introducing the film
You have just five minutes of screen time, just a few weeks to gather footage and a limited budget, so how do you embrace the many aspects of life in the county for the launch of myherefordshire.com?
We approached the acknowledged experts within our county, the Rural Media Company who are in their 15th year of undertaking media projects for the public and voluntary sectors, both locally and nationally.
Assigned to the project was seasoned producer Mike Jackson. He is one of their very experienced part-timers, with a background in BBC and ITV factual programming (everything from The Antiques Roadshow to Inside Out).
A script was devised that indicated a cross-section of events taking place in Herefordshire during May, and the Rural Media Company was able to enrich these activities by drawing on some archive footage from films made last year for the BBC Local TV service.
shooting the film
Mike and cameraperson Anne Cottringer set off one Saturday morning to visit Leominster Farmers Market. Here they talked to stall holders and customers and captured the diverse flavours and atmosphere of this bustling market.
Next they called in at the Ledbury Swifts football ground to witness the last game of the season and have a chat to the chairman Steve Onions.
They then visited the Dilwyn Show and grabbed public relations expert Erica Creer for a few precious minutes to hear her views on the values of using myherefordshire.com as an additional method of publicity.
A few days later the crew popped into the Falcon Hotel in Bromyard to witness myherefordshire editor Dr Ashley Tucker briefing the Gala committee on the new website. Then they zapped across the county to Little Dewchurch to see a village website planning group shape up their environmental pages and discuss working with myherefordshire.com.
Finally they called at the Cider Museum to see the International Cider and Perry tasting competition and learn of Director Margaret Thompson’s views on the value of a one-stop Internet shop for everything happening in Herefordshire.
editing the film
Music for the video came from local composer Jon Sidwell, and Rural Media Companies in-house video editor Joel Munson then took the material and pulled it into shape. A few scenes from the BBC local TV archive were added to enrich the montages, including the launch of the People’s Union Bills of Rights at the Shire Hall, Carl Longbottom’s kite making day at Broadlands Primary School, Mike Abbott’s woodworking courses in Bishops Frome and ex-Mayor Marcelle Lloyd Hayes’s Riding for the Disabled event at the Left Bank with the Two Faced Dance Company and the work of Score, the learning difficulties support charity.
The Rural Media Company has just won an Outstanding Achievement Award from Screen West Midlands in Birmingham and on the basis of their capacity to produce the required end result for myherefordshire.com so quickly and pleasingly we completely understand why their reputation continues to grow.