Summary of Placement

Being a Digital Media Design student with a keen interest in TV production, I was delighted

to hear I had been offered a position to spend my nine months work placement with Dublin

Community Television. Dublin Community Television, or DCTV as they are more

commonly known as, are a licensed TV station which is an open membership co-operative

allowing volunteers to become members of the station in order to avail of the stations training

programs, gain access to filming equipment, and in turn, produce their own weekly shows

which can be aired on DCTV, channel 802 on UPC.

‘CityWide’

May 23rd

was my first day meeting up with the station manager Ciaran Moore, along with

two other new members starting on a JobBridge National Internship program for nine

months, Donal and Eddy. Ciaran and - Production Coordinator - John Breslin had decided to

set up a new project for the three of us who would be working as a team together over the

following months. The name of this project was ‘CityWide’, which

“takes a look at the diverse range of news & events that go into making our unique

community.”

CityWide is to be a 2-3 minute long segment covering any community events or goings on in

the City centre (which has expanded to more rural areas of the county over the months), with

the objective to film, edit, and send to broadcast, five segments a week. With their being only

three of us at the time, role positioning proved to be quite simple, with Donal being a regular

current affairs talk show host on ‘NearFm’ radio, he took the role of lead interviewer and

presenter like a natural, allowing myself and eddy to vary between camera operating and

editing, as neither of us had any interest in being in front of the camera.

After our hour long brief in the office, May 23rd

also saw the very first segment - of what is

currently on over 150 shows to date – of CityWide created, where Donal, Eddy and I

departed the office, which is based in the Guinness Enterprise Centre beside the Storehouse,

with our Panasonic ag-dvx100b camera, tripod and handheld Sennheiser microphone to film

CityWide’s first ever shoot, a Pop-up orchard at the Grand Canal docks, showcasing a

business impact map on how companies are helping out local communities.

Even with this being our first shoot, we managed to catch ourselves two interviews on the

day, one on what the Pop-up orchard is about, and another interview with the designer of the

orchard. After heading back to the office, as the two interview both ran over 3 minutes long,

we were able to create two segments about the day “CityWide – Pop Up Orchard on Grand

Canal Square (Part 1)” and “CityWide – Pop Up Orchard on Grand Canal Square (Part 2)” as

listed on CityWide’s ‘Vimeo’ account.

Every Monday at 12p.m we would all meet up at the Shopfront Studio in Temple Bar for our

weekly CityWide meeting, where we would, as a group welcome new members to the team

and give them a brief introduction to the project (CityWide has now expanded from three

members, to fifteen on and off members and Interns), discuss the previous weeks shoots,

what was filmed, edited, and a list of segments currently showing on our Vimeo and

Facebook page, while keeping a manage on what is currently broadcasting on AerTv.ie and

UPC. Then we would talk about what shoots still require editing, and draw up a list of

possible shoots for the current week, then each members availability and skills would be

divided up, and plan who does what over the week, before a list of Mac editing computer and

filming equipment booking times are then sent on to Des in the office who can manage the

availability of equipment between different projects taking place.

‘Bump Tv’ Bump Tv is the second project which I was involved in with DCTV, created, produced and

directed by Eddy Ifeanyichukwu. As described on our Facebook page, Bump Tv,

“Dublin's only Urban Music Show comes together with DCTV to showcase the hidden talent

that is, Ireland's Urban Hip Hop artists.”

Bump Tv goes on air live every second Thursday night on DCTV channel 802 at 10p.m, and

repeated at 11p.m all weekend. My role with the show was to operate one of the DSLR

camera’s used, and set up the lighting equipment. The format of the show is a 15 minute

interview with our presenter Suzie, which is split up by three of the guest’s music video’s

played inbetween to break and keep viewers interested, this was filmed in a downstairs

basement of the ‘White Lady Art Gallery’ on Wellington Quay. This Gallery is owned by

Alexis, who was an artist we had done a promotional ‘CityWide’ segment for, and was so

thankful she allowed Bump Tv to set up our interview studio in her basement, where we

brought local graffiti artist ‘ADW’ in to sketch, design, and spray paint a backdrop onto the

wall where filming will take place.

Once the interview has been finished up, the guest of the day, our interviewer suzie, and

production manager Susan would usually head off for a coffee break to prepare the guest for

a live appearance. During their coffee break, myself and the crew would proceed to strip the

basement studio of its camera, lights, stands, soundproofing curtains, and make our way to

the DCTV studio situated two minutes around the corner in Wood Quay beside Christ Church

and the Dublin City Council, where we will then set up our Arri lights onto the celling rig,

put on the blue and orange lighting gel covers to give a live stage feel and hook up three

wireless lapel microphones to a mixing desk, which allows us to manage the sound levels of

each microphone connected to the guest performer, who will play an acoustic Hip Hop

version of their song with our in-house guitarist Gabriel Caetano and djembe drum player

Kwame.

Brief history of the company

Dublin Community Television is a non-commercial community station. It’s a licensed

community provider for Dublin which has been broadcasted through UPC since 2007, and

airs to approximately 200,000 homes across Ireland. The company operates under the

Creative Commons act allowing for the free use and sharing of its productions to others.

