OUT140 Movies

I'm going to be running a workshop about OUT140 at booQfest, Northampton's festival with a literary bent, next week so I've been gathering up some of the 12 second films people made when we first launched OUT140 as a multimedia show on the Fusion screen in the Forum in January 2010. At the time, there was a website called 12seconds.tv which suggested that a movie equivalent of a tweet would last 12 seconds. The website no longer exists but I still love the idea of micro-movie-making and will show some of the films next week. Here is a selection.

                                    

A good life

On the bus back from Stansted with Sabrina and Janet from Opening Doors. Exotic holiday? No! A days training in quality assessing at the Holiday Inn! It was a tiring but well-organised day with lots of activities to get us thinking about what it means for people with learning disabilities to have a good life. 

Mystery Patients

It's Learning Disability Week and the local hospital are promoting the work they've done to make their services more accessible for people with learning disabilities. I worked with them to develop a team of Expert Patients and we recently had a day of Mystery Shopping. Today, I supported Dawn and Andrew to be interviewed on Radio Norfolk by Phil Daley.

Inside Out & Proud

Inside Out & Proud exhibition went up at the Castle Mall Shopping Centre yesterday as part of the Pride 5 celebrations. The photos taken by Antonella Muscat looked amazing. I was delighted that the local papers sent Denise Bradley down to take photos of us with the posters - I love her work too. There's an article and online gallery of her pics on the Norwich Evening News website.
Here's my favourite one :

Hello Shelly Teddy!

I have got a mascot! A giant bear called Shelly Teddy created by Rach Nobes from Pawz4play. Shelly Teddy had her debut at the RAF Marham Children's Centre birthday party, with Rach inside and Stevie and I outside blowing giant bubbles. Her next gig is the Pride Picnic on 27th July.

OUT140 at the Hand-in-Hand Festival

Sing with Pride choir performed a suite of OUT140 micro-songs at the Hand-in-Hand national LGBT choirs festival in London on Saturday. Here's a review from John Flinders, accompanist to the Pink Singers:

"We had a wonderful day and the concert was a feast of variety from massed choirs to fledgling groups; in a way every performance was a high point, but for me, and for several of the people that I've talked to, one of the real standout moments was your OUT140 Suite - an inspired way of sourcing a text for a new work, a succinct, interesting and very singable musical realisation, and a witty and passionate performance. A wonderfully imaginative and creative idea, which was both incredibly personal to those who contributed texts, and yet spoke to us all and moved us, too. Thank you for sharing it with us."

Thanks to Kathleen from the Fourth Choir for the pic.

Sisters.....

Kirsty, the Pride Treasurer and I went to the Norfolk Show today to take part in the Parade of Community Champions. It was also an opportunity for me to see Eloise's wonderful paintings on the Young Carers' stand. Bumped into fellow community champ, the singer, dancer, drummer and activist Anna Mudeka. Grabbed this sweet pic of us with the rainbow flag. "Shelly, we look like twins" said the charming Ms Mudeka...

Young Carers

Jo from the Young Carers asked me whether I could create 4 pop-up pictures of young people with different caring responsibilities for their stand in the County Council tent at the Norfolk Show. I could make them however I wanted - photographs, clipart, paintings. The idea is young people visiting the stand will throw counters into a dish in front of the picture that best represents their situation. I decided to commission international artist Eloise O'Hare to work with me on the project and spent several days in her garden enjoying masterclass art lessons, helping her paint in blocks of colour and using the jigsaw and sanding. Here's a pic of a young carer responsible for managing her dad's medication. She looks sweet, strong & very capable. Perfect.

IDAHO Day Quiz

17th May is IDAHO Day - International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia - and we celebrated in Norwich with an international quiz raising money for the Sing with Pride choir. I was quizmaster and Stevie prepared a wonderful bread and cheese supper for over 50 people. We raised £212 - here's a sweet pic of us handing over a 'giant' cheque to treasurer Ruth.

Carnival Arts

I went on some fabulous free courses in April run by NORCA celebrating the Carnival Archive Project. I got to learn about filming oral history, developing oral histories as stage plays (very useful for my plans for OUT140!) and even got to make a rainbow bus using felting!

