Visual Archive

So many multimedia trick from the past are relevant to digital teaching resources in the digital present!
Every teacher can photograph while recording sound on a smart phone to make teaching resources. Here are the training projects I carried out before joining BBC School Radio, during and afterwards.
I produced geography nature conservation and science subjects. It was essential for maximum ‘engagement’ = memorable absorbing impact of a visual and audio  experience. Any Zoom can now have pictures video sound that began with the Radiovision filmstrips, children’s pamphlets and other publications.

• To set up an audio interview with an image foreground and background that also tells a visual story. 

• A 24mm lens push a person into the foreground and also give background context. Years before the internet and web pages. The 24mm lens is still vital for online webcam work today. A wide angle webcam gives students perspective, space, depth and …….engagement.

The slideshows scroll automatically.
Put you cursor over image to reveal the caption.

Making Radio With a Camera A brief selection from two filing cabinets of images taken during the making of over 600 radio broadcasts.

Working with top level wordsmiths

How did the skills develop?

Expeditions

Obsessed with making teaching materials. Driven by some crazy idea that children had a right to excellent quality experiences in the classroom. Fascinated with the power of still images and sound to create awe and wonder more easily than a film, led me in to some serious trouble. I’d finished studies of farming for a geography textbook and I heard about two children whose parents had both died. A story for a UK aid charity.  
The local police chief didn’t like the idea. One night after taking these pictures I was bundled into a car covered in a blanket and driven across the border, passing the police cars as they arrived. After Iran 1970, and Peru 1971,  Tanzania 1972 was the last straw. 

Kilimanjaro. Climbing the mountain was just the first part. Staying with a shamba owner growing coffee and bananas, sharing his bed  and a big panga knife stuck in the earth floor followed. Keeping photographing, sound recording, drawing sketches, writing notes  looking for relevance, in the heat. This turned out to just basic training for making BBC School Radio Geography broadcasts.

Mevagissey Fishermen The ability to photograph and record sound simultaneously for top quality broadcasts needs practice. So I carried out holiday projects every summer for several years. Here an East Arts Council research project on the harbour. Images in the National Maritime Museum. 

Hop Picking in Kent One of the last Hop farms still picking by hand in Kent. Sleeping the back of the car. Up at dawn on a late August morning. Magic. A touring exhibition ending up in a famous East End pub.

Helicopter Thinking Constant search for a new ‘angle’  is a professional requirement for excellence in teaching resources. Helicopters are now replaced by drones but the ability to look down, over, compare views is essential for Geography. A neighbour Mike Calnan became  Head Gardener for the National Trust. One day in October 1987 I got a call.

Great Storm 2007 Then twenty years later another phone call. These images comparing before and after were in every single UK newspaper. Two days in the back of a helicopter with the door off, is cold and very tiring. We used helicopters for quite a few broadcasts, exciting events in audio with exact pictures in the pupil’s booklets and Radiovision filmstrips.

Digital developments How about using QuickTime VR virtual reality photography for geography? The first software programmes for the BBC Micro came with matching radio broadcasts to set the scene. I started a PhD to explore how radio broadcast could be turned into interactive learning. So easier and much more effectively using multimedia radio resources than TV.
Exploring at town on the ground?

VR photography – Exploring at town from the air? A Millennium exhibition in  Hitchin Museum 2000.

Moving into video was so reluctant but as soon as digital cameras became easy for one person to use without a team I began to learn fast. For several years I worked with my good friend Mike Fowler education video officer for Bedfordshire (now retired) on a series of projects extending my production experience from radio to video, and from creating education resources of all kinds to business training filming skills.
That Fine’s Payable Now
The DVD was produced for Her Majesty’s Courts Service and was distributed to every Magistrate in London. It features the recreation of three court hearings supported by informative and illustrative sequences.
Three Market Towns
The DVD looks at the past and present of these three communities using old photographs, archive film and a wealth of new material all shot in high definition. The presenter, Pam Rhodes takes the viewer to meet people and places and along with many beautiful images of the area, the 70 minute DVD is a compelling watch.
Speedy Summary Justice
6 court-room dramas shot for the Judicial Studies’ Board. This was quite a production challenge, using the location of Epsom Magistrates’ Court and a team of very experienced actors. The court room sequences were then put together in a major training package for Magistrates and court room staff throughout London.

 I started filming on my own.
A Sense of Place: Exhibition at St Leonard’s Church Bengeo, Hertford. May 2014
Originally an exhibition and publication called Bengeo Stories at Hertford Museum in 2013, Marilyn was loaned the Museum exhibition to add to her display collection of local resources for another exhibition at St Leonard’s Church early in 2014. Around 1,500 people came to view the exhibition and £1.5k was raised for the church funds.

Film making for education From 2008 teaching resources video contracts at Middlesex then a several years UCL consultancy. See menu for lists of videos made for staff and students.