DCTV offers memberships to the public, and provide training courses in media, allowing

volunteers of all experience from Novice to Professional to participate, gaining knowledge

and experience in joining and training on small budget free productions, or with the help of

DCTV, can apply for ‘Sound and Vision’ funding allocated from a small percentage of the

TV license fee’s through the ‘Broadcasting Commission of Ireland’ (BCI) to assist in creating

their own shows. July 2008 saw the official launch of DCTV by Minister Eamon Ryan,

Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources, which had been

commissioned with a 10 year Community Licence by the BAI (Broadcasting Authority of

Ireland) since 2006.

Due to the fact DCTV is a Community based station, it is a non-commercial channel, it relies

purposely on independent forms of funding from ‘Dublin City Council’, ‘Dublin community

Forum’, the ‘Broadcasting Commission of Ireland’ and other forms of funding for various

productions. Some sources of funds are raised through volunteer membership fees, these fees

allow for the maintenance of the station, its studio, and for the equipment used to film, and

only costs €25 for the year, or €15 to those who are unemployed.

The head office of the station is located in the Guinness Enterprise centre, Taylor’s Lane,

which employs five paid staff who oversee the running of the stations projects, control the

broadcasting of shows, and manages memberships, funding, and training programs to name a

few. In the main office there is also a G5 Apple Mac Final Cut Pro editing suite available to

members in editing their shows, or they can avail of the Adobe Premier Pro editing suit in the

smaller office next door. Further down in Wood Quay, allocated beside the Dublin City

Council is where the ‘Shopfront Broadcasting Studio’ which opened in January 2011 is

based. Inside the studio is facilitated with a multi-camera digital switcher mixing desk

connected to three moveable cameras, an Arri lighting rig with four Arri lights, four wireless

lapel microphone receivers connected to a sound mixer which records through Final Cut Pro

on an Apple Mac, a Blue screen for editing backdrops, and props to dress the studio

according to the shoot taking place, along with camera tripod stands, A Sony Hxr-mc2000

HD hard drive camera, Panasonic ag-dvx100b SD camera, two wireless Sennheiser

microphones, and two DSLR camera kits.

Although DCTV is a community television station, along with Fás and other development

centres, they also operate development training projects for unemployed young people.

Examples of these projects are ‘Bosco Talks’, where DCTV producer Barry (and Shopfront

Studio course trainer) teaches a group of young people from the St. John Bosco centre in

Drimnagh how to develop, write, operate and present their own talk show about what’s

happening in and around their local area. Another show run by unemployed members is

‘Dole TV’, a comedy sketch show on Social Welfare, Job seeking, Political comedy, and

animations submitted by viewers.

In terms of a technical training initiative set up by DCTV is the ‘Studio Operator Course’.

This course is run every Wednesday by Barry, from 2-5.30p.m in the Shopfront Studio,

where he takes on two - three new members a week to provide them with all the essential

training and support required to fully understand and have the potential to operate the sound

and vision mixers, adjust the Arri lights to sensitivity, and shoot broadcast ready material by

the end of the course.

Structure of the organisation and student's department.

DCTV is a volunteer station, which runs on funding from the Dublin City Council, the

Dublin Community Forum and mainly, on the membership fees of volunteers. Within DCTV

there are five paid members based in the main Guinness Enterprise Centre office. These are

Ciaran Moore, who is the station manager and oversees the day to day activities taking place,

meets with local community groups and City Council members, pushes for funding, and

commissions the go ahead of new projects taking place within the organisation. Then there

are John Breslin and Barry Lennon, both are Production Coordinators, whom also run

‘Community of Independence’.

“a movement of videographers documenting independent music in Dublin & beyond,

broadcasting a variety of programmes on the subject on Dublin Community TV!”

John is also the head coordinator of CityWide, while Barry works closely with the St John

Bosco youth centre in Drimnagh filming ‘Bosco Talks’, he also runs the Studio Operator’s

course. Also in the office are Des and James, Des is the office administrator who also talks

charge of bookings for filming, editing and studio equipment and recruiting new members,

while James is the Technical advisor who controls the running of show’s being broadcasted

and organises scheduling times.

Although I worked on two projects for DCTV, Bump TV and CityWide, My main

involvement was with CityWide, which I had been on board this project from the very

beginning. Due to the fact DCTV is a non-commercial organisation, at the end of May when

all major productions were nearing the end of their series, Station Manager Ciaran Moore and

Production Coordinator John Breslin had come up with the idea to have Donal, Eddy and

myself create a new project CityWide, where we would attempt to create five - three minute

segments a week which could be used to play inbetween show intervals where

advertisement’s would usually be seen.

