Category Archives: Training Courses

Hybrid Bespoke Video Training

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In our continuous effort to transfer our Participatory Video expertise as a tool to improve research, engagement, impact and social change, Spectacle over the years has trained hundreds of researchers and has always tailored its training courses to the needs of our trainees. We believe that video is a tool that researchers should not feel afraid to use as a support for their documentation, data analysis and dissemination of results. 

In recent years we have developed our methods in a range of projects, using remote work environments to reach out to participants in different parts of the world and adapt to circumstances when travelling is not possible or too costly. 

We have evolved a hybrid model to merge the best of what we learned about in-person and remote training. In-person camera production workshops is the best setting for hands-on practical experience and to have access to professional equipment. Remote training is an efficient and cost effective way to learn and collaborate on video editing projects, allowing participants to acquire new skills from home. 

We have recently been asked to design a hybrid bespoke training programme for the Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, where we have delivered a 2 day in-person Participatory Video workshop to a group of 11 researchers. Social researchers from the institute, all planning to include video in their ongoing and future projects, have learned how to use video to document and support investigations and explored the use of participatory video tools for research. 

Building on our 30+ years experience in community based video and thanks to our successful experience in pioneering the use of remote participatory video we have designed a hybrid bespoke training programme in two phases. 

During the first phase we have delivered a 2 day workshop: Spectacle brought to the Hutton Institute in Aberdeen our equipment, including a range of professional camera types, mics, lights, and tripods etc., to run an intensive introduction to the use of video tools.

In two days, along with demystifying the technology and learning how cameras work, we have shared tricks to work as a team, giving the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience on how to film interviews, document events and locations and approach visual storytelling in the context of research.

All attendees have really valued the way Spectacle delivered a great quantity of technical knowledge in a relatively short time, with practical exercises that are fun and illustrative of all the challenges involved in video making. The learning experience is designed so that it can be applied in any research field: assuming no prior knowledge, using transferable skills to establish a creative environment where everyone can develop new skills and feel confident that their ideas matter. 

The training programme will continue on Zoom with remote video editing sessions, a tool we have successfully included in our participatory practice as well as in our training activity. We will deliver a series of short modules exploring editing softwares, workflows, tools for editing and methods to enhance editorial collaboration and participation. 

All participants will be able to attend from their own computer and review in their own time the recordings of the training sessions in case they miss one. Our online participatory video editing, successfully applied in a range of projects, allows editorial control to be shared either among researchers engaged in the same project or with research participants.

If you want to learn more about our training courses and our offer, please visit our website or contact us at training@spectacle.co.uk. If you are a member of a research group and want to bring our training to your institution, we are happy to illustrate our bespoke training offer and discuss the content that best suits your needs. All our training can be entirely in person, remote or hybrid, and can include follow up tutorials, troubleshooting and project support as well as video editing support for participatory video projects and short documentary productions.

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New In-person Workshops!

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We are pleased to announce a new in-person 2-Day Video Production workshop. Designed as a stand alone intensive hands-on training course, it is also an option to replace sessions 1-4 of our existing programme of online video training courses.

Participatory Video Workshop

It has been great spending the last 2 intense years developing remote online workshops, training courses and Participatory Video projects, sharing our expertise in video making and collaborative work with dozens of passionate anthropologists, researchers, journalists, academics and aspiring filmmakers from all over the world.

Online courses

We learned a lot and developed a very effective online training programme including 7 courses, all structured in a sequence of modular live 3-hour zoom sessions scheduled to work across a variety of time zones (15:00-18:30 London time, including breaks). Our online programme will continue, allowing people living on most of the planet to attend our courses. We are also excited to meet in person with our trainees, as we have been used to do for over 10 years, offering again the option to share video tools in a practical face-to-face learning experience.

The new 2-Day Video Production Workshop

The in-person 2-Day Video Production Workshop is an intensive course covering in two days all the content of the first 4 sessions of our online courses. Participants will learn how to use various types of cameras and professional sound equipment, how to film high quality video interviews and collect engaging visual stories and impactful video documentation.

