About Me
Producer and media engagement encourager. Ilkley, West Yorkshire
A passion for for photography and digital communication with a background at the BBC and ITV.
Currently director at the School Media Club making cinema films for schools and working for Oblong Leeds a community development organisation. Also a member of All Saints Church in Ilkley and involved with communications in the parish.
This blog features posts about photography including some of my photos, while the media posts will include thoughts about filmmaking and online media - particularly to do with PR activities.
read moreSchool Media Club
Tag Archives: bradford
Hidden Keighley
This week I've been continuing the Creative Partnerships schools work. We're working on a series of films about Keighley. There are six schools and the idea is that they each choose a person, event or place to focus their investigations. The subjects include the local cinema, a haunted pub, a bandstand, a mill, and a school. The films are to be shown at a big screen red carpet event at Keighley Picture House to about three hundred children from the six schools on the 8th of July.
But the project is more that just film making. Each or the groups has to create a box of treasures which they are to hide in readiness for a hunt using hand held gps tracking devices and hidden clues. It will become a kind of Dan Brown quest to uncover hidden secrets in the landscape.
The ideas the children have come up with have been wonderful including a a talking photo album which tells the story of Braithwaite school, a box of industrial sounds, a life size model of a Victorian child who's revisiting the mills and a wall whose bricks come to life to tell their secrets. Keighley News
All the materials and videos from the project will go on display in a public installation at Cliffe Castle Museum.
This is an area I love. My roots are in industrial Bradford with connections to the mills on both sides of the family. My grandfather on my dad's side was a mill owner and on my mother's side I have an intriguing connection with Samuel Cunliffe-Lister which I'm trying to unravel. Samuel CL was an inventor who came up with a wool combing machine which transformed both his and Bradford's fortunes. My grandmother came from a relationship with one of occupants of Swinton Park – a place to which she was secretly taken to meet members of the family.
Posted in Creativity, Film, Video, Yorkshire
Also tagged creative partnerships, hidden keighley, keighley, samuel cunliffe-lister, schools, textiles, yorkshire
2 Comments
Factory Street Studios Rock School
I've been back to the Factory Street Studios in Bradford to see their Rock School in action. Studios are owned and run by Alex and Amy Eden and come from a very brave and ambitious vision. The whole complex is huge and as well as rehearsal rooms and a recording studio they are to be equipped with a very exciting performance space. Alex and Amy see the studios as a lively community space occupied by people who have a passion for music at all levels.
The Rock School is run during the school holidays and is as much about offering fun and friendship as it is about music. The whole atmosphere was one of participation and creativity. The kids had spent the whole week learning to play instruments together – and for some it was the first time. Pressure and excitement were built around an impending live performance at the end of the week.
I was there to make a short promotional piece by getting the reaction of parents and children at the end of the performance. The video would be used to provide evidence of the value of the venture. The parents certainly see this as more than an opportunity to keep their offspring occupied. The ones I spoke to say this as an opportunity to build confidence, learn skills and make friends. One dad believed the songwriting aspects would help his son's performance in English at school.
There's no doubt in my mind that if you can get a community of people together who have a shared passion, great things will happen. They can learn from each other, inspire each other and generally raise the creative bar. I firmly believe that however creative you are, you need people around you to help you move forwards and upwards.
Factory Street is a great idea and goes beyond the functionality of making music. It is being built as a community hub based on the shared love of music. I hope it does well.
