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Blogging faux pas

What kind of idiot would give a lecture about blogging and show an example of their blog to students which blatantly fails to adhere to the very guidelines they are trying to teach...

On that note I am attempting to practise (not practice) what I preach and get my blog up to date. However there are a series of ways in which I have failed to blog 'correctly'.

1. Post regular updates (once every few months not enough)

2. Break up the text with photos, video, graphics (bit cumbersome/faffy with Blogger)

3. Put in lots of hyperlinks (urm, I do occasionally)

4. Respond to comments (need to have some first, other than my Dad saying hello)

5. Write about a niche subject

The fifth point is where I have failed miserably. Since my hectic life involves about 5 different jobs I have found it difficult to concentrate on just one, feeling I am neglecting the others. The blog works particularly well when Film Northants is in full flow (more on that below), but it is not sustainable as blog fodder all year round. Hence I have written random rants about the Big Society, how Inception is not really a great film after all and the joys/frustrations of social media. Far from niche!

So for now I am going to concentrate on rule number 1 and try to post regular updates, before working my way onto the other rules (blogging is all about flexibility after all).

I hope to move across to WordPress soon as Blogger has various problems (you can't copy and paste, loading pics is slow and it is difficult to keep track of your blog traffic).

So here in a completely non-niche way is a round up...

Film Northants

For the uninitiated I am chair of a short film festival in Northamptonshire which I founded 4 years ago. This year we are developing the committee by taking on new members, trying to increase our funding and getting young people more involved.

We are currently in the midst of finance meetings and hope to launch and get promotional material on the streets by mid March. The deadline for film entries is likely to be August with the red carpet screening at Cineworld in September.

Other changes this year are that we have moved our Facebook group to a Page to allow for more flexibility, statistical feedback and prominence on members newsfeeds. This also allows us to embed the Facebook page into our website.

FREED UK (Ghana charity)

Had a successful second trip to Ghana in October 2010 with development charity FREED UK. This resulted in loads of media coverage in the UK and Africa including local and national newspapers, websites and niche magazines including Third Sector. I also did a radio slot with my husband on BBC Radio Northampton, as he came out to Ghana with me.

In the meantime we have been liaising with another volunteer currently out in Nandom, Ghana about what the local schools and technology colleges need. We hope to get sewing machines, welding machines, electronic power tools and books out to them this year.

I also set up a Facebook page for the charity to update all the latest news and I have also been appointed the charity's official press officer.

There is a members meeting in March to discuss the aims of 2011 and the next trip overseas.

Freelance work

Mega busy with teaching and particularly enjoying Writing the Message Online at Hallam University. Have set up relevant Facebook Page and Twitter hasgtag #msg11. Students appear to be getting into it and I have heard a few interesting ideas for their blogs including hyperlocal news from a Yorkshire village, political turmoil in Africa and film noir. All great stuff.

I'm also still doing publicity for Sustrans and Connect2 Northampton including press releases, more radio slots and getting a public piece of art into the headlines.

Also need to update both my website and The Art of Wood, particularly as I have been commissioned to design two more content management system websites for two more furniture companies.

PhD

Still working on my PhD and interviewing journalists and studying social media plus the use of comments on local newspaper websites. I am quickly discovering there has been little content analysis on website comments, so there is a niche I can get into.

Have to go now and meet with fellow PhD students. Promise to blog again soon, and do more of rule 3 although I have made a few in roads today...

Ps. Yet again rubbish Blogger has put weird spacing in my post, must move to WordPress asap.

to tweet, blog, post or surrender

It has been so long since my last blog that I had forgotten the web address. But since I'm in the middle of planning a Writing the Message Online module for Hallam Uni, I thought it best to practise what I will be preaching and get on the blogger.

The thing that overwhelms me about social media is the huge variety that now exists, and choosing which medium to use. My Facebook account is an amalgamation of friends, family, colleagues, Film Northants contacts, media organisations, research links etc. and I still only have less than 40 friends, due to my rule of 'if I see you regularly I don't need to be your friend on Facebook'. Then there are the other Facebook groups I administer for Film Northants, FREED UK and IAIP. And people from those groups want to be friends on my profile, and some I accept and some I don't, on an ad hoc, depends-on-my-mood-that day, basis. Suffice to say I wish I could have a professional and a personal Facebook page but since the often two overlap it is not really practical, and would just be yet another account to check each day.

Then there is Twitter which I use very sporadically but mostly for academic purposes, because everything else is now duplicated on Facebook. If Twitter does it well then Facebook will soon pinch the idea and do it better.