The workshop will run at our London Studio in Battersea (SW11), giving participants the opportunity to learn using a range of professional and semi-professional film equipment – DSLRs, camcorders, grip equipment, professional sound recorders and microphones – during the practical shooting exercises. The In-person Video Production Workshop is also a perfect opportunity for those who attended our online programmes to refresh their skills in a fun, practical and intensive 2-day stand alone course.

In person Workshop

Integrated with our online Video Training programme

The in-person workshops integrate flawlessly with all the online courses we already have. All our courses will be scheduled so that participants can choose their favourite mode of attendance: entirely online or a mix of in-person and online. Participants can learn the camera techniques face-to-face in our 2-day Video Production workshop (replacing the first 4 online sessions at no cost) and then attend all the specialist webinars and the video editing part (online sessions 5-8) remotely. If travelling to our studio is not practical, you can still attend the whole course entirely online.

In order to give every participant a real hands-on experience and plenty of time for shooting exercises, our in-person 2-Day Video Production workshops will have a limited number of attendees.

Book now in order to guarantee your place.

Video training for anthropology and social research

Visit our courses pages to explore their content and choose the one that suits you best. All courses below can be attended in combination with our new in-person 2-day Video Production workshop:

Participatory Video Workshop

Video Production for Anthropologists & Social Researchers 

Filmmaking 

Video Marketing 

Video Production 

The following courses can only be attended online:

Smartphone Video

Video Editing

Check the dates for our courses on our Calendar page.

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Same courses – new format!

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One and a half years ago life for everyone changed irrevocably. Some of those changes have been worse, but some have been better. 

At Spectacle one of the better changes has been moving all our courses online, and this means they have opened up to students from all around the world. Our original scheduling made attendance difficult in some parts of the world. We were all astonished by our participant from the west of the US who woke up at 2am each day to join classes! 

To make the scheduling more globally friendly, we are now running all our courses including: Participatory Video, Anthropology and Social Research, Filmmaking, Video Production, Marketing, Editing, and Smartphone Video in two different formats. 

The content of the courses is the same in both formats – we encourage you to choose whichever suits your schedule!

Intensive 

This programme is designed for those in or near the UK time zone. If you choose to take one of our courses in an intensive format, all your sessions will take place within a two week period. Some courses are only 1 day, while others are up to 7 days. These sessions all take place during full days running from around 9am- 5pm London time. 

Day/Night School 

This programme is designed for those in a more global range of time zones. If you choose to take one of our courses in a Day/Night School format, all your sessions will be two half-days a week within a four week period. The number of sessions you attend depends on the course you are taking. Some courses are taught in only 1 session, while others are up to 11. These sessions all take place during half days running from around 3pm- 6pm London time. 

The dates of each course in both formats is listed on our website. Each format will be offered three times during the year. If you wish to spread your courses over several programs or times, just email us at training@spectacle.co.uk and we can arrange a schedule together.

Another option is to go bespoke…

Bespoke

We also offer bespoke training either one-on-one or to groups. These can be arranged to fulfil your specific needs. Bespoke training can be built around your project so you can book sessions at your convenience and get the advice you need.


Ecovisions in Malawi

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In June 2021, Spectacle had the opportunity to work with Dr. Michelle Nicholson-Sanz and provide video training for the participants in her innovative Young Ecovisions project. 

Dr. Nicholson-Sanz is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London . 

During the pandemic she launched a call for young people around the world to share their ecovision – an idea for how to improve their environment and engender greater sustainability in their community. Four finalists were selected, two from India, one from Malawi, and one from England. 

