Skillset Post Production Standards Review

If you work in Post Production you might be concerned about the standard and relevance of new entrants coming into the industry. Sometimes it seems that the right skills aren’t being taught, and the right training isn’t available.

Skillset wants to change that, but they need our assistance.

They want to create new Occupational Standards in Post Production that can be used to create new qualifications.

This is a big challenge for our industry, because these standards will be recognized by Government and the ensuing qualifications can be embedded in education, enabling universities and colleges to produce industry-savvy practitioners who have the right mix of skills to feed our industry.

It’s not going to happen overnight, but the best chance of it happening at all is with the industry’s input.

If you consider yourself to work in any section of the Post Production industry, Skillset are inviting you to look at the DRAFT work they’ve done already to help them make it better.

Please go to http://skillsetnews.org/2KF-2YD/s2.aspx , download any docs that relate to your expertise and comment on what you think by filling in the online questionnaire. Give as much time to this as you want, even a little helps.

This is not a bureaucratic or academic exercise: real change in education and training will come from this, but only with your assistance.

Real Talent Exposed at AMI Awards

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to have been invited to the first ever Ability Media International (AMI) awards held at the impressive Kings Place in Yourk Road London.

The awards celebrated the achievement of highly talented individuals across all forms of media: dance, opera, theatre, film, television, interactive, online, community etc.

The recipients were all at the top of the league and all have a disability or have enabled disabled people to realise their talent.

The point of the day was to emphasise not that each of these people were in some way exceptional (though they all were) but that each of these people is mostly normal, mostly just another soul trying to live a fruitful life, trying to achieve some goal.

Like other people a few have big dreams that they have managed to turn into reality.

I was truly excited by the awards. I felt the breadth of achievement, judged purely on the merit of the talent under scrutiny, not weighted with sympathy or well meaning, was a clear signal that this country’s talent pool comes in every shape, size and shade.

We are incredibly fortunate to live in the UK; it enjoys an enviable global respect for its arts and media output. We could lose that respect if we don’t nurture it.

The industry brings valuable money into our economy and employs around half a million people. But what drives the creativity? What forges the talent? Where do these extraordinary people come from?

We used to believe they came, pretty much exclusively, from white men, aged around 20 to 40. Well educated, fit. Able bodied.

We don’t think that is true any longer of course but we are still missing rich seams of valuable potential talent by assuming disability negates creativity or ability.

I believe our country should have the best, the very best, people with the most creative ideas, the most honed talents, leading the way. In my view that means seeking out those special people across the entire population, no matter what state they are in physically, mentally or socialogically. White, twentysomething, fit, able bodied men are just as valuable as anyone else but they are not the only source of our nation’s creative fuel.

Our society, in common with many others, has assumed people with disabilities are not as creative as an able bodied person, but that simply isn’t true. The AMI awards showed that to be the case incredibly clearly.

The AMI Awards is an initiative by Leonard Cheshire Disability, itself an astounding organisation.

Hope I get invited again next year!

Of screens and computers

This post is something of a wish / to do list really.

I already use a couple of screens when I’m working but really would like to have a couple more.

The trouble is I don’t really want one poor struggling PC providing the grunt for all the screens.

Actually I would prefer at least a couple of independent machines running the screens, so I can happily shut one machine down without having to rebuild the entire desktop at start up.
However I’d also like to be able to drag and drop documents between all the screens. Can it be done? I think it might be possible but don’t yet know how.

That DAM Show

I have just been listening to the first episode of my good friend Colin Birch’s latest online magazine That DAM Show.

The programme is a much needed overview of what’s happening in the world of Digital Asset Management and looks at issues here and in the USA concerned with storing and, perhaps more importantly, finding material.

The numbers are huge: the amount of material being generated by us all (text, audio, video etc) is incredible and growing. Not all of it worthy of archiving perhaps, but archiving is only a part of the issue.

I was heavily involved with researching DAM technologies and issues for a business we were looking to develop while I was running Molinare, which would have required a lot of capture, meta tagging, storage & retrieval. All fascinating stuff to me.

Sadly, back then in 1999 – 2002, the technology was still too expensive for us to make the numbers work commercially and we eventually had to put the project to one side.

Today of course DAM is absolutely central to a successful creative industry and, dull though it may appear be to some creatives, being able to put your hand on something you need quickly and accurately surely comes high on a list of requirements, even in small organisations.

That DAM Show is well worth a listen to and I wish Colin and his co-hosts success with it. I’ll be tuning in for more!

You can find it here: www.thatdamshow.com

Sorry, There’s No Way To Save The TV Business

Just spotted this down to earth article that certainly raises some key issues for any of us involved in TV today. Whether or not you agree (and for the most part I do) with the author’s conclusion, there can be little doubt that the Internet is a profound change in technology and we are only just beginning to see the consequence to other technologies that were, once, just as revolutionary. The article was written from an American standpoint, but I think it holds true for the British industry too.

