Live Streaming from TEDxSalford

(Edit: Here is one of talks from Tedx taken from Ustream, the full edited videos will be along soon.)

Today (Saturday 28th Jan) I'm live streaming the TEDx Salford conference with a number of students from the MMU Film Making course.

You can watch the live stream over on www.tedxsalford.com/live and see some amazing speakers!

Enjoy!

Live Streaming at Uni

Streaming Live by Ustream

Today I ran a live streaming workshop at uni. The video above was a test shoot of the set up we are going to use at TEDx Salford event on Saturday.

The video contains part of my wistle stop tour of how video compression and streaming works.

A Sad Day In The House Of Rae

Yesterday was a very sad day for us.  In the morning we got a call from a vets saying that Brooklyn, our 10 year old cat, had been dropped off but was DOA.  She went missing over a month a go and we did everything we could to find her but it looks like she had wondered a long way from home.

I wasn't going to post an actual photo of the dead cat but Shona caught this great shot of one of our new kittens checking out the funny smelling thing on the table.

So after school we went out to the garden and dug a grave.

The girls reactions were very different.  Charis needed to be cuddled a couple of times during the process.

Whereas Seren was excited about digging a hole but sad at the same time but wanted to smile for the camera but was too sad to smile properly.

After burying the kitty and saying good bye we marked the spot buy planting and oak tree, placing a candle on the old stump and sticking a spinny windmill in the ground.  

It's funny that the ritual and significance of meant different things to our 3 children.  Our Invisible Son wanted to put the windmill in the centre of the grave but this upset Seren so much we had to move it to the side.  She saw the stick of the windmill as sticking into Brooklyn and hurting her somehow and was unconsolable until it was moved.  Invisible Son realised that death is death and there was no way to hurt Brooklyn anymore.

Anyway, we have two new kittens to replace the unreplaceable Brooklyn which are about as cute as any thing can be.  But goodbye Brooklyn, we will miss you...

Brand Improv Inspires

I'm not a massive Russell Brand fan but I found this clip when I was looking around You Tube for some info on public speaking and improvisation.

I found this very funny but also inspiring. He's obviously puts a lot of time and effort into developing his craft and expanding his improv skills to the point where impressing Alfred Molina comes naturally. And even if you don't like Russell, any thing that impresses Alfred Molina is worth taking a closer look at.

Last Wednesday Podcast, Pool Session, Hospital.

Last Wednesday evening was busy for me as at 6pm I recorded an interview as a guest on Scott Hewitt's Creative Pact Podcast.  

You can listen to the episode here (about 8 mins) where I talk about some of the 7 Unforgiveable Sins or video production mistakes that I never let my students get away with unless they have a very good excuse.  These are also relevent for anyone shooting videos for their business websites or for video podcasts, etc.

Then at 7pm I went to the first MMU Canoe Club pool session of this accademic year.  

Unfortunatly only an hour in Ben smacked his head off the back of his kayak while doing cartwheels.  The photo above actually caught the moment just before this happened.  The photos below tell the rest of the story.

"What's that on my head?"

"Oh it's blood!"

Pool staff patch him up.

As I was the only person there with a car I drove him down to A&E to get stiched up then went home.  Not how I hoped the evening would go but I enjoyed it anyway.  I may even go back again this week...