Fanny Chidoola from Lilongwe, Malawi whose Ecovision was selected

Dr. Nicholson-Sanz reached out to Spectacle as the second half of this ambitious project began: developing the ecovision of the finalist from Malawi, Fanny Chidoola. In order to realise Fanny’s ecovision, she partnered with Malawian forestry science student Khumbo Matemba. Fanny and Khumbo would be mentored by Dr Nicholson-Sanz to stage a theatrical performance to encourage the stakeholders in their area to realise the changes needed. The performance would be filmed and this material, as well as further footage collected by participants, would become a final short film detailing the ecovision and it’s progress.

As Dr. Nicholson-Sanz lives in Kent, England, the actual filming would need to be done by the participants on the ground in Malawi, and with a limited budget the participants would be making the most of the camera they already had in their hands in the form of a smartphone. 

Participants were able to upgrade the capacity of their smartphone with tripods and additional memory cards. 


Spectacle has been developing a training programme for just such remote smartphone based video research projects. Anyone who has tried knows, it can be difficult to achieve good quality videos on a smartphone, and even more difficult to record footage which can be easily edited. Through a series of participatory workshops, Spectacle worked to upgrade the capabilities of the participants’ smartphones affordably, and offered clear guidance on best practices and filming techniques. 

Participants such as Fanny Chidoola learned to film interviews
Demonstrating how to achieve good exposure using a smartphone 


By the end of the workshop series, the participants felt ready to use their smartphones to record the performances, instruct others on how to get the best results from their smartphones, and already had recorded a good bit of quality footage of self interviews, location footage, and interviews with other stakeholders on the ground. 

Khumbo Matemba reviews framing and technique of a self-shot interview 


We are very excited to see the final short film from Dr. Nicholson-Sanz’s Young Ecovisions project when it premiers. 

If you are running or considering starting a participatory video project, consider the possibilities of Spectacle’s training workshops for your participants or yourself. We conduct our training remotely, in almost any timezone, and using any equipment available from smartphones to camcorders. We have worked with hundreds of academics, researchers, and community organisations and received very positive feedback on our approach and the results that our trainees can achieve with their cameras after just a few workshops. 

Participants such as learned to film location and action shots in their town

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Spectacle Launches New Half-Day Training Course

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Spectacle is launching a new online video training course! The Day/Night School will run half-day training courses designed for academics, researchers, journalists from all over the world!

The online classroom

Works in Any Time Zone 

Responding to demand ranging from Idaho to New Delhi, Spectacle has designed a video training course at times that work in almost any time zone, and so available to pretty much anyone around the globe – live! 

This course offers half-day training on Tuesdays and Fridays for 4 weeks – that’s 8 half-days total. The initial courses will run from 15:00-18:30 London Time, which means you can enjoy it as an early morning class in Los Angeles, or an evening class in Bangalore. Subsequent courses will shift in time for availability including Australia and Japan. 

Learn storyboarding

Designed for PhDs, Academics and Researchers

When it comes to making videos, the just ‘point and shoot’ method only works if you are extremely lucky. From inaudible audio, to interviewees that clam up as soon as they see a camera, to takes ruined by continuous autofocusing – the pitfalls are innumerable. 

This course is specifically designed for academics interested in incorporating video into their research. Whether you want to integrate visual methods into your research or produce videos to disseminate your outcomes, you will learn all you need to know to turn your research into a short film.

If you don’t have the budget for expensive filming equipment, won’t have a film crew, and need a surefire way to make a final project where the mistakes don’t distract from the message – you need our training course. Spectacle has been working with and training academics in filmmaking for decades so we know the unique needs of research filmmaking. From video techniques to editing and visual storytelling, this course will provide all the skills you’ll need. 

Camera techniques and settings

Skills You’ll Learn

The first 4 sessions are on videography, and the last 4 focus on visual storytelling and editing. You can do all 8, or just choose to do the first or second half.

  • How to operate a camera
  • How to get best results from smartphones 
  • Storyboarding and visual storytelling
  • Talking heads and interviewing  
  • Strategies from filming to editing 
  • The basics of editing using Adobe Premiere Pro
  • Learn about editing as a data analysis method 
  • How to produce engaging videos based on your findings
Learn professional standard editing in Adobe Premier Pro

In the Classroom 

All courses are taught live on Zoom. The course content is split into manageable 45-90 min modules. Each module builds on the last and will cover key concepts and offer practical exercises to develop your skills and confidence in technical and creative aspects of video making.

