A local business man speaks out about the Olympics
Lance Forman is managing director of H Forman & Son, a salmon smoking factory, that has been based in East London for over 100 years. In these interviews he speaks about the obstacles his business has had to overcome in connection with the Olympics.
After having build a brand new factory with a grand by the LDA, H Forman & Son were faced with a compulsory puchase order by LDA and the task to relocate, along with 250 other businesses.
Part 1 deals with the history of the factory and the bad luck the company has faced during the past 10 years.
Part 2 is an account of the negotiations and dealings with the LDA
Part 3 takes a different view on the Olympic Legacy
Part 4 talks about the public presentation of the Olympics
Part 5 is the story of the search for a suitable site for a new factory
Part 6 tells about the last obstacles that had to be overcome when building the new factory
London 2012 Olympics Logo – Battersea Power Station
Battersea Power Station Community Group urge you to take the chance to nominate Battersea Power Station landmark to be used as the design on a set of commemorative pin badges. We here at Spectacle thought about just how great an opportunity this is to raise awareness about Battersea Power Station and the current state it’s in.
You are able to submit one vote on the landmark of your choice, and so this is a very good chance to kick-start some action dealing with the Battersea Power Station problems!
The website can be found here
Visit Spectacle’s on-going Battersea Power Station Project
Watch a video trailer here: Battersea Power Station – The Story So Far
Subscribe to our newsletter mailing list, visit our contact page to subscribe
If you live in the neighbourhood and would like to get involved, contact us here putting Battersea Power Station in your message.
Click here for more Battersea Power Station links
World Cup effect on South africa
Mnikelo talking
In may 2004, South Africa became the first African nation to be nominated to host a football World Cup. Following that announcement, South African’s were overwhelmed by the prospect of much needed development and new business opportunities.
Since then, a lot (mainly the poorest) have been evicted or resettled as the government try to show a “clean” image of South Africa to the world.
Spectacle has recently uploaded and interview with Mnikelo and Zodwa from Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shackdwellers’ movement, talking about the negative effects of the 2010 World Cup on South Africans. This can be viewed on the Spectacle archive page (World Cup, South Africa) and was filmed in connection with the London Olympics 2012 and the recurring effect of mega sporting event.
Mnikelo’s interview gives an insight into the World Cup backstage and its effect on the host nation.
Planning alerts and tescopoly
You can now check out what planning applications are pending in your local area through a new website PlanningAlerts. This is useful for those interested in monitoring ‘regeneration’ of urban and rural areas.
It also is possible to monitor the progress Tesco, one of Britain’s biggest planning monsters. To find out what they are up to look at Tescopoly a site dedicated to monitoring all things Tesco.
Ministers determined to “avoid” scrutiny over torture, say MPs
Channel Four last night reported that the joint committee on human rights, investigating claims of UK intelligence forces complicity in torture, have called for a major inquiry into the role of British security forces abroad. The group of MP’s described the government’s level of accountability on this matter as ‘woefully deficient’.
The committee has been investigating a series of allegations against British security forces, including those of Binyam Mohamed, that they used information gathered under torture as part of MI5 investigations into terrorism.
According to Channel Four the committee’s report finds:
‘the accusations of complicity in torture would amount to illegality if proved; but says the government has failed to engage with the charges, instead “hiding behind a wall of secrecy”.
“As to what may have happened in the past, general assertions of non-complicity are no longer an adequate response to the many detailed allegations,”
Spectacle has been reporting on allegations of torture through it Guantanamo project and has video testimony from Omar Deghayes describing his maltreatment at the hands of the British.
It’s good to see MP’s within parliament are beginning to put pressure on the government to take responsibility for it’s actions. Torture is illegal and those who are complicit in a crime should be sent to jail whether they are ministers or not.
To see Channel Fours report on this issue please click here
To see edits of Spectacles film The Guantanamo Files which deal with torture please click here
US attempt to destroy photograph of torture
The Guardian has today ( July 6) reported that US government is due to destroy a photograph taken of former Guantanamo inmate Binyam Mohamed after he was severely beaten. Binyam Mohamed has launched an emergency legal appeal to prevent this occurring, as it is a concrete piece of evidence proving his claims that he was tortured under US custody.
Binyam is also currently fighting a legal battle in the UK with David Miliband to release documents relating intelligence officers involvement in his torture.
To find out about Spectacle’s Guantanamo project visit our Project Page here you can watch edits of our Guantanamo film.
Alternatively visit our Archive Page.
White elephant Olympic site on horizon
The Olympic site risks becoming a white elephant due a plan that “lacks detail” and a budget which is “underdeveloped”. The London assembly’s economic development, culture, sport and tourism committee, stressed in a recent report “There is concern that, given the experience of other cities that planned long in advance of actually staging the games, we are missing the boat”.
