Update: personal progress

Just a quick update about my job hunting and postgraduate education. I applied for a teaching course a few months ago. I applied for both PGCE and GTP (graduate teacher programme), which are both held at Nottingham Trent. It was a something I thought through for a very long time, so I thought it was time to try and apply. I want to become a ICT teacher in a secondary school. This includes either ICT itself or Applied ICT. These courses require me to have at least 10 days experience in a secondary school, which I do not have. I do however have a years experience in an independent school. However, I have been told this does not count. I have been in contact with a few schools. The school I really wanted to gain my experience with is my old secondary school, Greenwood Dale, now known as the Nottingham Academy. Luckily, I have had a positive response from them and they called me in for an interview, which was on Wednesday 26th. It went a lot better than I expected.
I met all my old school teachers, talked with the head of ICT and discussed what I wanted to do and how they could help. They have called me back next week and the week after and have also said they will help me with interview techniques etc. To say I am trying to get a job at the place in the near future, them offering to help me with the interview is fantastic. It was great meeting with all the teachers again, and I spent a few hours going around meeting them. I also observed a 6th form ICT class and asked the students questions on the work they were doing to get a flavour of the module content.
I was also asked by my old media studies teacher if I would work with the media department for the documentary film module they have. I also did this when I was in 6th form, so I known everything is covers and how it goes. As well as this, I will be working with the students on a after-school film making class. It all seems really good and I am glad I have been offered all of these positions.

For my PGCE course, I have now been called in for an interview in a few weeks. Hopefully, my interview for the course goes well, and the job with the Nottingham Academy looks pleasing.

Also, I have been in contact with the YMCA media department for work. They got back to me and I was called in for a interview on Thursday 27th. Went really well and they asked me the equipment/softwares I can use, what work I've done etc. They asked me for a DVD of my work, which I did'nt have and will send later. It makes me think that having DVD copies of my work portfolio or building a website may be useful for myself. Anyway, they called me back to a film shooting they are doing in two weeks, which lasts 5 weeks, all across the country to get a flavour of the work they do. Hopefully, this will also lead me to something good.

YMCA National Conference Speech Video

My speech at EMCC for the YMCA England project, after the screening of the film:





Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPIUH9QQLq8

Article on YMCA website about our film

Uni OVER and work progress update...

Well uni is over for this year... and damn its a relief! Past few weeks I have been working on my final project, Making a DVD menu of all of our work done this year. Handed that in last week after hours in Adobe Encore, but pleased to say I am now finished.

Okay, few things that need to be done now. Met up with Jill Robinson last week day after hand-in, to wrap up our work. We have been asked to produce a batch of copies of the YMCA Documentary film, as it was requested by several people from YMCA's over the country. I suggested for this, that I will make a DVD menu. So I guess the next few weeks I will be doing that. Short clips from the film will also be produced to be put up onto the YMCA website.
Besides that, I have tried to get a copy of the ALIVE project, the green screening from the people we worked with. However, they have not yet completed the edit. So as soon as I get that I will post it up here!

Umm what else... Oh ye I have a client for our final year project. Just to be a bit ahead of the game, Im going to be meeting up with Deborah to discuss the project and hopefully meet the client to sort things out. I have also come up with ideas for my final year research project and some artefacts, but I think I will need to think up a few more. So thats a task for me to think over in the holidays!!

Just realised I haven't uploaded the full version of the YMCA film. Will post that in the next blog. Have a great summer guys and enjoy!

YMCA Update ...National Conference Speech

Just checked my e-mails and I have recieved an audio recording of our film screening at the YMCA National Conference, from one of the organisers of the event. I have asked for the video recording of this also.

YMCA Update

Met up with Jill Robinson today from the YMCA Insync Standards to discuss how we are going to take the project on further. We discussed some extra clips to post up on the YMCA website. We have also been asked to put the final film onto DVD and make about 25+ copies to give to all the participants and other YMCA's across the county who want to make use of it.

I suggested we make a DVD label and also a DVD menu to go with it (put our practice to the test!) as it being a real client, and this will also be good practice. A few YMCA's have requested the film also.

However, we will do this after 2 weeks, when all our university deadlines are over and we agreed to meet up again then.

Jill also agreed to write us up a reference for the work we have done.

YMCA England Project Update

Well, we have had a little break after our film screening at the YMCA National Conference. We are now going to meet up with Jill this Monday at 12.00pm to wrap up and discuss what we are going to do further with the project now that the film has been completed. We have now been asked to produce short clips to take from our completed film and make them for the YMCA England website.

YMCA National Conference film screening... complete

It was great! I mean we were worried that the resolution may appear different on the screen at the EMCC, but it was fine. All the people loved it and we got a big applause at the end! The speech was a bit nerve-racking in front of a few hundred people, but it went good. I did mention in the speech for the opportunity for future projects to take place (for our third year projects).



Many people at the tea break congratulated us on the good work. At the end of the conference, we were approached by a few people for some potential third year projects. More on that soon!

The YMCA National Conference

Maybe, I forgot to mention this earlier on, but when we finished our YMCA Project, they wanted us to screen it at the annual YMCA National Conference (now thats a big deal!). All the editing for this has now been done, and tomorrow is the big day. The conference which is held every year by YMCA England, will take place at the East Midlands Conference Centre (EMCC), at the University of Nottingham.
There will be a few hundred people present at the screening, and yes we have to make a small speech about our film. After a unanimous decision (of course) its me who is going to do the speech. I'm writing up my speech right now, even though I was told something brief, it is rather long.
We will be recording the conference and screening for our portfolio's, so make sure to watch here for the video.