At first, production proved slow and difficult, with their only being three of us in the team

and one presenter to cover all of the cities activities. In the first two weeks and only

managing a small handful of edits, the standard was quite basic as we knew we were yet to

find a ‘format’ for editing, and still had no opening title’s or theme tune we could agree on

what sort of impact we wanted our show to protrude at the start of every segment. On Friday

1st of June, I took aboard the role of heading around the city centre to film some of Dublin’s

prime spots for our new opening sequence. Just outside the Guinness Enterprise Centre and

Storehouse, I met a woman who was looking for the DCTV office, her name was Susan, and

was looking to join DCTV as a member to learn all about the technical aspects of filming, so

with that, I decided what better time to bring her out and teach her, which proved successful,

as she also had a friend who wrote shorts ‘Jigs’, where he later sent one on of a nice 45

second guitar piece we could cut down and use in the final edit of our very first opening

sequence.

The first two weeks of CityWide were of a casual standard, with Donal Eddy and I contacting

through mobile about any shoots present or edits required. However as interest in joining

DCTV began to increase, John and Ciaran created a new training initiative, where CityWide

would become the main focal point for new members to start their involvement with DCTV,

and learn the use of the equipment more efficiently and effectively before setting off on

creating their own productions. With that, new booking procedures of equipment were

instated, to prevent ‘block booking’ (having consistent use of equipment over others in the

organisation), and before any shoot could be confirmed, a list of equipment required and

times of collecting and returning must first be sent to Des in the office where he would post

the bookings on the DCTV Shopfront Studio Calendar website, accessible by anyone to see

the availability of filming equipment, studio bookings, and editing suit times.

With that, any new and current member of CityWide would be added to a CityWide emailing

list, where instead of having to email to each member individually, you only needed one

email address which would be sent to everyone involved. With the increase of members and

shoots available, with some having 3-4 shoots in a day, We had a Gmail account set up,

where we could create a Google docs in various sub folders with an editing checklist for the

editor of the day, and others titled by months, where inside the editor or filming crew can find

call sheets for each week, listing the title of the shoot, who was on the shoot, the roles of crew

members on the day, contact numbers of the organisers, the name and role of the interviewee,

and what took place or will take place, this increased communication, which would have

otherwise created unnecessary stress trying to contact various members on details of shoots

and edits.

Student's main responsibilities

The best bit of having worked with DCTV, was I was never limited to just having one role

within the organisation. When I first started, I was asked if I was more interested in

developing a skill over my 9 months, i.e. work as an editor for the duration, just handle

camera work, or if I would prefer a broader role working on a production, CityWide, which

would allow me to develop various skills and learn the goings on involved in putting a show

together, which is exactly what I had hoped to achieve.

As CityWide had become a training initiative for new members, everyone had a chance of

pursuing a different role, from organising an event to cover and being the producer writing up

call sheet’s and getting a crew together, to operating camera’s, sound recording equipment,

studio operating, editing, and even . . . which became a big responsibility of mine, teaching

new members the technical aspects.

Producing

The first stage before any shoot goes ahead is to produce one firstly and bring your idea to the

Monday meeting forum. Here is a rundown example of just one of the shoots I produced, and

the tasks required. My biggest production was an All-Ireland American Football Press Day

taking place in Tallaght stadium on the 10th

of July for the build-up to the UL Vikings taking

on the Belfast Trojans. Although I knew about it as a player of the UL Vikings, It was still

my role to get into contact with Russell Keerley, one of the head committee members of the

‘Irish American Football Association’ who in turned allowed the crew and I press access to

the event. The next stage was to contact Des in the office who is in charge of bookings and

administration, via email to organise for the Panasonic camera kit and wireless microphone

for collection and return from 10a.m to 2p.m, who will then post the booking schedule onto

the DCTV Shopfront web calendar for all members to see. Originally I had organised for a

camera man, presenter and myself to attend the press day, however, on arrival outside the

Tallaght stadium, I had received news my presenter would be unable to attend, so as

producer, It was my role to step up, and do my first ever interview shoot.

Fortunately all went well on the day and I managed to wing it at presenting and impress

everyone back at the office, however for a producer of the shoot, my work was still

unfinished. On returning to the office, it was now my responsibility to write up a call sheet on

the event’s that took place. I had to state the event going on, its location, the equipment we

booked out, the crew involved and their roles, the name and title of the interviewee’s, and

what took place for the editor in charge to know what to do (in this case it was myself). The

shoot was title ‘CityWide – IAFA Shamrock Bowl Press Day’, and is still to date, the most

viewed segment on CityWide.

Filming

Camera work is a crucial part of any shoot, as whatever is filmed, will depict how the final

footage is going to look. If a shot is too bright, the Iris on the lens must be closed to prevent

too much light coming in, or vice versa, if it’s too dark, try to open the iris and let more light

in. If a scene looks too blue or pale, the camera may need to be white balanced, this is a

simple process of holding a plain sheet of white paper in front of the camera, which will

zoom right in, and press the white balance button to take any white washing out of the shot,

giving the area a much warmer tone. Also shaking needs to be prevented by taking a careful

hold of the camera and using a slow movement to prevent jolting around an image. Last but

not least is sound and microphone technique, Whenever I film an interview, I make sure the

presenter and guest are in the quietest area possible, and by wearing a set of isolated

headphones, I have the talkers try a test interview to make sure there is no background noise,

and no waving of the microphone around by the presenter which may cause noise levels to

rise and fall, with ‘peaking’ occurring, these are large puffs of air entering the microphone

creating an irritating ‘pop’ through the speakers.