CONTENT 

The first 4 sessions will cover all aspects of filming, including sound recording and camera techniques. The last 4 sessions will focus on visual storytelling and editing in Adobe Premiere Pro. 

FLEXIBILITY

If you have to miss a session, you can access the recordings for 30 days through private links. You can choose to attend only the filming half or the editing half of the course, or buy the whole package and take a gap between the two halves. 

PRICE

£480 for 8 sessions 

£280 for 4 sessions

Previous Clients

Spectacle has delivered successful training workshops for numerous educational organisations, NGOs, and private companies including: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Anthropology Department, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Edinburgh University, Birkbeck College, UCL, LSE, Oxford COMPAS, University of Zurich, as well as hundreds of social researchers, journalists, scholars, and video marketers who have found our methods engaging and inspiring.

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Spectacle’s Online Training for Oxford COMPAS Researchers

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How Universities Researchers are Adapting Online 

Imagine: you’re running an international research network and suddenly – a pandemic hits! All international travel is on hold for up to two years! It’s your worst nightmare. You’ve got researchers who are supposed to be flying in from all over the globe for a week-long retreat or training workshop! What can you do? 

This was the predicament numerous Universities found themselves in, but they found ways to adapt and continue projects – many turned to Spectacle’s Bespoke Training Workshops to help them creatively solve problems. 

Through 2020, video conferencing has become the norm and many researchers are now imagining how important and useful video making or remote online participatory video research could be for communicating their research or archive-based workshops going forward. Maybe we can help you too.  

Oxford COMPAS

This week Spectacle kicks off a bespoke training course for The Oxford Centre on Migration, Policy, and Society (COMPAS). Since 2003, COMPAS has established an international reputation for original research and policy relevance. 

The training we will provide is for the researchers focusing on sustainable cities. Researchers will join online from cities around the world including Oxford, Beijing, Bangalore, Cape Town and Medellin. 

Spectacle’s training will give these researchers the skills to film with a more professional production quality and edit with an eye for narrative flow. Going forward, this will enable them to make short videos to effectively communicate their research to a larger audience. 

Does this sound like the kind of training you or your organisation might benefit from?  

Bespoke Training for Academics

When it comes to making videos, the just ‘point and shoot’ method only works if you are extremely lucky. From inaudible audio, to interviewees that clam up as soon as they see a camera, to takes ruined by continuous autofocusing – the pitfalls are innumerable. 

Spectacle online video training

When looking to make video, academics have unique needs. They aren’t looking to become documentary filmmakers. They aren’t looking to invest in overly expensive filming equipment. They won’t have a large support crew to help with filming. And the need to make a final project where the medium (and mistakes) don’t distract from the message.

About Spectacle

Spectacle is an award-winning independent media company that specialises in documentary, community-led investigative journalism, and participatory media.

We have been leaders in Participatory Video (PV) practice and community engagement for more than thirty years, and offer training and workshops in every aspect of digital filmmaking.

We offer affordable, accessible, and enjoyable film, media, and video training. No prior knowledge needed! Learn what you really need to know to make quality videos with us. 

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Learn Video Online

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PROJECT RESEARCH, PROMOTION, DOCUMENTATION, DISSEMINATION, OUTREACH

Online Video Training
  • Are you a researcher or activist wanting to learn about filmmaking?
  • Do you need video to document your project or as an outreach tool?
  • Do you want to use video-making to engage your stakeholders online?
  • Does your organisation want to offer online video training to your network?

Spectacle is an award-winning independent media company that specialises in documentary, community-led investigative journalism, and participatory media.Online video training

We have been leaders in Participatory Video (PV) practice and community engagement for more than thirty years, and offer training and workshops in every aspect of digital filmmaking.