Meeting for YMCA Proj

Met today with Jill from the YMCA to discuss how we are going to go about editing. We discussed the length and we were also asked to produce short clips (taken from the documentary) that would be put up on the YMCA website (and potential payment may be in place for us to complete this task). Editing will now go on it's way, should be done in a few weeks!!

YMCA Project Video Blog (Liverpool) - 10/02

Video blog for the first part of a project we have done for YMCA England. This took place in the YMCA in Liverpool on the 10th of February 2010.

Link for it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM6h6BmsjWs

Notts County Doc update... SVEN RESIGNS (and makes our doc even more interesting!)

Went down to Notts County ground today for some GV shots and footage that could be used as b-roll. Oh yeh, between today and yesterdays interview with John Staplton, Sven Goran Eriksson has resigned as manager from Notts County!

At first we thought that this will make our documentary harder to film, due to all the media attention, and we also had good comments from John about Sven's arrival and how it will serve Notts County well in he future. However, we could incorporate this into our documentary and link this in with the issues of why fans have decreased and the how the change of so many managers over the years have affected the club.

As we were not given permission to film anything within the ground, we got alot of GV shots from all around the ground. As well as this, we got gained alot of good stills also.

Given that there was loads of media attention at the football ground today, we were lucky in gaining an extra interview. We met someone who worked as an accountant for Notts County. Due to all the problems etc the team have been facing recently, he refused wanting to be interviewed. But after a bit of persuasion, he agreed to do a short interview for us, but NOT mentioning anything about the issues of finance and just talking about the club in general. We did get some VERY interesting stories about Notts County from him, but it was a shame we couldn't get them on film as he didn't want to disclose anything on camera.

Whilst filming all around the ground, we also met a VJ (video journalist), who was also there to film the ground, who gave us a good few tips. Me and Chris, asked the reception if we could film in the ground (again, just in case), however we were told by the receptionist that it would be really difficult, as there was alot of media around. He did, however, tell us to come back next week and we may be able to do it.

YMCA Liverpool... Shooting complete

Its 09.15pm and we have just got back from Liverpool.

Two and a half hours on the train damn! Really tired now, but it was a great day. We got alot of footage and some really interesting and very moving interviews. We interviewed four people in total. The interesting thing was that each person had a different story to tell and where they have come from, to how they have bettered themselves by being part of the YMCA organisation. We chose to do the interviews in two separate loacations. We also got some GV shots of the surrounding area of Liverpool YMCA. I was very pleased with the support we got from Jill and Darren from the YMCA.

I have also filmed a video diary for this project, and I will be continuing this for London and Nottingham. Keep an eye out!


Next stop is the London YMCA this Monday the 15th. Looking forward to it, should be good.

YMCA doc update...

All arrangments have been sorted for the days. Both sets of train tickets to Liverpool and London have been recieved to myself. We had a meeting on Wednesday, with Jill, Deborah and the whole group and discussed everything and made final arrangements to be set for filming on the 10th February. Alan just needs to have a look at the pictures Jill has sent and complete risk assessments. We are going to have another meeting to complete the shot list, shot schedule, and other things prior to our filming day. I have contacted Jill for some archive footage that we can include, however she is still in the process of getting hold of that. We will also, after the next meeting, meet John and re-check all the equipment and check that the tie mics are working as they were not previously.

The roles of group members are:

Abdul Seedat - Director and editing and camera assistant
Umar Hussain - Producer, and Sound recording and post production music/effects
Duncan Leigh - Camera/Lighting, and post production visual effects
Alan Vickerstaff - Locations Manager, titles designer, photographer

FAIL

We have abandoned our idea of the 'unseen heroes' theme of our documentary because we have not been given permission by Notts County Football Club to film the interiews that we needed to. However, they have allowed us to have a 30 minute slot in which we will be allowed to film GV shots. We have discussed in our meeting today about how we can make the most of this 30 minute slot, as this is the only time we will be given. We will take two Sony Z1's, a camcorder, any relevent sound equipment, and a stills camera to get as much footage as we can. The whole group will be present on this day and given individuals jobs, so that everything can be done on time and within the allocated 30 minutes.

However, on the good side, for the YMCA project, I have spoken to Jill about some other arrangments about tickets to the locations and she will be posting them soon. Jill has also proposed another meeting with the whole group sometime next week, in which we will also meet Simon from the communications team from the YMCA.
The only concern I have is clashing of days, as both of my projects will be running alongisde each other. If we arrange to interview someone on a day (for the Notts County Doc), it may be on one of the dates I am doing the YMCA shooting, mentioned in my earlier post. However, as of now, I know for sure the dates of the YMCA project, and we have planned to shoot one of our days for Notts County on the 11th February, which is the day straight after our filming in Liverpool. Hopefully, it will work out well, because the way I see it is, the YMCA project we are doing will help me and give me a real-life experience on working with a client and getting valuable work experience. It will be good practice for me for my final year clientel project also, as I have spoken to a few finals years and they have mentioned it is something similar to what they are doing in their projects.

YMCA Project

Ok, there is another project we have took on a few weeks back. Its a project that the YMCA have asked us to do. There are three other people as well as me who are doing this. We have been asked to make a documentary about the various YMCA centres across the UK and show what work they do and how they help young people. Basically we will show the hard work and contribution of the YMCA throughout the documentary. We have had a meeting with someone from the YMCA and have discussed how we are going to approach the film and we also organised the days and travel etc.

We will be filming in Liverpool, London, and Nottingham. The dates are as follows:
Liverpool - 10th February
London - 15th February
Nottingham - 3rd March

Should be good!