Saturday & Sunday January 21-22 2012 10.00 to 16.00

This is a practical hands-on weekend course aimed at people who want a fast way to acquire detailed and concise digital video production skills. It is particularly useful for aspiring documentary makers, journalists who want to expand their skill set and voluntary sector workers who want to shoot their own films.

The short, condensed and effective course will give all participants a solid foundation of practical knowledge and a working understanding of digital cameras, sound recording, interview techniques, filming on location and industry language.

You will also get the confidence to use a wide range of equipment and learn the “future proof” principles of film making that remain constant despite the changes in technology and formats.

We allow a maximum of three people per camera set up (camera, sound, interviewer), giving everyone extensive hands-on experience.

Completing this course will guarantee you a work placement opportunity with Spectacle.

What you will learn

- Preparing a shoot
- How to use a digital camera (focus, white balance, aperture, formats etc.)
- How to use microphones
- Framing, types of shots, camera movements, cutaways and other techniques and tips
- How to conduct and shoot an interview
- Shooting on location
- The principles of lighting, both natural and artificial
- Filming to edit
- Legal issues, permissions and copyrights

To find out more and booking

Despite the Sun

Screening and panel discussion

Wednesday 3rd Aug 6.00 – 9.00

Doors open 6.00
6.15 introduction
Screening starts 6.30
Panel Discussion 7.30 – 9.00

Mark Saunders of Spectacle and founder of Despite TV
David Crouch deputy Europe news editor at the Financial Times
Gary Horne NUJ Activist and LCC School of Journalism
Donnacha DeLong President at National Union of Journalists

Sean Cubitt: Despite the Sun is ..“I think one of the most gripping pieces of political documentary to be made in this country in the last 50 years, it’s a phenomenal piece of work.”
“they all went scooting round through people’s houses and so on to get stories that the national media weren’t getting, and it’s a fabulous piece of work”
“So it was very important aesthetically as well as in terms of its politics.”

(blog entry, original article)

Like and share trailer on youtube | watch online | get DVD | about Despite TV

More like this: http://www.spectacle.co.uk/spectacleblog/active-archive/despite-the-sun-video-art-englands-avant-garde-interview/

The EDL is threatening to come to Tower Hamlets that day to spread race hatred and attack the local Muslim community.

Last year, around 5,000 people marched through Tower Hamlets in an impressive show of strength and unity against the EDL, although the racists had already been forced to call off their own protest, admitting it would be “a suicide mission” to attempt to march through London’s East End.

more on: unite against fascism

see also: tower hamlets alarm

For more details contact: AntifaSaar

antifasaar@yahoo.de

Filmvorführung: „Die Wahrheit liegt/lügt in Rostock“ – mit Kurzvortrag zum Mord an Samuel Yeboah
Donnerstag, 7. Juli 2011
20 Uhr im Kino achteinhalb
Nauwieserstraße 19, Saarbrücken

Am 19. September 1991 wurde der Flüchtling Samuel Yeboah bei einem rassistischen Brandanschlag in Saarlouis ermordet. Diese Tat ist bis heute nicht aufgeklärt, bis heute erinnert nichts in Saarlouis an den gewaltsamen Tod Yeboahs. Im Rahmen einer Kampagne anlässlich seines 20. Todestages zeigen wir den Film „The truth lies in Rostock“.

Zum Film:
Im August 1992 griff ein Mob aus Anwohner_innen und Nazis vier Tage lang die ?Zentrale Aufnahmestelle für Asylbewerber? (ZaST) im Rostocker Stadtteil Lichtenhagen an. Begeisterte und applaudierende Deutsche machten aus dem brutalen Pogrom ein rassistisches Volksfest, auf dem sie weitgehend ungestört von der Polizei den Wahn eines ?Deutschlands nur für Deutsche? realisieren konnten. Verhaftet werden vor allem Antifaschist_innen die gekommen waren um zu tun was die Polizei nicht Willens war: Die Nazis zu vertreiben. Rostock ist nur ein Beispiel für eine ganze Reihe von Anschlägen zu Beginn der 90er Jahre. Die Politik reagiert auf Rostock, Mölln, Solingen, Hoyerswerda und andere, indem sie der Straße nachgibt: Das Asylrecht wird 1993 faktisch abgeschafft.
Die Videoproduktion ?The Truth lies in Rostock? entstand 1993 unter maßgeblicher Beteiligung von Menschen, die sich zum Zeitpunkt der Geschehnisse im attackierten Wohnheim befanden. Deshalb zeichnet sich die Produktion nicht nur durch einen authentischen Charakter aus, sondern versteht sich auch Jahre danach als schonungslose Kritik an einer Grundstimmung in der bundesrepublikanischen Gesellschaft, die Pogrome gegen Migrant_innen oder einfach nur ?anders aussehende? überhaupt erst möglich macht.
Eine Montage von Videomaterial, gedreht aus den angegriffenen Häusern heraus, Interviews mit Antifaschist_innen, den vietnamesischen Vertragsarbeiter_innen, der Polizei, mit Bürokraten, Neonazis und Anwohnern. Eine Dokumentation über das heimliche Einverständnis der Politik und über die verbreitete Angst.

