R.A.I.D. Films (Darlington) Inc.

World AIDS day

2007-12-04T04:42:00.000-08:00

On the 1st we did a balloon launch in Darlington town centre.. it was raining and soooooooo cold! there were quite a few people intrested in what we were doing and if the weather had been better we'd have had a great crowd. We were all there handing out our red ribbons.. was a great laugh and the balloons looked great!

Round 2 next year?? :P

Grace x

Five Minute Lesotho

2007-11-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

Here's our first try at editing the material from Lesotho.

This week..

2007-11-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

We've been busy this week. On Wednesday we took part in the health roadshow at the QE sixth form.. was loads of fun and got to talk to loads of people, hopefully we have made some friends in GAD (Gay Advice Darlington) they were all really cool!

Tonight we did out first prestentation to our local community partnerships.. however was a bit of a disapointing turnout but was a good night :)

As well as that we have been organising some events for World Aids Day on December 1st we are hoping to do a balloon launch in the town center which will be immense if we get chance to do it!

Grace x

The pic is our display for the health roadshow on Wednesday.

Junior RAID Benefit Gig - The Movie

2007-11-04T12:35:00.000-08:00

Junior RAID organised a benefit for the project at The Forum in October. The Media Group have put together a 10 minute edit of the four bands that played for us - Dial 9 For Juice, Bubblegum Thrash, Too Many Units, and The Hyads. Thanks to everyone that helped make it a sell out evening!!!

5 Minute Film

2007-10-24T06:33:00.000-07:00

Over the past two days we have been working on a five minute film for our presentation for the "Taste of Africa" event. With a few techinical hitches along the way we've all managed to put together something.=) and hopefully all will go well on Friday!!!

Vibe Awards

2007-10-09T02:09:00.001-07:00

The RAID team were in the Civic Theatre last night to receive their VIBE award for srvices to the community. Well done all!!!

In Kruger...

2007-08-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

Been to Kruger National Park today... it was sooo amazing! I think i can speak for us all when i say that we really dont want to come home! Lesotho was immense I loved every second.. the people are sooo great! And the YAH group were really cool. (cried when we said bye... im sad i know).. we have recently hit a bit of a problem regarding Lauras passport... long story! Not looking forward to the flight home mind... took long! Took 36 hours to get here so you know.. oh well got to go for Dinner now.. Bye all!

Grace x

RAID At Heathrow

2007-08-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

Everybody is enjoying every minute here and looking forward to the 10hrs flight tonight to SOuth Africa. Already missing Area 1!!!

Herbert

Heathrow!!

2007-08-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

So we are all at Heathrow anticipating the big flight - we are eating the lounge out of house and home - see you all when we get back!

MOrvyn

Filming Permit

2007-08-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

Right, so I've just been on the phone (3 times!) to Heathrow Media Centre (ooooh, get you!) to arrange a filming permit for the RAID group when they fly on Sunday. Regulations are as follows: no filming near check in, security or bomb disposal squads; carry the pass at all times; and no eating near expensive filming equipment!
That's just about what they said, anyway...
So that's sorted then. So for tomorrow - Good luck, guys! Have a fantastic time, and we'll be thinking of you!

Ellie (and everyone at DMG)

Fancy a Dance pics

2007-08-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

Bit of a retrospective post here, with some pics of the group sweating away, filming in the sun at the Tea Dance in the market square. We got hot and hungry, but the fry-up afterwards made up for it!
Some good footage got, I think, and now the task is to try and find an order and rhythm to edit it together to.
Here's the evidence of our slavery...

(joke...)

It's My Life

2007-08-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right! Yet more filming practice was undertaken this week by us lot, when we all piled into the Arts Centre and worked with a group of children and young people who were on a scriptwriting course.
Specially comissioned as well! Getting some money out of this hopefully, as well as practice and recognition.
So! The idea was that a load of children would write scripts about their (or somebody else's) lives, and then we'd all come in and help them edit the writing for film. Yesterday and today we actually shot the parts for three short films about ghosts, vampires, dragons and winged demons (and tarot cards, fake blood and really dramatic makeup), and we'll be editing them together next week. The films will be made into DVDs for kids and parents, and RAID and the Media Group will be credited. Which is nice!
Time for some photos then?

Our new director, Adam:

Lovely!
more to follow...

After Fancy a Dance!

2007-07-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well we made it though a day of music, dancing and old women! we got some cool stuff which we are in the process of editing now. There were loads of cute little old men that i sooo wanted to take home in my pocket, but Darren wouldn't let me go play! Oh well, theres always next time. As soon as we get the stuff finished off we will post it for you to have a giggle at!

Luv ya!
Grace x

Fancy a Dance

2007-07-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

Today we are going to film some golden oldies dancing. We need the practice at some real life situations and thought this to be the perfect oppurtunity to get some good footage, if the weather stays good. We will post another blog when we get back, wish us luck.

Darren

Alternate Dinner Gala Edit

2007-07-11T07:06:00.001-07:00

So, we had the serious edit, and now comes the rather nonsensical one. Been a bit fun, though!
Thanks to Bob Sinclair for music. No profit is being made!

Enjoy!

