In October of this year, WeMakeMedia were proud to be involved in the Velocity Festival of Digital Culture which took place throughout the Morecambe Bay area. Hosted by folly, It was an ambitious 3 week festival of exhibitions, events and activities, bringing some of the very best technology-driven creative practice to the area.
Our contribution to the festival was the production of a short film titled A Frantic Shot Torn, which was screened alongside other international short films at the Halloween Short Film Night in Carnforth.
Throughout 2007, we worked with folly to deliver a series of free pocket movie-making workshops at Carnforth Station in Lancashire. For Halloween we embarked on something a little bit different. Armed with a single Canon DV camera, and working from a script by North West writer Steve Jansen, we worked intensively for 3 hours with workshop participants to create something ghoulish out of the digital ether that casts a new light on the after-life.
You can watch the film right here on our website, or over at folly’s YouTube channel.
The festival proved to be a fantastic success with over 20,000 people visiting and taking part. You can read some more of the feedback and stats over on the folly website. We’re looking forward to working with folly again in 2008, and wish them continued success!
Posted by Phil Powell on December 19, 2007
We’re pleased to be able to announce that we’re going to be working with The Shannon Trust to develop a series of films to promote their Toe By Toe literacy scheme.
The Shannon Trust is a charity devoted to the development of literacy in our prisons through peer to peer mentoring. The charity encourages and helps prisons to develop teams of inmates, who run daily one-on-one lessons for illiterate fellow prisoners.
Literacy in our prisons is an important issue, as explained by the Trust:
The government’s statistic is that 38% of all adult prisoners have no useful literacy skills. A further 29% have very poor reading skills. That equates to over 50,000 prisoners at any one time.
And it is a moving parade. The prison population is around 76,000 strong, but 90,000 inmates are released every year.
So there is a constant stream of people going through the system with very weak literacy. And all of them are currently almost barred from well paid and fulfilling employment.
We’ll be working closely with Trust volunteers, along with participants in the scheme, to produce two short films which will encourage wider participation, and to promote the efforts of the scheme so that it can be rolled out in more prisons and in the probation service.
This is a really worthwhile project which we’re proud to be involved with.
Posted by Phil Powell on December 10, 2007
We like to get out and about to talk about the work we do, even if we are in the depths of the cold winter months and it means we have to wrap up in our gloves and scarves! We’ve been braving the elements, and getting to know some of the creative students in the region and lending them some of our knowledge.
A couple of weeks ago we were invited to present some of our work at the second successful On the bus to Barrow event organised for students from Lancaster University. The event was hosted at the Nan Tait Centre, and the art exhibition was the perfect place for us to chat to creative students, showcasing a selection of our work and providing them with advice on working in a creative industry.
And last week, Phil was invited to Barrow Sixth Form College to provide an in-depth talk to the art and design students. He talked about his extensive experience of working as part of a team at creative design agencies, and how to attract clients as a freelancer, whilst presenting real-world examples and advice on best working practices.
We really enjoy being invited to talk about our work, especially when it provides us with the opportunity to inspire and motivate anyone who is interested in pursuing a creative career. If you think we’d be able to help you by presenting at your college or university, then get in touch with us.
Posted by Phil Powell on December 10, 2007