As each segment is only 2-3 minutes long, I always film the interview first, and make sure to

pay attention to what the guest is saying, while having the presenter under strict orders to

prevent them from ‘waffling’ and talking for too long. Working in this order allows me to

capture only what I need of the event, and preferably capture footage of what the interviewee

is talking about, which keeps material to a minimum and speeds up editing time of finding

good footage for cutaways, but also give the necessary visual cutaways to keep each segment

interesting without throwing the viewer off what the guest is describing.

Editing

As CityWide began to increase over the weeks between August to October, The majority of

members and new Interns would head out on shoots taking the role of presenter or film crew,

and getting the feel of being out and about on shoots, therefore I was allocated to lead editor,

as I had the most experience having previously worked on the segments for the past two

months, and this is where I found I worked best.

By taking a look at some of our shows dating back to May, you can see an a huge change in

formats, from originally starting off with a 20 second intro clip with shots of landmarks

around Dublin and a guitar jig playing in the background, with no straplines for interviewees

on screen, to working with fellow interns from America where we put together some simple,

but more professional and effective graphics, where we have a 2D image of the city centre

coloured in purple and white that plays for 4 seconds and no audio until it crossfades into an

opening intro piece of the shoots presenter telling the viewers of what’s going on, then we

have a small purple CityWide graphic that sits in the bottom right hand corner of the screen

to showcase the shows identity, and a purple and white strapline banner that swipes across the

screen to position itself under the guest speaker as their name and title in purple dissolves in

perfect timing to the banner, before both disintegrating off the screen after 5 seconds. At the

end of each segment when the presenter signs off, the screen turns to black, where a ‘Like

CityWide on Facebook’ graphic appears, followed by DCTV’s own motion graphic to close.

As CityWide became the foundation for new members to volunteer and gain knowledge, we

had to keep the editing to a basic level, but with a professional and interesting look. The

format I put in place is a simple intro of the presenter, followed by a strict 2.30 minute

interview (or near enough so it can be edited shorter if needed), with 6-10 three second

cutaway shots, followed by a sign off by the interviewer, if however the interview is too

short, then the use of Royalty Free Music can be used in the background, along with longer

cutaways to keep the show interesting.

From the beginning, CityWide files were all saved into one folder when shoots were only on

a daily basis, however as CityWide grew, so too did the number of shoots being produced. To

help make it easier for new editors to come on board, a filing system was put in place onto

the Mac computer. Working off of the ‘Work’ drive, we set up a main folder listed

‘CityWide’, within this folder there are three sub-folders, the first being ‘Archive’, the second

is ‘Projects’ and the third called ‘Exports’. This filing system was set up to help manage the

large amounts of shoots being sent to the computer, and also to keep our projects neatly

separated from any other on-going projects from other DCTV members and easy to find. In

the Archive file, is where all the graphic templates are saved, here you will find the intro

files, along with the outro file, strapline, and logo, this means that whoever is in the hot seat,

could simply transfer the graphics templates, intro, and outro clips, into the new segment due

to be edited to pursue consistency between editors, and keep each show layout the same. The

Project file is where the main footage files to be edited are saved and each folder title with the

shoots name on it so we know which file is what. Finally in third folder, Exports, this is

where the final project has been edited, signed off on, exported, and awaits to be broadcasted

and uploaded online.

Out of all the roles I have played in CityWide, being the lead editor was one of my favourites,

where on a good day, I could be pushing out 4-5 edited segments a day, our weekly aim, or

on a bad day, I might only get 1-2 segments completed a day due to re-edits, awaiting

material from a secondary camera, waiting for the shoots producer to forward on the call

sheet information as to allow me fill in the guest speakers name and title, or if there are

multiple interviews, I could find out which interview needs to be positioned first and so on.

The editing seat can be demanding, stressful, and take a lot of patience, but being the one to

give a shoot the creative finishes, and challenge yourself fixing an audio problem, smooth

cam shaky footage, or white balance and colour correct pale washed out footage to a nice

warn segment gives you a huge sense of satisfaction, although being an editor, you are rarely

happy with the finished product, and will always find something that can be changed to make

it look better.

Teaching and training As DCTV is an open membership organisation, this allows for the freedom of anyone with an

interest in media to join, no matter what experience you obtain. DCTV is driven by three

principals, Empowerment, Participation and Diversity, and excel in offering training

programs to anyone with an interest in joining. One of their main projects is CityWide, where

all new members once signed up and have participated in Barry’s Studio Operator Course

will begin their experience. As some of these new members may have never had any camera,

editing or presenting experience before, rather than throwing them into the spotlight on a

shoot, the newly position Volunteer Coordinator Susan and I both agreed, that being the

longest serving member of CityWide, I would take on the role of teaching each and every

new member and Intern the fundamentals on how to operate a camera, make sure the sound is

best recorded, how to set up the lapel microphones, lighting, and camera vision mixer board

in the studio, and finally, how to use our format in the editing room.

