couple of days a week working with Oblong Leeds - a community organisation that is refurbishing the Woodhouse Community Centre.  The centre has been owned by the council but has recently been "asset transferred" to Oblong.  A big grant has been awarded from SIB social investment business. 

Woodhouse Community Centre is part way through being renovated and although the funding position is still a little uncertain we hope to be moving in at the end of the month. One of the spaces in the centre will be dedicated to the Media Collective which I'm helping to set up.

Already the collective is gaining a reputation for its video journalism.  To date we have done nearly 50 interviews for Leeds City Council and numerous other documentaries.  The key strength of the collective is that Oblong is a pioneer in community development and understands the process and issues to do with establishing community projects.  This experience means that they are in a good place to ask the right questions of the right people - kind of journalism from the inside (or at least alongside).

The interviews Oblong have done recently can be seen here and on the Leeds Initiative website

Scarborough

Ingleborough - one of The Three Peaks

Myddleton Grange Woods - looking lovely

Strid Wood - Birch Trees

Dales Way on the River Wharfe

Create Video Marketing, taking on the world from Ilkley

Here's a bit more on video marketing..

I've been having a chat with Mike Smith of Create Video Marketing who happens to be based in my home town of Ilkley.  This is following on from what I was saying about YELL's move into video marketing. There is definitely a tide of activity on the video marketing scene and Create has some really interesting ideas.   

For a long time now I have felt that to do video properly needs a bit more thought. You spend thousands of pounds on a corporate video but what do you do with it? Who sees it?  An expensive and cheesy message that makes no real connection.  

Neither is the home video approach adequate.  Yes it's easy to knock off a Youtube snippet but how can you direct the video content to those who need to see it?  The answer has been an elaborate configuration of Twitter, Facebook, bloggs, Youtube etc. In short, a labour intensive patchwork of networking tools.  

Create's solution is to provide very simple online tools and templates for creating content.  Mike showed me his online storyboard tool for commissioning video content.  You upload pictures, write scripts, choose presenters etc.  The resulting videos are very smart. The example below is rather corporate in style, but there is potential for more informal story telling - perhaps for a school newsletter or local organisation.

Importantly. once the content has been made it can then be incorporated into an engaging video email campaign or effortlessly connected to a range of social media platforms. 

I'm not saying that this is the only solution, but Create offer a good and affordable starting point for businesses wanting to try out video marketing. Naturally, I hope that companies will also want to commission higher level films and features that engage in many different ways, but this is an interesting starting point. bw2011

Dark Matters video - Shadow _ Technology _ Art

In collaboration with Animate Projects and to coincide with the opening of Dark Matters, the Whitworth Gallery presents a three-week screening of work by contemporary animators who make use of a variety of techniques and technologies to engage with themes of loss, memory, darkness and light. 24 September 2011 - 15 January 2012

Yell.com signs video deal in biggest overhaul for a decade

 

Yellow Pages directory site Yell.com gains Videojug 'How to' videos and blog network in biggest overhaul for a decade. The Guardian report

 

Yell is going into video marketing.  I read this with interest as my former colleague Nick Haworth is behind this.  

Nick and I used to manage ITV Local in our respective regions before its premature demise. He and I were experimenting with video marketing ideas on behalf of the company.  I did some research to find out what small businesses would pay for a short video spot.  The answer was little more than £500.   Most of them said they were not sure of the value to them - that was a couple of years ago.  It didn't seem viable and ITV opted out.

When ITV Local closed Nick went off to Yell and there, it seems, confidence is high that businesses will want to pay enough to sustain this kind of video content.  Yell has been very clear about the costs and the benefits of video marketing - here's their rate card which starts at £950 for a specially made promotion.  Here's what they claim.

 

• A video is 53x more likely to pop up on the first page of results.
• Over one third of web traffic comes from online video.
• Four out of five online users watch online video every month.
• Last february UK viewers watched 5.5 billion videos online, that's up 37% on the year before.
• Experts speculate that by 2012 if you don't have a video on your site the big search engines might not even list you.
• Users are 4 times more likely to look at a video that anything else.
• If your videos include a call to action they are four times more likely to get in touch.

Anyway, if you are a visual type and haven't bothered to read this, here's the video.

Woodland Steps: Middleton, Ilkley

Pitchers from the Harrogate Flower Show

Is Snapseed making photography more difficult?

If you see photography as a technical challenge it's getting easier. If you see photography as a creative challenge it's getting more difficult.  I've been looking at Snapseed, 100 cameras, instragram and other photo enhancers and trying to work out what I think.  

We seem to be in the middle of a photography "big bang" with all sorts of tools becoming available to enhance and present  images.   I love looking at photos on flickr, not a day goes by without me browsing the latest uploads on my iPhone. It's like a daily fix of inspiration.    There's been a noticeable increase in the volume of colourful and moody landscapes, nostalgic portraits finished in classic processing styles, blurred and burned edges, vignette effects.  

Snapseed seems to be gaining ground as a tool for adding some of these qualities to photographs.  In the movie world Magic Bullet has been around for a while and I can't help thinking that Snapseed's functionality is rather similar.  In video, cross processing and designer looks are all important and many of these looks are being replicated in the stills world (or is it vice versa).

So what makes a good photograph?  I think these tools throw some responsibility on the viewer to discern the true value of a piece of work.   A viewer who is easily impressed my say wow at every photo; Just by adding  an effect we can get a wow factor.   I don't think there's anything wrong with these tools but as consumers of photography we should be careful to look beyond the effects and into the skill and meaning of the images.  Is the image well composed? Do the effects support of mask the intension of the photographer? Does the photograph tell a story?  Does it challenge our thinking in any way?

In way, by making it easier to get results it moves the challenge away from the technical aspects and more into the quality of the ideas and the observations. 

So far from making photography easier these tools may be lifting photography to a more interesting level - where ideas and experience matter.   The professionals will certainly  have to demonstrate the originality of their ideas as well as technical flare.

The first Ilkley Art Trail coming soon

We're very excited about the Ilkley Art trail which will be taking place in October.  We've always been a fan of the Saltaire Art Trail and now we'll have one on our own town.  Lorna Bird is the lady behind it and she says it's important for the town because many of the artists work in isolation.  She sees the art trail as a catalist for continued conversations and relationship building.

I'll leave lorna to say more about the trail in this short video.