Bird Song Juke Box - installed

Here are some images of the Bird Song Jukebox installed!!

update on Tide Film project

This is where we are up to regarding the fim and editing and sound:

Last week I went to see the film at FACT - its beautiful, Alex and Lucy did a lovely job. The duration will be around 30 - 40 minutes.

Ross has sent me all the sound that we recorded at Crosby - its also really good.

I have roughly edited this sound now and I will send some discs of what I have so far to the PICU for Touchstones participants to listen to.
They can then get back with any notes of what they might like to change (try to be specific on the timing and the beginning / ending points of what you dont like) - I know everyone will hate hearing their own voices of course, because everyone always does! But if possible, try to just listen to the content. I have had to chop out a fair bit of material already as we had well over an hour of sound and the film's length is looking like around 36 minutes. If you think it would be easier for me to come over to the PICU and sit with everyone while we go through the sound, that could be arranged too. I can edit via my laptop.

Once I hear back from PICU and Touchstones and make any further adjustments, I can send the 2nd rough edit back to Ross who can tidy up my edits, adjust the levels and add in some ambient sound of around 30 seconds in the breaks between topics (NB there is currently 10 seconds of silence between the topics).

Alex has compressed the film of the tide into about 30 minutes or so and will be sending over a DVD of this to me, so I can test the sound with the images.
Again, once I have the OK for the sound from Touchstones, and have tested it with the images, I can then instruct Alex of what we need to add to the footage in terms of fades and black ends......because I want the conversation to overlap the beginning and end of the film.

Finally I have decided to include the clip of sound where we all have a short discussion about how the film will work with the images and how there are to be 2 versions of the film. I really like the transparency this gives the viewer about the process of making this piece....

There will as discussed, also be a version with just ambient sound (birds, wind, sea) which is what will be mainly shown in the PICU.

I think the version with the voices will be really useful and a good momento of the PICU story

shoot

Luckily on Friday, conditions were perfect for filming - and also for a very enjoyable pic-nic! The sun was shining and a good breeze ensured dramatic skies and sunlight skidding across the sands.
Here are members of Touchstones who joined me at Crosby to record conversations about the PICU, memories of the coast and their own stories of "recovery" and what that might mean. These tapes will form the soundtrack for the film. Thanks to everyone who was working on the shoot - Alex and Lucy, Percy and Ross and to Angy from FACT for coordinating. Bryony and the Touchstones reps Alan, Jean and Gary for giving their time so generously and putting everything into the conversations.
The next stage of this piece will be for me to visit FACT and meet with Alex to study the film footage, seeing how the pace of the film works in various edits. We filmed for a solid 5 hours to record the rising tide. This footage can then be reduced to say one hour , half and hour or even 10-15 minutes - depending on what works best. We'll then loook at how the sound works in conjunction with the images. I'll be meeting Alex on 21st July.

filming day

here is a link to the map of the location for the filming day

Film Crew to be on site ready to begin filming 10am  TBC
Touchstones Group and sound recordist to be on site 12-12.30
Pic-Nic + recording begins around 1.00
Filming and sound completes about 3.00 - 4.00

update May

It looks like there may be a date booked in for the PicNic - Friday 2nd July.
On this day, a film crew from FACT and with volunteers from Touchstones will be meeting to film the tide and record discussions about our experiences of PICU and other topics.
Later on, this time-lapse film will be available to watch in the PICU....
Meanwhile work is continuing at FCAT to build the surveillance bird tables and the jukebox is almost ready.....

watercolours

Juke Box - I have made all the CDs for the juke box and 90% of the drawings for the selector unit. I hope to have all these finished and scanned asap so they will be ready to go onto the juke box. Its been much more time consuming than I imagined as I decided to do it the hard way (!) - watercolour images of each bird!
The good news is that I have learned to recognise many more birds than ever before - and it will look lovely.

I understand the jukebox is all ready to install, so once all the cds and images are on, the fitting team can get it installed.

Meanwhile I believe Laura will be organising sessions for staff in how to record their own tracks etc

Pic Nics
It soon comes around!
We did say we would try to hold the pic nic during the week of 12-16th April.. This is OK with me on either Weds 14th or Friday 16th
But will that be OK for FACT to get the shoot team together (sounds and cameras) and PICU to organise transport etc? - we also need to meet again with Touchstone to think about the questions we will be discussing during the picnic and what to take with us (food, chairs, wind break etc)? I'm happy to delay if people think thats better idea...?
After doing some recces earlier this year, I think High Town is a good location, north of Liverpool before Formby. There is a wide estuary there with birdlife on the river and good views of the ships leaving Liverpool....there is also a train station if people need to leave early for example. We could stop en route to look at the Gormly work which was also suggested.

Bird Tables
Ed was working on the bird tables installation and we determined the best locations in the grounds - The location of the monitors will be above the nurses station near the bedrooms within a purpose built casing - I'm looking forward to hearing about the progress on the design for that...

I'll look forward to seeing you all again soon

sounds

Here are photos from High Town, where I'm hoping the Pic Nic will take place in April...

I'm busy preparing the CDs for the Pic-U-Pic jukebox. The initial playlist are British Garden Birds featuring all the favourites - Robins, Sparrows, Song Thrushes and Blue Tits.... I'm even beginning to recognise some of them as I wander around Manchester! You may already know that this week its the RSPB Big Garden Watch this weekend - we should be keeping our eyes peeled for what is the biggest wildlife survey in the world....

Meanwhile I met with Bryony, Ed and the build team (sorry I forgot to note your name) from FACT to look at the bird box sites and to think about installation issues. They will be making some drawings of a housing to contain the monitors, probably being installed above the nurses station near the bedrooms...