Community TV Trust | Newsletter 1, July 2002

CTVT-Newsletter
e-published & distributed by Community TV Trust
_______________issue no.1______________
July 2002

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... THIS ISSUE considers Community and Education as
partners in social and individual (re)generation ...

... and warmly welcomes likeminded readers in UK, Ireland,
Lithuania, Palestine, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, New Zealand,
Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and America.

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BBC and Community Channel:
Community media's golden opportunity to air your views
&
and the national e-learning campaign in England-

Look out also for Lithuania, Palestine, a tale from the Dales,
some background on Community TV Trust, and
web addresses & contact details
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[ONE:] TOP STORY
SHOW YOUR LOCAL FILMS ON TV !!

A recent discussion between Community TV Trust and Jeremy
Smith of Community Channel in London has opened up a vast
range of opportunity for airing locally made films and videos.
Community Channel is currently carried by SKY Digital and is
free. With BBC now winning its 24-channel multiplex of digital
channels (TV & radio) it will also soon be carrying the
Community Channel - a channel devised for the charity and
voluntary sector that is broadening its approach to what it screens.

ACTION POINT 1
If you know people who would like to learn about making
videos and films, they now have a real possibility of showing
them on TV - that's as well as presenting them locally in
whatever way they contrive for themselves.

That's incentive, in anyone's language. Ah the appeal of the
mass media ...
In point of fact, of course, the size of Audience is not influential
and Money is not the issue either ...
Everyone concerned with producing a local media item,
be it audio/video/still photographs/whatever, wins simply
by completing the work. To have collaborated and achieved
is territory new to so many.

ACTION POINT 2
If you know of films and videos that might be worth putting
forward for the Community Channel to consider, feel free to
send them to Community TV Trust (FAO Chris Haydon at
10 Denman Road London SE15 5NP) and we will view them
and pass you or the filmmakers our comments.

Community TV Trust is keen to promote a high volume of
locally made media. Spotting clusters of videos & films (of
same or similar genre, length, style, etc.) which it can then
present to Community Channel is one way. Given Chris
Haydon's background in broadcast television production
(producing and directing live & recorded programmes,
shooting film & multicamera, drama, documentary, arts,
infotainment magazine, sports formats) CTVT is in a strong
position to assist less experienced and/or new programme
makers with their work.
n.b. There is no fee for this consultancy but if you want tapes
sent back to you or sent on to the Community Channel,
make sure to include the cost of postage.

Equally, if you are confident that you already have a piece
of quality work, get in touch with Jeremy Smith at the
Community Channel directly: ++44 (0)20 7874 7627 or by
email <jeremys@communitychannel.org>.
Watch Community Channel on Sky digital (684)
http://www.communitychannel.org
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[TWO.(1):] e-learning e-learning e-learning e-learning

Whereever I have explored Community, Education has
responded. It was an immense pleasure therefore to have an
opportunity recently to broaden my understanding of what is
happening in schools in England in terms of IT and media
with commissions to produce two films on e-learning projects.
For just as young people learn IT skills and new software
programmes at a rate of knots, today's young are also the
natural community 'broadcasters' of tomorrow.
[IT = Information Technology]

Up in CUMBRIA, outside Alston - the highest market town
in England, the village of NENTHEAD sits in a scooped out
hollow of great rural beauty, small in population grown
familiar with unemployment. Nenthead’s Primary School
cook, who doubles as school secretary, daily prepares lunch
for 23 pupils and the staff. Following a commission from the
national charity, e-Learning Foundation, freelance cameraman
Charlie Grainger and I travelled north, via East Manchester
EAZ's e-learning project which is set to combine 17 schools
(Primary and Secondary). [More on the East Manchester
Educational Action Zone and its progress towards running
a local e-learning Foundation in the next issue.]

