Free country? I don't think so..
At least 120 people have been convicted for failing to complete their 2011 census forms, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
While some may have simply forgotten, others see themselves as conscientious objectors who are being prosecuted for refusing to fill out the forms because of the involvement of the defence contractor Lockheed Martin UK, which won the £150m contract to run the census.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/27/120-convicted-census-forms-2011
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Friday, January 27, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Vintage Twitter and YouTube
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Build your own eco-Home- DVD
Learn how to build your own house in Timber- undercurrents DVD
Roundwood Timber Framing DVD (85mins)
Building naturally, using local resources
Woodsman Ben Law presents the 85minute step-by-step design and build process for a locally sourced beautiful Roundwood Timber Framed building. He shows other examples of builds including houses, a shop and a small outhouse. Also includes guidance for the creation of cordwood walls and rammed earth floors.
Bonus videos include Tools for the job & Off Grid 12V living
DVD produced by Undercurrents
Read more
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Roundwood Timber Framing DVD (85mins)
Building naturally, using local resources
Woodsman Ben Law presents the 85minute step-by-step design and build process for a locally sourced beautiful Roundwood Timber Framed building. He shows other examples of builds including houses, a shop and a small outhouse. Also includes guidance for the creation of cordwood walls and rammed earth floors.
Bonus videos include Tools for the job & Off Grid 12V living
DVD produced by Undercurrents
Read more
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Undercover cops had kids with activists they were sent to spy on
Two undercover police officers secretly fathered children with political campaigners they had been sent to spy on and later disappeared completely from the lives of their offspring.
Photo:Bob Lambert (far left), with his child. The undercover police officer had a relationship with a woman who is now taking action against the police
In both cases, the children have grown up not knowing that their biological fathers – whom they have not seen in decades – were police officers who had adopted fake identities to infiltrate activist groups. Both men have concealed their true identities from the children's mothers for many years.
One of the spies was Bob Lambert, who has already admitted that he tricked a second woman into having a long-term relationship with him, as part of an intricate attempt to bolster his credibility as a committed campaigner.Read more
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
In both cases, the children have grown up not knowing that their biological fathers – whom they have not seen in decades – were police officers who had adopted fake identities to infiltrate activist groups. Both men have concealed their true identities from the children's mothers for many years.
One of the spies was Bob Lambert, who has already admitted that he tricked a second woman into having a long-term relationship with him, as part of an intricate attempt to bolster his credibility as a committed campaigner.Read more
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Friday, January 20, 2012
Whirlygig cinema seeks films
After a successful debut last year, Whirlygiggles returns to The Horse
Hospital on 30th March 2012 with more comedy short films by up-and-coming
filmmakers. We are currently seeking submissions, from mockumentaries and
animation to sketches and slapstick; in fact, anything that makes us
giggle! So if you fancy yourself as a bit of a cinematic comedian, send us
your funny film and it could be shown on Londons coolest underground
screen in a matter of months.
To qualify, films must be under 15 minutes long and have been made in the
last couple of years.
To submit, please download a submission form (http://bit.ly/xDOirG) and
send it to hello@whirlygigcinema.com by Friday 2nd March.
For more information about Whirlygig Cinema and the opportunities we
provide for new filmmakers, visit http://whirlygigcinema.com.
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Hospital on 30th March 2012 with more comedy short films by up-and-coming
filmmakers. We are currently seeking submissions, from mockumentaries and
animation to sketches and slapstick; in fact, anything that makes us
giggle! So if you fancy yourself as a bit of a cinematic comedian, send us
your funny film and it could be shown on Londons coolest underground
screen in a matter of months.
To qualify, films must be under 15 minutes long and have been made in the
last couple of years.
To submit, please download a submission form (http://bit.ly/xDOirG) and
send it to hello@whirlygigcinema.com by Friday 2nd March.
For more information about Whirlygig Cinema and the opportunities we
provide for new filmmakers, visit http://whirlygigcinema.com.
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Faradh- How the Isle of Skye fought the Toll tax and won
Some of undercurrents images have been used in this short documentary.
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions.http://www.undercurrents.org
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions.http://www.undercurrents.org
Make a Camera Dolly for Under £20
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions.http://www.undercurrents.org
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Community Film Unit Funds
The Community Film Unit has opened applications to the Speak Up Fund
to support voluntary organisations across England who have a
film-based project that shows dedication towards their local
communities. It will support between 20-50% of the costs.
To be eligible, applicants must:
- Be a voluntary organisation (including registered charities, social
enterprises, Community Interest Companies).
- Work extensively with their local communities.
- Be based and working in England.
- Be able to spend the grant and complete the project by 31 March 2013.
Organisations should be working in one of the following areas:
- Support young people and/or vulnerable people in the local community.
- Preserve local history, and educates residents about their local area.
- Provide and document opportunities for the disabled.
- Develop the local community and integrate different groups.
- Provide information which improves the quality of life for residents
in their local community.
Application forms are available to download from the website.
Deadline: 5pm 2 March
Contact: Community Film Unit
Telephone: 01784 469 751
Email: matthewjoblin@communityfilmunit.co.uk
Website: http://www.communityfilmunit.co.uk/fund.html
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
to support voluntary organisations across England who have a
film-based project that shows dedication towards their local
communities. It will support between 20-50% of the costs.
To be eligible, applicants must:
- Be a voluntary organisation (including registered charities, social
enterprises, Community Interest Companies).
- Work extensively with their local communities.
- Be based and working in England.
- Be able to spend the grant and complete the project by 31 March 2013.
Organisations should be working in one of the following areas:
- Support young people and/or vulnerable people in the local community.
- Preserve local history, and educates residents about their local area.
- Provide and document opportunities for the disabled.
- Develop the local community and integrate different groups.
- Provide information which improves the quality of life for residents
in their local community.
Application forms are available to download from the website.
Deadline: 5pm 2 March
Contact: Community Film Unit
Telephone: 01784 469 751
Email: matthewjoblin@communityfilmunit.co.uk
Website: http://www.communityfilmunit.co.uk/fund.html
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Free the internet!
Today every page of the English-language Wikipedia is offline. This is to protest the STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP ACT (PIPA) currently winding their way through the US legislature. Both these bills would do well-documented damage to the internet and to civil rights, both in the US and the rest of world.
Like wikipedia, Undercurrents and visionOntv distributes creative commons material, where the copyright is owned by the producers. Like wikipedians, we monitor films we put out for copyright violation. And like wikipedia, we are adamantly opposed to this legislation, and to other laws being passed around the world at the behest of large entertainments corporations. We consider these laws to threaten the restraint not only of our basic trade, but of the freedoms on which we all rely.
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Like wikipedia, Undercurrents and visionOntv distributes creative commons material, where the copyright is owned by the producers. Like wikipedians, we monitor films we put out for copyright violation. And like wikipedia, we are adamantly opposed to this legislation, and to other laws being passed around the world at the behest of large entertainments corporations. We consider these laws to threaten the restraint not only of our basic trade, but of the freedoms on which we all rely.
