Paper - Cathy Derrick: Input CBBC

Cathy is a children’s television producer working in the CBBC Future TV Unit, where currently she is producing ‘Input CBBC’, a children’s user-generated content project. Prior to this she produced the CBBC Access System, an integrated phone/text/web system for the CBBC digital channel. Cathy has worked on a number of children’s programmes for the BBC and ITV, including Blue Peter (she produced over 200 episodes and directed about 50). Another claim to fame is that she is the person who thought up the name ‘Cbeebies’ for the new pre-school channel.

Cathy Derrick reflects on Input CBBC an Ultralab/CBBC collaboration project to expore the future of childrens’ television. More about the project can be found on our SummerSchool website.

Extracts from the paper include:

“So we launched this research pilot last October - in collaboration with Ultralab, a research centre of Anglia Polytechnic University, who have a lot of experience in this sort of “loose touch” approach to film-making with children. We knew from the start our project would be a tall order - and we wanted to test our ideas harshly - to see if any child, with no special ability or ambition, could succeed at filmmaking with little guidance.

The Ultralab approach is to give the very basics of technical guidance - then encourage the participants to play with the equipment - our briefing was an even smaller one than Ultralab usually do. We introduced them to digital cameras and also to the editing package called iMovie and they had a chance to experiment there and then.

And I have found it fascinating to see the humour - even brilliance come through, things Ultralab had predicted - its delightful to see their personalities emerge on film. Here are a few extracts from some of the others, with diverse ideas.”

Blast on BBC Two is a showcase of films made by young people with feedback from creative industry pros (Professor Stephen Heppell, Hal MacLean, Matthew Eaves). You can also re-live the excitement at Blast workshops and performances across music, dance, art, film and writing.

Listings

Thursday   4 November 0400 - 0600am

Thursday 11 November 0400 - 0600am

Thursday 18 November 0400 - 0600am

Saturday    4 December 0400 - 0600am

Sunday      5 December 0400 - 0600am

Make sure to set your alarm clock or your video to record! SummerSchool animations from Ultralab, including the process involved in training the young people, is featured on TV!

We’re on TV!!!!

My Mum is a Londoner, in it. It is rare to spend a long time looking through a website for more than an hour, without moving on…and two websites have me facinated by their content today.

Derelict London . com explores the state of some of London’s places, transport and cemerery’s left to fall to rack and ruin.

Here is an extract from the Cemetery pages:

Woodgrange Park Cemetery, Manor Park:
In 2000, there was a lively correspondence about Woodgrange Park Cemetery in Manor Park [East London]
and some of the headstones to be used on the Emmerdale Farm [ TV soap] set in Yorkshire,
prepararatory to the sale of part of of the cemetery for housing. The London Evening Standard carried a full
page report and pictures on the work of exhumation. The pictures are of a piles of discarded coffins and a large
JCB at work as men sift through the soil for bones. The Graves of East London civilians killed during the worst
raids in the Blitz are being bulldozed today to make way for flats. …the remains of about 15,000 people are being
dug up and bagged in plastic bin-liners. …..Screens were erected around the graves but residents of flats
overlooking the site said they have been shocked to see skeletons unearthed by mechanical diggers . . According
to Council records the graves date back to the 1890s but during the height of the Blitza a 20ft deep pit was dug to
take the thousands of casualties. Most of the graves were unmarked, but details of the dead were entered in a
burial register. Newham Council contacted 21 families and their relatives were exhumed and re-buried in part of
the cemetery still in use. The 27-acre cemetery is privately owned. The deal to sell part of the site for residential
development was done after Newham agreed planning permission for 120 two-bedroom flats.

Patricia Langley writes to Derelict London: “A friend of mine moved into one of the new flats that were built on
the site of the part-cleared cemetery. He told me that even though his vegetable garden was very fertile
(anything would grow in it) he always seemed to always have bad luck and depression, not like Chris at
all. He decided to move out when poltergeist-like activity began breaking out in his home, and his bab
was injured by a mug flying through the air and hitting him.”

And the other website you’ve got to take a look at is:

Underground History, this is a great website exploring London’s Underground Network.

Witham, the town I live in was without power from 7:15 am to 10:30 pm yesterday. Arriving home to a town in complete darkness, where traffic lights do not work and street lamps were lightless was an interesting experience.

A sub station had caught fire on the other side of town, knocking out all the other sub stations in the area. Trucks turned up with generators on, and were ‘plugged in’ to the generators 12 hours later.

In the house, I could not find a torch, I moved around by the light of my mobile phone.

An interesting, and strange experience. Could not see very well, could not read, could not charge a laptop, or dying telephone….could not cook, could not go to a restaurant locally, could not see to feed the cats, could not walk fast around the house, could not heat water, could not turn heating on, was cold, had to guess where stairs were, could not find candles, could not find matches to light no candles,…in the end I remembered the family caravan ran on battery power….and sat out there in the cold….with light….till the power came back on.

Action Points: Put a torch in the house somewhere, ensure laptop is fully charged on leaving work, ensure phone is fully charged on leaving work……….oh yeah…..I work for APU…home of no power for 3 days…..and regular powerdowns….so much so that some essential servers are now hosted elsewhere………must put a torch in work too!