The first in our proposed series is called Respecting Diversity: Sexual Orientation and consists of 4 powerful training films that are based on real-life situations. Each scenario explores the differences between direct and in-direct discrimination and is made in a distinct style which is rarely seen in training videos. The videos run for a total of 40 minutes and are broken into sections to encourage course participants to discuss the situations in depth and identify solutions to the issues raised.

The comprehensive programme provides organisations with all the tools needed to deliver high quality diversity training in-house. The trainer and instructor’s guide was developed by leaders in the field of equality and diversity training and includes preparation notes, participant worksheets, handouts, glossary and details of relevant legislation such as the Equality Act 2010. For full information and to see sample training materials, click here to visit the Respecting Diversity website.

Over 160 residents turned out to celebrate the 7th annual Community Spirit Awards at the Park Inn Palace Hotel in Southend-on-Sea. Olympic Swimmer Mark Foster was the special guest who gave an inspiring speech before awards were handed to residents who made a big difference.

South Anglia chose our Events and Conferences package that included filming the event on 2 cameras and editing into a 5 minute highlights sequence for their website.

Thank you so much for the fantastic video, we are so pleased with the result and our residents will be too! Your crew did a fantastic job at our Awards Ceremony, and you did an amazing job of putting it all together for us so quickly and at short notice. The result is outstanding, it’s so clear and is better than we could of hoped for. We look forward to working with you again soon!

Nicola Simpson, Resident Involvement Officer

See the video here.

If you have a special conference or event that you want expertly captured, condensed and formatted to share with your team, customers or the world – ask about our cost effective conference and event packages.

Read their article here in the Bucks Free Press.

If this sparks some interest for you, please call us to find out how our filmmaking projects can have a positive impact in your community. We mentor people through the entire filmmaking process – whether it’s a drama, documentary or animation.

We lead  workshops to cover script development, storyboarding, camera and sound techniques, filming, video editing, music, graphic design and DVD authoring.

Everyone involved were taught on all aspects of filmmaking, including scriptwriting, interviewing skills, technical camera and sound recording workshops and video editing.

The young filmmakers now call themselves CANDO Productions (an abbreviation of Castlefield AND Oakridge) and presented their film to a large audience that included residents, community groups, police and local council representatives. It was a fantastic event and the film was very well received – especially when most media coverage of the area is negative. Although the film explored all aspects of community life – the filmmakers decided to focus on the postive aspects by showcasing the hard work of local people to improve life for everybody.

Copies of the film are available on DVD by contacting the Residents Action Group – contact details are within the film or you can contact Cliff Productions on 0845 094 9014.

Youth Animation Workshops

Cliff Productions and Community Impact Bucks are working in partnership to deliver a unique opportunity for disadvantaged young people in Buckinghamshire.

ANIM8 will provide up 40 young people the chance to create a short animation based on the values of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Through a series of fun, interactive workshops; participants will learn how to storyboard their ideas, create characters, build sets and capture their animation using stop motion techniques.  

Workshops will be held in November 2011 and offered to targeted groups of young people for who opportunities like this are rare; such as children in care, young carers, young people living in areas of deprivation and young people with disabilities.  The i-Van will be used as a production studio in conjunction with local schools and this will enable us to host them in all four districts of the county. Workshops will be free of charge to participants.

The initiative is a new strand of the county-wide Short Cuts Film Festival, to encourage, support and showcase films made by Children & Young People in Buckinghamshire. The animations will have a special screening at the festival in March 2012; where the audience will vote for one film to win a prize and trophy for the winning team.

I was so impressed with the standard. They were confident, professional and handled a streeful situation really well. It was a breath of fresh air and made me appreciate how useful this course is to the future generations of wealth creators. I wish I had their courage and determination at such a young age!

As a company we offer short-term work placements to students from schools and colleges throughout Buckinghamshire. For more information on the academy visit their website.

Over a period of 3 days; young people felt empowered to share their views and opinions about provisions for young people, Island life and concerns about moving to the mainland.

The footage was edited on our mainland edit suite; and the results helped to inform and influence the youth service plans for the next 3 years.

Simon, Ryan and Joes recorded their remarkable journey and when our edit suite quietens down, we’ll cut together and share the behind the scene’s documentary here.

In the meantime, watch and listen to what Helen had to say about the video diary room and the excellent service she received from Cliff Productions.

‘The story so far…’ showcases the development of Dorney Lake – the county’s host venue for the sprint canoing, sporting achievements and preparations at Stoke Mandeville Stadium and cultural events. It features our very own Olympic medalist Adrian Moorhouse, rising canoing star Rachel Crowthorn and local school children at Dorney School to add a personal element to the production.

In true Cliff Productions style, we exercised our core strenghts and pulled out all the stops to make a compelling film, in a short space of time with a modest budget. Our flexibility in being able to film several events on different days, editing during the production phase to meet the deadline and our eye for a great story helped to make the production a big success.

Moments after we completed the draft cut, the voice-over from Adrian Moorhouse was written, recorded and synchronised with the picture to make the end result.

Next challenge was to fill gaps in the commentary with meaningful visuals – thankfully, our archive footage of countless live events captured in Buckinghamshire over the last decade came in very useful.

The film opened the prestigeous business conference – GO!, held on the 20th April at Aylesbury’s landmark Waterside Theatre to an audience of business leaders, sporting legends and games sponsors. Feedback was exceptional.

For those of you interested in the technical side; it was shot on High Definition, captured on Compact Flash cards (which enabled a very swift post-production turnaround) and Sony HDV tapes. The raw footage was then encoded to Apple’s Pro Res format at 1920 x 1080 and 2 versions were output, both in Standard and High Definition.

One week before the launch party, Airspace – the video diary room, was situated just beside the lifelike statue of Ronnie Barker, beside the entrance to this stunning new venue.

Everyone was asked for feedback on their first impression of the building and the difference it will make to their town. Over 60 people shared their thoughts and the results were projected onto a massive 60ft screen as part of the opening festivities.