Archive for the ‘News’ Category

The organisers of TyneTwestival are putting a call out to local businesses for help with the Twitter-themed event which aims to raise money for some of the world’s poorest communities by supporting @Concern.

This year Twestival aims to highlight eight issues preventing some of the world’s poorest young people from going to school and getting the education they need.

The Tyneside event takes place at the Tyne Bar in Newcastle on Thursday 25 March, and features North East globetrotter Paul Smith, better known as @Twitchhiker, among other entertainment highlights – including hundreds of pounds worth of prizes up for grabs in the raffle.

The event starts at 7pm on the 25th – which isn’t far off. We’re always open for offers of more raffle prizes, so please drop us a line @TyneTwestival if you can help.

We’ll have more information soon, so keep an eye out!
TyneTwestival

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There was a Day of Cultural “Blogcasting” from Destinations in Saltburn on March 4th to tie in with European Get Online Day. A team of community media volunteers worked from a temporary studio upstairs in Destinations to put out a five hour programme of sound, video and images. A couple of clips came in from Latvia. Whilst it was a little disappointing that more content did not come in from our European partners we de get over 2000 viewers on the day and the visitor map to the right (click to enlarge) shows where our viewers were coming from. We even had Community Media students from Brighton University assigned to study our work.

The event was launched by Cllr Barry Hunt, The Mayor of Loftus and was followed by wide and varied content ranging from animations to poetry performances.

Some notable items: A live unedited walk along Skinningrove Jetty followed by Tommy Evans’ update on Otters, Marske Fishermans Choir and the East Cleveland Image Archive

You can see the whole event here or watch it in the order it was transmitted. (Just scroll down and click on “older entries” at the foot of each page. All in all a great sucess and we’ll be running more Blogcasts. If you would like to be involved in the next one as a contributor or a participant then please contact s.d.thompson@tees.ac.uk

Whatever the platform whatever the device, however mobile, however not, the trend has always been for ever faster graphics technology, ever higher resolutions, more and more colours; just more and more. However, a revolution has very slowly been creeping up on the unsuspecting digital world at least since the turn of the millenium. eReaders, using electronic paper for their displays, offering page refreshs of more than a second and anything up to 16-level grey scales, certainly no colour, are becoming a real commercial proposition. There are something like thirty of them currently on the market and eBook sales are the fastest growing sector of the publishing industry. Amazon’s Kindle seems to be the best selling.

eReaders do offer some advantages over traditional displays: they are easily read in bright sunlight; once a page is displayed they don’t consume any more power until the next page is required; one eReader can hold hundreds of eBooks for you at any one time. If you like books and reading and don’t want to play graphics intensive video games then they might be for you. Actually, that said, there are almost certainly hundreds of millions of people that have and will find them very appealing. eReaders are an example of slow technology: technology for reflection and contemplation, technology that slows time down, technology that won’t be rushed and, most importantly, technology that won’t rush you. This really is a revolution and it looks like it’s going to take hold.

As part of ongoing research, and for a future Blogzene article, I would be very interested to talk to any companies or freelancers who are developing content or applications for eReaders. I am interested in general ideas and motivations for exploiting the technology and not specific applications or IP. I would also be interested to talk to any of you out there who are eReader users and find out your opinions about them.

Please contact me, Clive Fencott, at p.c.fencott@tees.ac.uk if you would like to help me out here. Cheers.

The Word FM Team (Click to Enlarge)

This week there has been the culmination of an Internet Radio project by Holy Cross Primary School in Howden North Tyneside. There will be a podcast going live at 2pm each day so by the time you read this you may have only one more show to look forward to. However in the best broadcast tradition each show will still be there for that “listen again” function. You can find the shows here at www.wordfm.co.uk

Through Creative Partnerships the children have produced 4 Internet Radio programmes with help from Musician Phil Caffrey and Producer Steve Thompson. The four shows have been based on the theme of “Statements to Live By” and a different statement forms the basis of each show. (The picture shows just some of the team: around 40 children took part)

Tuesday: “I listen to what you say, I show that I am listening to you.

