Face to Face scheme update

You may remember a few months ago that some of the UNITY volunteers attended a scheme run by the BBC called Face 2 Face. The scheme gave each volunteer the chance to work alongside media professionals and develop their technical skills. We caught up with one of our volunteers, Romayne Graham, to find out more about his experience at the BBC and how this has lead to new opportunities for a career in the industry.

"When Face 2 Face started we split up into three small groups. They wanted us to make a short film, which raised a question “Is the BBC for me?”. The catch was that we only had three days to do it. That gave us one day to come up with an idea and develop it with the intention of shooting it on the following day. We only had the third day to cut it together. It was an intense three days but it was definitely a good experience because we had the whole BBC at our disposal.

After making our short films we were able to attend professional workshops at the BBC once a week for 3 months. To my surprise mid-way through the workshops we were told that three paid work placements would be up at the end of the scheme.

I was one of the lucky three to gain a placement. I would be a Entry Level Runner for three months with pay. Not only that but I would work across the three main departments of BBC Bristol. Which meant working on Points West, post-production and NHU (natural history unit).

I have been working on Points West for the last two weeks and my first impressions are good. I have shown that I have a technical interest so I have been learning how to control the Hub, which is PointsWest super computer.

Reporters give me tapes and I record them onto the server. Once they are on the sever they’re routed to Points West editing suites where the reporters cut together their own martial. This is also where live broadcasts are streamed to the Points West studio.

I have also been fortunate to go out with a reporter by the name of John Maguire and I have helped set up the Points West studio for broadcast.

With the time I have left in the newsroom I hope to learn about vision-mixing. The idea of cutting together a show live on air really excites to me.

I see this work placement as a huge opportunity develop my skills as a media practitioner. Hopefully the skills I learn whilst at the BBC will help me to gain other job opportunities in the media industry." Romayne, 24

We're really proud of what Romayne has achieved and look forward to seeing how his career develops in the future. You can see pictures from the scheme on our Flickr site.

Why I Respect : The finished film!

 

This has been a really special project for us and our thanks go to our fabulous peer educators Oneil and Shagia who’ve supported every session and were fantastic with all the young people. We’d also like to thank Charlie Mee and Andy Gove from Fairfield school for being so supportive and helping us make the project possible, we’d really like to work with the school again in the future.

Our thanks also go out to BBC Bristol and editor Richard Lanciault for providing such excellent technical support and enthusiasm. Last but by no means least we’d like to thank the Fairfield Students themselves for bringing such creativity, humour and flair to the project. We loved working with everyone and the commitment and entertainment they brought to the project was brilliant. They’re an awesome bunch and we hope to work with them again in the future.

"As a school, we couldn't have asked for more from the Bread Youth Project in terms of the professionalism, the enthusiasm and the imagination you demonstrated in the way you managed the whole project, and in the way you worked with our students. The sessions were thoughtfully and creatively put together, with care and attention to detail, and the diverse group of young people were engaged and motivated throughout the six weeks of the project. Add to this the inspiring choice of volunteer facilitators and organisations who Bread arranged for us to work with (including the chance to work with experienced film-makers and to edit at the BBC) and Fairfield would have absolutely no hesitation in working with Bread again, or in recommending other schools to do so."

Charlie Mee, Extended School Co-ordinator, Fairfield High School, Bristol

Why I Respect: Editing at the BBC

We spent the day editing at BBC Bristol with the Fairfield Students to get the film finished for the DiversEC1ty Event at their school next week. The students had the opportunity to work with professional editor Richard Lanciault and really enjoyed the chance to see all the equipment and decide on the look and feel of their finished piece. We’d like to give a big thank you to Richard for all his time and support on the project, without whom it wouldn’t have been possible!

Comments from the students:

'I enjoyed learning how to use final cut pro.'
'I really enjoyed going to the BBC and editing and watching our videos'

Post-Production workshop at BBC Bristol

On Wednesday 27th October we took a group of volunteers from UNITY and Awaz Utaoh to BBC Bristol on Whiteladies Road to continue post-production work on Bristol Asian Festival audio pieces.

Volunteers worked with BBC editor Jamie Talbutt and UNITY staff to create three pieces that celebrate the work of Awaz Utaoh. Awaz Utaoh is a small voluntary community organisation serving South Asian people in Bristol and the surrounding areas.

Young people also worked on pieces designed to give a flavour of the vibrant culture and artists that contributed to the Bristol Asian Festival (mela) organised by Awaz Utaoh back in September.

All the volunteers were excited to look round the BBC and work alongside media professionals. 'everyone who came along was brilliant; really keen, friendly and enthusiastic which made my job super easy!' Jamie Talbutt, BBC Bristol. 

You can listen to the audio pieces here and see photos from the day on our Flickr site here.