Then there is this blog, which I will have to go and post on Facebook, my website, and Twitter, and lets not even go down the road of Tumblr, You Tube, LinkedIn, Flickr and all the other alternatives. Information and communication overload surely must reach a ceiling point sometime?

The problem is I have not found one social media that ticks all the boxes. They are all good for different things, but none of them are great for everything. Facebook is getting there but it's still not perfect and the encroaching commercialism is increasingly irritating. In fact I'm also thinking of defecting to WordPress as I find Blogger cumbersome but then WordPress seems more like a website and I already have one of those.

And then comes the question what exactly do I teach new journalism students? In a rapidly moving online world, which is in all honesty based on trial and error, where do you start? My tactic at the moment is to start with the familiar and explore Facebook as a journalism tool not just a personal space, and take it from there...

And then comes the next question, how does anyone have the time to do all this communicating, researching and investigating online? If I had an iPhone 4 I know I would never get anything done as I would be constantly posting pictures, geotagging and blogging - a bit like I am now but with even more banality - plus photos.

For me 2011 is probably going to be my busiest year yet. 17 hours teaching for the first semester, the fourth Film Northants festival to organise and run, publicity and planning for Ghanaian charity FREED UK, freelance work for Sustrans Connect 2 and IAIP, designing a website for a client, and the small matter of finishing my PhD. All I can say is bring it on!

Now I must go and tweet/post multiple links and stop distracting myself from lesson planning. (Whilst writing this blog I have had a chat with a friend on Facebook about proof reading their book review, checked my email for teaching messages, watched the most excellent funny shorts 'Acting with James Franco' on YouTube and read a blog on teaching social media).

And onto the next one...

Tuxedos-a-plenty adorned the foyer of Cineworld Cinemas in Northampton this month with the arrival of the third Film Northants short film festival.

More than 120 people attended the growing event, which aims to showcase and promote film-making talent in Northamptonshire. The evening coincided with the announcement that the festival has been nominated for a Pride in Northants award for Raising the Profile of Northamptonshire. For the committee this was the icing on the cake after our hard work throughout the year. Winners will be announced on October 1st 2010.

The awards ceremony was a fantastic success, and by far the best festival to date. The quality of films had risen, the change of venue from Vue to Cineworld was an excellent move and everyone had huge smiles on their face just to be there.

Having private access to the Cineworld bar made all the difference, as guests and finalists arrived early and had a drink to calm their nerves before walking down the red carpet and posing for photographs.

The screening itself was improved with graphics on the screen, a smooth flow of films (no DVD ESC signs flashing up on the screen) and the addition of a film including cryptic comments from the judges.

Host Quentin Falk was also a great addition as he interacted with awards presenter Bruce Green extremely well and interviewed all of the three winners, making the whole evening more of an event.

First prize winner Love Is... won the public vote by a stonking 37% (grabbing themselves a £500 Jessops gift card), followed by second place winner Barney with 23% of the vote and third prize winner Fitzy Wrapper with 11% of the vote. The remaining 5 films had fairly even votes amongst them and they all received film merchandise goodie bags. The makers of Barney had double success this year as they also won the Judges' Choice award netting them a £200 Jessops gift card. The three winning films were a great mix of thriller, comedy and documentary.

In previous years the screening and awards has run ahead of schedule but with all the interviews, photographs and prize giving we were running slightly late. When I eventually shepherded everyone to the bar for the post-screening reception, my committee member in charge of food and drinks greeted me sharply with: "Where have you all been? You took an hour not half an hour!"

We got fantastic comments on the night from everyone who attended including Northampton Mayor, and our Visitors Book was brimming with compliments including:

"A wonderful selection of films! Hope the talent in Northants continues to grow."

"Brilliant films, brilliant idea. Can't wait for the next one!"

"Fab evening, amazing to see my film on the big screen."

"Brilliant evening! Although I cringed when I was on screen! "Will work harder to try and win next year!"

Helping the committee on the evening were Northampton Youth Forum, a band of excellent volunteers who checked tickets, marshalled guests, took photos, filmed video footage and served food and drink at the reception.

With the volunteers and committee there were 15 people involved in running the event, a great improvement on the 3 people running around like madmen last year, and probably why we got lots of nice comments about the event being very well organised.

Post-event there has been a great buzz particularly online with winners and guests sending me their photos, video footage and web links of the evening so I can update the Film Northants website which continues to get hundreds of hits everyday.

Viewing statistics for each of the eight shortlisted films on the website have also come in and there were more than 2,300 hits during the month they were online.

Feedback forms are also coming in and I am already thinking of ways of improving the event next year. First up is the Judges Comments film which needs developing, and also possibly including a Youth Award if we can get enough youth clubs and forums on board to enter films.