I enjoyed this role a lot, as I found I had learnt a lot through some colleagues in DCTV and

other Interns, and was delighted to be able to pass on my knowledge and what I had learnt to

other members who like myself, were just starting out. Firstly I would show them how I work

in the editing suit, so they can see the format in which way we sheet, how to keep the

interviews short but knowledgeable, how and what to film instead of going out and capturing

30 minutes of unnecessary footage, and after editing a segment, you learn to visualise exactly

what you want on film, before you go and use a camera, keeping workflow short and

manageable.

The next stage is how to operate a camera effectively in different conditions, I show how to

adjust the white balance and iris exposure to correct the lighting conditions for different

shoots, then how to correct the focus, followed by some basic fundamentals of how to

comfortable hold a camera whilst still preventing any shaking.

Finally I would be the Studio operator advisor for when there is a studio shoot taking place.

As studio advisor, I would show each member how to set up a new project, turn on the multi-

camera switch board and set up the three camera angles to switch through live, one wide shot,

one focused on the Interviewer, and the third camera pointing towards the guest. The Arri

lights will then be powered on to brighten up the conditions, and white balancing on the

camera takes place. The final steps are to synchronise the interviewer and guests wireless

lapel microphones to the audio mixer and have them talk amongst themselves until the audio

levels are set, then we are ready to use the clapper board on the opening camera angle, to

allow us sync the audio and visual later on in post-production.

Opportunities for Learning during Co-op

Communication Skills

Participating effectively in meetings and/or group settings

In my Pre co-op assessment, I rated myself as a level 2. The reason for this is before I

commenced my work placement, I would never really mix in large groups as I am very quiet

and tend to be shy and take the back seat approach to any discussions or forums. Since

beginning our weekly Monday meetings for CityWide however, I found myself putting

forward ideas more and more, and having a better input into the running and organising of

CityWide. I had gone from sitting at the back of the group accepting whatever ideas and

proposals were being put in place, to being one of the key motivators in organising workflow

amongst team members.

Another example as to my new approach in groups settings were the training classes I

commissioned. I would often gather new members together to teach them the functions of

operating a camera, doing basic edits on Final Cut Pro, and even teaching small groups of

members how to set up and prepare the studio for a live broadcast.

Communicating ideas and concepts clearly both verbally and in writing

When starting out firstly, this proved to be somewhat of a difficult process, due to trying to

communicate technical issues to those of a different level, or new members who are partaking

in this line of work for the first time ever. The original form of communication between team

members from the beginning was via text or phone calls as there were only three of us

involved in the running of CityWide, and were quite easy to get hold of whenever. As new

members began to join CityWide, we implemented a new system to be able to easily contact

the ever growing team all in one, a new group email was set up, whereas instead of linking

several email address to the sender option of an email, every new and current member was

added to the one CityWide email address, where all members would receive an email from

one address. The thing about contacting between one email though, meant there were several

emails being sent a day between presenters and producers, camera operators and editors,

which meant it was hard to keep track of which email was for certain individuals.

The next step in improving communication methods between members then, was to set up a

Gmail account, to gain access to Google docs. With this, we were able to set up editable

documents between members. There was an editing file with a daily update on what was due

for editing, which the current editor of the segment is, how far into completion is it, and

whether or not it requires a re-edit. Other files included call sheets of every shoot covered.

The producer of a shoot must create a call sheet inside the month’s folder filed into the

correct dating system where an editor can gain easy access. The producer’s job is to title the

call sheet with the event’s name, then list all members and their roles involved. Following

this is a basic layout of the shoots proceedings and what took place. Finally the producer will

add in any information about the guest or guests involved in the segment, this includes their

full name, and title to which they go by.

As you can see from above, our process of communication between members has drastically

improved. The strict changes implemented into creating bookings for equipment and passing

on information between colleagues to increase the smooth operation of workflow has

definitely made me a more organised and pursuing individual, from taking a back seat in

group meetings, to holding small teaching classes in the operation of a production, and the

forms of communication involved.

Problem Solving Skills

Being able to identify the key issues surrounding the problem

When working in the media world, there are always going to be problems you will face, but

the ecstasy of working in this line of work is not trying to find a way around the problem, but

to quickly think up of a solution quick enough to prevent a backlog in completing daily

segments.

This became a key skill I had no choice but to quickly obtain working in the editing suite.

Often I would receive footage that would have problems such as shaky camera work, poor

lighting conditions, washed out bright footage, or sound difficulties such as peaking creating

irritating bangs through the speakers. When first starting off, I spent the majorities of my

edits on YouTube trying to find solutions, until within just over a month, I found myself

naturally correcting these issues without the need of using online help. I was able to quickly

correct washed out footage by learning to grasp the three colour correction tool, which

allowed me to white balance the image, and change the bright, dark, and medium levels to

give the image a warm tone. Smooth cam was one filter I hated using, but it became a big

necessary, with this filter I was able to prevent the shaking around of footage on the screen,

however this became a dreaded tool, due to the time it would take to smooth out a clip,

therefore creating backlogs in the editing process. Less than half way through my work

placement then, I was now teaching new members how to obtain a basic standard in editing,

often taking on small groups at a time to teach them the basics from the beginning, and

depending on their capability, I even managed to pass on the solutions to the technical

difficulties I once had.

