The following paragraphs may be of interest to people doing media studies or thinking of going into TV film work.
So far three television companies have filmed me about my use of the internet and web pages. Not, let me hasten to say, because I am particularly photogenic or full of charisma. Nor are my web pages among the most experimental on the internet. It is purely that I am an elderly female and don't fit their stereotype. I must admit I was surprised at how pleasant, unsophisticated and family orientated were all the film crews. So they didn't fit my stereotypes either!
The first people to film me in October 1999 were from Front Room, a Friday night programme on the BBC digital Channel Knowledge. They shot a three minute film for the slot "Me and my website".
Two very nice girls, Jo, an assistant producer and Louise the camera girl drove over from Birmingham with a portable camera and microphone. They took three hours and produced a lovely little film, mainly about my garden,
(garden in October 1999) which any grandmother would be pleased to leave as a keepsake to her family. This was Louise's first assignment. She can feel very pleased with herself. I am afraid I didn't think of making webpages about that filming.Back at the studio the cutting was done smoothly but the background music IMO was rather loudly intrusive. This might have had something to do with the target audience of the programme being people in the age range 16-35.
The next film, made in February 2000 by Brewers productions for Channel 4, was sponsored by Microsoft. It was also only three minutes long but had a stand alone spot and its own title Cybergran. Billed as a UK firs the film was shown not only on main TV but also on the web.
Nine people and a van of equipment came up for this film which took two days to shoot. There were audio and screen tests beforehand and I was taken to locations other than my house The budget for this film must have been over twenty times that of the BBC's. With the shooting taking so long I had ample time to collect information for
web pages about the filming which might interest people doing media studies.
The last film was shot in May 2000 for a Granada regional series, Wired World to be shown in September. Much of the filming was done in the garden. (
Garden in May)Unfortunately I will not be able to see it as we are with Carlton in Leicester but I have been promised a video after it has been transmitted. Again only three minutes long, but with an extra minute for being an agony Aunt to a paperclip, it was intermediary between the big budget of Cybergran and the shoestring budget of Me and My Website. We filmed from half-past nine in the morning to half-past three in the afternoon and time was so tight we did not have time to go to the pub for lunch. One of the crew went and fetched a take away. I have written up a little about this film
but with so little time for social chat I missed out on interesting background details.