Sorry, There’s No Way To Save The TV Business
The traditional TV industry–cable companies, networks, and broadcasters–is where the newspaper industry was about five years ago: In denial…

Teaching, Mentoring & being an Expert

There has been a lot of discussion on Twitter and other places recently (in my world) about teaching and mentoring. It has made me feel uncomfortable.

Perhaps you are a bit like me. I’ve done a some teaching on TV technology to new entrants to the creative industries etc, which I thoroughly enjoyed and got very good feedback from.

So why do I feel so reticent about talking about what I know?

That question has been on my mind a lot recently and I’m beginning to feel guilty. I certainly do enjoy helping people discover what they can do, assist them to understand things that I’ve understood etc etc but, at the same time I still want to hold back and hide from doing it!

Just now, while making a cup of tea and putting off going out the garden (looks like rain) the answer hit me like a used tea bag on the clean worktop.

I’m scared of looking silly because I’m not an expert.

Ok big deal, you might think, except that being an ‘expert’ on things is pretty much how I pay my bills. Maybe that is how you feel too.

What it comes down to is confidence, which stems from what we believe being an expert means.

You see in my my mind’s eye being an expert means being someone who knows virtually all there is to know about a given subject.

By that measure of course I shouldn’t be able to buy a cup of tea, never mind feed and house my family.

My realisation was this; the definition I’ve been using is rather naive, because in reality expertise is relative and contextual.

So how does that help us get over ourselves and become comfortable teaching & mentoring? Well, for me, it means changing the focus from worrying about whether or not I impress (or look stupid in front of) my peer group and concentrating on whether someone who hasn’t had my experience will find what I have to say useful.

So I am thinking how I go about crystallising what I have to offer to others and how to make it available to people who’d like it, which is a much more creative and satisfying problem to address.

Tags: Confidence, Teaching, Mentoring, Expert

What To Do With An Old Blower?

At the weekend I was given an old bouncy castle blower. I think I might use it to make a small wind tunnel but I asked my Twitter followers for suggestions.

The suggestions so far are:

• Rig up in downstairs loo as a super hand dryer
• Antisocial (but fun) quiff blasting gadget outside hair salons
• Leaf blower
• Toupee adhesion tester
• Umbrella tester
• Dinghy inflator
• Home ventilator
• Fish tank aerator (flying fish!)
• Indoor kite flyer
• Camel dryer

The Twitter Infection

Yes, it’s bad. I’ve been Twittering instead of writing my blog. Silly, tiny, ethereal scraps instantly written, instantly forgotten.

Hacking: a Childish Pursuit

Sad reading on the BBC website concerning the growth of youngsters involved in cyber crime:

“Increasing numbers of teenagers are starting to dabble in hi-tech crime, say experts.

Computer security professionals say many net forums are populated by teenagers swapping credit card numbers, phishing kits and hacking tips.

The poor technical skills of many young hackers means they are very likely to get caught and arrested, they say.”

I imagine that many of these youngsters do not believe what they are doing is particularly wrong. If they think about the ethics of it at all, they would probably justify what they are doing in a couple of ways:

1. “If the person whose card details I’m using was not careful enough to prevent its loss, that’s their lookout – they are ‘fair game’.”

   This is the same as casting the blame for a burglary on the person whose house or car was not locked; it is specious: the purpetrator is the burgler. It is a crime to take things that are not yours.

2. “We are just doing to ‘them’ what they are doing to us.”

   A simple de-humanising approach that separates ‘us’ from ‘them’ which makes ‘them’ less worthy than ‘us’ and as a consequence makes ‘them’ acceptable objects for harvesting.

Right and wrong is rarely clear, and to a child who does not have a moral code that is in broad alignment with the society in which they live, it is even less clear.
How do we ensure that our youngsters not only get told about moral responsibility but really take it to heart?

Equestrian Fun Rides and Sponsored Rides Diary UK

Jane has just updated the Riding Diary with a new section on equstrian fun rides:

FUN RIDES, SPONSORED RIDES, PLEASURE RIDES ALL of the horse fun rides, sponsored rides and pleasure rides on ONE PAGE!

Looking for a Fun Ride?Take a look at the list below!
 
The Fun Rides below are shown in date order – just click to find out more!Interested in taking part in a Fun Ride but are not sure what to expect?Take a look at the Rides listed on the Riding Diary – many have schedules or web-links where you can find out more. Fun Rides can vary in length from 8 miles to 15 miles or more. The numbers of riders taking part can also vary a lot – some of the big Sponsored Rides raise thousands of pounds for charity each year and have hundreds of riders taking part.At the other end of the scale there are much smaller rides that will often be much quieter. Often a Fun Ride will have several routes available of different lengths. And many will have jumps – but these are usually optional!

Equestrian Fun Rides and Sponsored Rides Diary UK

Tags: Equestrian, Fun Rides, Sponsored, Rides, Diary, UK