The headteacher of Nenthead Primary School is Caroline Breyley
who admitted that engaging in e-learning had created a steep
learning curve for her. Nonetheless she remains an IT and
e-learning enthusiast. She says -
"We haven't done much "film making" lately - a few network
problems - but now have broadband on the Moor and nearly
as far as Nenthead, which should open up more possibilities.
Our latest developments - small to others but big to us - have
been "publishing" to the world on the children's own
think.com pages. We are also about to submit some things for
the cybermoor.org site - a local audience but open to a wider
audience as well."
One can sense their world changing about them and sense their
wonder at it.

The e-Learning Foundation aims to kit out every schoolchild in
the country with a laptop computer within five years. Cost £3bn.
Government is on-side. Business is passionately wooed. So too
the parents. The financial vision is triangular - Government,
Business and Parents (who are invited to make a voluntary
contribution), each component as important as the other.

For the children at this remote Cumbrian school, participating in
web activities means everything: they feel on a par with the rest
of the country, able to visit websites signalled by TV programmes
for example. The fact that there is little or no public transport, that
theatre/cinema/swimming pool are all 30 miles away, matter less
and less given the equalising effects of the virtual IT society.

It was striking too how mature the children have become,
selecting their laptop if that was the tool for the job, and not if not.
There was no deluding infatuation with new toys in these young
minds.
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[TWO.(2):] e-learning e-learning e-learning e-learning

At St. Martin’s High School for Girls in LAMBETH’s Tulse Hill -
a world away from rural Cumbria and deep into inner city life -
this 300-year old modern technology college has acquired a
reputation for providing good education and increasing amounts
of IT. A local e-learning project has come up with funding and
an initial supply of laptop computers for Year 9 pupils, age 13/14.
There is discernable enthusiasm all round.

Community TV Trust was invited in to make a film that laid out
for parents the school's vision for laptop learning, and why they
- the parents - were being asked to contribute towards the costs
of the scheme. The school emphasises that while they need most
parents to participate financially in the scheme, at the same time
all pupils will be included whether or not their parents choose to/
can afford to contribute. It remains to be seen how well this works.

Discussions are proceeding with High Trees Community
Development Trust (who drive regeneration on St. Martin's Estate),
Lambeth Education, Community Action Network, and with Psion,
manufacturers of the neat and clever 'netBook', the chosen laptop
for St. Martin's (8/9 year olds at the Hill Mead Primary School in
Brixton are also using the netBook enthusiastically), with regard
to creating and supporting a genuine community media project
at Tulse Hill.

------------------------------

The pupils in Nenthead, Cumbria, benefit from e-learning funding
and a Wired Up Communities project; they, like the girls at St.Martin
-in-the-Fields High School, can become pioneers of local media ...
producing multimedia content on various computer / media
platforms, desktop and laptop, streaming music, audio and video ...
Primary Schools are already exploiting Wireless Local Area Networks
... ah Brave New World !

Useful Websites:
www.e-learningfoundation.com
www.can-online.org.uk
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MORSEL:                       Ours is a society that has perfected its means
                                         yet neglected its meaning.    - Albert Einstein
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[THREE:]              PARLIAMENT PARLIAMENT PARLIAMENT

Wednesday 19 June ....
The Guardian's Society Section led on the Communications Bill
focusing on community radio. For readers to date unfamiliar with
the world of community broadcasting, radio is where it all began;
you can read the Guardian's article online:

http://society.guardian.co.uk/voluntary/story/0,7890,739666,00.html
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[FOUR.1:] CTVT Profile CTVT Profile CTVT Profile

CTVT SERVICES

1: For those keen to make an impact locally and who think that local
media could be helpful and/or fun, CTVT offers motivational
consultation on creating visions that are relevant to the community;
on assessing staffing requirements to realise the vision, gauging whether
paid professionals or volunteers or both are appropriate; on finding
and appointing the staff; on brokering partnerships in and across the
community to enable the project to start.

2: CTVT offers production guidance on programme making - selecting
what production platform - video/text/stills/music/audio - be chosen;
on scripting, research, production techniques and post-production for
those non-professionals participating, with what finance (if any).