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Murdoch forces Current TV off the air
Al Gore's Current TV channel in the UK is facing closure after BSkyB – part owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation – axed it from its pay-TV lineup.
Undercurrents has been in talks with Current TV about producing programmes for their Protest and revolution series but this has now been shelved.
Current TV was kept afloat by Sky paying them millions of pounds to produce for the Sky network. But viewings figures have been low with some media stating that Current TV only managed 4700 viewers at their Peak.
The decision comes months after Current TV's Italian network was dropped by Murdoch's Sky Italia, prompting accusations from the channel that it was taken off air for political reasons.
More
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Current TV was kept afloat by Sky paying them millions of pounds to produce for the Sky network. But viewings figures have been low with some media stating that Current TV only managed 4700 viewers at their Peak.
The decision comes months after Current TV's Italian network was dropped by Murdoch's Sky Italia, prompting accusations from the channel that it was taken off air for political reasons.
More
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Laws of War
Discussing the event of the US soldiers pissing over dead bodies of Taliban fighters I found this quote.
Retired US General Spider Marks says the alleged actions go against the laws of war.
"They are trained that once their job is done they get very agnostic, they get very focused and they do what they have to do to respect and honour those that they just killed," he said.
"They may have slaughtered those guys and that's fine. You move off to your next mission. You don't do what we just saw."
So it is fine to slaughter other humans but not to piss on their dead bodies. What sort of machine is this war machine?
Read more
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Retired US General Spider Marks says the alleged actions go against the laws of war.
"They are trained that once their job is done they get very agnostic, they get very focused and they do what they have to do to respect and honour those that they just killed," he said.
"They may have slaughtered those guys and that's fine. You move off to your next mission. You don't do what we just saw."
So it is fine to slaughter other humans but not to piss on their dead bodies. What sort of machine is this war machine?
Read more
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Corporate heads take on the Eco Warrior
A bizzare video claiming corporations are all about being green and eco-friendly presented by the money heads from Dragons Den.
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions.http://www.undercurrents.org
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions.http://www.undercurrents.org
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Thatcher's secret undercover war on CND
Now the Police spy scandal is public, we can turn to how the army was sent undercover to spy on anti Nuclear protesters in the UK.
Undercover soldiers were asked to infiltrate organisations which were under surveillance and one soldier was so successful he was even to be elected as a membership secretary of a group.A former sergeant explained how one undercover solider was chanting anti-military slogans with a crowd opposite the entrance to the Royal Tournament at Earls’ Court and they he would rush back to the 20 COY office to give updates.
Read more
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Undercover soldiers were asked to infiltrate organisations which were under surveillance and one soldier was so successful he was even to be elected as a membership secretary of a group.A former sergeant explained how one undercover solider was chanting anti-military slogans with a crowd opposite the entrance to the Royal Tournament at Earls’ Court and they he would rush back to the 20 COY office to give updates.
Read more
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
'Songs For Acid Edward' by Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer (Official Music Vid...
Put a smile on your face this morning
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions.http://www.undercurrents.org
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions.http://www.undercurrents.org
Thursday, January 05, 2012
Solar powered Cinema in running for national award
A solar powered cinema has been shortlisted to win an award this month. The Sol Cinema from Swansea is currently in competition with arts groups from across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
Built in 2010,The Sol Cinema is a micro movie house powered entirely by
the Sun. Accommodating 8 adults comfortably for a unique cinematic
experience. the micro movie theatre has been a huge hit at numerous events
across Wales.
The Epic Awards are an initiative of Voluntary Arts, the national
development agency for arts participation. Voluntary Arts offers
information, advice, training and development opportunities to those in
the voluntary arts sector, from small local groups to large national
organisations.
A spokesperson for the Epic Awards said
'We've had lots of excellent entries to this year's Epic Awards! Here are
the shortlisted English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh entries, but there will
be a separate winner and runner-up from each country which will be decided
by a panel of expert judges. There will also be a People's Choice award to
a group from each nation voted for the public'
In 2010, the Sol Cinema won The Network Wales award for best
communications project and was a finalist in the Big Lottery Awards 2011.
Paul O'Connor, projectionist for the Sol Cinema said
'We are excited at being a finalist for yet another award. The Sol Cinema
is entertaining and practical example of how we can be using renewable
energy.We hope the public will vote for us by clicking the green thumbs up
for the Epic award.'
Public voting is on http://epicawards.co.uk/shortlist
Online voting closes at 9am on Mon 16th Jan.
END
World's Smallest Solar Powered Cinema
http://thesolcinema.org/
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Built in 2010,The Sol Cinema is a micro movie house powered entirely by
the Sun. Accommodating 8 adults comfortably for a unique cinematic
experience. the micro movie theatre has been a huge hit at numerous events
across Wales.
The Epic Awards are an initiative of Voluntary Arts, the national
development agency for arts participation. Voluntary Arts offers
information, advice, training and development opportunities to those in
the voluntary arts sector, from small local groups to large national
organisations.
A spokesperson for the Epic Awards said
'We've had lots of excellent entries to this year's Epic Awards! Here are
the shortlisted English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh entries, but there will
be a separate winner and runner-up from each country which will be decided
by a panel of expert judges. There will also be a People's Choice award to
a group from each nation voted for the public'
In 2010, the Sol Cinema won The Network Wales award for best
communications project and was a finalist in the Big Lottery Awards 2011.
Paul O'Connor, projectionist for the Sol Cinema said
'We are excited at being a finalist for yet another award. The Sol Cinema
is entertaining and practical example of how we can be using renewable
energy.We hope the public will vote for us by clicking the green thumbs up
for the Epic award.'
Public voting is on http://epicawards.co.uk/shortlist
Online voting closes at 9am on Mon 16th Jan.
END
World's Smallest Solar Powered Cinema
http://thesolcinema.org/
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Filmmakers Weekend of Techniques and Secrets
The producer and director of 'The Age of Stupid' and 'McLibel' invite you to join SWOTS - Spanner's Weekend of Techniques and Secrets. "Everything you need to know to independent documentaries with no crew, commission or contacts... and still get 62 million viewers". SWOTS: Spanner's Weekend of Techniques and Secrets
Read more
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Read more
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Amnesty International Media Awards 2012
Amnesty International are looking for powerful and thought provoking
documentaries. If you've got one, enter now and be in with a chance to win
one of their prestigious prizes.
The Amnesty Media Awards were established in 1992 to celebrate the best in
human rights journalism. From print and broadcast journalism to
photographic, film and digital content, they recognise the vital role
journalists play, and the serious risks they face, in highlighting
injustice around the world.
Documentaries provide one of the most powerful and most accessible ways to
bring complex human rights issues to a wide audience. In the documentary
category, we are looking for films of 20-120 minutes duration, broadcast
predominantly to a UK audience, or given a theatrical screening in the UK.
Closing date:1 March 2012
Closing date for reduced rate entry: 16 January
To find out more about the media awards, and to enter:
www.amnesty.org.uk/awards
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
documentaries. If you've got one, enter now and be in with a chance to win
one of their prestigious prizes.
human rights journalism. From print and broadcast journalism to
photographic, film and digital content, they recognise the vital role
journalists play, and the serious risks they face, in highlighting
injustice around the world.
