The Buzz Newsletter - 4th November 2009

4 November 2009

And the Award goes to ... by Teo Beleaga and Marc Johnson „„ Senior documentary production lecturer Ken Fero, has been awarded the Peace Award at the London Week of Peace last month for a co-production on gang violence ‘Postcode wars’, the documentary he produced with Souleyman Garcia, was actually shot by 13-14 year old kids, some excluded from school, but part of a training programme on film production. “We were teaching them how to use a camera like a weapon really, to get their point of view across” said Fero. Over the entire year the programme has lasted these kids worked on capturing their real life or the real life surrounding them. Ken Fero said: “There was a bit of drama reconstruction in the film which they wanted to do themselves; because some of these kids are on the fringes of being in gangs so they actually know what they are talking about.” Leaving school this year, these kids went from being excluded to graduating with 10 or 11 GCSE and the possibility of coming to Coventry in a couple of years. Fero says: “We’ve opened their eyes to a world which they have never had access before. Everyone wants to be in the media, but this has shown them the real film, and some of them hopefully will take it forward.” Asked how does a documentary on gang violence relate to peace, Ken Fero argued: “Peace is more than just the absence of violence. Peace is about

how people want to live their lives and the film is about them wanting peace on the streets so, that’s why we got the award.” „„ Jonathan Worth, Senior Lecturer in Photography, has just been invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art, after his involvement in getting his students’ work into the market led to what the blogger of visual photography studio described as “one great idea”. So how do you get your photos out there and paid for when you’re still fully covered in the shadows of the unknown? Jonathan believes to have found the answer to this and is currently testing the concept. “As we know, traditional gatekeepers for media practitioners are being, or have been rendered obsolete. This experiment begins to leverage the things that the internet and social media do really well, in order to facilitate an adapted old media business model”, says Jonathan. Rather than struggling to protect your work, he suggests giving it away for free, especially on the internet. But then how do you make money out of it? You charge for authenticity. The experiment he is conducting at the moment regards selling some pictures he took of Cory Doctorow, alongside with a few manuscript pages of Doctorow’s latest novel – all signed and numbered by both of them. Follow his results and further experiments on jonathanworth.com.

„„ Senior lecturer in media production and novelist Mez Packer, has been short listed for two separate literary awards: The People’s Book Prize and the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards.

 Mez Packer’s ‘highly original’ 2-tone countercultural thriller Among Thieves is up for public vote in both a national and local competition. The People’s Book Prize aims to discover talented authors and bring them to wider attention. Unusually for literary prizes, the winner is chosen each month by ordinary readers in a public vote and the book with the most votes will go forward as a finalist for the People’s Book Prize Awards in July 2010. Mez Packer’s book is short listed for October, and voting will close on November 30. You can vote for Among Thieves by visiting http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/book.php?id=152.


 Among Thieves is also up for the 2010 Coventry Inspiration Book Awards, which is run by Coventry City Council in conjunction with local libraries. Local readers have nominated their favourite books, and Among Thieves has been shortlisted in the Murder & Mayhem category. You can vote at http://myvotes.coventry.gov. uk/56/index.cfm?p=vote&cid=557& zz=2009101515643. Mez’s thrilling debut novel is set in 1980s Coventry. Among Thieves is an exhilarating tale of music, drug-smuggling and racism, partly inspired by Mez’s own student experiences.

„„ People who missed the ground-breaking international conference on health policy and the media back in June can now relive the best moments - with the publication of a 6-DVD set covering all of the presentations. Over 60 people from 15 countries - took part in the event, held in Ellen Terry Building, and supported by Coventry School of Art & Design and by Health and Life Sciences. It was the first-ever conference to link discussion of health policy with the way in which policies and issues are presented in the news media.

The 3-day conference was filmed by Media Production students Isaac McGinley and Sid Albanis, and the hours of footage were then edited by senior technician Bex Pittam. Health Journalism lecturer John Lister who organised the conference and has designed the colour-coded packs for the DVDs said: “The event was a great success. It has put Coventry at the centre of an important new discussion on the changes taking place in health services around the world, and the need to ensure the public is properly informed. “The DVDs demonstrate the media skills in our department – and we hope they help build up our MA in Health Journalism, which is the only course of its kind in Europe.”

Part of the audience at the conference

The 6-DVDs of the Conference

Wall of BBC sound opens up

The Performing Arts department and the Coventry Peace Festival will host an audio-visual performance to honour 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The concert “S5 – in the driver’s cab of history” is to be mixed with a screening of a film shot from a suburb train travelling East to West Berlin, shortly after the fall. Adrian Palka, coordinator of the event and performer within the ensemble said: “The slow meditative quality and strong atmospheres of the film provides both inspiration and backdrop to the music from an experimental ensemble of musicians drawn from Germany and the UK, playing a range of electronic and acoustic instruments.” The performance will take place on Monday, November the 7th at 7.30pm in Room ET233. It is free of charge and open to all. Limited CD’s and DVD’s will be available.

^ Co

ming to Cov

Next Tuesday a few media students will have the opportunity to visit the BBC’s multimedia newsroom, live in action and participate to a debate on whether and what the future for TV news is. Among the speakers: Nick Pollard (Former Head of Sky News in the Chair), Mary Hockaday (Head Multimedia Newsroom, The BBC), Jonathan Munro (Executive Producer ITN), Jonathan Levy (Editor General Election Sky News ), Stephen Cole (Presenter Al Jazeera English). Tickets are £5 for students. For more information contact John Mair by Thursday, 5th November 2009.

The student and staff newsletter of the Media and Communications department of Coventry School of Art and Design Edited by Teo Beleaga Submissions invited to [email protected] With many thanks to John Lister, Ken Fero, Jonathan Worth, Mez Packer, John Mair and Marc Johnson.

Pictures courtesy of John Lister

Conference comes back to life