Wednesday: “I cooperate with others in work and play”

Thursday:  “I try to use words to make the world a better place”

Friday: “I try to appreciate the world around me”

These were preceded by a pilot show  on Monday 15th March with the themed shows to go live each day at 2pm for the rest of the week.

http://www.skinningrove.tv/image-archive/http://www.skinningrove.tv/image-archive/

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A little while ago a small group of enthusiasts began to meet in Loftus Library where they were digitising an image collection. I set them up with a website and ran a session or two on how to upload their images and so Loftus Digital Village was born.  Over the coming weeks and months the archive grew at an amazing rate. Folks started to send images by email or bring them into the Library for scanning. Others left messages in the comments identifying people and objects in the pictures.

Attendees at Concept Film Night were invited by James Harris, to write/draw/sketch their thoughts on ‘Light’ as part of the evening last week.    Writers’ Block Zine is an anthology of creativity springing from the Writers’ Block project run by Laura Degnan.  The small-press magazine will showcase the work of local talents and is being compiled and edited by James Harris.  Inspiration for the Zine came partly from MIMA’s current exhibition ‘A certain distance, endless light’ from which the theme ‘Light’ was taken.    Read the rest of this entry »

MirrorMe Short-listed for Media Guardian Innovation Award

Author: Adam Gatenby, Ideonic

After the success of winning an Interactive Media Award in January for MirrorMe, we are extremely please to announce we have now been short-listed for a Media Guardian Innovation Award.

We increased both our technical and creative boundaries during developing MirrorMe, and with an iPhone version of MirrorMe in development, we continue to do so.

MirrorMe features in the ‘Application and Gadgets’ category along side iPhone apps Bunny Munro by Enhanced Editions,  and the Nike Football Control application. It’s a great honour to be up against such great applications, and shows what great work we’re doing at Ideonic.

The winners will be announced at the awards night in late March. For more information about the MediaGuardian Innovation Awards visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/megas.

Do you have a passion for people, their lives and their issues? Are you interested in capturing them on camera and making it into a different kind of movie? Could you inform, entertain and surprise an audience?

Northern Film & Media in partnership with Community Channel and Sheffield Doc/Fest are launching ”Capture 2010” a factual and documentary talent development scheme and will provide you with access to industry professionals, talent spotters, broadcasters, exhibition platforms and some project funding.

NFM  are looking for energetic Film Makers who have a passion for making content that could make a difference to an issue, a cause or a community.

They want to find talent that has a desire to innovate and are willing to go the extra mile to draw attention to their projects and reach a wide audience.
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Final Cut Pro is the industry standard software for film and video editors

Teesside University has recently became an Apple Authorised Training Centre for Final Cut Pro. The School of Arts & Media is delivering five courses in the latest version of the industry standard video editing software between February and July 2010. Subsidies are available for eligible North East-based SME and freelance businesses.

Final Cut Pro is the first choice software package for professional TV and film editors. Version 7 provides better integration with Apple’s other Pro applications than ever before with improved codec support for editing HD, DV and SD video formats. It also boasts new presets for devices such as iPod, Apple TV, and Blu-ray discs. Over four intensive days, this course aims to develop a professional competence in both post production craft and an understanding and operation of Final Cut Pro 7 software.

All delegates attending the Teesside course will be given the opportunity to obtain an Apple accredited certificate for the latest version of the package, while also obtaining 20 University credits in ‘Post Production with Final Cut Pro’. The cost of the Apple exam and Final Cut Pro 7 handbook is included in the fee.
Cost per person: £830.00
Subsidised cost per person: Up to 90% discount (based on successful Teesside University and Business Link application)

For further information regarding eligibility and course dates contact James McDermott on: 01642 738 089 or Email: samwfd@tees.ac.uk

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A unique exhibition will run at Middlesbrough’s Python Gallery from Feb 18th to March 12th featuring the work of staff at Teesside University’s School of Computing

School of Computing staff at Teesside University work in a variety of fields, meaning they are able to teach drawing and computing skills which combine traditional 2d drawing and painting skills to create conceptual computer created imagery, mostly based on and for the computer game industry.