Documentaries provide one of the most powerful and most accessible ways to
bring complex human rights issues to a wide audience. In the documentary
category, we are looking for films of 20-120 minutes duration, broadcast
predominantly to a UK audience, or given a theatrical screening in the UK.
Closing date:1 March 2012
Closing date for reduced rate entry: 16 January
To find out more about the media awards, and to enter:
www.amnesty.org.uk/awards
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Clever cops? - I don't think so.
From an article in The Guardian
'I asked the Met's head of human resources how many GCSEs one needed to sign up as a probationary police officer. He had to send his staff officer to find out. Both were startled at the answer. None. The applicant had to pass (a very simple) literacy and numeracy test, and they were in. Unlike the army, police services don't have an Army Educational Corps (as they did when I did national service). That is a serious weakness that must be corrected if we want sharp-thinking officers serving us.'
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
How to Film a Revolution - a tutorial - Occupy the Movie
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions.http://www.undercurrents.org
Commonwealth Foundation - Short Film Proposals (UK)
Commonwealth Foundation - Short Film Proposals (UK)
The Commonwealth Foundation has announced that it is inviting filmmakers
from across the Commonwealth to submit an idea for a short film (up to
20 minutes long) about relationships. Individual filmmakers or
collectives should submit a proposal which explores the theme of love in
its broadest sense, whether inter-racial, inter-generational or within
and between the sexes. The theme should be relevant to the filmmaker and
their community. The Commonwealth Foundation are looking for original,
bold and authentic films in any genre which entertain as well as
stimulate and encourage debate both locally and globally.
Funding of between £3,000 and £8,000 per film is available and the
closing date for applications is the 31st January 2012. For more
information visit:
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/NewsArticle.aspx?articleID=200
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
The Commonwealth Foundation has announced that it is inviting filmmakers
from across the Commonwealth to submit an idea for a short film (up to
20 minutes long) about relationships. Individual filmmakers or
collectives should submit a proposal which explores the theme of love in
its broadest sense, whether inter-racial, inter-generational or within
and between the sexes. The theme should be relevant to the filmmaker and
their community. The Commonwealth Foundation are looking for original,
bold and authentic films in any genre which entertain as well as
stimulate and encourage debate both locally and globally.
Funding of between £3,000 and £8,000 per film is available and the
closing date for applications is the 31st January 2012. For more
information visit:
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/NewsArticle.aspx?articleID=200
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Distributor seek low budget feature films
Jump Start Distributions are currently looking for low budget feature films
(50 minutes and above) and shorts to distribute. A sister company to Jump
Start Productions, Jump Start Distributions was set up by Writer/Director
Jamie Patterson and Producer Nathalie Holman to help give low budget films
the chance to be seen.
If your film is selected we will promote it online and make it available
for viewers to buy as a download. It will then be given an official online
release date. Once the film is avaliable to buy all the money earned will
be split 50/50 with you, the filmmaker and Jump Start Distributions. We
also offer a non-exclusive contract, which means you can still distribute
your film elsewhere.
If you have a film you'd like to be considered for distribution please
contact
nathalie@jumpstartdistributions.com
jamie@jumpstartdistributions.com
We will require the film to be available to us in the following Quick Time
Movie formats:
H.264 320 x 240
H.264 1024 x 768
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
(50 minutes and above) and shorts to distribute. A sister company to Jump
Start Productions, Jump Start Distributions was set up by Writer/Director
Jamie Patterson and Producer Nathalie Holman to help give low budget films
the chance to be seen.
If your film is selected we will promote it online and make it available
for viewers to buy as a download. It will then be given an official online
release date. Once the film is avaliable to buy all the money earned will
be split 50/50 with you, the filmmaker and Jump Start Distributions. We
also offer a non-exclusive contract, which means you can still distribute
your film elsewhere.
If you have a film you'd like to be considered for distribution please
contact
nathalie@jumpstartdistributions.com
jamie@jumpstartdistributions.com
We will require the film to be available to us in the following Quick Time
Movie formats:
H.264 320 x 240
H.264 1024 x 768
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Friday, December 30, 2011
The Battle for Twyford Down, Winchester
The first direct action road protest in Uk against a road in 1992
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions.http://www.undercurrents.org
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions.http://www.undercurrents.org
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Vote for The Sol Cinema to win Epic award
Please give us a Thumbs up to vote for our solar powered cinema to win an award
http://epicawards.co.uk/shortlist/
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Friday, December 23, 2011
Void (improv feature film) seeks crew
"In a world with no humans does humanity still exist"
Void is a film that takes place in the year 2020 after a virus has spread
all over the country the effectuating peoples brains and unleashing the
animal with in.
The film follows the lead character Max as he tries to survive in the baron
wasteland that london has become in the year 2020. Max is alone but is
still fighting to keep hold of the memory of a past love, on one of his
travels to find food he finds a companion in Jamie.
Shoot Date: 1st Apr 2012 - 15th Apr 2012
Shoot Location: Great Britain
Shoot Region: London
Is this a student project: No
Production Company Name: Early Train Prodctions
Production Company Url: www.earlytrainproduction.co.uk
Budget: Up to 10,000
Genre: Drama
Form: Feature
Is project insured: Yes
More film details: http://shootingpeople.org/castcrew/project/view/1655
Positions on Film:
Boom Operator
We are looking a group of boom operator with there own recording kit to
pick up sound on location.
Is position paid: No, expenses only.
What you'll get from this expenses only role: Credit in the film, Travel
cover and food expenses, showreel footage and a digital copy of the film.
Apply:
http://shootingpeople.org/collaborate/crew/view/3790
Costume
We are looking for a costume designer to make the costume look old and wear
so it matches the feel of the film.
The role will be more pre- production with only a copy of days on set to
help with some of the bigger days of shooting.
Is position paid: No, expenses only.
What you'll get from this expenses only role: Credit in the film, Travel
cover and food expenses, showreel footage and a digital copy of the film.
Apply: http://shootingpeople.org/collaborate/crew/view/3791
Makeup
We are looking for a make-up artist to work with us on set to make the two
lead actors fit the world we are try to create, witch is of a waste land
here people have either died from hunger or been killed by others for food.
Is position paid: No, expenses only.
What you'll get from this expenses only role: Credit in the film, Travel
cover and food expenses, showreel footage and a digital copy of the film.
And make-up costs.
Apply: http://shootingpeople.org/collaborate/crew/view/3792
Sound Recordist
Looking for a sound person to be on set for a couple of day to record
dialogue and wild tracks
Is position paid: No, expenses only.
What you'll get from this expenses only role: Costs travel and food will be
covered.
A credit in the film and on IMDB.
Copy of final film, for your showreel
Apply: http://shootingpeople.org/collaborate/crew/view/4576
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Void is a film that takes place in the year 2020 after a virus has spread
all over the country the effectuating peoples brains and unleashing the
animal with in.
The film follows the lead character Max as he tries to survive in the baron
wasteland that london has become in the year 2020. Max is alone but is
still fighting to keep hold of the memory of a past love, on one of his
travels to find food he finds a companion in Jamie.