Creative Writing Class at the Norwich Arts Centre

I really enjoyed the "Getting Started in Creative Writing" course at the Norwich Arts Centre led by Claire Sharland. It was definitely an area of my work I would like to develop. I do enjoy writing the scripts for my voice-overs but most of my film-work is factual-based so it was fun to use a bit more imagination. I was pleased to see Claire's exercises sparking all sorts of ideas for characters and plots and settings. Maybe I could do drama afterall......

Evolving

"Evolving: Young Trans People Tell their Stories", a set of films I made with some amazing young filmmakers from MAP is showing at Cinema City on Monday evening, supporting the documentary "What Katy Did". It is guaranteed to make you cry/laugh/feel proud. It's a rare opportunity to see the films on the big screen - the young people are very precious about their production and it hasn't been released on DVD. Please support if you can. Some of the ticket money will go to the Evolve group.

Norwich Rising

We had an AMAZING time at Norwich Rising and got some wonderful press.

I made a trailer for the event on my iPhone that has had over 5,000 views! It was mentioned in the Guardian: “The idea of dancing to stop violence has understandably attracted naysayers, even among committed supporters, but two videos, among hundreds, sum up how Ensler’s idea inspires campaigners. The first is the one that launched the new anthem written and produced by Grammy-award-winning Tena Clark, Break the Chain, with a video choreographed by Debbie Allen, who went on to make her own accompanying “how to” dance video. The second is one produced by campaigners in Norwich. Without the involvement of the sort of Hollywood A-listers – Robert Redford, Jane Fonda – usually associated with Ensler, it’s still hugely effective. Local organisers were keen to show that the campaign is supported by men and boys as well as women.” Our trailer is embedded into the online article.

Hundreds of people came to the Forum and danced. We took this big team pic at the end when loads had already gone.

I had some sweet feedback from Anne from NIA Norfolk who led the dancing: "Brilliant job Shell - you should feel very proud of yourself- an amazing feat of collaboration and seemingly effortless organisation!" It was great doing such a wonderful event and it only lasting an hour - much easier than organising Norwich Pride! Here's a great pic of me and Amrita from Norwich Mind taken by Ann Nicholls from Look, See, Click!

Portrait of an Artist as a Gay Man

I've been in Brighton Filming the launch of Vince's B.Right.On Festival. There were two events today - a launch of the festival at City Hall at 3pm and a launch of Vince's exhibition BANNED in the library at 7pm. The library event was stunning. There was so many people and Vince's idea to paint 78 people with the names of countries where homosexuality is banned was genius. Over 100 people joined in so there was some doubles but very effective and very moving. Here's a pic Sam Collins took of me filming some of Vince's art. 

One Billion Rising

Have you heard about One Billion Rising? It's a global day of action on 14th February 2013 to inspire 1 billion women and girls, and the people who love them, to dance to demand an end to violence against all women and girls. Why 1 billion? Because the UN estimates that one in three women on earth (1 billion women) will be raped or sexually assaulted in her lifetime.

Here in Norwich, we're aiming to inspire 20,000 women and girls (approximately one in three women who live in the city) and men and boys to dance on 14th February. It's less than 30 days away so the pressure is on but we are getting people on board every day and we're marketing this virally through social media and word-of-mouth e.g. women are going to their dance tutors and spreading the word through their dance classes. The Chief Fire Officer emailed his staff to ask them to dance with him which was pretty cool. We are in touch with women dancing all over the world via Twitter and Facebook which is really exciting. There is a campaign dance that people are learning across the globe. You can watch it here: www.norwichrising.wordpress.com/dance. We're encouraging people to get together with friends and colleagues and learn the dance and we have set up some weekly rehearsals (6pm at the Garage on Thursdays; 10am at the Forum on Sundays) where people can meet up with others.

We're going to have a mass dance outside the Forum in Norwich at 1pm on 14th February and we are encouraging people to dance with us there or wherever they are and in whatever way they can. I'm going to be making a film about Norwich Rising and would love you to send me clips of you dancing to include in the movie. Future Radio 107.8fm (www.futureradio.co.uk/listenlive) will be playing the Campaign song so people can dance with us in their homes, schools, workplaces etc

Please spread the word.

