Digital Video Production Weekend Training Courses

For details and dates of the  next available courses visit:

Digital Video Production Weekend Training Course
Short, Sharp Affordable. 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 anyone who wants 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

 

For more details please contact:training@spectacle.co.uk

ATOS KILLS

Man in coma loses benefits as he's classified "fit for work"

‘The government’s decision to crack down on the disabled takes a bizarre turn this week after a man in a coma was stripped of his benefits – because he’d not handed his fitness-for-work questionnaire in.

In a thread on rightsnet.org.uk on Thursday Reading Community Welfare Rights Unit deputy manager Sam Harney noted:

Client’s husband is in hospital in a coma. He was sent ESA501.

Client contacted DWP to explain situation and was asked to obtain letter from hospital confirming he is in a coma. Did so. Was told to send it to ATOS rather than local BDC. Did so. Husband has now received decision letter – yep, as he has failed to return the ESA50 without good cause and is therefore capable of work [he is] no longer entitled to ESA…

The decision is part of a lengthening list of seemingly nonsensical judgements handed down by ATOS healthcare since it was appointed to oversee benefits claims in 2005 – another notable case is that of Larry Newman, who was told to stop slacking and get back to work despite having an incurable lung disease, which killed him just months after his assessment.

The firm has been targeted repeatedly over the last few years by campaigners under the banner ATOS KILLS, with activists pointing to a sharp rise in applications against the decisions being made, with 40% of appeals being successful overall rising to 70% where legal representation is used.’

Disabled People Against Cuts need your help and support! Visit DPAC on facebook to receive updates of information and events and stop ATOS ruining peoples lives and getting away with murder!

We are coming after you ATOS. In Parliament, in the Courts, online, and on the streets…LET THE ATOS GAMES BEGIN!!!

Shaker Aamer: A Decade of Injustice Screening in House of Commons

Shaker Aamer: A Decade of Injustice will be screened at the House of Commons, Committee Room 15 on Monday 29th October, 2012 at 19:00 pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shaker Aamer is one of the 171 men still held in detention in Guantanamo Bay on the camp’s 10th anniversary. Despite never having had a trial, having been approved for release twice, and a growing number of people from all walks of life campaigning for him, Shaker remains in detention. His physical and mental health deterioration is a prevalent concern.

During the 10 years that Shaker Aamer has been incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, he’s has never been charged, and he has never denied his innocence. He has continuously lobbied for the welfare of other Guantanamo inmates from within the system. Many believe that this, and his potential as a witness to U.S. human rights abuses, are the reasons he still remains captive.

Spectacle has followed the case of Shaker Aamer in detail since the completion of Outside The Law: Stories from Guantanamo in 2009.

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Uniting the Greens

‘The social or political philosophy that informs people’s actions is important – be it deep ecology, social ecology or anything else. But what is really crucial is that some action is being taken’

The environment movement has been plagued by disagreements and in particular a rift between deep ecologists and social ecologists. Stephen Lewis explores ways to find common ground.

For full article on ecological activists Bookchin and Naess follow http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article3730-uniting-the-greens.html

Our project needs your support!

Visit our  Bookchin on Bookchin page for more information and videos, donations can be made via Indiegogo

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News Corp launches Amplify educational unit, with help from AT&T

Murdoch’s influence on the police and politicians having being thwarted here in the UK, he now seems to be having a go at the kids in the US.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/23/news-corp-launches-amplify-educational-unit/

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

More Blogs on Despite TV  and Active Archive

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International Brigades Pyrenees Walk 2012

Watch these highlights of the 2012 Pyrenees commemorative walk,  as a small group of people retrace the path of the thousands of volunteers who crossed the Pyrenees into Spain to fight the Nationalist forces led by Franco in the Spanish Civil War.

On this long journey a memorial is held for the most recent members of the International Brigaders who died and many members of the group give a reading.

If you are interested in this topic, see Spectacle’s interview with the International Brigader, Bosco Jones, focusing discussion on history of the Spanish Civil War.

MUME website is http://www.museuexili.cat/

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Join the Atos Games with Disabled People Against Cuts

Join the Atos Games with Disabled People Against Cuts

Join Disabled People Against Cuts for The Atos Games From Monday 27 to Friday 31 August – five days of action against a company that’s sponsoring the Paralympics but wrecking disabled people’s lives.