3: Chris Haydon, CTVT's Managing Trustee and a TV producer with
over twenty five years experience in broadcast and corporate markets,
oversees production in all CTVT projects whilst seeking not to
influence them editorially. [see notes below for more information
on Haydon's background.]

CTVT PRODUCTION & PROJECT PROFILE
as at July 2002

Productions & Projects Completed

“Video Directing” [May/June 2002] short training course
A series of six weekly workshops on video directing given to a
group of young people at Peckham project From Boyhood To Manhood.
The course was based around the planning, production and
post-production of a music video which the group created from scratch.

"e-Learning Foundation" (13 mins) [Mar/April 2002] promotional film
national charity helping provide laptops and IT in schools as a basic
skill alongside literacy and numeracy
[info: www.e-learningfoundation.com]

"e-Learning @ St. Martin’s" (16 mins) [Feb/March 2002] promotional film
Lambeth Education championing a scheme to run laptop facilities at
Tulse Hill Technology College, St. Martin-in-the-Fields High School
For Girls

"Elmlea: Infant Values" (23 mins) [Aug/Sept 2001] promotional film
illustrating the work of Human Values Foundation in bringing Values
teaching to Junior and Infants schools across UK.
[contact: <Edhumanval@aol.com>]

"The CAN MV Story" (38 mins) [May 2001] promotional film
celebrating Millennium Volunteers Scheme launched by DfEE,
produced in collaboration with CAN (Community Action Network)
member projects around England. Film features music produced at
Kaleidoscope available on CD.
[info on CAN: www.can-online.org.uk]

"Metropolitan Housing Trust" (23 mins) [Feb 2001] AGM Video
Profile of seven social housing projects across London and E. Midlands
[info: www.mht.co.uk]

“Community TV and Active Citizenship” [July 2000] workshops
CTVT gave a series of workshops at UEL Summer School; each course
participant planned, shot & edited a short film across six workshops

“A Light In The Darkness” by Jim Ford (59 mins) [May 2000] video drama
Story of Christ’s Passion written by a local East End, performed by locals
produced with UEL media students, shot on 5 cameras
[contact: Roger Schiff <rschiff@bardaglea.org.uk>]

“We Must Work As One” (14mins) [April 2000] promotional video
presents the case for community ‘TV’ on a south London housing estate
produced for High Trees CDT with financial support of Lambeth Council

Newham Young People Online (NYPO) (5 mins) [August 1999] promo video
Client group, 14-24 year old computer/internet enthusiasts in Newham
produced in collaboration with University of East London (UEL) who
provided one week’s filming and one week’s editing with technician
[contact: Frank Roberts <frank.roberts@zetnet.co.uk>]

Projects ongoing / in development

Video Directing & Media [from Autumn 2002] training courses
Six-week and twelve-week media training courses for students and
unemployed young people at a range of south London projects -
From Boyhood To Manhood; Educational Alliance Africa; Lotus
Training; Southwark College. Courses intended for the autumn.

“St.Martin’s TV” [from Nov 2000] workshops
The seeds of local “TV” in the CTVT model, on Lambeth housing estate:
oral history, video, estate website - residents alongside media volunteers

“St. Ives TV”
CTVT is consulting with local regeneration practitioners, the town
forum, Youth Service and media organisations of West Cornwall
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[FOUR.2:} background CTVT Founder, Chris Haydon

I joined London Weekend TV in 1974 to work in the sports department.
Learning production skills in 'live' television was a bonus; it required
lateral thinking and sharpened awareness. This has made me a good judge
of time, of how to make a deadline, of how long to set aside for phases of a
production, and so on. Above all, it teaches that life is a team game - even
if the team game is for individuals.

