Onward and upward

Posted on 12/03/2012 by Ray Burnside

Well, my time in St Albans is fast coming to an end. We, that is Stephanie Grainger and I, are relocating ourselves and our business to Willingdon. A small yet perfectly formed village on the edge of the South Downs National Park and 10 minutes drive from the sea at Eastbourne.

We bought a cottage in Willingdon some 18 months ago and it has to be said that, within a matter of weeks, we had meet more people in Willingdon than we had in 7 years in St Albans. Maybe that’s just the nature of commuter towns.

I have just walked the mile to the station at Polegate, in glorious sunshine and am now on the London train feeling hugely relaxed after a couple of days at the cottage.

Feels remarkably right. Definitely time to go.

So, why am I writing this here? Well, I would guess there are a good many people who want to change their lives or life-styles a little. We are heading for sixty at an alarming rate and, although I have no intention of ever retiring as such, it is time to make sure we are living the life we want rather than working towards some fantasy of a life you may never get.

Life is fabulous, but short. Don’t leave your dreams in the back of your head.

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Sex and photo libraries

Posted on 11/02/2012 by Ray Burnside

The other day I had a need for a couple of stock photos to use on a website I am developing. So, I went to my usual stock photo library and searched for “recording studio”. I wanted a couple of shots of people working in a studio, preferably speaking into a microphone as if they were recording drama.

Of the hundreds of results that came up, there were about 4 photos of men who looked like they just may know what they were doing and had actually been in a recording studio – an essential requirement for the photo I need.

Of the women not one looked like they had any professional skill in this situation. Most of them looked like girls on a night out in a karaoke bar. Most were wearing entirely inappropriate clothes for working in a studio.

My point is when will the people who set up these shots drag themselves into the real world and this century and realise that women can look like professional presenters and actors. they can dress in an old jumper and a pair of jeans to do that job. They all need to look like they are concentrating on their skill, e.g. Recording something. Not looking like decoration, eye candy or whatever else these photo takers (I balk at calling them photographers), think the client (me) wants.

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Dear BBC

Posted on 25/01/2012 by Ray Burnside

I have no doubt that the BBC will make a fabulous job of covering this years Olympic games. The camerawork, commentators and technical presentation will be second to none.

Similarly your coverage of the Queen’s jubilee will have wall to wall glittering coverage and will delight many UK and overseas viewers.

But, I beg you, dear BBC, please spare a thought for the great many of us who have exactly zero interest in sport and even less (if possible) on the comings and goings of this antiquated monarchy. Please bear in mind that we won’t ALL be glued to either event. Recognise this simple fact and have your presenters, continuity announcers and editorial staff refrain from phrases like “The whole country will be enthraled”, or “We and everyone in the UK are proud to be British on an occasion like this”.

After all, republicans who don’t like sport, pay their licence fee too.

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Frozen Planet on BBC

Posted on 27/10/2011 by Ray Burnside

This programme provides a number of opportunities:

    • Licence fee arguments. I would gladly pay the full colour licence fee just to see this whole series. And, controversially, if you are the sort of person who doesn’t ‘get’ this programme then please can we develop the space programme so we can find another planet for you lot (who don’t get it) and everyone else who does.
    • Advertising on the BBC. This one hour, uninterrupted piece of art was utterly compelling. If, in the middle of this drama, as the shoal of orcas produced a wave to knock a sea-lion off an ice-flow into the sea so they could catch it, we went to the adverts were Smirnoff Ice told us how exhilarating their hootch was, I would have cried with frustration.

 

    • My place in the world. I love programmes like this which allow me to see the planet I live on in a way I would never see without the BBC.

 

  • My aspirations as a photographer/film-maker. I can watch the best of the best, in harsh conditions producing work of such high quality that my teeth hurt watching it. I know they are just human beings going about their chosen professions. And that doesn’t make me feel like I’m not in the same league, it makes me feel like everything is possible and we are living in the most fantastic times.

 

I know these things are ‘produced’ and that David Attemborough isn’t at all the locations. But, at a time when the BBC is having to cut world service output and good drama is rare because it’s expensive, do lets celebrate the brilliance of this production.

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ElstreeDV goes full HD

Posted on 04/10/2011 by Ray Burnside

ElstreeDV has upgraded it’s cameras to the new Panasonic AF101s. These cameras record full high-definition video at broadcast quality.

We recently shot a short film “England Expects” using this camera and we are delighted with the results.

Examples will be online shortly.

