creatives for argyll

This is the second of two masterclasses 4Talent Scotland are running at the Inverness Film Festival. It’s on Saturday 22nd November from 15.00 - 17.00 in the Tulloch Room at the Eden Court Hotel, Inverness.

Film is primarily a visual medium but the contribution of sound cannot be underestimated. Too often forgotten or neglected, bad sound can render a film unwatchable. Professional sound recordist, Becky Thomson, will teach filmmakers how to get the best quality sound on a tight budget.

Becky has recorded four feature films and has worked extensively in TV, including primetime drama The Bill.  She started out at Moray Firth Radio in Inverness and has recently returned to the Highlands and Islands.

Book early for this session as places are very limited - via 01463 234234.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own camcorder where possible.

This is one of two masterclasses 4Talent Scotland are running as part of the Inverness Film Festival. Its on Saturday 22nd November, from 09.30 - 11.30, in the Tulloch Room at the Eden Court Theatre, Inverness.

It focuses on how to improve the look of your film on a budget? It’s led by professionals Minttu Mäntynen and Scott Ward. They will examine cinematography as a process that starts with the script and ends with the screening. Learn about visual narrative, pre- and post-production, and about collaborating with other departments under the guidance of the director.

Scott and Minttu will draw on examples of their own work in this fascinating workshop, stuffed full of tips for anyone wishing to advance their film-making skills.

Book early for this session as places are very limited - via 01463 234234

All this week - from Monday 3rd November to Frioday 7th November - at 3,30p each day, Radio 4 is  broadcasting short stories by writers awarded the Jura Malt Whisky Writers’ Retreat.

Full story is on the For Argyll news site or the permanent page for the news item.

HIE currently has two contracts available for new, recent or forthcoming business starts in the Creative Industries.  The contracts are seeking people to work on the delivery of a range of Creative Industries events, one with an emphasis on music and the other with an emphasis on screen and broadcasting. The contracts will run from Nov 2008 until the end of Nov 2009. Final value of contracts will be defined by availability of applicants. Successful bidders will:

• Work on the delivery of a range of events including goNORTH 2009
• Act as a scout for new creative talent
• Work on promotion of the creative industries in the Highlands and Islands

As well as the value of the contracts, the two new businesses will have access to a range of key industry figures, locally, nationally and internationally, who will be in position to potentially help the business develop, as well as provide advice and mentoring.

There are no age restrictions and as long as the business is involved in some aspect of creative industries in the Highlands and Islands, it would be appropriate for consideration.

Applicants will apply by submitting a copy of their business plan and indication of availability, which should be e-mailed to Gillian MacGregor (gillian.macgregor@hient.co.uk) by 31st October 2008.  A decision as to the ‘winning’ entries will be made by a panel in the week beginning 3rd November 2008.

Sophie Turner-Laing, MD of Entertainment for Sky television has announced that the Sky channels are to be repositioned, moving jupmarket with a major focus on the arts. Her strategy is to make Sky’s programming so alluring in becoming the home of the arts on television that it will drive up subscriptions much as football does.

She sees the arts as ‘a much unloved genre in terrestrial television’, always a nuisance to schedule and plans, as the terrestrials retreat from the arts, to scale u Sky’s coverage very significantly.

Last year Sky rebranded the Artsworld channel as Sky Arts. From Monday 20th October Sky will move to a family of three arts channels.

• Sky Arts 1 will cover contemporary subjects
• Sky Arts 2 will be more classically oriented and will show operas in full
• Sky Arts HD channel will be the third

Turner-Laing also wants Sky to increase its output of original drama, though lacking the budget of ITV.

This growth in arts-related output must mean more opportunities for creatives across the various arts genres, including production. Looks like a good time for Argyll’s talent to be entrepreneurial with its abilities.

The BBC website has a section - New Talent - dedicated to making contact with potential new talent from presenting to fim-making. It offers a spectrum of opportunities and competitive challenges.

There’s also a competition likely to appeak to younger creartives in Argyll - with a nine month BBC placement on offer.

Check it out.

You have until 1st December to enter a new short film competition run by MG Alba, the Gaelic Media organisation now producing the programming for BBC Alba, the Gaelic television channel available on Freesat or Sky Digital. (Yes, we know about the Freeview controversy. We’ve published on it - and that argument has to be won soon.)

Anyway - FilmG aims to find new creative talent for BBC Alba. Donald Campbell, CEO of MG Alba, says: ‘It’s never been a more crucial tine for aspiring film makers to get involved in Gaelic media’.

There is a prize pool of £35,000 which is also w a worthwhile incentive. Get on to FilmG now and think about getting an entry together for this.

If you need collaborators, Comment this article and advertise for them.

The UK Film Council commissoned this screen writing course from the Writers’ Factory to give writers basic skills in screenwriting and it’s now very well established. It takes 22 weeks from 23rd October to 9th April and takes place at Screen Academy Scotland in Edinburgh. It gets you to explore your story telling instincts, study the craft of screenwriting, do collaborative workshops with others on the course and develop and write a commercial ten-minute film.

If you’re interested and want to book a place, click on the link below and take it from there.

Screen Writing Course: Screen Academy Scotland

The 2008 Creative Clusters Conference in Glasgow will feature around fifty speakers from several countries, presenting films and case studies, leading workshops and discussions and acting as creative agent provocateurs. While this is a big - and expensive - corporate event, with creaive managers as well as practitioners, it offers unique learning and networking opportunities. Delegates are coming from around thirty countries and speakers/presenters from around twenty. It would be good for Argyll to have a presence at the event so anyone up for it should talk to HIe Argyll and the Islands and to the Council to see if the cost of a place might be subsidised. Worth a punt.

If you’re recording oral history, bands, interviews, collecting vox pops… it’s worth checking out the Zoom H2. Google it and you’ll find reviews and good offers. Dave Dunbar - Scottish Bafta winning film maker and one of the tutors on the For Argyll project, found it, raved about it and showed it to the rest of us. It’s pocket-sized and robust. It has four mics - two front and two back so you can record interviews in stereo - and record bands by placing the Zoom between drums and instruments at the front. The front works on an angle of 90 degrees and the rear at 120 degrees so you position the unit to suit what you want to do. It’s PC and Mac compatible - although Mac OSX 10.5. 0 (Leopard) will need an H2 Firmware version 1.2 or higher download (free from Zoom) to let the H2 mount as a USB drive.. You should be able to get it online for anything north of £125 and ebay’s always worth a look.