Being objective even though you may feel emotional about a particular work issue or

situation

Working in the editing department isn’t for everyone, here you need a great deal of patience.

Editing a simple three minute segment, depending on the quality of the shoot may take

between one to two hours on a good day. If an interview runs over the three minute mark it’s

our job to manipulate the interview, in a way of cutting out the least relevant part, but still

being able to cross blend the pauses and sudden changes of topics after the cuts. The best way

of disguising a cut through an interview, is by adding in a cut away shot over the breaks, this

way it takes the distraction off the interview until the topic changes. Due to this, you will play

over a simple discussion between four to eight times, to make sure everything runs perfectly

without making a cut in talking to obvious and adjusting the audio levers to make it appear as

one flow.

This is possibly the most challenging section of editing, and because you play over the

segment so much to perfect it, you will always find something in the edit you’re not happy

about, and you will constantly be thinking of a way to change things around, which in turn

makes you attached to each segment in an emotional way. This proves to be a great

challenge, as although you become emotionally attached to the project at hand, you will try to

perfect it in the best possible way, but in turn, still know where to draw the line and finish it.

The best way I found to finish the project, is to have the shoots producer sign off on any edits

I made, to make sure once their happy with it, I’m happy with it.

Interpersonal / Teamwork Skills

Support and contribute to a team environment.

Due to the weekly Monday meetings, I found myself becoming more and more involved in

the team. For the first few meetings I would often take the back seat and just listen to

everything taking place around me. As the weeks went on though, I gained more confidence

having people asking me for help in how to set up a camera, organise the studio for a shoot,

and how to precede an edit. This helped me become more confident with other team members

knowing that we needed to help each other to keep up the quality of our work. After these

experiences I became more helpful and had a better input in the meetings. Due to the nature

of teaching my colleagues how to manage the use of our equipment, I feel I have contributed

to the team environment in a big way. Whether I was out on a shoot, or in the office editing, I

always had my phone on call ready to assist team members on their shoots in case any

difficulties arose, and was contactable via phone or email at any time of the day.

With BumpTv, I was asked by the director Eddy, who first started off at CityWide with me

and we got on really well, to help him start up BumpTv, I came on board as a camera and

lighting man, but as we had the same ideas and taste, I also assisted Eddy in project planning,

shooting locations, and format ideas with the show. BumpTv is an example of my huge

contributions to a team environment as together, we decided who to bring on-board the

project, who to use as a presenter, and helped design the shooting format of the show, as well

as ideas on using an in-house guitarist and djembe drummer to perform a live acoustic set

with the artist and one of their chosen songs.

Build a good rapport with a wide range of people.

When producing a shoot or filming an event, you find yourself meeting new people every

day. Whilst filming, on several different occasions, we would always get talking to new

people about who we were and what we do, and usually manage to recruit new members who

were keen to get involved. We would often keep in contact with event organisers to keep our

eye on new events taking place. One person we kept in close contact with was a woman who

set’s up art galleries in and around the city who we covered quite a bit of when starting out.

When we heard she was setting up her art gallery shop, we helped her promote it by filming

her launch night. She was so happy that she allowed us use the basement of the shop for our

other show BumpTv, an urban music show, and have graffiti artists come in and dress it up.

The next example of how we built a good rapport with people, is when working on BumpTv

we had the aim of creating 10 episodes of Dublin’s biggest Urban music artists. Although we

had connections with a few rappers for the show, it wasn’t until we brought ‘Class A’z’ into

the studio to film episode three. The two members of ‘Class A’z’ organise regular concerts

and Rap battles, so had contacts with Dublin’s biggest names. With the day of filming going

so well with the lads, they were only delighted to organise for use to meet some of these

rappers and get them on the show. This helped us out in a big way, and with such big names

in the Irish Urban music scene, word spread of our show fast, we even managed to find

ourselves pushed with people asking to be on the show, and sending their music to us for a

listen, along with others asking if they could join our film crew.

ICT Skills

Being able to use appropriate computer software products to assist with your daily

work

Having only basic knowledge of Final Cut Pro from my second year of college, I knew I

would be facing some software issues surrounding the editing side of my workflow. Although

I started off on camera operating duties, working in the editing suite is where I later on found

myself most capable and suited. Taking a look back at some of my first edits, It’s obvious

how little experience I had in me, putting together some basic unimpressive segments. This

all change within the first few weeks where I had no option but to sit down and go through

online video’s on various techniques and tips to help develop more professional looking

segments using final Cut Pro. Soon I found myself able to import graphics, motions,

background music and transform our opening graphics into a special Christmas version with

snow falling over the opening titles followed by the graphic of Dublin City turning red.