I think the best thing to come out of the awards this year was the feeling it gave all of the finalists and their cast and crew. There was an immense sense of achievement and they all received a great confidence boost which will encourage them to continue making films and invest in their talents.

Last minute preparations

The votes are cast, the bubbly is ordered and the DVDs have been tested. Just a few more preparations now until the red carpet opens tomorrow night.

It has been a busy week and Monday will be the last push to get the ceremony in order. Thankfully the Film Northants committee have all booked the day off work so we can get everything ready in plenty of time.

This week the voting had a last minute spurt with more than 500 individual votes cast in total. The website has also been in great use with more than 1400 unique users this month, amounting to almost 3000 individuals accessing the website since it was launched in May. That's more than 6,000 page views in 5 months. This is a vast increase in the amount of visitors Film Northants had in its first two years within the Chronicle & Echo website.

So the winners of the public vote 1st, 2nd and 3rd, have been decided and the trophies are currently being engraved in a top secret location. The four judges have also got together to decide the winner of the Judges' Choice award, who will receive a £200 Jessops gift card. This was an excrutiating process and two films in particular were equally close contenders, but finally a decision was made, all will be revealed tomorrow evening.

I have also spent the week getting everything in order for the cinema, including buying a spotlight for the host, sorting a film music playlist and testing the finalists DVDs. There was a slight panic mid week when one of the discs wouldn't play and the finalist was on holiday, but it has all been sorted now and the films looks and sounds fantastic on the screen.

A new addition to the screening this year will be a short film of three of the judges discussing the final eight films and what they enjoyed about them. Sort of X-factor style but at The University of Northampton rather than Simon Cowell's sun-drenched LA mansion. Feel free to give us feedback on whether it works or not. There will be a volunteer from the Northampton Youth Forum going around the reception to get all your feedback, comments and thoughts on the evening.

This morning I attended the UK Film Lab screening at Cineworld. The organisation which is working in partnership with Film Northants, runs film schools in the holidays for secondary school children across the county. The result of the film schools is a 10 to 15 minute film made entirely by the pupils. Film Northants hopes pupils trained at these summer schools will be encouraged to enter Film Northants 2011. Look out for their literature tomorrow night.

Last few jobs tomorrow are to pick up the canapes, collect the bubbly and wine, and set up at the cinema with all the trophies, prizes, lighting, food and drink.

Hope to see you there at 7pm. A full report of the event with photos, videos and quotes will be on the Film Northants website on Tuesday afternoon (fingers crossed!). Good luck to everyone!

cushions, scripts and cancellations

It's been a manic week for Film Northants with the finalists announced and voting getting underway on September 1st.



It seems like a crisis has either arisen, been averted or been resolved, several times a day and I have been chained to the email.



And it all started so well. The giddy finalists all sent their photos in on time and copy reached the Chron a day before their deadline. Then on Wednesday (my 31st birthday - eek!) there was a fantastic article in the Chron and the voting absolutely exploded. By lunchtime (after I sorted a couple of teething problems) we had more than 100 votes, and thanks to the great little bit of software we are using (micropoll) there is no chance of cheating, as it blocks an IP address once someone has voted. Even if they think they have voted a second time, it doesn't register on the results. I know all this because I spent about a week testing it.



The same day whilst I was making cushion seat covers (I really know how to let my hair down on my birthday) Dean Twaites, director of Barney and Film Northants 2008 winner, was on BBC Radio to talk about graduating from university and setting up his business Timecode Pro. He also gave Film Northants a good plug, even if the producer did keep saying he won the competition last year, when in fact it was two years ago. Dean entered a film last year but it didn't make it to the final, so this year he is even more determined to claim back his crown.



But it won't be an easy task. A sneak peak of the voting shows that all of the films are neck and neck, and it could still be anyone's award. So make sure you go online and vote.



The voting up and rolling, the committee had a meeting and planned the running order, timings and format of the screening and reception on September 20th. Tickets will be in the post in the next week. Northampton Mayor Councillor Marianne Taylor also confirmed that she will be attending the screening and the guestlist is mounting up. It should be a packed cinema, fingers crossed. Thankfully we also have help in the form of Northampton Youth Forum so there will be plenty of people on hand to offer guests canapes and bubbly at the reception.



There are still a couple of pairs of tickets for the public going spare, so get your hands on them by following the details on the Film Northants Finalists page.



