The Cluck & Grunt project - short video

The following feature was filmed at The Spotlight Mini Farm.

Enjoy, DT

The cluck & grunt project

Spotlight Training and Media run an alternative education programme for 14-16 year olds who find it difficult to engage and learn in a normal school environment. During the programme with us the students learn in a variety of ways and become involved in several projects that benefit the environment and the local community. A group of year 10 students are just embarking on one such project, which has received funding from the Princes Trust, to build housing for animals and birds at the Spotlight Minifarm in Skelton. The project was visited by representatives of the Princes Trust, National Westminster Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland and our M.P. Ashok Kumar, all supporters of this alternative form of education. The students will learn valuable skills during this project as well as the opportunity to gain a recognised qualification that will help them progress into college or employment.

Any school or parent who thinks an individual could benefit from this programme should contact either Ged Kirby or Kevin Bowes on 01287 280004 for further information.

Impetus Environmental Trust

Spotlight Training and Media would like to thank

The Impetus Evironmental Trust for their support in the Skelton Mini Farm Project

New Projects From Spotlight Multimedia

Just a quick update to tell you about two new projects ongoing here at Spotlight Studio:

First up is animation guru Darren's latest collection of iClone works. If you've ever wanted to see Darren get his groove on whilst dressed as a bridesmaid, well now you can! And even despite this, a woman later falls in love with him on a romantic walk, and he even manages to find the time to host his own video blog update. A man of many talents then, and none of them on display here.



And now for something completely different, as Kevin continues his work on The Bunkhouse Project, interviewing and recording performances from a wealth of local country and western artists for an upcoming DVD release celebrating 40 years of The Bunkhouse country music club in Guisborough. Hit play on the youtube video below to see a couple of adverts jam-packed with clips of some of the live performances.

LJM.

See For Yourself

It's one thing to tell you about life on the mini-farm, but it's another thing entirely to actually be able to show you it.

But first, a brief backstory of bad weather and broken promises. Dun-dun-duhhh.

Originally given a few days off from the hustle and bustle of Spotlight thanks to convenience of an Easter holiday (religious or not, a couple of days off is nothing to be sniffed at), you can imagine my horror at being told to instead forget that and come in early (on a Friday no less) with the intent to head up to the mini-farm to film a health and safety training video.

Of course, it rained furiously and completely washed out that idea, and I was left with such workaday thrills as reorganizing the book shelf, re-designing all the "You Must Not Eat/Drink/Carry Mobile Phones/Have MP3 Players/Wear Hats/Wear Hoodies/Talk/Sleep/Have Fun" signs that loom ominously in any part of the studio that the Learning Place kids visit and trying to decipher a series of cryptic handwritten hieroglyphics that masquerade as Ged's horticulture notebook (actually written on a long, hot, sunny holiday abroad and very much under the unfluence which probably explains the illegiability of it all and the drawing of what appeard to be a pelican riding a lawnmower).

So with a day off not only recinded but spent on office busywork rather than as was intended, the following Monday became Take Two of Operation Health And Safety.

So of course, it rained then as well. But we went anyway. And forgot to take the higher quality microphones. We now have a bunch of footage that plays back mostly the roaring countryside winds, and occassionally some sage words of advice creep through the cracks. Well, they do when Ged can remember anything he's supposed to be talking about (I mean it's one thing to talk about the dangers of bamboo sticks and more specifically the havoc they can wreak when they get stuck in your eye but forgetting what a pole is called? *hint - it's called a "pole"* Thats pretty bad. Keep your non-bamboo stick-skewered eyes peeled to Dennis Norden's It'll Be Alright On The Night where this footage will no doubt eventually surface!)

Two days later and we were back again, this time filming footage of the kids as proof of their participation in learning about manual handling and health and safety hazzards on the farm (and indeed, the workplace in general). So of course, we set up the cameras around mid-day after an early morning spent setting up the various hazzards and going through the legalities of it all with the kids and as soon as we begin to film - rain.