Shoot Date: 1st Apr 2012 - 15th Apr 2012
Shoot Location: Great Britain
Shoot Region: London
Is this a student project: No
Production Company Name: Early Train Prodctions
Production Company Url: www.earlytrainproduction.co.uk
Budget: Up to 10,000
Genre: Drama
Form: Feature
Is project insured: Yes
More film details: http://shootingpeople.org/castcrew/project/view/1655
Positions on Film:
Boom Operator
We are looking a group of boom operator with there own recording kit to
pick up sound on location.
Is position paid: No, expenses only.
What you'll get from this expenses only role: Credit in the film, Travel
cover and food expenses, showreel footage and a digital copy of the film.
Apply:
http://shootingpeople.org/collaborate/crew/view/3790
Costume
We are looking for a costume designer to make the costume look old and wear
so it matches the feel of the film.
The role will be more pre- production with only a copy of days on set to
help with some of the bigger days of shooting.
Is position paid: No, expenses only.
What you'll get from this expenses only role: Credit in the film, Travel
cover and food expenses, showreel footage and a digital copy of the film.
Apply: http://shootingpeople.org/collaborate/crew/view/3791
Makeup
We are looking for a make-up artist to work with us on set to make the two
lead actors fit the world we are try to create, witch is of a waste land
here people have either died from hunger or been killed by others for food.
Is position paid: No, expenses only.
What you'll get from this expenses only role: Credit in the film, Travel
cover and food expenses, showreel footage and a digital copy of the film.
And make-up costs.
Apply: http://shootingpeople.org/collaborate/crew/view/3792
Sound Recordist
Looking for a sound person to be on set for a couple of day to record
dialogue and wild tracks
Is position paid: No, expenses only.
What you'll get from this expenses only role: Costs travel and food will be
covered.
A credit in the film and on IMDB.
Copy of final film, for your showreel
Apply: http://shootingpeople.org/collaborate/crew/view/4576
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Thursday, December 22, 2011
ASBO for anti-war campaigner
Police apply to courts for an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) on anti-war protester. The papers say that the terms of the order sought are as follows:
The defendant must not:
Enter or be in the City of Westminster except while passing through as a passenger on the London Underground.
Carry with you or be in possession of any can of spray paint, tin of paint, marker pen, chalk or charcoal in anyplace outside the city of Oxford.
Carry with you of be in possession of bolt croppers in any place outside the city of Oxford.
For a period of 10 years. Cops intend to serve the ASBO after Xmas. What happened to Freedom of speech?
Read more from Chris Cole
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
The defendant must not:
Enter or be in the City of Westminster except while passing through as a passenger on the London Underground.
Carry with you or be in possession of any can of spray paint, tin of paint, marker pen, chalk or charcoal in anyplace outside the city of Oxford.
Carry with you of be in possession of bolt croppers in any place outside the city of Oxford.
For a period of 10 years. Cops intend to serve the ASBO after Xmas. What happened to Freedom of speech?
Read more from Chris Cole
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Richard Branson: Time to end the war on drugs
Branson has come out fighting to end the war on drug users.
He writes in his blog
'Ten years ago the Portuguese Government responded to widespread public concern over drugs by rejecting a “war on drugs” approach and instead decriminalized drug possession and use.'
Drug use went down and property theft has dropped dramatically (50% - 80% of all property theft worldwide is caused by drug users).
Read the full diary entry here
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
He writes in his blog
'Ten years ago the Portuguese Government responded to widespread public concern over drugs by rejecting a “war on drugs” approach and instead decriminalized drug possession and use.'
Read the full diary entry here
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Monday, December 19, 2011
Win £1500 for your eco-film
Blue movies are so passé. But green movies, now that is in vogue. Kevin McCloud is launching a UK-wide competition to find budding filmmakers who can use their creativity to encourage people to green their homes.
Read More
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Read More
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Channel Vision by Paul O'Connor
As the talk turns to setting up local TV, I found an article I wrote in 1999 when local TV channels were setting up. What can we learn from them today?
Channel Vision
Published in Big Issue
July 1999
by Paul O' Connor, Undercurents
Bored of TV game shows? Tired of endless soaps? Then why not broadcast your own shows? You could be controlling a slice of the airwaves alongside Rupert Murdoch and the BBC¹s John Birt(or Greg Dyke) for under £7,000.
For the first time in British broadcasting history anyone can use spare frequencies on the airwaves for local television broadcasting. If you live in or around Oxfordshire, the Isle of Wight, Leicestershire or Lanarkshire you will be able to tune in, free of charge, to Britain¹s first local terrestrial broadcasts without having to put any techno-paraphernalia such as decoders, cables or satellite dishes on top of your TV set.
The most notable of the four local TV stations at the moment are Oxford Channel 6 and Leicester¹s Midland Asian Television (MATV). A spokesperson for the Independent Television Commission (ITC), which issues the broadcasting licences, says they awarded one to MATV on the grounds that ³the service, targeting the large Asian population of Leicester, would provide a genuine alternative to existing services in the area² Looking at how dismally all minorities in Britain are represented on terrestrial TV, it is easy to see how important an Asian community TV station will be to Leicester. Programmes ³are mainly in Hindi and English, but some material in other Indian regional languages is planned², says Vinod Popat, the 43-year-old managing director of MATV. ³Sixty per cent of our programmes are being aimed specifically at the Asian audience and the remainder are cross cultural, covering such areas as sport, news, music and pre-school.² Popat had failed in an earlier attempt to obtain radio broadcasting licences for both London and Leicester.
The £7,000 costs cover the two-year licence and the search for a spare frequency. However, the crunch comes when you have to allow for at least another £500,000 for the transmitting and editing equipment. One person who put his money where his mouth wants to be is Thomas Harding, who was previously involved in running the alternative video news service Undercurrents. A co-founder of the Oxford channel, Harding says, ³We have set up the first TV station which produces 100 per cent programmes about local issues.²
Oxford Channel 6 is set to challenge traditional radio by supplying the news and views from the local community. Even Oxfords most outspoken radio presenter, Bill Heine, has joined up as a part-time presenter for Oxford Channel 6. Looking startled in the bright studio lights, his normally confident radio voice wavers as he tries to deal with the various camera angles while facilitating the sex education debate going on around him. The launch date for Oxfords local Channel 6 was set for the sixth day of the sixth month. Plastered throughout the city, Switch To 6 On June The 6th² stickers pleaded to the public to tune in. The 43 staff, mostly unpaid volunteers, packed themselves into the studio with the financial backers, city dignitaries and gatecrashers to start the countdown to the predictable launch time of 6pm
The champagne flowed and tales were retold of state-of-the-art edit suites crashing at vital moments, the never-ending struggle to cut costs, and the local planning battle which threatened to pull the plug on the channel when locals tried to stop them from putting up their roof-top transmitter. The channels managing director and ex-cheerleader Deborah Cackler began the countdown to 6pm. Her reason for setting up the channel, she says, was ³to support local independent companies and make programmes which will reflect the homogeneous community which Oxford actually is. The atmosphere was expectant as 120 people joined her in the 30-second countdown to usher in the first pre-recorded transmission.
