Higher Uchela Music Video Launch

The launch of the Higher Uchela music video last Thursday was a huge success - over 100 people from local groups and organisations attended the glitzy event at Brynaman Rugby Club.

All the young people involved in the project received an award and a certificate, presented by the High Sheriff of Dyfed, Claire Mansel Lewis.

Haddy recieves her award and certificate from Claire Mansel Lewis

Peter recieves his award and certificate

After the award presentations, everyone got to see the premier of the music video created for local artist Tom Hamer's song Higher. The music video was planned, filmed and edited with support from television production company Tinopolis.

And the Higher Uchela music video is launched! Claire cuts the ribbon wrapping the DVD held by India, who played the lead role in the video

The premier was followed with Tom Hamer playing a live acoustic version of Higher. Then it was celebration time with a music from local DJ Tom Smith, a buffet and more live music from other local bands.

The music video idea, produced in both Welsh and English versions, was created over a seven month period by young people of BASE and Mess Up The Mess Youth Theatre and also included members of ASBO (All Skate Boarding Outcasts) and other young individuals. Set in a house party, the film addressed issues of underage binge drinking and the effects and consequences of such behaviour.

This innovative youth led bilingual project was run in partnership by Upper Amman Valley Communities First, Mess Up The Mess Theatre Company, Menter Bro Dinefwr, Tinopolis Production Studios and Carmarthenshire Connect. The project was kindly supported by Carmarthenshire Community Safety Partnership, Amman and Gwendraeth Young People’s Partnership and Amman Youth Forum.

Young people from throughout the Amman Valley participated in the project from Llandybie to Brynaman and due to the support of UNA Exchange’s environmental project in Glanaman the film even includes young people from as far as Italy and even Vietnam taking part in the film making!

Peri Thomas, Youth Arts Manager of Mess Up The Mess Theatre remarked “The process of making the video was a huge success and involved numerous enthusiastic and dedicated young people between the ages of 13 and 19. However, we are now working together to increase the profile of the music video in order to use it as a discussion tool in schools and youth clubs to raise awareness and understanding of safer partying approaches.”

Just before the launch, members of Project Higher Uchela recorded some 'red carpet' style interviews using Carmarthenshire Connect's Busbi camcorders. Here a couple of them:

India on playing the lead role

Louisa interviews Sophie and Tashy

Following the launch, group members then catured some audience feedback with these videos:

High Sheriff of Dyfed Claire Mansel Lewis, Andrew Williams (PCSO for Quarter Bach) and Charles Gabe (father of Project Higher member Laura)

Tom Williams, Upper Amman Valley Communities First Co-ordinator (yn Gymraeg/In Welsh)

Adele Dumas, Project Manager for Brynaman Community Centre

Lynsey Harries, Funding Officer for Brynaman Community Centre

Adrian Herdman, representing the Cwmgors Village Forum

Sarah Powell, Youth Participation Officer for Carmarthenshire County Council

In addition to assisting in the delivery of filming and editing workshops, Carmarthenshire Connect has been working with the young people participating in Higher Uchela to document the progress of the project through photos and videos. These have been uploaded to the Carmarthenshire Connect blog and a specially created Higher Uchela blog, which all members of the group have been able to contribute to.

The blog can be found at higheruchela.blogspot.com where there are more photos and videos from whole project, including the launch event.

Project Higher Editing Workshop

An editing workshop on Monday evening provided members of Project Higher with the opportunity to edit the footage that they recorded in their filming workshop in October.

Group members used Apple's iMovie, a piece of editing software that comes with Macs, to put together the spoof chat show interview with 'Tom Hamer' that they staged.

Thanks to Carmarthenshire County Council's Youth Service, Peri at Mess Up The Mess and Chris at Carmarthenshire Connect, we managed to get together five Macs for use for by the group, meaning that there was a Mac between every two participants.

The workshop was facilitated by freelance TV professional Dylan Tucker, Mess Up The Mess, Upper Amman Valley Communities First and Carmarthenshire Connect.