Maybe it's just me but I think I'm cursed. I've not been to the mini-farm once yet when it hasn't been blisteringly cold, hellaciously windy, staggeringly rainy or unseasonably snowy. Rambunctious sunshine, will you never reveal yourself?

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So the point is, I spent a couple of days up at the mini-farm last week armed only with a DV camera and a pocketful of thoughts, and you, lucky blog-botherer, are the winner in all this as I opted to take just a couple of minutes to capture some of the animals on film and spent the arse-end of last week knocking together a short little video of it all to hopefully give you a more visual and audial (is that a word? It is now) idea of what it's really like up at Spotlight Mini-Farm. Enjoy.

LJM.

P.S. - If you want the full experience just turn all your heating off, sit between two giant fans and get someone to throw spurts of water and (where possible) snow at you whilst watching it. And put your feet in a bucket full of mud and small stones. And crack open a woodland-scented magic tree car air freshener or something similarly pongy for that truly outdoorsy experience.

P.P.S. - Ignore the font at the start, it's not particularly flashy but it took me ages just to work out how to implement it on Serif MoviePlus so be thankfull it's at least in Spotlight club colours!

25/03/2008 - The Dawning Of A New Era In The World Of Spotlight Mini Farm!

Well, not quite but you will presumably have noticed this shiny new entry into the ongoing chronicles of all that is life on the Spotlight Mini Farm, and about bloody time too since the last farm report was back on June 18th, 2007, some nine months ago.

Why the sudden spurt of life here at the blog? Well, the hectic Spotlight schedule has meant previous blogging bastions Darren and Tony are now far too busy drinking tea, smoking cigarettes and rocking out like the ghost of Hendrix to concern themselves with mucking in with the pigs, ducks, geese and so forth, and as the new boy it's fallen into my capable hands to pick up the pieces.

I've only been here since last Thursday and it was hectic enough that I needed four days off to recover (good thing Easter popped up then). Fast forward to today, just my second day at Spotlight and I've been thrown in at the deep end with my first trip up to the farm to meet the animals. Up in a mostly open field with the temperature at a chilly 4°C. It's been pretty windy too. Ah, excellent, it's also decided to snow.

Truth be told though, it was a pretty interesting trip. It's been years since I ventured up to an allotment of any sort (my Grandad has an allotment where he helps his mate Tony with his racing pigeons whilst also growing beetroot, cabbages and peas but I've long since past the age where the idea of mucking about in some soil or spending any decent amount of time with family members could be considered a fun afternoon out, preferring instead to sit in on blazing hot days watching Frasier re-runs, reading about long-forgotten 80's kids cartoons on Wikipedia and eating multipack bags of Space Raiders - that they've put single packs up from 10p to 15p is a crime against humanity).

But I digress.

Speaking of eating though, we went up at about noon which meant feeding time for the animals which was certainly something to see.

Jealousy runs rife amongst the geese it seems as I noticed one goose (lets call him "Sweet Stevie" for now) drop a perfectly fine French loaf after spying another goose (lets call him "Malice Mascarado" for clarity's sake) with a loaf of his own. It didn't matter that Mascardo's loaf was smaller, half-eaten and covered in a mixture of goose saliva and wet mud, Sweet Stevie had seen what he wanted and he helped himself. Having later spotted some ducks attempt to prevent some other ducks getting back into their pen, it's clear to see there's some kind of hierarchy running rife amongst out feathery friends.

The pigs meanwhile just fought and bickered with each other over who got the last slice of stale croissant. Just like lunchtime back at Spotlight really.

Bunkhouse filming part 2

A second round of filming for the Bunkhouse DVD took place last Monday. A tiring but enjoyable day, which saw another group of artists perform in front of our cameras.

The new group of VAP students are now settled in, and both year groups have just finished a short course on British Sign Language.