Viewers were told they would 'get their kicks on Channel 6'. Programmes cover curios like odd village names, weird sports, the lives of nightshift workers and the local music scene. All the video journalists use public transport or bicycles to get around Oxfordshire to report the numerous daily lifestyle features. Ironically, back at HQ, the city¹s largest car dealer is sponsoring the flagship programme, 6 on 6.
Andy Colborne, 27, gave up his job in London to work as a volunteer with the Oxford Channel. As he watched his first feature being broadcast to a potential half a million people, he said, I'm now actually doing something for myself and the community around me. I see it as an investment in my future.Many of the volunteers believe they have learnt more in the few months with the local station than they could ever have done working within the larger stations.
A spokesperson for Central TV reinforced the station's fear of competition. The market to gain television viewers is becoming more and more competitive, with increasing outlets on cable, digital and the Internet, but with high-quality programming like ours we intend to stay well in the lead.² With a budget of nearly £20 million a year to develop and market Central TV¹s regional news and current affairs programmes, the pressure will be high for the new local stations to lure the public away from their familiar programmes.
Thomas Harding shrugged off Central TV¹s claims of superiority, saying, ³Oxford Channel will not be going for the hard news which Central TV news offers with their 30 minutes of crime, disasters and murders. People are tired of hearing all that. We are setting out to tell stories about the community they actually live in.²
Oxford Channel¹s current affairs programme Stir It Up mixes cooking with politics. People from the Asian, white and black communities debate various issues around the kitchen table while the camera zooms from the debate to the kitchen where the host is showing how to cook national dishes. The result is a passionate debate on racism as an Asian diner claims that ³black people get a hard time because they are not as well organised in councils as the Asian community².
Shying well away from any intention of broadcasting political debates is Simon Bond of City TV in Wiltshire. Bond has applied for eight of the licences in all the major cities stretching from Newcastle to Bristol with the dream of building his very own media empire. Without any clear vision on programming he comes across as a man with more of mission to make money rather than to challenge any social problems. Bond intends to lower running costs by franchising unspecified programmes across his Channel 6 stations. No guidelines prevent any form of rampant commercialisation of the licences but as he says, ³So much of this business is not about making television but about managing cashflow, and although we are free to air, we still have to encourage the viewers somehow to actually turn that dial.²
City TV has joined the other 66 applicants for the current round of licences. The local stations currently broadcasting will be joined by another in Derry, Northern Ireland, on September 19.
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Channel Vision
Published in Big Issue
July 1999
by Paul O' Connor, Undercurents
Bored of TV game shows? Tired of endless soaps? Then why not broadcast your own shows? You could be controlling a slice of the airwaves alongside Rupert Murdoch and the BBC¹s John Birt(or Greg Dyke) for under £7,000.
For the first time in British broadcasting history anyone can use spare frequencies on the airwaves for local television broadcasting. If you live in or around Oxfordshire, the Isle of Wight, Leicestershire or Lanarkshire you will be able to tune in, free of charge, to Britain¹s first local terrestrial broadcasts without having to put any techno-paraphernalia such as decoders, cables or satellite dishes on top of your TV set.
The most notable of the four local TV stations at the moment are Oxford Channel 6 and Leicester¹s Midland Asian Television (MATV). A spokesperson for the Independent Television Commission (ITC), which issues the broadcasting licences, says they awarded one to MATV on the grounds that ³the service, targeting the large Asian population of Leicester, would provide a genuine alternative to existing services in the area² Looking at how dismally all minorities in Britain are represented on terrestrial TV, it is easy to see how important an Asian community TV station will be to Leicester. Programmes ³are mainly in Hindi and English, but some material in other Indian regional languages is planned², says Vinod Popat, the 43-year-old managing director of MATV. ³Sixty per cent of our programmes are being aimed specifically at the Asian audience and the remainder are cross cultural, covering such areas as sport, news, music and pre-school.² Popat had failed in an earlier attempt to obtain radio broadcasting licences for both London and Leicester.
Oxford Channel 6 is set to challenge traditional radio by supplying the news and views from the local community. Even Oxfords most outspoken radio presenter, Bill Heine, has joined up as a part-time presenter for Oxford Channel 6. Looking startled in the bright studio lights, his normally confident radio voice wavers as he tries to deal with the various camera angles while facilitating the sex education debate going on around him. The launch date for Oxfords local Channel 6 was set for the sixth day of the sixth month. Plastered throughout the city, Switch To 6 On June The 6th² stickers pleaded to the public to tune in. The 43 staff, mostly unpaid volunteers, packed themselves into the studio with the financial backers, city dignitaries and gatecrashers to start the countdown to the predictable launch time of 6pm
The champagne flowed and tales were retold of state-of-the-art edit suites crashing at vital moments, the never-ending struggle to cut costs, and the local planning battle which threatened to pull the plug on the channel when locals tried to stop them from putting up their roof-top transmitter. The channels managing director and ex-cheerleader Deborah Cackler began the countdown to 6pm. Her reason for setting up the channel, she says, was ³to support local independent companies and make programmes which will reflect the homogeneous community which Oxford actually is. The atmosphere was expectant as 120 people joined her in the 30-second countdown to usher in the first pre-recorded transmission.
Viewers were told they would 'get their kicks on Channel 6'. Programmes cover curios like odd village names, weird sports, the lives of nightshift workers and the local music scene. All the video journalists use public transport or bicycles to get around Oxfordshire to report the numerous daily lifestyle features. Ironically, back at HQ, the city¹s largest car dealer is sponsoring the flagship programme, 6 on 6.
Andy Colborne, 27, gave up his job in London to work as a volunteer with the Oxford Channel. As he watched his first feature being broadcast to a potential half a million people, he said, I'm now actually doing something for myself and the community around me. I see it as an investment in my future.Many of the volunteers believe they have learnt more in the few months with the local station than they could ever have done working within the larger stations.
A spokesperson for Central TV reinforced the station's fear of competition. The market to gain television viewers is becoming more and more competitive, with increasing outlets on cable, digital and the Internet, but with high-quality programming like ours we intend to stay well in the lead.² With a budget of nearly £20 million a year to develop and market Central TV¹s regional news and current affairs programmes, the pressure will be high for the new local stations to lure the public away from their familiar programmes.
Thomas Harding shrugged off Central TV¹s claims of superiority, saying, ³Oxford Channel will not be going for the hard news which Central TV news offers with their 30 minutes of crime, disasters and murders. People are tired of hearing all that. We are setting out to tell stories about the community they actually live in.²
Oxford Channel¹s current affairs programme Stir It Up mixes cooking with politics. People from the Asian, white and black communities debate various issues around the kitchen table while the camera zooms from the debate to the kitchen where the host is showing how to cook national dishes. The result is a passionate debate on racism as an Asian diner claims that ³black people get a hard time because they are not as well organised in councils as the Asian community².