As I was saying, it was all going swimmingly, when the stops started to come out on Thursday. First there was the matter of a small disagreement over one of the final films. Much two-ing and fro-ing on the email finally resolved the matter about 24 hours later. Secondly awards presenter Claire Young pulled out. Then she pulled back in again, and then a day later she pulled out again. Claire has been asked to do some filming in London on the day of the ceremony and cannot guarantee that she will be finished in time to attend the ceremony. The committee was not impressed. Fortunately help was at hand via the charismatic charms of film critic Bruce Green, who does the weekly film news and reviews on BBC Radio Northampton. Not only are Bruce and the BBC stumping up prizes for the festival, but Bruce has kindly agreed to step into Claire's shoes and present the awards. More details will be put on the website next week. Thanks Bruce!

Next up I had a meeting with Stacey Swift, winner of 2009 Judges' Choice award for his film Tuhfah. Since then Stacey has made an excellent feature length film entitled Stabbing for Jesus. It is a satirical mockumentary about Christian extremists in the vein of Brass Eye. Stacey is now developing and rewriting the script with the hope of getting it professional made and he has already meet with a regional producer. He hopes to film it all in Northampton to keep the setting local. I have been giving him advice on how to develop the film and knocking ideas around. It is great to see that Film Northants has given someone the inspiration to go on and develop a feature film and also been able to connect them to the right people in the industry. Watch this space for more details...

My last task of the week was to send out a press release to local media to encourage people to vote. BBC Northampton snapped it up and contacted me to see if they could interview two of the other Film Northants judges. They were not available and I had already been on twice! AHH! However I suggested they speak to the aforementioned Stacey Swift to get a winners perspective. They thought this was a great idea and all being well Stacey should be on the radio tomorrow around 12.20pm on 104.2FM.

Another boost to my day was looking at the Film Northants website stats. It had more than 1,000 hits in August and only a few days into September and it has had more than 500 already. This is far higher than when the festival was on the Chronicle & Echo website. Having a dedicated website is a real bonus. Further good news is that all of the prizes have arrived. There is tonnes of film merchandise from 20th Century Fox, film goodies courtesy of BBC Radio Northampton, £500 Jessops gift card for the 1st prize winner and a £200 Jessops gift card for the Judges' Choice winner. There are also annual cinema passes to be won. Again it is our best ever year in terms of prizes.

So the glass is definitely half full at the moment and all hiccups have been sorted. Just keep those votes coming in as you have until September 17th. It would be great if we could hit the 1,000 votes mark.

Hopefully there will be no more issues over the weekend, as I'm off bridemaid dress shopping with my best mate who is soon to be wed.

NB: whilst writing this blog the internet crashed, so I have had to re-write half of it again, perhaps I shouldn't be off shopping after all...

Film entries under the spotlight

Killer instinct in Love Is...

Barney the bike enjoys a tickle in Barney

What do a filler kiwi fruit, love-sick bicycle and evil DVD all have in common? They all feature in the entries of Film Northants 2010.

Anthropomorphised objects appear frequently in this year's contenders, which were all shot on location in Northamptonshire. The deadline has now closed and all the submissions are awaiting the verdict of judges who have drawn up a shortlist of eight finalists.



Although there were some stand-out films that the judges immediately agreed upon, lots of wrangling and arguing went on between us to establisht he eight best films. The criteria set out to judge the shorts were an evaluation of each of the film's structure, creativity, entertainment value and technicality. However the emphasis was on whether the film worked as a whole and was an original concept rather than if it was technically perfect and filmed on a flashy camera.



We have now agreed on a final eight, although admittedly there was a lot of compromise and one of my choices was strongly rejected. The finalists will be announced exclusively in the Northampton Chronicle & Echo on September 1st.



The festival is now in its third year and it is definitely becoming noticeable that the quality of entries is rising and word is spreading amongst country film-makers. What is particularly interesting this year is the tone of the films. In the 2008 launch year there was a mixed bag of everything from home videos to horror flicks, in 2009 there was a darker tone with films filled with paranoia, mystery, revenge and death, perhaps reflecting the gloom and uncertainty of the financial crisis. But in 2010 the theme running through the majority of films is humour and quirky twists. Perhaps people can see a light at the end of the recession tunnel or indeed want to deal with economic turmoil through wit rather than misery...or it could just be coincidence.


Whatever the reason many of the films have their tongue firmly in cheek, and the awards screening on September 20 should make for a very fun and funny evening.



Come September 1st the voting will open online and then the real battle begins. In previous years I have predicted the winner but this year I literally have no idea who will win, or even who the top three will be, it is such a tight competition. The next tough challenge will be to decide upon the Judges' Choice winner, and also get the awards ceremony organised, on time and on budget.



If only I had an army of anthropomorphised ants to help with the preparation!



To watch all the entries and vote for your favourite visit http://www.filmnorthants.co.uk/