ASBO Video Premier

ASBO (All Skateboarding Outcasts) held the video premier for their new short film called The Outcasts yesterday evening. The video was played to an audience that filled St Catherine's Hall in Brynaman.

ASBO made The Outcasts using the camcorder, tripod and Mac that the group bought through the Communities @One fund. Carmarthenshire Connect Field Officer Karlis Ozolins has been working with four members of ASBO to help them acquire the skills in camera work and editing that allowed them to create The Outcasts.

Will, Tom, Jordan and Sion created The Outcasts during the summer of 2008. They are pictured holding their DVD copies of The Outcasts and ASBO certificates recognising their efforts on the video project.

The Outcasts tells the story of ASBO, a group that initially formed out of a common wish among young people in Brynaman for a new skate park after many of the fixtures in the existing park were vandalised and had to be removed.

The group set about gathering a petition for a new park and had designs drawn and costings compiled. In order to prove themselves as young people who cared for their local community, and in turn gather further support, ASBO adopted the Ynys Dawela Nature Reserve. With support from Keep Wales Tidy, ASBO has assisted the Friends of Ynys Dawela in carrying out conservation work and litter picks during many weekends and school holidays .

Even with a petition signed by 400 residents in Brynaman and numerous letters of support, ASBO has yet to secure funding or confirmation from the local authority for a new skate park.

Group Secretary (and mother of ASBO member Will) Bronwen Price opened the evening by explaining the history of ASBO

After watching The Outcasts, everyone enjoyed a tea or coffee and home-made doughnuts, made by Bronwen's mother. Jordan and Sion then captured feedback from some members of the audience using Carmarthenshire Connect's Busbi camcorders. Watch some of them here:

ASBO welcome support from their community for pursuing the goal of a new skate park. If you would like to help, please contact Carmarthenshire Connect at info@carmsconnect.org.uk, and we'll pass on your details to the group.

ASBO Conservation Work

Once again, ASBO have been in the Ynys Dawela Nature Reserve!

This time they have been continuing with the litter picking, making sure the park in nice and tidy and clearing up some of the rubbish, logs and litter from the pond, some of which has been their for years.

The afternoon was organised by Bronwen Price with help from Dan Snaith of Keep Wales Tidy to keep the guys doing the right things and keeping safe.

(Jordan & Will with their new waders clearing the pond)

The younger ones then went up the fields litter picking and chopping back the over grown bushes and trees blocking the paths and prepared a bomb fire to get rip of it all.

The afternoon was good fun for everyone and has helped ASBO further help their communty.

ASBO Video Project

Following on from the previous posts about ASBO, we are proud to announce that the group have now finished their OUTCASTS DVD aimed at helping them get funding for a new skate park in Brynaman.

The project has lasted over six months but has seem some extremely hard work and dedication put in by the group and the video editors, Sion, Jordan, Will and Tom (pictured Below).

The video has been entirely produced and edited by the group will close support from the Carmarthenshire Connect Team.

(Will, Jordan & Tom putting the final touches to their film)

"It has been an absolute pleasure working with ASBO and the lads over the past six months. They have worked so hard to finish and have learned lots of new skills in video production. I hope this wont be the last video we seen from them an wish them all the best with building their new skate park." - Karlis Ozolins - Project Officer, Carmarthenshire Connect.

The group will be showcasing the DVD in a premier night somewhere in brynamman in the coming month (information will be posted here) and we kindly ask for as much support as possible on the night.

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK GUYS!

ASBO Multimedia Workshop

Carmarthenshire's Multimedia bus is part of the Youth First initiative in Carmarthenshire to provide more opportunities to young people in media.

This 57 seater coach (pictured above) which was specially built for the purpose, is equipped with 10 Apple MAC laptops, digital cameras, video cameras, ipods, music and lot more gadgets for the youth of Carmarthenshire to use.

With the bus being on wheels and completly mobile Carmarthenshire Connect arranged for the bus to come up to Brynaman for run an animation workshop with local group, ASBO (All Skate Boarding Outcasts).

The day long workshop was a nice change from the extremely hard work the group has been putting into their new video. The morning started by creating a storyboard for their animation followed by a few hours of playing with Plasticine (great fun) to create their characters for the animation.

