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House drama
Preparations for house drama are under way. This year I am trying to get everything organised and setup ahead time so there is no stress at the end of the year. Sound and light for house drama is very straight forward but can be mobbed under the carpet very easily and become a last minute thing. Anyway I’ve been to a couple of rehearsals, helping the designated crew member get to grips with the lights.
The performances are especially useful for S4, who up until this point had had little experience of the LX desk and sound board. House drama allows us to mess about with both and get some more practice under our belt.
Lets hope it all goes well!
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GWC from above
How do you remember a legacy?
This was a question our school was faced with last term, as we prepared for the departure of our long standing principle. We knew we had to do something and after some brainstorming an idea was found.
The idea
We were going to build the letters GWC on our front pitch and then take a photograph from the air. In order to document the process I was asked to make a video about the day, which would then be shown at the same assembly at which we would present the protograph. The whole process had to be kept a secret.
Assembling the troops
With little time until the day of the event I had to move quickly to set up a team of cameramen. I called on a few friends and soon I had what I wanted. The plan was to have people on the ground, shooting closeups as pupils assembled. Another camera was placed on the school roof (took some convincing) and finally I was going to be filming everything from above.
The flight
The photographer who was commissioned to take the aerial shot was kind enough to let me come along as well. I got on very well with him and the pilot and we altogether had a pleasant experience. Filming from the plane was somewhat difficult but likely I had my camera grip with me so the shots were more stable. In retrospect >I would have tried to get much wider shots as I zoomed the camera in too much at the time.
Editing
As with everything video the process only finishes when you’ve edited the final film. Again this ended up taking quite a long time, mainly because I had the boat project to do at the same time. The final render was complete in the morning of the assembly and everyone was very happy with the final result.
In all I am quite pleased with this project. It was a lot of work and there are a few things I would have changed next time but all in all the film did what it was supposed to do…
…deliver a Thank You
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Eco day 2014
Last years eco-day was quite a busy day. There were lost of things on in different parts of the school. The most hive of activity was around the allotment shed. We were putting new decking in place to make the area more comfortable to hang out in. A large team of pupils from all year groups was helping sift through the tones and tones of compost, which was then carted off by primary to help with their gardening adventures.
The camera man
My job on the day was to capture all this activity with my camera. The hole thing was organised rather short notice but so are most of these things. I spend the day running back and forth from one end of the school to the other, chasing after P6 and P7, making the S4s feel self-conscious and capturing those all important “teacher letting it out” moments.
And then...
The one about filming that I find makes it challenging is that the process only stops once you have the final video. Well in this case it took me nearly half a year to put that together. The video was aired at one of Mr Warren’s assemblies and served as a nice reminder of the summer.
The message
The hope is that my video will inspire everyone to do even better at next year’s eco-day. Lets hope that happens
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Enablement ceilidh
Its that festive time of year again. Many social events are starting to take off, amongst them the Enablement Ceilidh.
The enablement fund
The fund was established to help those with disabilities have a better experience at school. It is used to build access ramps for wheelchairs, provide disability friendly facilities etc. Overall it is a very important source for funding for those who do not enjoy the same physical luxuries of the body as everyone else does.
The party
My role at the event was to oversee lighting and sound, during the live band performance but also for the auction. The work was quite fun and I had a chance to get more experience at using the lighting console. This would prove useful during the next show. All of us had quite a good time. The only thing that went wrong really was the music choice for the disco, but that was because the organisers had chosen the wrong area really… (80s classics)
Jamie ruling the sound
The whole thing was quite fun, but a bit long. We finished up at 1:30am. After that it was home for me and some sleep…
…next day is stollen day!!
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Filming the U18 at the Scottish Cup final
Lets just say I don’t have a thing for sports. I do enjoy running and sailing but games such as rugby are not really high up on my bucket list. You can imagine the surprise when I got asked to film the 2014 U18 Scottish Cup rugby final. Our team had reached the top of the league and was now preparing for a showdown against Merchiston Castle. The odds where tight… of me finding somebody todo the photography :) Through sound and light I had stumbled across Jamie in S5, who holds the title for most hyper person I know (and there are a few to chose from). Anyway, Jamie said yes and the new GWC paparazzi team was born.
After communicating with organisers and getting ourself access to the pitch we were set to go. The filming went well, I didn’t know what Jamie was doing but he was pointing the camera towards the pitch most of the time which was a positive I guess. The teams played a very tense game, our team eventually winning the cup (I know not much detail here). Meanwhile I turned through 3 batteries and 2 SD cards.
The night ended with me and Jamie trying to find our way home at 12:00am.
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Arduino club 2014
Coding. Tinkering. Learning. Such is the way of life.
Organising and running an activity for any period of time teaches you the limits of organisation. When I first started lunchtime coding sessions I was putting all my effort into it, thinking of activities, making worksheets, presentations and sample programs. That enthusiasm has drop off a bit since my main school work is having to be prioritiesed. When in the past I would agonise over people not getting their work done I can now undertand that at a school everything moves slow, even the minute hand on the clock.
Never the less the club is still running strong, with regular attendees who use the opertunity to play with something new. The twins, who are always there, have been picking my brains lately over how to make the arduino controll hundreds of LEDs simultaneously. And some say LEDs are boring!
Another hot topic has been how to correctly sense when a button has been pushed and for how long. A seemingly trivial problem which requires a less trivial solution. Thats what coding is all about, abstraction worldly challenges to such a degree that even a computer can understand them.
At the moment I am not quite sure about my plans for the club but I am hoping to get the guys onto some more interesting projects. The T’Rex chassis is sitting in the corner, maybe it could be useful for something… delivering tea perhaps?
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Joan Michel
Interviewing Joan was tricky, not because she was old, rather because she was too youthful. Most attempts at directing a question at her would result in an avalanche of questions directed at me. By the time I had detangled myself from here web of curiosity she was too tired to speak of here past, maybe she did not find it all that interesting and worth talking about.
Although I was very keen on the project it was beyond the scope of my ability at the time. Making a full blown documentary and telling a story which stretches continents and time as well as meeting the ever increasing demand of my school work was impossible. Another problem arose when suddenly Joan passed away in January 2014, ages 104. At here funeral, to which I had been kindly invited, I met some of the people on which Joan had made an impact.
I’d like to think that one day I will find the time and energy to pick up on the project and see it through to the end, so that everyone will see how important it is to keep track of the timelords among us.
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Saltire awards ceremony 2014
There is a difference between organising an event and ORGANISING an event. When you are organising (lower case) it means you are pretending to be in control. Most school projects fall under this category since there is always a person above you who is ultimately in charge. Whatever you do will be scrutinised and picked brains over which takes the pressure off you to get it right.
In the case of the saltire awards however Daniel and the rest of us thought we were ORGANISING (upper case) i.e. we had full responsibility for the event and had to get it right. The volunteer center had its own ideas of what our responsibilities were. On one had they wanted us to move mountains while on the other hand handicapping us by draining our powers to make ANY decisions ourselves. And thats where the conflict arose.
I am usually quite keen on organising stuff but this time I took a step back and let Daniel handle it (who was having a blast of a time).
My role at the event was to help film and produce a video about it, as to promote the awards. That part when quite well although I was very ill on the day and was using my Flycam for the first time. Less than ideal but I got through it and at the end the ceremony went quite well. Theo and Daniel made a great presenter pair.
The catch with video always is that you got to edit it. That part took longer than expected, taking me from the Easer break all the way into June. Never mind that everyone was quite happy with my work in the end.
Daniel just told me that the Volunteer center want him to organise next years awards (2015). Lets see if he will be organising or ORGANISING…
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