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Showing posts from January, 2011

Further Insights Into Arts Commissioning

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See also Eight Reasons to Commission a Film ? Further Insights Into Arts Commissioning from Diane Osborne, Maternity Commissioner (former Teenage Pregnancy Programme Lead), NHS Walsall. What they are looking for is A high level of professionalism in the finished project Artists should try to identify a local lead in a particular area (teenage pregnancy, obesity, etc.) and the utilisation of high profile ‘champions’, which can be strong advocates Collaboration with clinicians to ensure the accuracy of information to be delivered Local knowledge of current trends (seek out this information from public health department for local demographics / statistics) Improvements in ‘outcomes’, and demonstration of value for money delivery Innovation ‘Spend to save’, tailoring of targets, incorporating local priorities of Local Area Agreements (LAAs) Read the full report here,

Secret Services and Community Celebrations

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A Still from Naata / The Bond 2003 How do we move from a state of secrecy to publicity, openness and celebration? The aim of this blog is simply to outline how you can achieve your aims by asking (and answering) a set of questions about your identity now, and thinking about where you want to get to. Building better communications may initially encounter resistance within a group or an organisation. So it’s a good idea to start with some basic questions such as Where are we now? Is our group or service a well-guarded secret? How do we promote our services? Why do we want people to be more aware of what we do? What is unique about what we do? Here are some questions to consider  … Does your community group, charity, or service communicate a clear ‘emotional charge’ or a unique identity? maintain its relevance over time by evolving in response to changing perceptions? make people want to get involved? get demanded by service users because it represents excell

Eight Reasons to Commission a Film to get your Message Out

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If we want to create a powerful and authentic message there are many tools and media available. If you are thinking about commissioning a film, or online steaming video, there are some strong reasons to favour a participatory approach to your project. Clients are increasingly expecting information to be available in accessible audio-visual formats - that's why YouTube is now the second biggest search resource after Google.  "8 Reasons to Commission a Film to get your Message Out" : a short film has more impact than a text-based manual or policy document, which will sit unread on the office shelf. film has the capacity to broaden engagement and participation as many service users have very poor or weak literacy, but will relate to film and web resources film delivers the same message every time leading to clear and reliable outcomes, rather than confused or mixed messages. For instance, we might ask clients to identify the biggest issue that they currently f

Summary of recent community media posts / resources

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What is Community Film ? Core Advice for an Award Winning Film - 30 Tips 7 Steps to transform your community newslettter from junk to jewel 30 Ways to Put the Community Into Film ... 8 Practical Approaches for Community Film Distribution The Fold of Creativity and Critique: media theory, media practice Remarks on Social Enterprise Today: Social Enterprise back in fashion but poorly understood Press Releases: How to gain Free Publicity Film, technology, games and canapes: Lord Puttnam in Birmingham The Fantasy World of No Budget Films Time to Fix the Environment: Manchester shows that Celebrity and Community is not a Toxic Mixture Our 3-minute film guide for a 3-minute film Radical Origins of the 'Big Society' ? The Future of Film Debate: A Short Summary Twelve Aspects of Postfilm The Spectre of Community and the Big Society Some Useful Sites for Community Film Civil Society Groups and Volunteer Film Projects Scoping T

European Year of Volunteering 2011

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I recently wrote about the opportunities afforded by small scale film projects , and how they can help to promote the role of volunteering and further help to develop the social capital of civil society. Since writing I note that the European Union has designated 2011 as the " European Year of Volunteering ". At a time when Europe is divided between economic recovery (Germany) and debt-driven cutbacks (the rest),  the demise of the the welfare state and the disappearance public services is more of a pressing reality than an ideological nightmare. Accordingly, the theme of stronger reliance on the goodwill of individuals and community groups cannot be underestimated. Sadly there does not appear to be any appetite for making the wealthy pay more, or for a significant redistribution of income or investment priorities. We are witnessing a resurgence of tough conservative values allied with liberal free enterprise. Technology marches on (creating the illusion of progress for al

3mm medical camera

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"A medical product development company, has launched a miniature single-use video camera that can be integrated into medical devices to improve safety and help reduce healthcare costs. “At just three millimeters in diameter, the Video Scout is one of the smallest medical cameras in the world,” says Charlie Skinner, VP of Business Development for BC Tech. “Medical companies can integrate the Video Scout into biopsy tools, ablation wands, catheters, tissue cutters, scopes and more. We’re confident this sort of low cost imaging technology will usher in a new wave of disposable medical products with built in video cameras."

Roads to PostFilm: A Chronology

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Exploring scopophilia, CCTV, celebrity, gaming, inspiring books, global media anxiety and world capitalist domination. Best wishes for 2030 ! 1984    George Orwell films Documentary Big Brother and Margaret Thatcher Rules Britain as Iron Lady. 1984 Did Not Happen , claim. (St Andrews, Avanti! ) 1984    ‘Video Nasty’ Scares hit Britain and Government introduces Video Recording Act. 1985    Lambeth grants £100 to finance world’s first ‘Scopophilia Awareness Day’ (s.a.d.) on  March 5 th . 1985-1995  Lots of new technology and ideas; ethical policy; corporate ethics; corporate cleansing; ethical cleansing; outsourcing. ‘Happy decade’ 1986    Jonny Dolour patents the ‘Entertainment Libido’ E.L. meme . Waves of celebrity fever. 1987 World of Borecraft anti-meme released 1996    YewTube ‘goes Big’ with Broadcast Yourself video-share 1997   September 4 th Big Brother comes to life in Neverlands. 1997  “ Carmageddon , in which the gameplay involved mowing down innocent pedes