R.A.F. Flowerdown House

Hello Everyone!

Recently we filmed some more interviews with WW2 Veterans and Civilians at the R.A.F. Flowerdown House for our group project. We began filming at the location at 2:00pm as it was the most confinient time for them.

Compared to our first attempt at filming the interviews at the Somerset Legion House the second attempt I felt was alot more successful. It was successful becuase we were alot more confident with our overall approach to the contributers and we knew what sort of answers that they were going to give.

The total of interviews that we had filmed in this session was four as they were the only ones who were the most happiest to participate. Out of these four we found that only two of them were the best interviews to use for the film, as the other two unfortunatley were either too ill or suffering from memory loss.

After the doing the interviews we then gained permission to film some cutaway shots around the guest house as it has lots of artifacts, photos and memorabilia of the R.A.F. which we all found very interesting.

After filming the cuttaway shots it was now 6:30pm which by then we decided to wrap up for the day as we have filmed enough for what we needed.

The next stage for us all now is to begin the editing sequence where we would all go through all the footage that we have filmed and work as a group to help create the final cut.

News Article BC1004

Wheel is proven to be great success!

This week thousands of thrilled seeking excited tourists from all over came to experience some stunning views from Weston’s latest attraction.

Visitors and residents took to the sky in the 30-pod looming structure that stands at 40-meters which towers over Weston seafront, to take in some panoramic views of the town, the South West, the Bristol Channel and across to Wales.

The 30 pods are capable to taking up to six adults and two children. The VIP pod can take up to four people and a bottle of champagne is also included.

North Somerset Council leader Nigel Ashton told the Mercury and the Midweek how fantastic the wheel would be to the town.

“I am proud that the town is playing host to such a wonderful attraction that would reap awards to the resort”.

Councilor Ashton along with executive member Felicity Baker and the Weston Mercury team were the first to ride on the town’s latest attraction.

Councilor Ashton said, “The wheel is an absolutely terrific and wonderful addition to Weston and North Somerset”.

He also added, “Everyone will want to go on the wheel and I am absolutely thrilled and delighted it has come to Weston”.

“I believe the wheel is a fantastic attraction in a brilliant location and I’m sure the people of Weston and from all over will love it”.

“I believe the wheel is a fantastic attraction in a brilliant location and I’m sure the people of Weston and from all over will love it”.

But Councillor Ashton says that the World Tourist Attractions contacted the council following the Grand Pier fire from last year and saw a good opportunity for the town.

The wheel is due open from 10am-11pm each day of the week.

The ride itself lasts up to 30 minutes. 

Ticket prices are £5 for adults, £3 for children aged three to twelve, £1 to children aged 1 to three and £4 to for the over 60’s.

Tickets are available from Weston Tourist Information Centre, the Winter Gardens and the Playhouse.

Family tickets for up to four people, including at least one child, are available at £12 along with private VIP Pods are also on offer.

Interviews with WW2 Veterans

Hello Everyone!

Recentally on the 10/04/09 Dean and I were down at the Somerset Legion House filming and interviewing the Veterans of WW2.

The time we had arranged to interview the verterans was at 2:00pm as it is just after their lunch time which is convieniant for us all.

Unfortunatley Dan couldn't make it to any of the interviews as he had to work some overtime during the Easter Holidays.

Dean and I arranged for us both to meet up for 12:45pm so that we both had an hour to plan in advance for the day and also to check that the equipment is working ok.

Just as well we arranged this becuase bad luck cursed us on the start of the day. Unfortunatley the plastic fitting on the eject button broke due to the ware age of the camera which left us in the lurch as we couldn't use it.

Fortunatley we had a spare camera to use as we took one out before half term. The spare camera was indeed around at Dans house. Luckily though his dad was in and lent us the fully working camera which served us well through out the day.

After all that kerfufull the time is now 1:30pm which left us half an hour to buy some DV Tapes before heading off towards the Somerset Legion House.

The time is now just 2:00pm and we have finally arrived to our location. As we had entered the building we received a warm welcome from the management and to our surprise there was a whole queue of WW2 Veterans just waiting to talk to us.