Shying well away from any intention of broadcasting political debates is Simon Bond of City TV in Wiltshire. Bond has applied for eight of the licences in all the major cities stretching from Newcastle to Bristol with the dream of building his very own media empire. Without any clear vision on programming he comes across as a man with more of mission to make money rather than to challenge any social problems. Bond intends to lower running costs by franchising unspecified programmes across his Channel 6 stations. No guidelines prevent any form of rampant commercialisation of the licences but as he says, ³So much of this business is not about making television but about managing cashflow, and although we are free to air, we still have to encourage the viewers somehow to actually turn that dial.²
City TV has joined the other 66 applicants for the current round of licences. The local stations currently broadcasting will be joined by another in Derry, Northern Ireland, on September 19.
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Beyond Television by Matt Henry
Beyond Television
Published Big Issue Wales january 2001
Beyond Television
Television audiences are now little but products sold to hungry advertisers eager to keep you quietly consuming. Matt Henry finds out how the TV might make your world a better place.
In 1995 an Australian journalist sought to earn brownie points when interviewing his newspaper owner, a man named Keith Rupert Murdoch: "You've certainly led one of the most extraordinary lives in the twentieth century," the journalist slobbered, "and it's been entirely of your own making. Can you accept the accolade that you are probably the most remarkable Australian in about 200 years?" The question that probably earned him a pay rise was also a sickening example of how far money has come to dictate what we see, hear and read in our nation's media.
Only four corporations now control 80 per cent of the UK press and broadcast media - a trend that is not confined to British soil. The deregulation of America's media in 1996 spurned a series of mergers, buy-outs and partnerships that has left it to the mercy of a few giant multi-national corporations with a mass of business interests. The boards of media companies such as Disney, Bertelsmann, AOL/Time Warner, Viacom and Murdoch's News Corporation typically include representatives of international banks, multinational oil companies, car manufacturers and other corporations with a stake in controlling the information that we receive. "What scares me most," says Gene Kimmleman, co-director of the Consumers Union in Washington, "is that eventually we may have most of the big players in cahoots with each other. Who's going to blow the whistle? The way the public gets its information will be predominantly controlled by those who are benefiting from a monopolistic environment."
Yet, fears about corporate censorship of news information are already real. The ABC network was reported to have blanketed a story that Disney Corporation (which owns ABC) had hired convicted child molesters at its theme parks. Murdoch's tabloid, The Sun, reversed its opposition to the controversial Millennium Dome after Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting satellite service became a key investor. And, few in Britain can forget how Murdoch's publishing company, Harper Collins, cancelled a book critical of the Chinese leadership by former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten. Nor was this the first time that Murdoch had been accused of placing his business interests before principle with regard to China. In 1994, he removed the BBC World Service from his satellite broadcasts into China at the request of the authorities there, who did not like a program the BBC aired about their former leader Mao Tse-tung. AOL boss Steve Case denies that business interests at AOL/Time Warner would ever be allowed to restrict the work of news reporters. "This is not about trying to have some influence over all these media properties for some kind of self-serving reason." It is rather difficult to have faith enough to believe that multi-nationals could exercise such professional restraint - especially when you consider that media corporations have given some $75 million dollars in campaign contributions to candidates for US federal government since 1993.
Mark Crispin Miller, director of the Project on Media Ownership at New York University, argues that such direct intervention is quite rare: "Usually it isn't necessary for the boss to interfere. The culture of the newsroom in this corporate system tacitly requires you to learn the ropes. You learn what to do and what not to do. You've got to make a living." What this means is that editors quietly practise a form of self-censorship so that certain stories will never make headline news for fear of offending one or more business interests. With this covert selection, the newsroom not only reports the news, it literally makes the news. Those reporters that fail to learn which stories are of acceptable taste and which are not will quickly suffer professional death. Such self-censorship has long been an issue with media researchers and academics in the US. America's annual Project Censored awards are now awaited with some apprehension by the mainstream media, as a group of journalists, academics and students comb the news every year for the top 25 most significant stories which the mainstream press failed to report. The number of such stories is reportedly growing year on year.
Swansea based video-editor and media studies lecturer Helen Iles was disillusioned with corporate influence when she left her job as a commercial video-maker to pursue independent film production. "The national press is designed to distract us from what's really important and what's really going on in our lives," she claims, "The heavy focus on entertainment doesn't improve people's lives - it just discourages them from taking control of the environment around them." She believes that the corporate manipulation of the media not only prevents us from learning about the realities of certain business interests but also takes away our very potential to do anything to change the situation. If democracy is about people having enough information to make informed political choices, then the media seems to be working to cloud this information in favour of certain groups.
Political scientist Lance Bennett shares Helen Iles theory about the media disempowering citizens, claiming that the media presents politics as a: "depressing spectacle rather than a vital activity in which citizens can and should be engaged." Punchy news reports pegged around the words of far-away scientists and question dodging politicians ignore deeper reasons and causes and do little to encourage people to think that they may have a say in shaping their world. Bob Franklin, in his book Packaging Politics, claims that: "Politics (like football) has become an armchair activity. Watching the match from a ringside seat at home has replaced the need to play the game."
Helen Iles claims that those in the media have failed to resist the quick-fix, short- term, junk food mentality: "The media do have some kind of responsibility towards educating and enriching people's social lives and mental environment. At the moment we are being fed junk food through the TV which is unfortunately addictive and, like most things addictive, not necessarily good for you in the long-term," she says. "We do have these sort of human weaknesses which aren't very good for us. When you feed people fast food, they stop bothering to learn how to cook. When you make quick-fix pills available, people are less likely to look after there own health. If you give people a diet of sit-com style entertainment there is less incentive for them to go out and interact with others in their community – digesting the lives of soap stars is an easy replacement for having to go out and make your own life."
Unconvinced that the mainstream media would or could change its spots, Helen Iles took video-training and production organisation Undercurrents Foundation to Swansea. The foundation, a charity section of the award winning non-profit alternative film company Undercurrents, has 10 regular volunteers and teaches local people how to use digital video technology to tell their stories – stories that would never make the mainstream news fully intact. When Gower residents objected to further depletion of their beaches by dredging in the Bristol Channel, Helen was there to ensure the issue was recorded and edited onto video. From here, the story could be passed to other residents wanting more information or sent to those with a say in the future of Gower's beaches. And, when Swansea residents objected to the erection of mobile phone masts in the area, Helen was there again to make sure the story got beyond the local rags – the mobile mast campaign has turned into a major issue and the film is now being screened across the country. Says Helen: "With the camcorder revolution and digital technology, good quality can now be achieved very cheaply – the boundaries are blurring between amateur and professional. If someone comes up with an issue they would like to air, we will give them training in basic camera techniques – it's about demystifying the whole production process. It's been this expensive and very technical process for so long and we want to make it clear that anybody can now make a video.
" Starting from the grassroots is the only way that the control of the mainstream media can be bypassed, says Helen, dismissing the idea of screening the videos in the mainstream media: "Its an awful lot of wheeling and dealing to get stuff on national TV. And then we find mostly that that they haven't the same agenda as you so the story changes along the way and it's not quite the story you started with – it's kind of flatter and the message gets warped. And then they don't want to pay you and you find out it goes out about 1:30 in the morning to people who don't respond."