It wasn’t long before I had become a competent user of Final Cut Pro, having to overcome

such challenges as needing to colour correct blue whitewashed shoots to warm tones, adjust

lighting problems using white balancing or create filters to prevent the blowing of wind into

the microphone creating loud popping sounds through the speakers. For certain filming

events which may be too large for one camera to cover, we would often send a second film

crew out with two camera’s and wireless microphones to help cover more aspects of the

event. With this taking place, means back in the editing room it is my responsibility as an

editor to be able to sync up both the wireless microphones to the images portrayed through

both cameras, this is where the help of a clapper board comes in, to help sync up the image of

a clapper board hitting, to the sound being recorded. Once the sound has been matched to the

footage, I then have to filter through every second of footage covered to cut it down to a three

minute segment, this can range from 10 minutes of filming on one camera, to nearly 30

minutes of footage each on two cameras depending on the event. Therefore I start every edit

off with the interviews being cut to three minutes to start, and edit only the footage which

best describes what is being talked about.

From starting off at a pretty much novice level of Final Cut Pro editing software, I managed

to work my way through the ranks, going from being the student, to teaching new DCTV

members how to start an edit from start to finish on a regular basis, and become the lead in

house editor going from completing one edit a day, to pushing out 3 to 4 edited segments a

day ready for online upload and TV broadcasting.

Understanding the capability of any technology such as computer hard and software,

particularly industry-standard systems

As a Windows user, my first obstacle was learning how to competently use an iMac, as this

was the main editing suite available to members. Luckily for me, the simplicity all apple

products are based on provided a quick start to my learning rate, and it wasn’t long before I

was able to navigate my way around its interface with ease. The next stage for me was to be

able to start a project in Final Cut Pro, and pursue my role of editing a three minute segment

every day, five a days a week.

By the time I had taught myself how to swiftly move about on the iMac and know the ins and

outs of Final Cut Pro, I had become so efficient at it that I was able to teach newer members

how to obtain the same level, or as close as possible, to myself, so they would be able to take

over the role of lead editor when I finish up.

Bibliography

DCTV

http://www.dctv.ie/main/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_Community_Television

CityWide Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CityWideDublin?ref=hl

BumpTv Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/BumpTvDublin?ref=hl

Community of Independence

https://www.facebook.com/CommunityOfIndependents

Pre-Coop Skills Review Form

ID No.: 10129758

Name: Vigna, Killian

Gender: Male

Mature: No

Placement Location: Ireland

Placement County: Dublin

Course: Digital Media Design

CoOp Period: May - February

Year: 2012

Basic work skills

3

Skill: Reporting to work as scheduled and on time.

Example:

Growing up in a hard working environment, I have been taught to always make it into work

at least 10 minutes before hand to make sure I am ready for whatever scenario awaits, and to

judge the surrounding environments with a clear vision before starting a job.

3

Skill: Dressing appropriately for work.

Example:

Being extremely hygienic, I always comply with dress code regulations, and make sure my

uniform, if one provided, is freshly washed after every shift, or else make sure I have

multiple t-shirts and trousers to match that of the required outfit.

Communication Skills

2

Skill: Participating effectively in meetings and/or group settings.

Example:

I always find myself to be the quiet one around large groups, and tend to try and hid behind

others in group discussions and meetings.

3

Skill: Communicating ideas and concepts clearly both verbally and in writing

Example:

Depending on what the concept is, I can either be too direct, or too elaborate that I tend to

dwell off expecting everyone to understand what I'm putting across.

Problem Solving Skills

2

Skill: Being able to identify the key issues surrounding the problem.

Example:

Depending on the situation, I can be quite good at decision making, but more regularly I will

ask for a second opinion.

3

Skill: Being objective even though you may feel emotional about a particular work issue or

situation.

Example:

If I'm not happy with something, I have no problem objecting with it, especially if it is of

my own work or something I have participated in.

Interpersonal / Teamwork Skills

4

Skill: Support and contribute to a team environment.

Example:

I prefer to work in group environment as I find myself to be motivational as a team member

to get a job done, and I know a team relies on me to keep going. When working

individually, I tend to slack off more.

3

Skill: Build a good rapport with a wide range of people.

Example:

I find myself very outgoing as I'm always up for meeting new people publicly, however I

tend to loose contact as I don't enjoy communicating through a phone or online.

Cultural / International Awareness

2

Skill: Being conscious of different cultural values.

Example:

I am very aware of people’s different cultures, however, I would like to better understand

and learn more different people’s backgrounds.

2

Skill: Being sensitive to others with different cultural backgrounds.

Example:

I prefer to treat everyone as equal, although sometimes to may come across as being

insensitive or offensive.

ICT Skills

2

Skill: Being able to use appropriate computer software products to assist with your daily

work.

Example:

I am still in the learning process of using Final Cut Pro, an editing software which is the

editing software I will be using for the next 9 months.

2

Skill: Understanding the capability of any technology such as computer hard and software,

particularly industry-standard systems.

Example:

I don't know too much about computer hardware, but I am capable of learning and using just

about any software I come across.