B.Right.On Festival

I have been commissioned by Vince Laws to film the opening events of his B.Right.On Festival in Brighton on 1st February 2013. I'm looking forward to it. I really enjoy working in different parts of the country and I really enjoy working with Vince. He's a bit of a creative dynamo at the mo - his plan to have an exhibition in Brighton has rapidly evolved into a full-on festival with loads of amazing stuff happening throughout the month with all sorts of choirs, artists and activists. It's going to be a joy to make a movie that will promote the festival and capture the magic of Vince's work. It's also another opportunity for OUT140 to spread its wings and fly - Vince will be having speech bubbles of the stories in the library and selling our dinky books. I can't wait for the new OUT140 stories that will come in. Vince was interviewed on Out in Brighton radio show this week. I'm impressed by the podomatic website they use for their podcasts - am thinking making podcasts might be something I should explore.....

Natalie's 30th Birthday

I filmed Natalie Drury's 30th Birthday Party in the summer which was a great pleasure. I first met Natalie and her mum in 2007 when I filmed them for a Carers Assessments DVD. They are a fab family, very passionate about Nat and her independence and her right to a full and happy life. I filmed them again earlier in the year for the Journeys DVD, commissioned by the UEA Nursing School to raise awareness of the needs of patients with learning disabilities. That's when Pauline asked me if I did birthdays too. The party was fantastic - every carer since Natalie was a small child was invited, as well as her big extended family. I captured as much of the action as I could - Pauline's emotional speech, the amazing malteser cake arriving, the singer entertaining everyone on guitar. I also interviewed as many people as possible to find out what makes Natalie so special.....her smile, her family, her personality, her love of chocolate! We uploaded the film to YouTube and facebook so people could watch it online and Natalie has ordered extra copies of the DVD for Christmas presents.

Queer Art Club

I have set up a new group called Queer Art Club with a fantastic artist called Eloise O'Hare. We have both been previous Art Leaders for Norwich Pride. We want to form a club so that artists can meet all year round to share ideas & skills, visit exhibitions, have workshops and talks etc. Our aims are "to make art, make a living and make Norwich Pride amazing". We have been working with Edith Karnitsch from Terra Network to develop a website using WordPress. Edith has been brilliant - very patient with us. 

Here's what we've done so far: www.queerartclub.org.uk. There's a long way to go but what's been interesting is how our ideas about the club have developed as we've worked with Edith to create the website. For example, we want helping artists "to make a living" to be an important focus of our work - part of the reason Eloise couldn't continue as the Arts Leader is that she needs to focus on getting paid for her art. Now I have always been very proud that I have made a sustainable living from my filmmaking but times are hard - with the recession and cuts in government funding, there isn't the same amount of work around that I was used to for my first 10 years in business (during a Labour government). I've never really had to think about marketing myself before - each film advertised the next. Now, film feels like such a luxury compared to saving front-line services. I have to convince people what a vital form of communication it is - and worth paying for.

So how can Queer Art Club help me? Well, there's going to be sections on "Jobs" where people can advertise Jobs they've got available so some interesting bits of work might come up there. We'll also have a "Wanted/Offered" section for equipment so I'm hoping that will help with my clear-out now I have moved from the Tea Lounge. I'm looking forward to picking up new skills from the workshops we'll organise and inspiration from the exhibitions we'll attend. Most of all though, I'm excited about working with more and more artists - Eloise has done some wonderful illustrations for my films; Joe Ballard has been brilliant doing drama and Kimberley Moore has been amazing making music. These are the things that will give Shelly Telly projects "extra value" and make them extra special - well worth investing in.....

Bye Bye Tea Lounge!

It's the end of an era! I have give up my office at the Tea Lounge. In these times of austerity, I have to keep my running costs low. I've also got a huge garage in my new house so plenty of storage space for all the props and costumes and stationery I have amassed across the years! I do want to do a massive clear-out too though so watch this space if you want to pick up some bargains. I will miss Dina and Annemarie and sitting in the kitchen catching up on all the gossip. We marked the occasion, as I always do, with a chocolate cake - this time iced with the word "Bye". Previous cakes have included ACTION, PRIDE, ART, OUT140 and various project names. Don't worry Action Crew - I will continue the proud tradition of starting each new project with a chocolate cake!

Sing with Pride, the Pride choir, were in the paper. This week we headed off to Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes for the pre-Launch of LGBT History Month. We were amazing! I was amazed! We've never sung so well - congratulations to everyone, particularly our Musical Director Mary Lovett who worked really hard to get a great performance out of us. I took the photo of the choir throwing their scarves in the air. I used a really fast shutter speed and took loads. I played with the pics to create this little movie.....