We are offering affordable, accessible, and enjoyable film, media, and video training. No prior knowledge needed! Learn what you really need to know to make quality videos.

Previous Clients
Spectacle’s clients include The Council of Europe, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Frantz Fanon Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Arts Council of England, and the Howard League.

Spectacle has delivered successful training workshops for numerous educational organisations, NGOs, and private companies including Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Anthropology Department, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Edinburgh University, Birkbeck College, UCL, LSE, as well as dozens of social researchers, journalists, scholars, and video marketers who have found our methods engaging and inspiring.

Over the last 9 months we have run online training courses and workshops for a wide range of clients, including the UK’s Social Research Association, University of Zurich, and the Lichtenhagen Rostock Archive. 

Working with researchers at LSE we have developed a groundbreaking remote Participatory Video (PV) online method to produce a collaborative documentary with a group of migrant women in Medellin, Colombia. 

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VIEW OUR ONLINE COURSES AND BESPOKE TRAINING

Video Production Enhances Research Impact

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Are you an academic researcher, PhD student, PostDoc fellow seeking to boost the impact of your research? Do you wish to improve the originality of your research proposals in humanities, science, arts, social sciences? Why not include a video outcome in your funding application?

Video workshop at Sheffield University

Other academics are already using media production to enhance the impact of their research in many ways. Video can be used either to monitor the research process and report research results, or it can be integrated in the research methods as a strategy to collect original data that can be easily analysed and disseminated. Spectacle has long experience in training academic staff in how to achieve quality video outcomes for their investigations.

We have already organised bespoke courses for anthropologists and social researchers of Edinburgh University, Cambridge University, Open University, Social Research Association, Amsterdam University, academic staff at Birkbeck, Comms departments at Oxford University, Cambridge University Press, King’s College as well as the Macular Society. All gave us excellent feedback.

Together with practical skills and confidence, they went away inspired and excited by the potential of incorporating video in their academic work in order to improve the impact of their scientific communications.

We offer a range of options to train you in video making, from weekend courses to three-day participatory video workshop, to bespoke training programmes addressed to staff or research groups.

Please visit our Training page or write to us for quotes and info at training@spectacle.co.uk

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Spectacle trains the Macular Society in video production and editing

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Spectacle provides video marketing training to clients in a wide range of sectors, including charities.

The Macular Society approached Spectacle wanting to learn how to use video to further their campaigns, to fundraise and to increase awareness of the charity as a whole, with the ultimate aim of being able to do more to help individuals effected by Macular Degeneration disease. 

Andrew Gray, of the Macular Society, arranged and attended the video training session and found it “perfectly suit[ed]” their needs.

He said: “If you’re thinking about incorporating video content into your work, whether you’re starting up from scratch or looking to fine tune your existing skills, we’d have no hesitation in recommending Spectacle to help you.” Andrew also felt Mark, the tutor, was excellent and helped the participants to really understand the best equipment, and how to use it to improve the content they had already created. 

Macular Degeneration is a disease affecting the central part of the retina, which can over time cause partial or full lose of vision. Researchers predict that by 2020, there will be 679,000 people with AMD (Age-related Macular Degeneration) in the UK, therefore it is crucial to raise awareness of the sight-affecting disease. Macular Degeneration can have devastating effects, causing some people with the disease to eventually become legally blind.

Video is a powerful and effective way to raise awareness of important causes like Macular Degeneration. It can help raise awareness and market charities, visually, which can often be more effective than words. But out sourcing video can be expensive.

Training staff to record and edit videos themselves is hugely time and cost effective. Also, results can be better without a film crew of a strangers, making the project’s outcome more powerful.

Spectacle ran a bespoke training course on location for The Macular Society, but also offer the course in our south London workshop. We can teach participants all the stages of video production and editing process in an informative and clear manner.

To find out more visit Spectacle Training  or contact us on: training@spectacle.co.uk