We are calling on disabled people, disabled activists, families, colleagues, friends and supporters to come together and fight back against Atos’s attacks. Atos represents as dangerous an opponent as any government, law or barrier the disability movement has faced in its long history. It’s not just welfare, but our very identity and our place within society that is under attack.

We are asking the whole of the anti-cuts movement to join us in our opposition to the company most responsible for driving through the government’s brutal cuts agenda.

Let’s make it Games over for Atos!

We’re not against the Paralympics, or the people taking part in it. We’re highlighting the hypocrisy of Atos, a company that soon may be taking disability benefits from the people winning medals for Team GB.

Ever since George Osborne announced he was slashing £18 billion from the welfare budget, the government has paid Atos £100 million a year to test 11,000 sick and disabled people every week – then decide whether they’re ‘fit for work’.

Atos uses an inhumane computer program to do the testing and trains its staff to push people off benefits. The government has admitted the tests are flawed and the British Medical Association wants them to end immediately.

So – join in The Atos Games however you can – online, on the phone, or on the streets!

• Monday 27: A coffin full of your messages about Atos will be delivered to its doorstep.

• Tuesday 28: Pay a visit to your local Atos office – and maybe even take your protest inside!

• Wednesday 29: We’ll hold a spoof Paralympic awards ceremony – hopefully with some very special guests…

• Thursday 30: Phone jam! Let’s flood Atos with calls, and generate a Twitter-storm they can’t ignore!

• Friday 31: Join us in London where we’re teaming up with UK Uncut for the Grand Finale – an audacious, daring and disruptive action. Last time we shut down Oxford Circus. This time we will be performing miracles…!

We’ll give more details about each day of action. We’ll make sure that DPAC members and disabled people who can’t travel will be able to take part in different and accessible ways.

We’d really like YOU to make this week of action a great success!

Atos has offices in most towns across the country, so start organising an action for August 28 at your local Atos now!

Let the Atos Games begin.

Mark Saunders talks at INURA 2012

 

 

Check out a recording of Mark Saunders talking at the 2012 conference for International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA).

In the presentation Mark, describes strategies of running an independent media company with an agenda for social justice and human rights.

He also discusses his methods of participatory media, people involved in a story being behind a camera and how this technique was particularly effective in his film ‘The Truth Lies in Rostock‘. Mark references his other projects as well as the documentary he is currently working on called ‘Bookchin on Bookchin‘. A clip of this film is shown at the end, with Murray Bookchin an American social ecologist, philosopher and anarchist describing his thoughts about society.

http://inura2012tallinn.wordpress.com/programme/

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Germany after 1945: A Society confronts Antisemitism, Racism, and Neo-Nazism

 

The Berlin-based Amadeu Antonio Foundation is organising an exhibition about Antisemitism in East Germany. “Germany  after 1945: A Society confronts Antisemitism, Racism, and Neo-Nazism” explores the relationship between the country and the widespread anti-Semitic attitudes in Eastern Germany.

The exposition focuses on the history of the Holocaust as well as on the current right-wing extremism in Germany. Furthermore it shows initiatives to protect minorities and promote democracy in every day life .

The exhibition also features a picture of “The truth lies in Rostock“. The film was  produced in 1993 and is one of the rare documents about the riots in Rostock-Lichtenhagen 20 years ago.

“Germany after 1945”, which is designed as a touring exhibition, opens its doors on Tuesday, August 21 in Berlin. Next spring the exhibition can be seen in New York.

 

Click The Truth Lies in Rostock for more blogs
Or visit our The Truth Lies in Rostock project pages for more information and videos.

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Battersea Power Station Estimated Construction Facts

The Malaysian consortium, the new owners of Battersea Power Station,  has announced in a press release that the regeneration of Battersea Power Station is estimated to cost £6-8bn. This news has spread across the media as the project is set to create 20,000 construction jobs as well as 13,000 permanent jobs. Also it is announced that the project will create 3,500 homes.

On the surface this announcement sounds like a good deal, but  how many of the homes will actually be ‘affordable’, the London plan requires 50%, and for how long will the 20,000 construction workers be employed? It is possible that some of these jobs will only last a few weeks.

Local people have heard this all before.

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

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