That was quite a busy twenty-four hours! Well, if we’re being accurate, twenty-two hours. Rather like if Jack Bauer counted his toilet breaks and snack pauses rather than adding it all up as terrorist kicking overtime. As we mentioned in our last post we had a full boat before the end of the week, and so it proved. It is with a sense of exhaustion, satisfaction and weary nostalgia we fill you in on what, as they no longer say on the ‘street’, ‘went down’.
Firstly, on Wednesday evening we mosied on down to mac (Midlands Art Centre as it used to be known) to attend the Producers’ Forum Speed Dating Networking event. One of this writer’s so far failed New Year’s resolutions was to network more, put myself about a bit and meet more filmy people. Only now is the promise starting to be fulfilled. It was quite a productive evening, if on the hectic side. As you may have gathered from the evening’s sobriquet, it took a speed dating style format. One writer. One producer. Four minutes. Go! While there were some small hiccups, from there being rather more writers than producers to a non functioning air conditioning system it was certainly an experience, and led to lots of chinwagging with some clearly talented people. Hopefully it should yield some benefits in the future. Many thanks again to the Producers’ Forum for organising the event. If you are a West Midlands based film type person have a glance at their website to see if their events or membership are something for you.
Then, around twelve hours after the conclusion of the networking session, came a very different kind of engagement. We were recruited by our very good friends at Living Proof Films, with whom we have collaborated on films like Gabriel and who helped us shoot Graduate Decline so expertly, to record an event at the ICC in Birmingham. That event was the AGM and first ever Practice Symposium for BASW- The College of Social Work, bringing together social workers from up and down the United Kingdom. From delegates presenting their findings from research papers to workshops focussed on specific areas of social work, we negotiated the labyrinthine halls of the International Convention Centre to record proceedings for posterity. The AGM itself was the scene of some very emotional debates about key topics, with the issue of whether BASW should form its own trade union in addition to the development of a college of social work drawing particularly spirited contributions from both the yay and nay camps. All told we shot over eight hours of footage, a Herculean effort, you would have to agree. Many thanks to all who helped on the day, and particularly the Living Proof folks for giving us the gig. If you would like to learn more about BASW- The College of Social work, visit their website. We must, however, urge you to check out the Living Proof website, otherwise we’ll get mighty cross with you. And you don’t want that now, do you?
Studio 279 