In 1983 I went freelance as a producer/director. In 1997 when I elected to
set up Community TV Trust, I had no idea how to deliver whatever
media the so-called community might produce. It was clear that the cable
companies had no enthusiasm for this branch of radio/TV industries.
Personally my IT skills were not at the cutting edge, so I could not read
what was about to happen.

Now, looking back over the last 5 years, the enormous advances in IT
technology have transformed our mental landscape, and continues to
reward unfettered thinking in project planning. Wi-Fi has arrived
to animate Local Area Networks ... schools are rapidly becoming ICT
Centres, tomorrow's local media/TV/radio stations, children are teaching
their parents, broadband is making progress, we are all expanding our new
media vocabularies - at whatever level we are ... crucially most of us now
recognise that, if we want, we too can make programmes/films/music.
For me that is an amazing thought: back in autumn 1974 when I applied
to join my trade union, ACTT, it banned me from working in technical
areas such as the studio and edit suites where I had been plying my trade
for six months, while they worked out who I was and how I had got into
the company without their knowledge. Such crazily restrictive times had
grown from early good intentions before entangling with politics and
bureaucracy.
Now I just love knowing that anyone can put their hands on a digital
camera - begged, borrowed or stolen - insert a miniDV tape, with a view
to editing the footage themselves on accessible editing software, and set
about creating something that expresses a whim/wish/yearning. For
example, iMovie is a sensible package for beginners and is available on
most iMac computers, Powerbooks and iBooks. All you need is something
to say ... and perhaps the Self-Esteem to step up to the mental plate and
feel that it is OK to have your say.

Anyway I threw out two considerations that completely dominate the
old 'push' medium of broadcast TV - namely Money and Audience.
At a stroke, the possibilities of a new way were liberated.

In the last two years I have trained as a Life Coach and in my view it is
our old friend Self-Esteem once again that is at the heart of everything.
At all events, it is an immediate dividend for those who invest in
community media.
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MORSEL: Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul. --
Henry David Thoreau

Removing money and considerations of audience size liberated my
thinking as I considered what role(s) and what function(s) community
media could perform in a useful, relevant and perhaps entertaining way.
The building of a participant's SELF-ESTEEM remains the prize outcome.
From that, social unity may then flow. Open access Media without
proprietorial ownership, led by no agenda other than to serve all, this
seems to me to say what community media can aspire to be.
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N-QUESTION:
BT Community Connections - anyone got any views about whether this
scheme is worth trying ? It is aimed at community groups ...

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[FIVE.1:] RUNNING UK LOCAL RADIO - A SPADE'S A SPADE

David Adams, Yorkshire resident of the Skipton area and director of
SWING Radio, rails against community radio projects that end up
producing wall-to-wall music and 'drivel' ... he is dreaming of a more
fulfilling future with relevant community programming for The Dales.
He writes:

"THE DAMASCUS ROAD"

Who was it that declared that the community should listen to inane drivel,
linking one interminable piece of music to the next, culminating in the
height of this art being the unfolding story between extracts from Bali Hai.
Having tried to persuade the perpetrators that the nausea levels were
reaching retching proportions "I quit".
No longer any extracts from "The Sun Has Got its Hat On" just because it
is breakfast time, or if you ring in and answer a simple question you can
have two tickets to the local church concert.
There has got to be life after this cultural demise.
Please help, and not by sending a recorded track of Ella Fitz or Frank from
the rat pack as over the last 28 days I have listened to 3000.
Yours, in anguish,
David Adams, Director - Swing Radio Limited (soon to be changed)

Contact David Adams at email: <cragsidefarm@tiscali.co.uk>
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[FIVE.2:] A LITHUANIAN REMINDER: "IT" ISN'T ALL THE SAME

While we gear up for BBC's 24-channel digital TV future and worry
about whether we can afford broadband connectivity etc., Tomas Samoska
contacted CTVT with a reminder that elsewhere in the world - and
sometimes just around the corner or under our noses - community
media, IT in Education, basic access to a computer cannot be taken for
granted. He is an English teacher in a junior school near the town of
Rokiskis:
    "Our motherland has been permanently experiencing economical
    difficulties, which undoubtedly affect the educational affairs as well.
    The major number of kids attending our basic school can`t afford buying
    such elementary things as stationery stuff, including pens, calculators,
    rulers, rubbers and even clothes.
    Such a thing as computer is the only one we`ve got at school, and it`s far
    from enough to be used by 115 pupils and 11 teachers."

