Author Archives: Aelwyn Williams

Promotional campaign for Cariad @ Iaith, S4C

We’ve just organised another successful competition for S4C, something of an experiment as it ran in the presentation slots around Cariad @ Iaith, the programme aimed at learners. Using and IVR system, we ran 5 competitions for three hour slots during the week, and with all nightly winners being entered into a grand draw at the end for a holiday at Nant Gwrtheyrn.

A few pages to have a look at…..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open_source_software_packages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software

http://openvideoalliance.org/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Open_Source_Video_Software

http://www.thirdsectorsocialmedia.com/

http://www.beinspiredfilms.co.uk/blog/

http://www.streamcity.co.uk/third_sector.asp

http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2011/may/23/video-blogging-win-sponsors

new site up and running

You can now go to www.ramshacklemedia.org to see the basic version of the site, sorry it’s taken so long. Because it’s based on WordPress, it’s dead easy for us to change themes etc and develop it as we want, so it’s something to think about before next week’s meeting, perhaps trawl around for some more themes if you can. We can mess about with it accordingly.

All we have to do now is think of the content! We do need the multilingual capacity etc, and there’s quite a few tweaks before we’ll be happy with it, btu it’s up and functioning. I’ll send more details over the days to come.

We’ve also got www.ramshacklemedia.co.uk , but I haven’t had time to redirect that yet.

domain name

Hey, good meeting, and I feel pretty excited about this. Given respective backgrounds and experience, we can come up with something interesting. My main task now I guess is to get some sort of web presence up and running, so I need a domain name to work with. I’ve had a look at Ramshackle, and we could register the Ramshacklemedia.org or Ramshacklemedia.co.uk domain names (.com is gone) – which one do you think fits (there’s also .info etc)? We could nab both for a few dollars. For voluntary sector kudos, maybe .org would be best, and it’s also nice and ‘neutral’ I think, but maybe it would make sense to buy both.

I’ll set up using WordPress, and we can pick out some themes which might fit the bill, use a multilingual plugin also, see how it works. Once set up, it’s pretty easy to customize.

Some good ideas this afternoon: local sponsorship for courses (could be a really good model once we’ve established), ‘Film it, Cut it, Show it’, and quite a few others. I think there’s a lot of potential in not just the training course(es?), but in refining and developing the ideas around participatory media using what’s to hand, very often for free etc.

first post…ramshacklemedia idea

As I mentioned, I thought it might make more sense that we blogged our ideas, we can keep all the relevant research and links as we go along. Why did I call it ramshacklemedia?

1. I really like the word ‘ramshackle’, and I’ve always thought I’d like to use it somwhere
2. It kind of expresses partly what I think we can offer i.e. the ability for people to create in whatever media they want, using whatever is at hand, and not to be afraid of experimenting

But really it’s not that important, just what came into my head after the 3rd coffee this morning.

What we discussed on Thursday can be boiled down to the following, based on the rather grand premise that society in general is becoming more audiovisually literate, that we’re moving more into a visual culture which created by ‘us’ not just ‘professionals’:

– there’s a gap in the market here in the Third Sector for people wanting to create audiovisual material either internally or for their external media presence (or for team building activities)
– this material is usually in the form of short films which illustrate case studies about what the organisations do, how they interact with service users of all sorts etc or news items from events
– increasingly, this is seen as part of the role of all press and pr departments, who currently receive training usually in other places, not Cardiff
-though being confident with technology of all sorts is important, being able to craft and edit a story is equally important, be that using a mobile phone, flip camera or professional kit
– being able to offer a cheap, open source alternative is always good news, and will increasingly become better news as more money is cut from the sector (in my book, it’s also morally good use of software which should be free, but we can talk about that some other day…..)
– increasingly, organisation use such material as qualitative proof for funders of what they do, and for some organisations, getting service users to use such techologies is a way to teach broader IT skills – there are a lot of funding schemes here in Wales trying to get people to do this…..

What I propose is that we do some research, find out if there’s a viable business for us to build. Start small, see what happens. If you’ve got a spec that you can put together in terms of what you offer in your one day training course, all the better. I’ve got to write a piece for the WCVA newsletter soon, and I’d like to be able to offer/promote a service . As an organisation Pawb (not-for-profit, been going for roughly 9 years – clients include a spectrum from broadcasters to local authorities , even HM prison service – website currently being redeveloped, so current one is a bit old unfortunately), and as director I span both telly and the third sector, with social research being my main thing (when there’s work…..) – one of my current main projects is S4C Support, offering helplines etc as well as the site, which we’ve developed over the years. Over 300 organsiations in the backend database, and we control this bit of the S4C site – we’re offering organsiations space in this bit to show off more about what they do (for free), and will encourage them to give us any audiovisual material they might have…..

I’m also chair of Inroads, a succesful drug and alcohol agency based in Cardiff and the Vale (again developing a new website).

We can talk about costs etc after a bit of research, but I can definitely see there might be a business here. There’s probably quite a few people doing it already – I know some in Cardiff (so do you I guess), but not many.

the future….



