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The Lifesavers won a 4-star award and a KPM Music Award at BIAFF
2008
Making of The Lifesavers
 Perth Camcorder Club have made a few films for different charities
in our area and now the charities come to us.
In 2007 we were approached by the Committees of Ship/Splash two related
parent-led charities for children with special needs. Ship organises weekly
youth clubs for different ages and Splash organises day outings for the children
during school holidays. They wanted to tell the story of their organisation
to schools and other groups in the area, e.g. rotary clubs for the purpose
of attracting volunteers and donations.
We required the charities to get written permission from the parents of all
the children involved in the
film.1 |
 Three members, David Cowie, Jim McNeill and myself,
spent three evenings at their premises filming the youth clubs. The children
were very natural and seemed unaware of the cameras. On two evenings groups
went down to the adjacent park and gave us an opportunity to film in a different
location.
It was more difficult to film the outings as they usually went to places
like swimming pools, zoos and ball parks where many other children would
be milling about. Due to the strict rules about filming children1 we felt
that we should avoid such venues. We opted to film a barbecue and sponsored
walk in Quarrymill, a wooded walk just outside Perth. |
  Phil Walker and I arrived
at the departure point promptly at 9.30 a.m. - Jim went to the arrival point.
It was pouring rain! The children were kept in the play rooms until the weather
cleared, when they had the barbecue outside in their play area.
The buses then departed for Quarrymill and Jim and Phil did get some good
shots there, though they had to keep running ahead of the groups.
The interviews were done in the charities' premises on a separate evening.
We have a large stand over which we draped some curtain material. (We learned
a lesson that night - material should be kept rolled and not folded!) Bill
Smollet is our lighting man and he set up the lights. We had the usual:
three front lights and a back light. (We have good lights bought with a lottery
grant). |
| Jim McNeill, our sound expert was using a Rode NTG-2 microphone
and he detected an annoying hum! After a great deal of changing plugs, covering
the dimmer box, etc. we managed to proceed.
 David and Jim were on camera and I directed the interviews.
I had agreed a general structure of the commentary with Jackie, the spokeswoman,
in order that the story would flow. We both gave the two young volunteers
an idea of what we wanted but in all cases the words were not scripted and
were spontaneous.
That left the editing - I tried to pick out shots which showed that the children
were happy and were well cared for by a loving group and to relate the pictures
to the commentary, e.g. when Jackie mentioned the group leaders, scenes with
the group leaders were included.
The committees of the two charities were given a draft of the final DVD and
I am pleased to say that they did not want any changes to be made. |
We all enjoyed making this film which gave us an insight into the voluntary
work being done for these delightful children and their parents.
- Dorothy Borrie (Perth Camcorder Club)
| 1 |
There is no law in the United Kingdom restricting the filming of children,
or anyone else, in a public place. The subject has become sensitive in recent
years because of concern about paedophiles. It is sensible to err on the
side of caution, as Perth Camcorder Club has done, and obtain permissions
from the parents or guardians of any children in your film. In many properties
owned by local authorities, including schools and sports arenas, there may
be special restrictions on filming children. In general if anyone - child
or adult - is featured in your film, as opposed to appearing in the background
of a shot, it is sensible to obtain their permission to take and use the
shot.
There are some restrictions on how children may be presented on a website,
mainly a matter of not using sexually provocative poses or inappropriate
nudity. There is no law forbidding the naming of children who appear on a
website but this restriction is often required by parents and others acting
in loco parentis. Dorothy Borrie kindly obtained permission for the use of
the pictures presented here. -Editor |
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