Her solution for ensuring local people see the videos made in their areas was to take the foundation on tour – a Beyond TV film festival circuit that would screen locally and globally made films and provide video training to anyone interested. The festival kicked off in Swansea in December and will continue on to Oxford, Bristol, Brighton and Norwich in the spring where video-makers with stories to tell are currently getting busy. "The response has been fantastic," says Helen, "dozens of people came up to me after the screenings to tell me how inspired they were and to ask for video training. It's this enthusiasm that keeps me going." Meanwhile Helen is off to Australia for screenings in Brisbane and Melbourne where grassroots video making has long been a campaign tool of choice.
"The tour seems to be growing all the time," she says, "We have plans to take it worldwide – San Francisco should be our next stop unless our funding dries up. But we are still very eager to hear from anyone who has environmental or social justice films that they would like to get screened." If you have films that may be of interest, wish to inquire about video training or are interested in funding the work of the Undercurrents Foundation you can email them at: www.undercurrents.org
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Published Big Issue Wales january 2001
Beyond Television
Television audiences are now little but products sold to hungry advertisers eager to keep you quietly consuming. Matt Henry finds out how the TV might make your world a better place.
In 1995 an Australian journalist sought to earn brownie points when interviewing his newspaper owner, a man named Keith Rupert Murdoch: "You've certainly led one of the most extraordinary lives in the twentieth century," the journalist slobbered, "and it's been entirely of your own making. Can you accept the accolade that you are probably the most remarkable Australian in about 200 years?" The question that probably earned him a pay rise was also a sickening example of how far money has come to dictate what we see, hear and read in our nation's media.
Yet, fears about corporate censorship of news information are already real. The ABC network was reported to have blanketed a story that Disney Corporation (which owns ABC) had hired convicted child molesters at its theme parks. Murdoch's tabloid, The Sun, reversed its opposition to the controversial Millennium Dome after Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting satellite service became a key investor. And, few in Britain can forget how Murdoch's publishing company, Harper Collins, cancelled a book critical of the Chinese leadership by former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten. Nor was this the first time that Murdoch had been accused of placing his business interests before principle with regard to China. In 1994, he removed the BBC World Service from his satellite broadcasts into China at the request of the authorities there, who did not like a program the BBC aired about their former leader Mao Tse-tung. AOL boss Steve Case denies that business interests at AOL/Time Warner would ever be allowed to restrict the work of news reporters. "This is not about trying to have some influence over all these media properties for some kind of self-serving reason." It is rather difficult to have faith enough to believe that multi-nationals could exercise such professional restraint - especially when you consider that media corporations have given some $75 million dollars in campaign contributions to candidates for US federal government since 1993.
Mark Crispin Miller, director of the Project on Media Ownership at New York University, argues that such direct intervention is quite rare: "Usually it isn't necessary for the boss to interfere. The culture of the newsroom in this corporate system tacitly requires you to learn the ropes. You learn what to do and what not to do. You've got to make a living." What this means is that editors quietly practise a form of self-censorship so that certain stories will never make headline news for fear of offending one or more business interests. With this covert selection, the newsroom not only reports the news, it literally makes the news. Those reporters that fail to learn which stories are of acceptable taste and which are not will quickly suffer professional death. Such self-censorship has long been an issue with media researchers and academics in the US. America's annual Project Censored awards are now awaited with some apprehension by the mainstream media, as a group of journalists, academics and students comb the news every year for the top 25 most significant stories which the mainstream press failed to report. The number of such stories is reportedly growing year on year.
Political scientist Lance Bennett shares Helen Iles theory about the media disempowering citizens, claiming that the media presents politics as a: "depressing spectacle rather than a vital activity in which citizens can and should be engaged." Punchy news reports pegged around the words of far-away scientists and question dodging politicians ignore deeper reasons and causes and do little to encourage people to think that they may have a say in shaping their world. Bob Franklin, in his book Packaging Politics, claims that: "Politics (like football) has become an armchair activity. Watching the match from a ringside seat at home has replaced the need to play the game."
Helen Iles claims that those in the media have failed to resist the quick-fix, short- term, junk food mentality: "The media do have some kind of responsibility towards educating and enriching people's social lives and mental environment. At the moment we are being fed junk food through the TV which is unfortunately addictive and, like most things addictive, not necessarily good for you in the long-term," she says. "We do have these sort of human weaknesses which aren't very good for us. When you feed people fast food, they stop bothering to learn how to cook. When you make quick-fix pills available, people are less likely to look after there own health. If you give people a diet of sit-com style entertainment there is less incentive for them to go out and interact with others in their community – digesting the lives of soap stars is an easy replacement for having to go out and make your own life."
Unconvinced that the mainstream media would or could change its spots, Helen Iles took video-training and production organisation Undercurrents Foundation to Swansea. The foundation, a charity section of the award winning non-profit alternative film company Undercurrents, has 10 regular volunteers and teaches local people how to use digital video technology to tell their stories – stories that would never make the mainstream news fully intact. When Gower residents objected to further depletion of their beaches by dredging in the Bristol Channel, Helen was there to ensure the issue was recorded and edited onto video. From here, the story could be passed to other residents wanting more information or sent to those with a say in the future of Gower's beaches. And, when Swansea residents objected to the erection of mobile phone masts in the area, Helen was there again to make sure the story got beyond the local rags – the mobile mast campaign has turned into a major issue and the film is now being screened across the country. Says Helen: "With the camcorder revolution and digital technology, good quality can now be achieved very cheaply – the boundaries are blurring between amateur and professional. If someone comes up with an issue they would like to air, we will give them training in basic camera techniques – it's about demystifying the whole production process. It's been this expensive and very technical process for so long and we want to make it clear that anybody can now make a video.
" Starting from the grassroots is the only way that the control of the mainstream media can be bypassed, says Helen, dismissing the idea of screening the videos in the mainstream media: "Its an awful lot of wheeling and dealing to get stuff on national TV. And then we find mostly that that they haven't the same agenda as you so the story changes along the way and it's not quite the story you started with – it's kind of flatter and the message gets warped. And then they don't want to pay you and you find out it goes out about 1:30 in the morning to people who don't respond."
"The tour seems to be growing all the time," she says, "We have plans to take it worldwide – San Francisco should be our next stop unless our funding dries up. But we are still very eager to hear from anyone who has environmental or social justice films that they would like to get screened." If you have films that may be of interest, wish to inquire about video training or are interested in funding the work of the Undercurrents Foundation you can email them at: www.undercurrents.org
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Breaking News: Police arresting reporters
I wrote this article about Police arresting reporters in 2002
Breaking news by Paul O’ Connor,Undercurrents
Dressed only in a white paper suit and little else, documentary maker Ben Edwards blinked as the early sun rose over the police station in Plymouth. It was the end of his 24 hour stint in a small cell, his video camera and tapes were now in the hands of the police. Just another statistic in the growing number of journalists in Britain arrested on the line of duty.