Staff continue their art-practice as part of their on-going research and they have produced, for this exhibition, a collection of eclectic work, including photography, drawing, painting, sculpture and animation.

Featured in the exhibition is what is believed to be the world’s first 3D print of a ‘Mandelbulb’ and also Maggie Parker’s seminal works, ‘Infinity’ and ‘Torus’.  These pieces are impossible to make in the ‘real world’ due to their complexity of shape, only being able to be manifested in the ‘real world’ by recreating them using a 3d printer.

The retiring Dean of the school, Derek Simpson says “This exhibition, to be held at the Python Gallery, Middlesbrough, is an excellent opportunity for both academic and ancillary staff to consolidate their status as artists in both the public’s and students’ eyes and disseminate this work into the larger community”.

Python Gallery, Royal Middlehaven House, Gosford Street, Middlesbrough, TS2 1BB, Telephone: 01642 247745

The community animation event (Animex Fringe) in Saltburn on Thursday 11th Feb was a tremendous successes with a full house for the matinee (in which we hooked up with children and police in Latvia) and around 80 people for the evening event. The event made it onto Latvian National TV !

You can relive the event on the blog at www.saltburn.org.uk or if you really want to re-run the event in the order it happened click here ( it builds slow but quickly gets media rich) – just read each page, scrolling down and then click “older entries” at the bottom. As well as the hook-up with Latvia, the event was followed by people in Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, Sweden, Finland and the UK.

The event saw the world premier of “The Force is With You” which you can enjoy below.

“The Seer Sung Husband” a new paperback of Bob Beagrie poetry is released this month by Smokestack Books,  priced at £7.95 (ISBN: 978-0-956034-14-4)

The Seer Sung Husband tells the story of the Pilgrimage of Grace, the sixteenth-century Northern rebellion that briefly defied the authority of Church and State. Tobias Shipton, carpenter and husband of the Yorkshire witch and soothsayer Old Mother Shipton, weaves a wyrd tale of love and loyalty, rebellion and royal retribution. The Seer Sung Husband is a book about folklore and myth, imagination and belief. It’s a portrait of England at a time of radical social, religious and political crisis. It’s a magical realist verse-epic set against the violent upheavals of 16th Century England. It’s a book about witchcraft and statecraft, religious faith and political betrayal.

Teesside University is set to deliver a series of innovative courses aimed at professional actors and film directors. The first of these is Acting for Green Screen – a course which will teach actors how to perform in the virtual environments that have become the norm in today’s Hollywood blockbuster movies.

Led by award-winning director Malachi Bogdanov ( Assoc Director English Shakespeare Company, Wales Theatre Company, directed over 70 professional theatre productions) and Special Effects Technician Mark Buschbacher (Casino Royale, Da Vinci Code & Harry Potter), the course will prepare the delegates for working in modern film industry environments and situations.

Ewan Mcgregor found acting in virtual environments daunting. North East-based actors can learn how it's done at Teesside University in March.

This University accredited three day intensive short course offers a unique opportunity for professional actors to work in Teesside University’s industry standard High-Definition sound stage – the only one of its kind available to actors in the north of England, to develop skills in Green Screen Performance, increasing their employability and enhancing their career options.

Acting with an imaginary character in an imaginary location is a daunting prospect for any actor and a technical discipline is required that is not usually supported by conventional actor training. High profile actors like Ewan McGregor and Gwyneth Paltrow have admitted to finding it ‘very, very hard’ and ‘daunting’ when working with this media. Acting for Green Screen has been designed to offer actors the opportunity to experience firsthand, the challenges and demands of this genre, and to enable them to develop the skills required to achieve convincing and accomplished performance in an environment where nothing is as it seems.

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