Couple of interesting interviews today, one more of a group interview with a production crew in the BBC, the other with the head of post-production for one of the largest (and expanding) independent tv companies in Wales – he is directly in charge of 25 editing suites, + the company also awns a large editing facilities house. What was said by both seemed to turn the arguments about a bit, but also make things clearer.

The future might look like these pictures: these are the KPM drives which are sent over every six months or so, loaded onto the system so that the editors can use – but the AVIDS aren’t online, for obvious reasons, so the music used has to be loaded like this. Can you imagine a similar system which included music of Welsh origin, which opened up as another drive for all editors, easily searchable with clearly labeled ‘libraries’ from Sain and whoever else? KPM is actually quite a few different studios + libraries, so why not have all library music, from whoever, collated under the same brand, with the same delivery mechanism, a clear pricing structure (which would have to be competitive……).

So, some good practical ways of thinking about the future, but not necessarily good for a toolkit for musicians – because production music needs that infrastructure and won’t necessarily make people a lot of money (so to be realistic, you need that mechanism for things to improve…). However, there’s definitely a market out there, and a lot of good will from Welsh editors – but the delivery mechanism has to be quick, easy and with enough information for those who have to clear everything.

BBC interviews pointed once more to the larger strategic picture – v. experienced producers who had also worked in the independent sector for many years. The BBC has a blanket agreement which makes it easier for producers, S4C doesn’t have this; the use of Audio Network (the cheapest) seems to be too widespread for many, so many programmes sound the same.

There’s a lot of scope here for further work: we’re getting people to talk and think about the issues involved + offer advice about the best way forward, even though this won’t necessaily be part of the toolkit. This is a useful network for the WMF to tap into hopefully.

animators

Interesting interview yesterday with Dinamo, who commission a lot of the music they use because of the nature of what they produce. Again, as content producers in the modern sense, they have full rights to exploit this (….previously, for example, productions for S4C would mean all rights signed over to S4C). This means they’re more interested in buy-outs of music, especially if, with say a popular children’s animation, they can sell it to the rest of the world. They very much ‘buy local’ however, hardly ever use production music – but they were interested in the concept of being able to go and open out the commissioning process, even just for 30 second stings – if there was one place where this could happen (music producers and those wishing to commission getting together) then they would be interested.

Various production companies in Wales have taken the changes in ‘content rights’ on board, some having formed their own publishing arms, to exploit all rights.

golygfa o’r swyddfa……


Hwn di’r olygfa o’r swyddfa dros y deuddydd diwethaf yn y Galeri……

Y sgwrsio gyda pobl am y prosiect yn mynd yn dda, wedi gallu recordio dipyn o rhain i allu pigo’r pwyntiau pwysig i’r ymchwil. Yn sicr, fel sydd wedi ei grybwyll yn barod, mae’n ymddangos fod pawb isio un lle hawdd i fynd i chwilio am gerddoriaeth, gyda costau (isel) clir – ond sut bydda hyn yn gweithio wedyn ar lefel y cerddoriaon ochor arall? Lot awgrymiadau gan bobl, felly byddai’n pigo rhain i’r adroddiad wythnos nesaf.
Mae cost ac amser yn ffactorau mawr, a’r shift i gwmniau cymeryd fwy o gyfrifoldeb am gynnwys (o S4C) wedi golygu newidiadau dros y blynyddoedd diwethaf, gyda tueddiad i gael mwy o buy-outs etc. Y cwestiwn sy’n codi yn aml yw’r cwestiwn ‘1940s french accordeon played by clown’ : os mai dyma beth mae cynyhyrchydd/golygydd isio i eitem, pam mynd i chwilio am ddeunydd o Gymru, pan does dim byd ‘cymreig’ am y peth a mae’n haws a llai o hassle ei gael o rhywle arall ar y funud…….un awgrym oedd sustem haws i gomisiynu cerddorieth yn sydyn fel hyn, un pwynt o gyswllt i gerddorion a chynhyrchwyr. Mae’r cwesrtiwn o faint mae pobl wedi trwytho eu hunain mewn diwylliant cymreig yn codi ei ben dro ar ol tro hefyd.

Hefyd, wedi dod yn ymwybodol o bobl sydd yn barod wedi trio gwneud rhywbeth am y broblem yn eu ffordd eu hunain e.e. Traciau Cymraeg – Nici wedi rhoi fi ar drywydd Catrin ac Emyr Rhys/ARAN felly fyddai yn trio tracio nhw i lawr nes ymlaen ar bod yn Barcud.

Hyd hyn, wedi siarad gyda pobl sydd mwy ar yr ochor gynhyrchu, ond heddiw am gael sgwrs gyda rhywun sy’n dybio lot o raglenni a sydd yn cael dipyn o fewnbwn i’r ‘feature music’. Golwg agosach felly ar peth o’r mechanics o sut mae cerddoriaeth yn cael ei ddewis wrth dybio.