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Black day at white rock

Posted on 19/06/2011 by Ray Burnside

A short but true tale: 19 June 2011

The beach at Cuckmere Haven was still. After all it was only 10:30 on a bright and beautiful Sunday morning. Daydreaming as he walked, the man in the blue “Support the Lifeboats” top was unaware of what was happening a hundred feet above his head. There, on the green open space of the south downs people walked and marvelled at the views, the air, the elation of being alive. There, people ran with their children. They ran with their dogs. Others walked slowly with elderly spouses, or stomped in rugged, rude health across the wide expanse of green.

The lifeboat man felt, rather than heard, the noise of the impact behind him. He turned to look. Seconds earlier, a hundred feet above, a black Labrador ran towards the edge. Frozen, faces turned to the cliff in disbelief, waiting for time to re-start. As it did, an onlooker yelled at the woman (now running towards the cliff edge) – “don’t follow the dog”. The woman stopped, dropped to her hands and knees and peered over the edge.

Looking up at lifeboat man, the black labrador slipped into unconsciousness. The man stroked him, and murmured encouragements to the dying dog. Words no human would ever hear.

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Journalism, where?

Posted on 14/06/2011 by Ray Burnside

Today a piece on radio 4s today programme set out to illustrate just how hard life was becoming for a particular working couple in Bournmouth. The mother admitted to having gone to bed hungry on a number of occasions as the recession caused her working hours as a cleaner to be cut.

Now politically, I am just slightly left of Michael Foot. I have enormous sympathy for people trying to live have a decent quality of life in a country still ruled over by big business and landed gentry. But how does the BBC not see that choosing to interview a family for this piece who have SEVEN children can only provide distractors with the ammunition they need to discount their story entirely. Even I find myself asking “why have you had seven children?” Even if you could afford seven, it’s an obscene amount in a world of finite resources. So the daily mail readers will only think “well it’s your own fault for breeding like rabbits” and the BBC journo who produced this piece will have helped that view.

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NHS going the way of the BBC

Posted on 18/05/2011 by Ray Burnside

There was a conservative minister on radio 4 this morning who seamed to genuinely not get why people don’t want the NHS using the Market to drive down prices of various services. It was a great example of someone understanding only the maths.

In the 90s the BBC was forced into a similar process. Before then you “joined” the BBC. For life. You were trained by the BBC. You worked alongside others who had also joined and been trained by the BBC. Technical standards were the best in the world and. People were proud of being a part of it.

Come the 90s and “Producers choice” everything went out to tender. BBC owned studios stood empty while programmes were made in commercial studios who had managed to undercut the hourly rate of the internal studios. The people who ran the BBC studios were eventually made redundant and, when the BBC no longer had functioning studios of it’s own, the commercial studios put their prices up and hired some of the technicians who used to work for the BBC.

Outcome being that the BBC was paying more to make programmes in commercial facilities with the same people who used to be BBC staff, for more money and with much less control. The BBC stopped taking on young people and training them up.

The “Family” that was the BBC may not have provided the best value on a spreadsheet, but the infrastructure was worth far more than can be seen by accountancy alone.

I hope We can manage to convince this government that the same thing happening to the NHS would destroy far more than their accountants can imagine.

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Dear BBC

Posted on 03/05/2011 by Ray Burnside

I’m sure you are aware of the organisation called TED Talks. They organise conferences where speakers give short concise lectures on state of the art technologies, educational developments and design. Video recordings of these talks are available on line and, at an average of about 10 minutes each, are some of the most informative and interesting minutes one can spend. It would be a fabulous thing to include some of these within the BBCs output.

The latest video I have just watched was from a professor at MIT who, with her team, is growing organic electrical super batteries using genetically programmed bacteria to fabricate the nano-components. This stuff is groundbreaking and needs a wider audience. The future of our planet is going to depend on work like this.

Our politicians are only aware of the technologies which are lobbied for and, supported by, the enormous wealth of global oil companies and polarised by the nuclear versus ‘alternative’ energy debates. These conversations, exemplified by Ted Talks need to be brought into the world-wide public arena and the BBC is just the place

Ted Talks website

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Who is selling my details?

Posted on 01/05/2011 by Ray Burnside

My partner had the miss-fortune to be hit from behind whilst driving my car. She was fine but my car was a bit battered. My insurance company sorted things very quickly and I was soon driving a hire car while mine was being repaired.

How is it then that both of us have received phone calls and text messages from ambulance chasers who are very concerned that we may be able to claim compensation for our injuries.

Basically someone is selling our details to these third party companies. This can’t be legal! Can it?

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