What is normal?

Photograph (c) Phil Janvier - 30th May 2006
"I just can't wait for things to get back to normal!" Hah, I would have vast savings if I had paid myself a pound for everytime I thought that. It's like the photograph above, am I looking up at the sky or looking down at the clouds? I am on the ground or am I in a plane (and if you are interested to know which post me a comment and I will let you know). Sometimes I long for things to settle down and run smoothly but they never do, so the conclusion I must reach is that life is in constant movement so get used to it!

Study Leave Report (2003) - only a bit late!

In 2003 the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group presented me with a Bursary Award towards the costs of a sabbatical study project. My original aims where to improve and develop my skills in the immensely practical areas of sound and vision with the hope of passing the Institute of Videography’s (http://www.iov.co.uk/) Master Membership qualification.

Having raised the necessary funding to finance my study leave my first task was to ascertain what my core competencies were with regard to the Institute of Videography qualifications.

My passion for photography dates back to my late teens when I worked as a semi-professional photographer in the night clubs of Liverpool and for a variety of local newspapers, this passion began to transfer to videography in 1990. At that time I was a Team Vicar in Toxteth and I wanted to create a video that would introduce new people to the life at St Gabriel’s and answer some simple questions about the Christian faith and the practicalities of local worship and witness. To further this aim I arranged to attend a videography-training course with First Take in their studio next to the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King. In those days video editing was all based on a tape-to-tape system and was very expensive, still after the training we recorded a video called Dragged in Screaming and it was used over a four five year period. When I left St Gabriel’s to move to my present post I had the privilege of having my move to St Stephen’s filmed by the BBC’s Everyman unit for a new television series based on the life of a vicar. The Diocese of Liverpool gave me permission to do this and the Rt Revd David Sheppard, the then Bishop of Liverpool, recommended that I attend a video and media training course, which I was delighted to do. Sadly after twenty-nine hours of filming the series was abandoned due to a change in policy at the BBC but whole experience was invaluable. As a consequence of a gift of a £1000 from the BBC I was able to obtain for the first time a computer PC non-linear editing system with which I was able to video and edit at the Rectory. Shortly before my study leave began I was to film and produce a training video for the Diocese of Liverpool which when released was called The Diocese of Liverpool: Renewal and Regeneration. It was this piece of work that I submitted to the Institute of Videography for assessment. On its return it had received a mark of sixty out of a possible hundred, as the pass mark was seventy; it had not reached the required standard. In fact some of the comments on the piece made me smile! “The video was uninspiring almost to the point of dullness.” The target had been set and I had challenge to meet.

The first two months of my study leave where dedicated to achieving two targets, firstly, attending video skills training, be that camera work or digital editing, to that end I attended a variety of courses; I studied video editing with Planet PC, Planet Enterprises Ltd in Birkenshaw West Yorkshire, I attended two residential courses with the Institute of Videography approved training courses Video Skills based at The Swan Hotel, Coleshaw, Warwickshire, in which I studied camera craft, Sound and Lighting. These latter courses were an eye opener and they allowed me see the world in a whole new way. Secondly, to prepare, script, storyboard and finally film a corporate video for a model railway manufacturer Dapol, in Llangollen, North Wales.

The training courses all were excellent and in many ways you cannot improve on the hands on approach. Then it was time to put the training into practice. There then followed a recce trip to Dapol and Llangollen that involved interviewing all of the senior members of staff, negotiating with the Llangollen Police, Llangollen Horse Drawn Boats, Llangollen Railway and the Curator of Plas Newydd. A sound and lighting report was prepared as was a final storyboard and then filming was underway. As always the case shooting a corporate video of this type a production crew had to be assembled, in this case I was able to assemble a team from the young people at St Stephen’s, Church. The crew worked well and as well as assisting me they all gained valuable experience from working in the commercial world. One highlight of the production was my presenter arriving in Llangollen in a vintage diesel train, in order to gain valuable shots the staff and crew at the Llangollen railway arranged for the train to reverse out of the station and back around a corner and then re-enter, all in order that I can film the presenter climbing out of the train at the station. Finally, all the interviews were recorded, all the local footage gained and it was “a wrap”.

The editing of the Dapol footage now had to wait, as I had to move to London to attend a four-week course at the School of Live Audio Engineering based at the Scala club by King’s Cross Station. The Scala is a venue for a wide variety of contemporary sounds through the week and an ideal venue for such a course. The course advertises itself as “the most comprehensive live sound course available. Live bands perform for the students throughout the course, with tutors closely monitoring and assessing areas of development. Theory is effectively converted into ample practice with tremendous care and attention, fine-tuning crucial perceptive and evaluative skills in sound and bringing students up to an advanced stage of signal level command, where they will become highly capable of setting the equalization of instruments, speakers and sound systems. Being live sound, students will become skilled in both front of house mixing (mixing speakers directed to the audience) and monitor mixing (mixing on-stage speakers used by bands to monitor their sound), using state of the art equipment. This course offers the best preparation for a successful career as a live sound engineer or related field.” This course exceeded all my expectations and has given me a firm foundation in the audio domain. It is a fact that in many areas of videography that sound has been not treated with same respect as image quality, this course has helped me to understand sound in its many facets and this has had a positive impact in my understanding and practice of video production. The end of the Live Audio Engineering course marked the end of the work part of my study leave and my wife, Jane, the family and I, the went on holiday for a well earned break!

On return from holiday, and back in parish life, I managed to edit the Dapol footage and complete their corporate video. The video Dapol – History In The Making was presented to the Institute of Videography assessment panel and received a mark of seventy-one out of a possible 100, as a result on the 2nd September 2003 I was awarded a Master Membership. I now have the privilege of being able to place M.M.Inst.V. after my name and use the Institute of Videography logo on any of my productions or promotional literature. I forwarded a copy of the final video to Dapol and George Smith, the managing director of Dapol wrote in an email the following, “ITS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME – Many congratulations and with that type of quality production it was inevitable that you would receive the qualification so richly deserved.”

Finally, in the years that have followed I have used my video skills in a variety of settings and I am available to the church, diocese and community, time permitting, to take on any type of video project. One consequence of my membership of the Institute of Videography is that I have become the IOV’s North West of England Area (03) Representative and it is my privilege to serve my local members in this capacity. Also I have just started to write for Focus Magazine, the official publication of the Institute of Videography, a series of articles called Sound Advice based on my experience and the information gained while on study leave. I am very grateful for the funding provided by the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group Bursary Award for without it my study leave might not have developed as successfully as it did.

The Revd. Phil Janvier M.M.Inst.V.