We're pleased to say that by end of the two hour session, five fully edited chat shows were created and played back to fellow group members.

Editing: just wicked!

Using iMovie

Dylan Tucker demonstrates some of iMovie's features

Watching each other's completed videos at the end

Louisa tells us what she thought of the session, and what she did

Owain tells us about the session (in Gymraeg/in Welsh)

Finally, nothing to do with editing, but a great bit of choreography!

Project Higher Filming Workshop

Members of Project Higher met with Dylan Tucker, an Australian born freelance TV professional now based in South Wales, earlier this week. During an evening in the Aelwyd Hall in Brynaman, the young people participating in the music video project had the chance to ask Dylan questions about getting into the TV industry and to learn new skills in filming.

The evening kicked-off with some team games led by Juliana Hughes, from Upper Amman Valley Communities First. Then group members had their chance to put their questions to Dylan in a Q&A session. Following this, the group took part in a practical workshop in lighting, sound and camera techniques using Carmarthenshire Connect's newly acquired camcorder, microphone and lighting set.

Group members then put the theory to test when they filmed a spoof chat show, interviewing 'Tom Hamer' (an excellent impersonation there Jacob!) on his new song Higher, for which the project's music video has been created. Then we went to an 'outside broadcast' (the other side of the room!) to meet some of Tom's fans.

The evening was a good chance for group members to get behind the technicalities of filming, sound and lighting as the packed filming schedule for creating the Higher music video with production company Tinopolis allowed little time for Q&As and hands-on practical experience.

One of the team games - 'Bunnies'

The Q&A session with Dylan

The workshop with Dylan

Demonstrating camera techniques on the projector

Checking out the camera

India took charge of the clapper board

Filming the chat show - nearly ready for action

Peter with the mic

Tom's fans

The evening was a special one - it was Katie's birthday!

The Bunnies habit - a hard one to kick

Mess Up The Mess Impetus Awards Diary

Brynaman based Mess Up The Mess Youth Theatre were invited to receive their Impetus Awards at a ceremony in London last week (see post below.) They took along a camera from Carmarthenshire Connect to record their experiences. Here's the results.

Peter talks to Tashy and Alex on the way to London

One of the highlights of the trip was going on the London Eye.

Alex films Laura on the London Eye

After giving a multimedia presentation of their work to a packed audience including the Children's Commissioner for England, the group recorded their reflections on their experience during their return journey.

Peter

Laura

Alex

Tashy

Peter, Laura, Alex and Tashy discuss what they've learned

Youth Theatre Represent Wales at Human Rights Awards

Last week Brynaman based Mess Up The Mess Theatre Company traveled to the Magic Circle Headquarters in London to represent Wales in the prestigious UK Impetus Awards Showcase. The event was organised by the Institute for Global Ethics UK Trust celebrating the work of young people across the UK in bringing to life human rights and the shared ethical values that underpin them.

Alex, Laura, Tashy and Peter of Mess Up The Mess with their Impetus Award Certificates

Mess Up The Mess, who are based at Brynaman Community Centre, were joined by Hafod Primary School, Swansea and five other groups of young people from Northern Ireland, Scotland and England. Mess Up The Mess explored human rights through their projects Do You See What I See? and their international youth theatre project Strangers.

The Children’s Commissioner of England opened the event and then handed over to the groups of young people to present their work and experiences of shared ethical values in exciting and innovative performances. All the presentations were completely youth-led and Mess Up The Mess, using their trademark multi-media style, showed film footage of their peers in Wales whilst interacting with them live on stage in London.