The Guardian reported that the committee charged with overseeing spending on the £9.3bn game has concluded that the lack of a tenant for the main stadium means there are “serious doubts as to the future financial viability of the venue and hence attractiveness of the park site to business investment”. Aspirations to create between 9,000 and 10,000 jobs in the Olympic Park could be at risk without private funding, it warns.
In a letter to The Guardian on July 4th, an assembly member argued that the lack of affordable housing being created by the Olympics, particularly for families meant that the legacy was going to leave nothing but a concrete eyesore.
Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/01/olympics-london-assembly
Will the Olympics develop any of the promises it made to Londoners in the bid?
Given the destruction caused by the Olympics and the lack of solid plans for after the event, is it worth it?
To find out more about Spectacles Olympic project please visit our Project Page
British intelligence told not to ‘intervene’ to prevent torture
The Guardian has reported that a policy was issued after the September 11 attacks asking MI5 to ignore torture. Though MI5 officers were not allowed to ‘condone’ or be seen to ‘engage’ in torture they were told not to intervene if they were aware of suspects being tortured.
The Guardian claims officers were told they were not under any obligation to prevent detainees from being mistreated by other security forces.
“Given that they are not within our custody or control, the law does not require you to intervene to prevent this,” the policy said.
This supports the claims of former Guantanamo detainees Omar Deghayes and Binyam Mohamed that British intelligence officers were aware of their interrogation and torture.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/18/tony-blair-secret-torture-policy
To view a clip of Omar Deghayes interview please visit our Guantanamo Project Page.
The storm… after the calm.
Para leer este blog en español pincha aquí.
The day starts early for us, but the excitement charges our batteries more than the first coffee of the morning. The Director, 1st AD and Producer Assistant all meet in the office. We pick up the props and head off to North London.
Surprisingly, we get to the location too early. Its miraculous, London transport has for once worked perfectly. We meet the 2nd AD and the director of photography and go to knock Karim’s door. He’s the landlord of the location and wants to give us some instructions: where the actors are allowed to smoke, where we can put all the furniture, the safety measures that we have to keep in mind…
The actors wait upstaris having a chat
Some of the actors arrive really early too. They were also concerned about the usual transport surprises and prefer to arrive too early than not arrive at all. They make themselves comfortable upstairs and get to know each other. It will be a long wait. The beginning of the shoot is hard to get right. It is the key moment when most of the lighting has to be set up in the proper place.
The actors come downstairs. We start shooting all the “above the glass” shots. Mark Saunders, the director, give some directions and Claire Sharples, the 2nd AD, tell the actors where their initial position is. We still need more time. We crowd all together around the monitor to see how the shot will look. The overexposed effect is great, but we find several dark “stains”: the edge of one small bulb in the ceiling, one of the rubber tops of the tripod’s leg… we cover all the defects with white tape and eventually we see the clapperboard in front of the camera: Roll 1 Scene 1 Take 1
All together around the monitor, checking the framing
Some feelings characterize the first hours of the shoot, perfectionism and optimism. This is not bad, but it can entail some problems: we can easily run out of time. We all need to focus. The lunch break keeps being put off and people start getting nervous. Finally, we take the break and everybody seems satisfied with the job done so far.
First directions of the day
The moment arrives to shoot the takes that made us to come to this location: the ones around the glass ceiling. The extras exchange contact numbers and leave the space.
Shots from “under the glass ceiling” work perfectly. Nevertheless, we are using some extra time that we haven’t contracted with the landlord, so we call him asking for one more hour. Costs start to rise, but we can’t let the pressure to drive us to take hasty decisions that will lead to problems in editing.
We move upstairs to shoot from “above the glass ceiling”. Lights are ready, camera in position, actors prepared… and suddenly, without prior warning, the camera switches off. We are already using a second extra hour. Karim, the landlord, arrives to the location. “We are having some technical problems”, how many times has he heard that excuse? Fortunately, the camera starts working again and we are able to take the last shot of the day.
Have we got everything we need? We think so. We tidy up, clean everything, put the furniture in place again… and leave the location. We talk about the day on our way back home. We are tired and a bit worried about having used two extra hours, but this is a normal issue in film production.
The next shooting day will be at Brunel University. We will use their green screen. It will be a quieter day and every take will be more planned because every shot has to be from specific distances and angles. There is no room for improvisation. On the plus side we don’t have time limit to use these premises so there is more time to get things right. It seems that it will be a journey without mishaps, but we won’t count our chickens before they are hatched.
If you want to see the pictures of the shooting, click here to visit flickr.
If you want to see the first samples of the video, click here.
If you want to get more information about the project “Speak out against discrimination”, click here.
For more information about Spectacle, click here.
Editando el Techo de Cristal
Las labores de edición han comenzado y estaremos encantados de conocer tus opiniones al respecto.
Si quieres ver los progresos, puedes ver la primera, segunda, tercera y cuarta edición en la página web del proyecto.
Cualquier sugerencia, opinión, crítica, será bienvenida.
