ian ravenscroft

First Light’s ‘how to’ videos

Chris Unitt — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:28:47 +0000

First Light, based in Digbeth, commissioned Nice Monster to produce a series of ‘How To’ short films.

Each 90 second film will provide top tips for budding filmmakers looking at areas such as film structure, storyboarding, direction, camera techniques, editing and sound and lighting.

Stephen Spencer runs the Nice Monster studio and, although he’s moved down to London now, he roped in Louis Hudson, Ian Ravenscroft, Marc Silk, The Audio Suite and possibly others from around here.

Only the first one is up so far. To make sure you don’t miss the rest, subscribe to First Light’s YouTube channel.

Links for 20 July 2010

Chris Unitt — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:15:23 +0000

Producers’ Forum, 21 July at the MAC
WIth Suzie Norton, Screen WM CEO, and her Senior Management team delivering a presentation on Screen WM’s 2010-11 strategy and the next phase of support for the West Midlands Film community
Animation Forum West Midlands
“Submissions for 2010’s Great Animation Challenge are now open”. Use one of the bits of audio provided to make an animation
My five tips for bands online | Mind over Matter
Useful stuff from Ian
The Perfect Balti
“One man’s search for Birmingham’s best Balti (and naan bread)”
BBC – Have Your Say: Which UK city would be most worthy of culture award?
A nice amount of support for Birmingham’s bid from the Have Your Say commenters. Given the general level of debate on that forum I’m not sure whether that’s a good endorsement or not…
Birmingham Post – CBSO celebrates a record season as audience numbers grow
“The CBSO has seen average attendances increase by 3.5 per cent in the past 12 months”
A year in the life of a touring Company « Birmingham Royal Ballet’s touring blog
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Chief Executive Christopher Barron writes about the past 12 months for the Company
Switchboard – World-class connections for the West Midlands
“Switchboard is a network of organisations from the screen, digital, media and music industries in the West Mildands”. One to watch. (Disclosure – I’ve been invited on this)
The New Optimists
“We asked scientists “what are you optimistic about?” This site and the book record their amazing answers”
Exclusive extract from local author John Dalton’s new book, Urban Nature Notebook « In Birmingham
“His new book is a collection of short accounts of the author’s encounters with urban nature as he travels around the city”

The flyering/postering issue

Chris Unitt — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:42:43 +0000

This is one for the promoters out there. And for anyone who gripes about not being able to find out what’s going on in this fair city (that’ll be most people then).

Ian Ravenscroft has a new blog and has used is to voice his annoyance at the lack of places available for trumpeting stuff that’s happening (in his case, the Popcorn Comedy nights at the Victoria):

So realistically, we’re left with flyering and postering. Which is fine. Well, unless you live in Birmingham that is. If you’ve tried to do it here, you’ll know it’s a nightmare. You can’t flyer, you can’t poster, and subsequently promoters of all events face the prospect of shutting down due to a lack of numbers.

Venues don’t want to cross-promote, understandably, but as a result, it looks to the average punter like there isn’t much going on in the city. And when I say ‘average punter’ I mean, someone who likes going out, but isn’t switched on to the whole social networking/blogging/RSS thing.

Hello there…

Ian Ravenscroft — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:47:43 +0000

You may have noticed a strange and unfamiliar name on your Created in Birmingham posts in recent weeks, so I think it’s about time I emerged from the shadows and said hello…

Hi! I’m Ian Ravenscroft and I’ve joined the CiB team to (hopefully) continue the blog’s sterling work in unearthing Birmingham’s artistic and creative gems.

I was created in Birmingham myself, I’m a former journalist, and I’m now a producer at Meshed Media working with current CiB editor Chris Unitt. I’m also a writer with comedy and animation collective Dice Productions and had a hand in founding and running Film Forum West Midlands too.

That’s me. So, if you see me out and about, do say hello. Or if you have any news, events, places or people you’d like to highlight on CiB, remember to be in touch!