Organisational Awareness

2

Skill: Have an awareness of the organisation’s purpose and goals.

Example:

As the information available is quite limited, the main focus of the company is that it's an

open membership run by volunteers.

3

Skill: Demonstrate a self-motivated attitude to work.

Example:

Being told that I will be starting up a new filming production within a team is enough for me

to be more than motivated as this is what I hope to pursue in the future.

Post-Coop Skills Review Form

ID No.: 10129758

Name: Vigna, Killian

Gender: Male

Mature: No

Placement Location: Ireland

Placement County: Dublin

Course: Digital Media Design

CoOp Period: May - February

Year: 2012

Has your placement helped you to make decisions about your future career? Yes

Explanation: Yes, having originally wanted to be a TV producer, having spent the past 9

months in all sectors in involved in producing a show, I have found working in the editing

room to be the most interesting, as this is where I felt most confident and comfortable with

my work rate.

Employer Size: 5

Employer Type: private

Basic work skills

4

Skill: Reporting to work as scheduled and on time.

Example:

Due to having booking procedures in place with strict time slots for collection and returning

of filming equipment, this has helped me become more aware of time management, as if I

am late turning up, someone else will have taken my place which I found in the first few

weeks, now I make sure to be at least half an hour early before any booking.

2

Skill: Dressing appropriately for work.

Example:

Having spent the majority of my time working in the editing suite, I had to choose dressing

comfortable to focus on my work over dressing formally.

Communication Skills

4

Skill: Participating effectively in meetings and/or group settings.

Example:

Every Monday morning the whole project team would meet up to have our weekly

discussions. Before this placement, I would have been the quite one who took the back seat

in the meetings, now I am usually the first to put forward ideas and get involved with

discussions.

3

Skill: Communicating ideas and concepts clearly both verbally and in writing

Example:

Although competent, there can be miscommunication between project members reading

email updates due to not understanding the different technical requirements involved (i.e

technical know how’s involved in editing software and camera operation.) However after

regular training amongst members, communication became easier.

Problem Solving Skills

4

Skill: Being able to identify the key issues surrounding the problem.

Example:

Sitting at an editing suit for so long, you come across many problems such as sound and

lighting issues from filming. Due to the time constraints of trying to get material filmed,

edited and broadcasting over a short period of time, the first few weeks were a learning

curve, but nearing the end of the placement, I was then teaching others how to overcome

such technical problems and take over as the editor.

4

Skill: Being objective even though you may feel emotional about a particular work issue or

situation.

Example:

Being an editor, you are rarely ever happy with the finished edit, which I like, because it

teaches you to always be critically thinking, and not willing to just hand something over a

half-heartedly attempted project.

Interpersonal / Teamwork Skills

4

Skill: Support and contribute to a team environment.

Example:

While working on a voluntary show, people of all skill levels are always looking to join,

even some members with no technical know-how, but a keen interest in working with

media, So I felt it my sole responsibility to offer weekly camera operating training courses

and editing classes on Final Cut Pro, to show new members the structure we produce, how

to use equipment efficiently, and allow everyone the general know-how to produce daily

shows with no budget.

3

Skill: Build a good rapport with a wide range of people.

Example:

Keeping contact with people we provided filming segments for proved to be very beneficial,

as when starting up a second TV show, we were offered use of a pop-up studio in the

basement of an Art Gallery who we promoted, and also had graffiti artists come in to design

and paint the studio in return for filming a segment on their art.

Cultural / International Awareness

3

Skill: Being conscious of different cultural values.

Example:

This has improved a little from before as I found myself working with three other American

Interns, and our music show Director who was from Nigeria which helped me understand a

little bit about where they were from and their lifestyles.

3

Skill: Being sensitive to others with different cultural backgrounds.

Example:

As mentioned above, I worked with a director from Nigeria and three other American

Interns, but I found no real cultural differences experienced between, as I was more

comfortable around them than I would have been before.

ICT Skills

4

Skill: Being able to use appropriate computer software products to assist with your daily

work.

Example:

After spending 9 consecutive months using the editing software Final Cut Pro, I have seen

my rating jump up to level four, as with the help of other members, I found myself

becoming more competent with the software, and even held teaching classes to other

members.

3

Skill: Understanding the capability of any technology such as computer hard and software,

particularly industry-standard systems.

Example:

I brought this rating up a point as I have become more experienced in using various software

needed, such as Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, Solid-works and many others,

however I am still at a basic level on knowing the ins and outs of Hardware.

Organisational Awareness

4

Skill: Have an awareness of the organisation’s purpose and goals.

Example:

Now I realise the basis of DCTV. DCTV offers a wide range of training programs for

community members, and unemployed people, include young unemployed members, and

allow them access to joining a project, or learning the essentials to go about creating their

own.

4

Skill: Demonstrate a self-motivated attitude to work.

Example:

For me, working with DCTV wasn't a job, it had become more of a hobby, filming and

editing every day. Treating this as a hobby that still needed a professional attitude was

enough to get me out of bed and head to work every day, as well as motivating others by

helping them on any problems that arose.