For three months Edwards has been documenting the direct action protests against the test crops of genetically modified crops (GM) up and down the country. Activists have destroyed over two thirds of all GM test crops growing in the open air. Edwards had been given exclusive access by the activists to report their actions as they trashed a GM site near Totnes in Devon on August 3rd. However the police were tipped off and duly arrested all the activists, along with Edwards, despite his credentials as a journalist. While he was locked up, police raided his home and seized his computer, and a number of video tapes and written material. Later, Edwards shook his head at the devastation of his home and said “ they seem to have no idea of what they were looking for, they even took tapes of documentaries I taped off the Tv”. Despite the home raid, detention and confiscation of his clothes, the police have yet to charge him with an offence. He is due to appear back at Plymouth police station on September 24.
A few weeks previously a journalist reporting for the Daily Mail was arrested in Ayrshire merely for knocking on a door.He was enquiring about the secret meeting of hugely influential capitalists known as the Bilderbergs. Eight years a journalist, Campbell Thomas, 34, is also a special constable and his initial disbelief at his arrest for breach of the peace was followed by 5 hours in a filthy cell.
Thomas said that “it seems that the arresting of journalists has been going on for a long time but newspaper and Tv editors rely so much on the police for tip offs that they don’t want to risk upsetting their prime source of news”
Despite all of the charges being dropped in court, he was suspended from his work as a special constable.
Television reporter Roddy Mansfield came up against the Metropolitan police while filming a protest against Rank leisure ltd. While he showed his NUJ press card he couldn’t remember his cards PIN. Mansfield was arrested for forgery of a press card. All the charges were later dropped, however all his news deadlines were missed and the story ended up on the edit suite floor. Since then he feels that he has been singled out for harassment by the police. He has been assaulted by riot police, had his camera smashed, been arrested 6 times and in May this year the Met. police actually erased his footage in front of him in the custody suite of Belgravia police station. However they didn’t figure on his camera picking up shots of their own feet and the microphone picking up their voices as they questioned him about him being a journalist. Mansfield sees it as his “first, real, hard piece of evidence of police news management”.
Photographer Nick Cobbing was one of the few journalists convicted and fined for obstruction of a bailiff despite the courts recognising him as a working reporter. He was arrested during the Manchester airport protests while working in the trees. While all the other journalists were corralled into the police controlled pen well away from the evictions,Cobbing managed to get into the trees and work where the news was happening. Cobbing is still in disbelief and he figures that the police have a covert plan “As the Police come under a lot of criticism for the policing methods, they want to put journalists off going to these events and the easiest journalists to put off are the freelances because they do not have the backing of the large news organisation.”
Another casualty at Manchester was HTV producer John Williams who was trunchoned over the head and dragged away from the protest site.
More worrying perhaps is the case of video journalist Gerard O’ Sullivan who was arrested in April while reporting at a vivisection protest in Oxfordshire. He has the dubious honour of becoming the first journalist to be charged under the Protection from Harassment act. Just who was been harassed by his filming remains open to debate but O’Sullivan has his suspicions “all I was doing was filming Thames valley police roughly handling a female protester when all of a sudden officers yanked the camera off me and arrested me under this law”.
Watch the film Breaking News which shows these arrests here.
Sally Gilbert, lawyer of the National Union of Journalists ( NUJ ) stated that “this law was intended mainly to protect women who were being stalked. When it was passed in 1997 the NUJ warned that it would be used against journalists”.
It now seems that the NUJ press card is no longer valid in the eyes of the police despite being originally introduced by the police themselves. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) spokesman Tim Mahoney cast any notions of police news management aside by saying “Do the police set out to control and manipulate the media? No, there is no intent to do that”
We can no longer sit back and watch our press freedom being eroded. Now is the time for the police to come clean about why they are intent on stopping the news reaching the nation. In the early part of this century the press baron, Lord Northcliff interpreted the news as “something which someone, somewhere wants to suppress, everything else is just advertising”. With the corporate take over of our media is vital that the real issues are reported and that journalists don’t find themselves wandering the streets in white paper suits.
Paul O’ Connor is the producer of undercurrents alternative news video. Undercurrents 9 has an award winning investigation into police suppression of the news called Breaking news.
Breaking news is available on undercurrents the alternative news video issue 9
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
Breaking news by Paul O’ Connor,Undercurrents
Dressed only in a white paper suit and little else, documentary maker Ben Edwards blinked as the early sun rose over the police station in Plymouth. It was the end of his 24 hour stint in a small cell, his video camera and tapes were now in the hands of the police. Just another statistic in the growing number of journalists in Britain arrested on the line of duty.
Thomas said that “it seems that the arresting of journalists has been going on for a long time but newspaper and Tv editors rely so much on the police for tip offs that they don’t want to risk upsetting their prime source of news”
Despite all of the charges being dropped in court, he was suspended from his work as a special constable.
Television reporter Roddy Mansfield came up against the Metropolitan police while filming a protest against Rank leisure ltd. While he showed his NUJ press card he couldn’t remember his cards PIN. Mansfield was arrested for forgery of a press card. All the charges were later dropped, however all his news deadlines were missed and the story ended up on the edit suite floor. Since then he feels that he has been singled out for harassment by the police. He has been assaulted by riot police, had his camera smashed, been arrested 6 times and in May this year the Met. police actually erased his footage in front of him in the custody suite of Belgravia police station. However they didn’t figure on his camera picking up shots of their own feet and the microphone picking up their voices as they questioned him about him being a journalist. Mansfield sees it as his “first, real, hard piece of evidence of police news management”.
Photographer Nick Cobbing was one of the few journalists convicted and fined for obstruction of a bailiff despite the courts recognising him as a working reporter. He was arrested during the Manchester airport protests while working in the trees. While all the other journalists were corralled into the police controlled pen well away from the evictions,Cobbing managed to get into the trees and work where the news was happening. Cobbing is still in disbelief and he figures that the police have a covert plan “As the Police come under a lot of criticism for the policing methods, they want to put journalists off going to these events and the easiest journalists to put off are the freelances because they do not have the backing of the large news organisation.”
Another casualty at Manchester was HTV producer John Williams who was trunchoned over the head and dragged away from the protest site.
Watch the film Breaking News which shows these arrests here.
Sally Gilbert, lawyer of the National Union of Journalists ( NUJ ) stated that “this law was intended mainly to protect women who were being stalked. When it was passed in 1997 the NUJ warned that it would be used against journalists”.
It now seems that the NUJ press card is no longer valid in the eyes of the police despite being originally introduced by the police themselves. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) spokesman Tim Mahoney cast any notions of police news management aside by saying “Do the police set out to control and manipulate the media? No, there is no intent to do that”
We can no longer sit back and watch our press freedom being eroded. Now is the time for the police to come clean about why they are intent on stopping the news reaching the nation. In the early part of this century the press baron, Lord Northcliff interpreted the news as “something which someone, somewhere wants to suppress, everything else is just advertising”. With the corporate take over of our media is vital that the real issues are reported and that journalists don’t find themselves wandering the streets in white paper suits.
Paul O’ Connor is the producer of undercurrents alternative news video. Undercurrents 9 has an award winning investigation into police suppression of the news called Breaking news.
Breaking news is available on undercurrents the alternative news video issue 9
Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org
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