Diese Aufführung wurde ermöglicht durch www.Spectacle.co.uk

To order The truth lies in Rostock DVD in English, French, Spanish or German

The event runs from 2-4 pm, and speakers include:

Maya Evans, Justice Not Vengeance
Ilyas Townsend, Justice for Aafia Coalition
Maria Gallastegui, Peace Strike
Naomi Colvin, UK Friends of Bradley Manning

International Day in Support of the Victims of Torture

Spectacle homepage
Befriend Spectacle.Docs on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology)
88 Wood Street
Liverpool
L1 4DQ

“These problems urgently need addressing and the APPG on Body Image will bring together some of the key players in this debate in a cross-party forum – youth organisations, the advertising industry, health sector and media. We will challenge some of the root causes of negative body image, highlight best practice and work towards building a society in which people feel more body confident.”

Spectacle contributed a short animated film to the campaign, that provides the viewer with a brief overview of the extensive research carried out by Central YMCA and Centre for Appearance Research in the University of the West of England, which premiered recently in the House of Commons. The film also draws attention to the financial, physically and psychological harm that appearance issues can invoke, ranging from the billions of pounds spent annually on dieting pills and food supplements, to the often devastating attitudes towards, and consequences of steroid use and cosmetic surgery. The video can also be found on the YMCA Body Confidence homepage.

As society in the UK becomes ever more sexualised and appearance oriented, the issues and pressures surrounding body image and appearance are becoming dramatically more significant and problematic. In Central YMCA’s research, statistically one in four people openly admitted to being depressed about the way they look, and as many as half of young females were open to the idea of using cosmetic surgery to enhance their looks in their future. The suggested ideals of beauty that is all too often plastered upon billboards, magazines, television, and the internet, shape the way that people, (in particular the younger generations,) perceive beauty and intrinsically sexuality. However it is thought that as little as five percent of the population look like, or could ever realistically achieve, the image of beauty and sexuality promoted by the models and celebrities.

This issue is of course further complicated by the introduction of image manipulation and airbrushing, which is now routinely used to perfect and enhance the outlandish ideals of beauty that the images promote. This means that not only are people being pressured into pursuing an image of beauty possessed by a tiny percentage of the population, the images often do not naturally exist in reality and are essentially unobtainable.

Results are leading to a steep rise in the number of young people affected by sever eating disorders, with girls recorded as starting their first diets at as young as eight years of age.

To help combat these issues amongst young people, Y Touring, which is part of Central YMCA, recently worked with a group of young teenagers from London to create a project that explores true body image through photography. Beautiful Photography Project 2010 empowers the teenagers involved to represent themselves and beauty as they perceive it, rather than the images fed to them by the aforementioned industries. Please show your support.

Click our Catalogue for more Spectacle productions.
See our blog homepage for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

Spectacle homepage
Befriend Spectacle.Docs on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

An Urban media Practice: documentation, agitation, participation

8th February 3pm in Room 114, 26 Bedford Way, Department of Geography, UCL

Drawing on 30 years experience of independent and community based media practice in London, Brussels and Rostock Mark Saunders will describe the political and technological development of Spectacle’s practice and use of media in urban struggles for social justice in the built environment.

This will include, Despite TV, an innovative video co-operative in East London (1981-94), Jako Co-operative and the making of The Truth Lies in Rostock (90-98) establishing resident video groups in gentrifying Brussels (2000-2009) and long term video workshops on “regenerated” estates Silwood in Rotherhithe (10 years) and Marsh Farm Luton (15 years) and recent work on the London Olympics and Battersea Power Station.

Key Readings:

Olympics

Olympic project pages

Olympic blog

Battersea Power Station

Battersea Power Station project

Battersea Power Station blog

Suggested further readings:

Surviving Participation Fatigue< Erased Social Geography

Video in the City: Possibilities for Transformation in the Urban Space

Advocacy, Participation and Non Governmental Organisations in planning : A report and video on Spectacle’s APaNGO work

Mark Saunders presentation at HafenCity Universität Hamburg department of Urban Design.

Thursday 13 Jan 2011. 7.30

In the Fog of Games the first casualty is the truth.  The Olympics, like other sporting spectaculars, are only brief and transitory television events that disguise and justify Mega projects of vast urban restructuring that permanently distort our cities for the benefit of a few business interests . The common features of these Mega projects are unprecedented land grabs, the peddling of myths of “regeneration”  and the “legacy” benefits for the host community, the sweeping away of democratic structures and planning restraints, the transfer of public money into private hands and “information management” to hid truths and silence critics.

Mark Saunders will be showing some “work in progress” extracts from Spectacle’s film on the London Olympics.

Zeit:
Donnerstag, 13. Januar 2011
19.00 Uhr

Ort:
HafenCity Universität Hamburg
Averhoffstraße 38
Erdgeschoss, Raum 16 b

Eine Veranstaltung im Rahmen der UD-Vortragsreihe “Feste feiern. Kollektivierungen urbaner Praxis”

For more details and maps

Click London Olympics for more blogs
See our Olympics project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

Spectacle homepage
Befriend Spectacle.Docs on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, dedicated to raising awareness about the plight of the last Londoner being held in Guantánamo Bay detention centre, will be holding a day of public meetings and demonstrations on Saturday 11th December from 12 noon at Battersea Arts Centre. The film ‘Outside the Law: Stories From Guantánamo’ directed by Polly Nash and produced by Spectacle Documentaries will be screened at Battersea Arts Centre in the Grand Hall from 4.30pm.

All welcome!

Click Guantánamo for more blogs
Or visit our Guantánamo project pages for more information and videos.

Spectacle homepage
Befriend Spectacle.Docs on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter