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: Fairfield School DiversEC1ty event

Well we made it! We managed the impossible and completed the film in time to be screened at the Farfield School's DiversEC1ty event, so called as it is a celebration of the cultural diversity of EC1, the community surrounding Fairfield. 

It was a fantastic event with food from all over the world, a Somali fashion show, singing, drumming and activities. UNITY had our own stall showcasing all the photos and information from the Why I Respect project at the event which culminated in a screening of the film.

All the students were really pleased with what they had achived and were able to show off their work to their parents. It was a fantastic way to end the project on such and high and we thanked all the students who were involved with chocolate and certificates.

Why I Respect: Filming in the Community

After weeks of planning the students went out into the community to film their project today with  Shagia and Oneil, two peer educators with UNITY.  We split them into 2 groups, one focussing  on Chinese culture and the other visiting the multicultural area of St Marks Road in Easton.

Group 1:

The Chinese group visited the Wai Yee Hong supermarket in Eastgate where they filmed all the different Chinese food, tried their hand at presenting and bought a few items to share with their classmates. They then went on to visit the Bristol and Avon Chinese Women’s Group, a local community organisation that supports the Chinese population of Bristol. Students interviewed staff from the organisation about Chinese culture and were fortunate enough to visit an arts project for older Chinese women. Although the women could speak no English they were clearly pleased to see the young people and took great pleasure in showing them how to make various origami animals to their delight.

The importance of the orgaisation was brought home to the students by the workers at the project who described the isolation felt by many of the women who could speak no English and had never learnt to write before. The project gave the women a space to come together, share skills and meet new people in the community. They showed us a fantastic book that the women had compiled filled with beautifully illustrated recipes and batique Chinese characters that they were really proud of.

Group 2:

The second group visited St Marks Road in Easton, an incredibly diverse and culturally rich street with it’s many local businesses and community groups. The young people interviewed varioius shop keepers, from the barbers to the hallal butchers and Mr Abdul Ismail from the Brisol Sweet Mart, who gave them a detailed account of how his family escaped persecution in Uganda and came to this country to start a new life and set up their own business. The group then had the opportunity to sample some of the wonderful food that the Sweet Mart had to offer from pakoras to gulab jamen before heading back to school to compare their footage with the other group.

Over the next few days we’ll be working on the edit before taking the students to BBC Bristol to edit together the final piece. The finished film will be available to view on youtube in a couple of weeks and will be screened at Fairfield School’s DiversEC1ty Day.

What the students learnt and enjoyed:

'I enjoyed going to the chinese supermarket'

'I learnt how to interview people properly.'

'I enjoyed finding out about different cultures.'  

What our peer educators thought:

'I really enjoyed going out into the community. The young people were very encouraging to each other and seemed quite professional when interviewing.' - Shagia, 19