Feeling a littlebit overwhelemed Dean and I set to work of setting our equipment up in a private room and framing our shot ready for interviewing.

Our roles for today were that Dean was the interviewer and cameraman and my roles were cameraman and boom operator.

The interviews that we had recorded were a little bit hit and miss as some of veterans gave a mixture of open and closed answers.

This was understanderble as some of them were in their 80's and 90's+ and some were even trying to remember their involvement of the war.

Some residents even became a little bit emotional to talk about it so we had to deliberatley cut the interview short to avoid upsetting them.

Dean and I had begun to realise that this was not at all easy as we had hoped and we were begging to find it tiring.

The time is now 5:15pm and we had now just finished interviewing everyone who had volunteered to be interviewed. We both ended the day by taking some cuttaway shots of the exterior of the building along with some establishing shots of one of the veterans who we had interviewed.

Today has mainly been a big learning curve for us of how to properly interview people especially when they're senior members of the public.

The areas that Iam pleased with today s that we have filmed some really good interviews that would be a great benefit to when were editing. Iam glad that Dean has now got on to working with the camera properly that he is beggining to get more confident with it when framing shots.

The areas where Iam not that happy with is that the room where we held the interviews didn't have much of a nice background except for a few military paintings on the wall. This made things quite limited for the amount of camera set ups we could do for the different interviews, but we had to make do with it as it was the only private room we were allowed to use.

Today has made me confident with our next film shoot at R.A.F. Flower Down House which would take place on the 17/04/09. After todays experience I feel as though we are going to do a lot better on the next film shoot as we now know what to expect and seeing in our minds for definate what the finished project is going to look like.

First Day of Filming!

Greetings Again!

Recentally Dean, Dan and I were out and about in Weston-Super-Mare filming cuttaway shots for our group project for BC1006. The locations we were filming at were Grove Park and the North Somerset Museum.

The purpose for filming these cuttaway shots is so that when editing we have loads of footage for editing a montage sequence or using them over the top of the veterans interviews.

The Camera we are using for filming our project with is the Sony PD150.

Our first location that we were filming at was Grove Park. In the park there is a war memorial to commemorate the memories the soldiers who died during the WW1 and WW2.

After filming in Grove Park we then headed off to the North Somerset Museum to film some more cuttaway shots using the museum exibits of WW2.

As we arrived at the museum we explored around the exbits of the towns history until we found the WW2 section. We were very pleased with the exibtions as they contained relics and artifacts from the war that were very intersting and useful to film for cuttaway shots.

At 5:00pm we all decided to call it a wrap. Our next film shoot would be on the 10/04/09 at the Somerset Legion House as we are due to interview the WW2 Veterans themselves about their memories of the war.

Visiting the Legion House

Good Day Everyone!

Recently Dan and I went and to introduce our selfs to the management of the Legion House in order to get permission to interview the residents about their memories of WW2 for our group project for BC1006.

Our day begun by meeting Dan at Tesco Superstore in Weston-Super-Mare Town Centre and then head off for Orchard Street where the Legion House is supposed be situated.

My embarrassing lesson for myself and for everyone is to be very caucious of any road directions given from the internet becuase they're not always kept up to date. This lead to some confusion and deley.

The address that I have got about the Legion House being down Orchard was wrong. The address down Orchard Street lead us to an Adult Strip Bar called The Rock Gardens. We later discovered that the Legion House had moved to another location in town along the sea front not far from Clarence Park.

An embarrassing situation it was!

Fortunatley I had the correct address of the Legion House that I had found on the internet that was reliable and we both headed off to the location.

As soon as we got there we both introduced ourselfs and explained what our itentions are to the management. They were very helpful by looking into the reservations to see whether there are any WW2 veterans staying over the upcoming weeks. We finally got a date for the 08/04/09 when there are some veterans staying at the Legion House.

The management then reccommended that we should try the R.A.F. House that is situated right next door. The R.A.F. House operates the same as the Legion House but with Veterans who served in the R.A.F. We both then headed off next door to find that the min manager with who to deal with was away for the week. We both managed to get a phone number and our aim is to contact the manager the following week.