Would-be befrienders can contact Tomas Samoska, English teacher at
Laibgaliai Basic School at email: <ambercoast25@yahoo.com>

[Comment]:
It is not the place of a CTVT Newsletter to beg for charity -
but it's fun looking out for our next door or our Lithuanian
neighbours, befriending, pointing the way towards affordable
and downloadable software that can enable schools and
organisations and individuals to take part in this strange
virtual world that draws us together.

N-QUESTION: OPEN SOURCE OPEN ?
With an eye on the future, as well as with a view to showing
those without funds how they can participate, has anyone
taking on Open Source ? It would be good to hear of your
experience ... how hard it is to start ... how much support
you found to help you along ... and so on.
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[FIVE.3:] PALESTINE: RAMALLAH CITY DRAMA

I am currently enjoying correspondence with a Palestinian film/TV
producer, Yousef Aldeek. He is planning to make a drama in Ramallah
based around the Israeli takeover, for which he has hours of archive
footage. The production will be shot on BetaSP, he has access to edit
facilities. If useful to his operation, I am hoping to effect introductions
for him to the UK scene. For one thing, an airing on Community
Channel might be an interesting proposition ... his drama is to express
what news media stab at in fitful bursts.
Though English is not his long suit, I hope Yousef will write something
for us all to imbibe - a media practitioner on the frontline.
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[FIVE.4:] STOP PRESS SRI LANKA

Just before sending out this CTVT-Newsletter, we were contacted by an
organisation in Sri Lanka looking to rebuild Education for children in
yet another corner of the world where war has destroyed lives, families,
communities and infrastructure. More on this in the next issue. If you
simply can't wait, write to (Mrs.) Indrani Rupika Abeyrathne,
Chairperson, AGWIN -
ACTION GROUP FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN NEED
22A, BORAGODAWATTA,
MINUWANGODA (11550), SRI LANKA.
Tel. +94-1-296738 Fax. +94-1-296022
E-mail. mpjep@msn.com

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CTVT-Newsletter Next Issue:

I hope Issue 2 will be created substantially by your articles, emails, reports ...
among which, with luck, will be the Humanist Movement in Brazil;
a report from the set of a video drama in Ramallah City, Palestine; more
from Sri Lanka on finding ways of working with devastated communities
... plus further reports from the world of e-learning in UK.

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MORSEL:
The end of Education is Character.
Satya Sai Baba

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CTVT rettelsweN / Feedback

In the next issue this section will carry your emails, your comment,
your aspirations, sighs & reflections - whatever you care to contribute.

There are two world-famous two-word sentences in the English
language. The other one belongs to E.M.Forster who said:

"Only connect."
So, please connect. I look forward to hearing from you.

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CONTRIBUTIONS
If you would like to contribute an article, information or just money, be
sure to follow those good instincts. Help yourself to the assortment of
contact information at the foot of this e-missive.

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is e-published & distributed by
Community TV Trust
Reg. Charity 1081912
_______________________________________________________
Directors: Christopher Haydon   Philip Parker Melanie Laithwaite Philip Craig
E: c.haydon@can-online.org.uk                              W: www.communitytvtrust.org
T: 020 7701 0878                                                                                        M: 07970 970 715
                            10 Denman Road London SE15 5NP London UK
_______________________________________________________
Community TV Trust [CTVT]                        a track record in Videos Workshops
est.1997                                                                     Consultancy in Community Media
Company No. 3796670                                                           Project & Partnership Facilitation
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