“Seeing the projects that the younger children and all the other young people had taken part in was really inspiring”, said Peter Morgan, aged 15 from GCG. “They clearly believe in speaking up for children’s and human rights across the world. I was proud to be on stage with all those other groups who were making a real difference in their own communities. I’m really looking forward to starting new projects to raise awareness of human rights. Going to London was an experience I will never forget.” Youth Arts Manager Peri Thomas agrees “The Youth Led awards ceremony was an emotional and uplifting experience. It is wonderful that young people are being recognised for all their hard work in the community as well as on a global scale. As members of LLAIS, Carmarthenshire’s Youth Theatre Forum, Mess Up The Mess wish to encourage more young people in Carmarthenshire to learn about local and global issues by taking part in innovative theatre projects and watching youth performances in our county. Theatre is a great way to access new points of view and consider our place in the world. These young people have discovered new things about themselves and how they can make a difference. They deserve to be supported and encouraged in their admirable ventures.”

Mess Up The Mess are now preparing for a local youth led awards ceremony in December to mark the completion of the Strangers Project and reunite all the members involved in the process which has been kindly supported by Young Roots Heritage Lottery Fund, Wales.

If you would like to learn more about Mess Up The Mess and how you can get involved in their projects or see their work. Please contact Peri on 07966 294 188, email info@messupthemess.co.uk or check out the website www.messupthemess.co.uk

Project Higher - Sunday's Filming

After successfully filming all the party shots on Saturday, members of Project Higher met up with Tinopolis again on Sunday, this time to film the hospital scenes. The surgery at Brynaman Community Centre was used as the filming location.

Sunday was the quieter and shorter of the two filming days and unlike Saturday's filming session, which involved a large cast, only 5 actors were required.

For everyone other than India, filming the hospital scenes was a great chance to dress up in Doctor costumes!

Project Higher's cast of Doctors

India rehearses being ill!

"Dr Haddy" explains to "Dr Louisa" what the filming session is all about

Filming the hospital scenes

A brush made an excellent implement for focusing India's eyes!

Haddy tells India what she did in the hospital scenes, how it went and reflects on the weekend's filming

Haddy working with Owen from Tinopolis to record the "lights shining into eyes" shot

Louisa tells Tashy what she did and her likes and dislikes

India tells Haddy how the filming went and her likes and dislikes

To see more videos and to read blog posts by members of Project Higher, see the Project Higher blog at http://higheruchela.blogspot.com/

Project Higher Fiming Weekend Videos

Those involved in the Project Higher filming sessions recorded many videos during the sessions using Carmarthenshire Connect's 'Busbi' video recorders.

The videos capture the filming experience from project participants' perspective and aim to act as a record of the project's progress.

Here are a selection of the videos from Saturday's filming session:

Costumes

The Higher music video is in 1980s style. Group members tell us about their costumes and where they got their ideas from

Owain interviews Katie and India

Jacob interviews Sophie

Thoughts on filming a music video

What was fun? What wasn't so great?

Haddy

India

Tom from ASBO

UNA Exchange volunteers

International UNA Exchange volunteers staying in the Upper Amman Valley contributed to the video by being extras - a task they probably weren't expecting!

UNA Exchange volunteers introduce themselves to India

India interviews Livia and Anais, who are from France.

Anais speaks in French - thanks for the translation India!

Cyfweliad gyda criw Tinopolis yn Gymreag

(An interview with the Tinopolis crew in Welsh)

Cyfweliad gan Tom Hamer a Laura Evans

(Interview by Tom Hamer and Laura Evans)

See more videos by group members on the Project Higher blog at http://higheruchela.blogspot.com/

Project Higher Filming Weekend

A major phase of Project Higher was completed during a recent weekend when all the filming for the project music video was completed. The majority of the music video is a house party. There are also hospital scenes after one of the party-goers has to be admitted.

The house party shots were filmed on the Saturday and the hospital shots were filmed on Sunday. Upper Amman Valley Communities First Development Officer Juliana Hughes provided her house as the party filming location. Brynaman Community Centre Surgery was used for the hospital shots.

The filming was led and directed by a crew from Tinopolis. A host of local young people were actors and extras in the video. Along with the core members of Project Higher were young people from ASBO and BASE. International volunteers with the UNA Exchange also got involved.

Here are some photos from Saturday's filming session, which took most of the day:

Owain from Tinopolis briefs the team on the plans

Filming a party scene

Owain takes notes