Post from Germany

2007-07-10T03:11:00.000-07:00

Hi from across the water. I met Peter from the Bremen Media Workshop yesterday, and we are going to explore the idea of producing short stories about everyday life here for the "Open Channel", a local TV station. You can see something of them at http://www.ok-bremen.de/ho/ho/home.php

I mentioned the RAID project, and all your wonderful work, and there is an interest in screening shorts from the project if it were possible to make them. As a start, I suspect the story about Grace's ballet school would go down well, with maybe a longer interview with Grace about the school, her love of ballet, and a couple more of the shots of the school we did the other week. They are looking for 5 minute shorts. Let me know if you're interested. Maybe a series about some of the young people going to Lesotho would be good to make for the RAID project anyway, and not too difficult to organise?

Dinner Gala Edit!

2007-07-09T07:11:00.000-07:00

Dah dahhh! It's been a long time in the making...even longer compressing!
But now, here it is, large as life and full of fun (are we over-selling this?)....
The first short edit of the RAID dinner gala!

Oooooh

2007-07-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

Nice transition guys!
I'm working on another edit of dinner gala stuff - just for fun! I'm in helping with the open day today, and I'm just catching a breath in between official business!!
See you tomorrow
Ellie

Today's Going's On.....

2007-07-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

Im bored at the moment so thought I would check the blog and post a comment. Today with the script writer went well, and he sem's very easy to get on with and will let us just get on with it which makes things easier.

We should definatly have the short film of the Dinner Gala up and running by monday, me and grace had a little check of it today and added a few more pieces and it is looking good i must say..........just need to find some sound to fit the beginning but wont give away the plan just yet.

Well i don't really no what else to say. It's going good and will see ya's monday :)

Bye

Darren

Blog, blog, blog.........rosi

2007-07-05T13:28:00.000-07:00

Well, lots of things underway and and getting everyone to start using this blog is only part of it. The film training is going really well and as I'm busy working in another part of the media workshop its great to hear the group discussing and debating the process of making short film clips together. Its also great to see all the energy buzzing around the place and hear all the laughing as they argue about the 'song of the day' and lame youtube videos......mmm...skivers! Anyway, the video diaries are well underway and the clips will be a great way of seeing the changes as the project develops. It was lovely to see the confidence of the team at the Gala Dinner last week as they used the film equipment unselfconsciously. Darren had to eat his posh dinner very fast though.

Planning Ahead
Next big task for the Media Group and RAID (aside from the trip itself...coming up very fast)is to start planning how to promote the finished film in early 2008. Lots of ideas in hand and a MediaBox workshop in Newcastle later this month for the trainers to discuss them at. Great feeling of support at the moment.

Scriptwriter - filming opportunity - Ellie

2007-07-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

Righto, quick thursday night post after the RAID meeting. Please, people, get on here and talk your hearts out!
Tomorrow we're off to meet the scriptwriter who is running the workshops at the end of the month, the product of which we should be filming to earn some money for the trip (as well as gaining filming experience).
We'll let you know how that goes, and the details of what we'll be doing, on here.
Gooood luck to us.

Gala Filming

2007-07-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

Today we looked over the material filmed at the dinner gala to establish a short clip of the main features of the event. We managed to get a reasonable amount of usefull shots that could be used in the editing process and managed to express some unique ideas of how we intended to make the film. We're particulary proud of a scene where we choreographed a tracking shot whereby we followed glasses from members of the gala, leading us to a final point in the centre of the room in which the gala was held.

The shots fit together reasonably well and we felt that they established the purpose of the short, which was to give a general idea of the event. We found the sound part of the short the hardest to organise due to lack of continuous sound, but managed to solve the problem though looping background sounds over the shots, which worked well. We should be able to complete the short in our next meeting.

Song of the day: Torn - Natalie Imbruglia
Video of the day: Japaneese Tetris TV show

By Shane

Gala Dinner!

2007-07-02T01:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Rosi Thornton for picture-taking!

A few quick pics - Ellie

2007-07-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone - just a few quick pictures from a week ago that I've just uploaded.

Also, well done everyone at the gala - the event went so well, and I hope we've got some good footage and sound to show for it. I know I faithfully stood and recorded the sound of people picking up glasses of champagne, for all that's worth!

Edit Room

2007-06-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

The infamous edit room. This is where the magic happens, well it's supposed to. This will be our home for the next few weeks and then months when we get back from Lesotho and have to sit here sifting through all the tape. Fun fun fun.

Song of the day: Anything Aladdinish
"Prince Ali, Fabulous He, Ali Ababwaaaa........"

Balletic Variation B

2007-06-27T07:55:00.001-07:00

Right, we've done a rough edit of some footage shot at one of Grace's ballet classes, and here is the kind-of finished piece!

Grace says "Don't laugh!"
Darren says: "...um..."
Enjoy!

What do you think? - Ellie

2007-06-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

How does everyone think it's going so far?
I'm on board as a Film Project Assistant (trainee!) and am helping out with each film workshop session. So far I've felt a little confused about whether I'm here to teach or to learn, as I seem to be doing a mixture of both - and often sit back and watch, just like Darren and Grace.
However, I'm enjoying building this film up from the ground, from the very beginning when we were learning how to switch the camera on! I think we've definitely come along now, and everyone is enthusiastic to learn and improve. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!