Discovering history and the Wiltshire landscape through film

As a film director, it’s really enjoyable to see your work on the big screen at festivals, or on tv, but for me there is something even more special about sharing your skills with young people and inspiring them to produce a film for the first time. The Virtual Landscapes project gave both the group of 11-14 year olds from Westbury and myself the opportunity to explore the local Wiltshire landscape and learn about our social history, as we visited the military badges carved into the chalk hills at Fovant, near Shaftesbury.

After a steep climb on a sunny Winters day, and with a few poor choices of footwear, we reached the badges and the summit of the Iron Age hill fort, having experienced the same conditions as the soldiers who created the badges exactly 100 years ago. Exploring the site with archaeologist Rachel Foster, supported by Youth Development Coordinator Sandra Samuel, and being chased by some friendly cows at the top of the slope, the history was brought to life for us all and the ideas for film and animation were starting to flow. 

In the following 8 weeks we had film, photography and animation workshop sessions, supported by the youth workers, at Westbury Youth Centre, with a total of 18 young people engaging in the project – the 5 core members all currently putting the finishing touches to their well-earned Bronze Arts Awards project folders.

One of the highlights for me was a photography workshop we did with the group of girls, who all wanted to wear moustaches, to look more like the soldiers that created the badges. They were all incredibly quick in picking up the technical skills of using the camera and studio light, and loved posing for the camera, creating a variety of different mouth shapes in each photo so that they could create their own cartoon characters and animate them to talk in subsequent sessions. They then put themselves in the shoes of the soldiers and produced some beautiful lyrics, imagining how they would feel – and the result is a wonderful combination of film, animation, poetry and history, which I can’t wait for you all to see (or for those of you that clicked the play button before reading the text, I hope you enjoyed it)!

It has been wonderful to lead this Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots project with Westbury Youth Centre and Wiltshire Council and I have a feeling there will be more films and animations to come out of Westbury in the near future, as there are some very talented and creative young people that now have the bug for film production!

These films were produced by young people at Westbury Youth Centre. The group visited the badges at Fovant, near Salisbury, with archaeologist Rachel Foster, to learn about the history of the location, climb to the top of the Iron Age hillfort and experience the badges from close-up.

Virtual Landscapes is a Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots project, initiated and funded by Wiltshire Council and coordinated by Ageas Salisbury International Arts Festival. The film was produced and developed at workshop sessions at Westbury Youth Centre, supported by Youth Development workers. and mentored by director Jamie McDine.

The young people that produced this film are also completing their Bronze Art Award as a result of this project.

A very successful photography workshop

On Saturday 16th March, wedding photographer Jamie McDine led a photography masterclass at Matravers School in Westbury. The workshop participants were a perfect mixture of ages, from 14, up to those in their 60s, and mixture of abilities - from hobby photographers, to those studying the subject for GCSE and others who had work published.

The main aim of the workshop was to get all participants to understand more about how their camera works, so that they are able to take better photographs.  So once the automatic settings were switched off, Jamie led the group through a number of hands on exercises to manually set their own ISO, aperture and shutter speed settings. The results - beautiful and more artistic compositions, with a much better exposure and consideration of light and colour.

The final exercise was to photograph a model in a studio environment - the participants had to set everything manually on their camera and apply all the skills they had learned throughout the day.

The workshop was so popular that the next one is already organised for Sunday 14th April 2013. There are a handful of places still available, so if you would like to book a place, please contact Beverley Jessop: bjessop@matravers.wilts.sch.uk
The workshop costs just £35 and runs from 10-3pm. All abilities and ages are welcome.

Team Spirit - in print!

Following the fantastic exhibition at the Laverton Hall in Westbury, the Team Spirit community photography project officially ended today, with a final meet up of the photographers, each receiving a copy of the commemorative book printed to celebrate the project.

The photography project was led by Jackie McDine of Wiltshire Wedding Photography and was funded by V. The books were designed by Jackie and feature a personal profile of each project participant, together with their 3 best photos - and the soft back cover features the 'TEAM' and 'SPIRIT' group shots of all participants.



Thank you to all the participants, everyone who has helped us make this project happen, let us photograph their team or organisation, and those who came along to our exhibition.

We are currently putting together plans for a new photography project, that will be free to participate and inspire you to use your camera every day... so keep checking back!

Exhibition Fri 12th & Sat 13th November

Back in August Jackie McDine launched the project "Team Spirit: A Community Photography Project" in Westbury, Wiltshire.
Three months later, and the project has enabled us to make new friends, share skills and techniques and shoot some really interesting photos. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all participants and we're really excited that you will have the opportunity to see our work next week!

Photos by all 13 project participants will be exhibited at the Laverton Hall in Westbury and we would be delighted if you could join us to enjoy the work and have a cup of tea and cake - and yes everything is free! It would be great if you could also forward this information on to friends and colleagues, and even add it to your facebook status.

The exhibition opens on Friday 12th November from 6-9pm and will run again on Saturday 13th November from 12-5pm. Come along to enjoy the photographs - you will have a chance to meet the photographers and discuss their work, as well as enjoying a free cup of tea and piece of cake. The project has been funded by v - inspiring young volunteers across the UK, and has been kindly supported by Matravers School.

All of the work is based upon the theme of 'Team Spirit' and 13 participants of all ages and abilities took part in the project, led by Jackie McDine of Wiltshire Wedding Photography.

We hope to see you on Friday 12th or Saturday 13th at the exhibition.

We've got Team Spirit!

The community photography project "Team Spirit" is underway and has got a real buzz of excitement about it from participants in the Westbury area.

Team Spirit is a 2 month photography project being led by Jackie McDine of Wiltshire Wedding Photography and is completely free for people of all ages and abilities to participate. So far the group have been out on location in the eerie Wiltshire ghost town of Imber, at rugby matches, concerts and at various local groups and organisations that embody 'team spirit'. They have also been picking up skills, tips and techniques to improve their shots, or how to edit their photos.

If you would like to follow the project, then please visit the blog: http://teamspiritwestbury.blogspot.com/

And we would love to see you at the exhibition at the Laverton Hall in Westbury on November 12th and 13th, for a free drink and look at the groups work in print.

For more information about Jackie McDine and her work, please visit her website: Wiltshire Wedding Photography
And you can follow us on Facebook. Just visit THIS PAGE and click 'Like'.

Get involved in New Photography Project!

"Team Spirit - A community project" is giving people of all ages in Westbury, Wiltshire, the chance to work together towards an exhibition from September to November 2010.

The project is being led by local photographer Jackie McDine, of Wiltshire Wedding Photography, who comes from Germany, but has been living and working in Wiltshire since 2008. The project is being funded by Vcashpoint and is inspired by London 2012, with many values of the games being involved within the photography work.

"We want photographers of all levels of ability. Having the equipment and the experience isn't necessary. What is important is an interest and enthusiasm for photography and to meet new people. This project will bring together people from all backgrounds and we will all work together to take great photos, edit them together and exhibit them together at the end of the project.

Working together you get so many more ideas, as well as picking up tips and techniques. We really want to encourage team spirit and friendship between the members of the group as well as helping the participants to improve their camera skills."

The project will culminate in an exhibition to be hosted at the Laverton Hall in November, featuring the work of all participants. And the project is completely FREE to participants, who will have access to resources and facilities, courtesy of the project leaders and Matravers School, Westbury.

If you would like to join the team and take part in the project, or for more information, please email: jackie@ivisualise.co.uk