The group then used a video camera and some very clever software to take snap shots (frame by frame) for the animation and then put them all together into a short film.

(Member Tom moving their character into place for the next shot)

Please see the groups finished animation below:

(Their finished animation)

If you'd like more information about the Multimedia bus then please visit the Youth First section on Carmarthenshire County Council website.

ASBO Video Update

With continued help from Carmarthenshire Connect. ASBO (All Skate Boarding Outcasts) have been editing more of their short video to help them work towards some new facilities in Brynamman.

This has so far been an exciting project with the group learning lots of new skills and techniques using digital video cameras and video editing on their recently acquired Macbook. They are now looking forward to completed the video in the next couple of months and to premier it to the local community.

(above - Will and Jordan preparing video clips for their film)

Bryanaman Swimming Pool Clean Up

Brynaman Swimming Pool Association (BSPA) held this year's first big clean up of Brynaman open air swimming pool in preparation for opening this summer. The swimming pool will be open for the six weeks during the school summer holiday. It takes two weeks to fill the pool and condition the water.

The voluntary clean up team includes members of local groups ASBO, BASE and Mess Up The Mess. Many of the team are dedicated pool users in the summer.

The clean up team inside the pool.

Watch the video below to hear Bronwen Price explain more about the pool and what it means to the local community. Filmed by Pauline Thomas, Vice Chair of BSPA.

Bronwen's dad diving into the pool in 1948.

Bronwen discusses the day's plan with the team.

Clearing the weeds that had grown through the paving slabs...

...and bagging them up.

Time for lunch.

ASBO Workshop Update

Some members of All Skate Boarding Outcasts who are working on creating a video about their group recorded this video update today to explain more about the aims of their video project and what they've learnt so far about using iMovie on their Mac.

Interview and film by Jordan

ASBO Community Open Evening

ASBO (All Skate Boarding Outcasts) held a communtiy open evening for the residents of Brynaman last Thursday to have a look at what the group have been doing. It gave a chance to the community to meet members of the group and watch the videos of their efforts in the community.

The evening was held at Brynaman Community Centre. Fresh drinks and cakes were available and a large display board was put up to demonstrate the hard work the group has been doing.

The group are looking for as much support as possible to have a new concrete skate park built in Brynaman. If you would like to sponsor any of the group or send them a letter supporting this then please contact the Carmarthenshire Connect Team for more information.

ASBO Youth Workshops

Carmarthenshire Connect have began a series of workshops with ASBO (All Skate Boarding Outcasts) in Brynaman.

The aim of the workshops is to help the group members learn about using their new video and I.T equipment to produce a short DVD Video about what the group have been doing for the past year in the community and to let us know what they have planned for the near future.

(Group member Will and Carmarthenshire Connect Project Office Karlis Ozolins)

The group thouroghly enjoyed the first session which included drama games and exercises along with role play and camera techniques.

ASBO will be holding an open evening event this Thursday (4th April) for the community of Brynaman to come and meet the group. The evening will be being held at Brynaman Community Centre between 6pm and 8pm. Everyone is welcome.

ABSO Conserve Ynys Dawela

On Wednesday 13 February, the All Skate Boarding Outcasts (ASBO) youth group of Brynaman spent the afternoon doing conservation work at Ynys Dawela Nature Reserve. In conjunction with Keep Wales Tidy's Pride In Our Communities project and The Friends of Ynys Dawela group, ASBO trimmed pathway hedges, removed grass that was growing through the concrete in the car park and gave the area a good tidy up. The weather was fantastic, which made the afternoon even more enjoyable.

Joe and Chris introduce ASBO. Filmed by Will.

Karmen of The Friends of Ynys Dawela. Taken by Zac.

Chris and Will trimming the hedges. Taken by Zac.

Joe removing the grass growing through the concerete of the car park. Taken by Curly.

James making sure Rufus, Karmen's dog, is happy. Taken by Luke.

There were plenty of frogs and frogspawn in the pond. The male frogs were making quite a noise - at first, many people thought a plane was in the air.

Frog photo taken by Carwyn on his mobile phone and sent by Bluetooth to Ran's mobile for uploading onto this blog.