West Country IMC Video Projects
In the west country, the main video group is the Real2Reel Video Activist Collective, members of which helped to set up westcountry indymedia....
| REAL2REEL | SCREENING | ONLINE VIDEO | OFFLINE VIDEO | COPYRIGHT | Page last updated: September 12, 2004 |
R | snailMAIL PO Box 77, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 5ZJ, UK |
AIMS: We aim to make videos that are informative, entertaining, inspiring and empowering. Our hope is to promote alternatives and ideas that facilitate positive change. However, we also recognise that video activism has two roles; not only to attempt fill the gap often left by the mainstream in terms of covering actvist events, but additionally document ing events so that the footage may be used as evidence if required. We welcome being invited to film events but encourage others to take control of their own representation. We are also happy to provide training and workshops.
NETWORKING: Real2Reel is part of the blooming alternative media movement and works within an informal network of video activists that is rapidly growing around the world. To find out more about the activists and politically conscious artists that are using video to support social, economic and environmental justice campaigns, check out the UK IMC video projects pages. Real2Reel regularly contributes to Indymedia UK, is part of the IMC UK Video group and also works with other collectives such as Undercurrents.
CONTENT: Due to our location and history, much of our output has been about campaigns against genetically engineered crops. Other subjects covered have included the campaigns against the UK's nuclear weapons program and anti-war activities. Mostly our films are events based (ie. reactive) shorts but we aim to produce more indepth issue based films. Recently we have been working on a retrospective of the last seven years of anti-GM campaigning but have experienced major difficulties after having equipement stolen. The theft has upset our plans and resulted in a six month period with no new content produced.
SCREENING: Obviously we make these video to be watched so if you wish to screen our videos thats great. Our films, or collaborative projects, have been screened at the BeyondTV and Brief Encounters film festivals as well as public and activist screenings around the country. If you are interesting in arranging a screenings; check out these guides from; VAN, ENR, and from Indymedia. Keep reading to find out how to get hold of our films.
ONLINE: Almost all of our videos are available online. Preview quality low bandwidth versions (modem friendly), can be found on Indymedia. You can locate our Indymedia contributions by doing a search for posts with the author 'R2R'.
We have choosen to use MPEG1 at present for the bulk of our distribution as this format can be used to make VCDs which are compatible with most DVD players. These MPEG versions are available to download from www.ngvison.org and also from our FTP site provided by Commedia. You can access our FTP site with a FTP client, connecting to the IP address 195.10.228.34 with the username realvids and the password r3alvids.
Higher quality versions of our work are also available online for people doing screenings or requiring editable footage. These are compressed using the VP3 codec, and placed on the V2V Network. To download, you will need a peer2peer filesharing client that supports ed2k, magnet, or torrent (we recommend BitTorrent). You will need a fast computer and all the relevent codecs to plays these files correctly.
Occasionally we also upload clips to Lulop Video if we think we have something the mainstream media might want to buy. We may also upload unedited clips to the V2V Network when we have something that other people might want to incorporate into their own work (for example the Bush statue being pulled down in Trafalgar square). We have also started to contribute to the moving image archive on archive.org
| Some R2R videos online: This is not a comprehensive list of the videos we have produced or made available online, please check Indymedia and V2V or contact us to find out about our latest videos. | Indymedia HTTP | V2V P2P | COMMEDIA FTP | ||
| Rampart Street - 9 mins This video was quickly thrown together for a presentation about social centres for the European Creative Forum. This two part video covers a number of events that took place at the Rampart during it's first few months. Find out more about the Rampart - www.rampart.co.nr | .avi | |||
| London Action Resource Centre - 2 mins A quick film about the London Action Resource Centre which was made for an evening of films, presentations and discussion about reclaiming space. | 16mb .MPEG1 | |||
| Indefensible - 5 mins Covering several days of protests againt the DSEi arms fare held in Londons Docklands, this collabrative video was produced by the Indymedia UK video group and contains Real2Reel footage including the excel blockade, and the boat action. | ||||
| Super Trooper - 3 mins The cameras are out again in force as the wombles top the bill at the ex-Grand Banks, another occupied social centre (now evicted). | .wmv .rm | |||
| Big Brother - 2 mins The police seem to have an unhealthy interest in the activities of the Wombles and the comings and goings at their (now evicted) occupied social centre at 93 Fortess Rd, Kentish Town. | .mpg | |||
| Chalk Farm - 2 mins A squatted shop front provides the venue for a week long alternative art exhibtion about big oil and climate change. | ||||
| Buy Nothing Day - 1 min A short video reminder for Buy Nothing Day which takes place in November. The filming took place in Plymouth a couple of years ago. | .rm | |||
| Love Bomb - 3 min Valentines days gets a face lift at Eros as Venus explodes her love bomb in Londons busy Picadilly. | .rm | |||
| The trials and tribulations of A sequal to the Pink Castle story. Four people are arrested while trying to stop a farmer from planting genetically modfied maize. Although they are aquitted when they go to court, the prosecution appeals and the high court orders a 'retrial' | .rm | 90mb VP3 .MOV | pending | |
| Bayer Noise - 5 mins A noise demo by anti-GM protesters is thwarted by police abusing Section 14 of the Public Order Act. This video explains illustrates the way the police unlawfully deny us our rights. | ..rm | 100mb VP3 .MOV | 52mb .MPEG1 | |
 | Tractors & Trollies - 4'45" Farmers, campaigners and consumers travelled from all over the UK to converge on London on the 13th October to express their opposition to the governments plans to allow the commerciallisation of genetically modified crops. | .MOV . RM | 140mb VP3 .AVI | 49mb .MPEG1 | |
| No Allianz For Bayer GM On 14th October, the offices of Allianz in London recieved a visit from anti-GM campaigns. Alliaz is the major shareholder of Bayer, the main company pushing for commercialisation of GM crops in the UK. | .wmv | 88mb VP3 .AVI | 31mb .MPEG1 | |
| Sky Roma Demo A rather amusing video of a demo held outside the Sky Studio in Rome on the 3rd October and attended by a media activists (and their footballs) from around europe and beyond. | .MOV | 155mb VP3 .AVI | 49mb MPEG1 | |
| Modified Wheat Protesters in the UK remove an trial site of experimental wheat to try to disrupt research and commercialisation of genetically modified crops. These activists aren't shy about what they are doing and provide interviews while they pull. | ..rm ..mov .wmv | 100mb VP3 .AVI | 48mb .MPEG1 | |
| Independence FROM America An alternative 4th of July celebration. The historic Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, UK, hosts an unholy wedding between Bush and Blair to the unease of all else present. | DIVX | 150mb VP3 .AVI | 60mb .MPEG1 | |
 | Bayer Blockade 2003 Another anti-GM action, in which a handful of protesters close to Bayers chemical plant in cambridge during a five hour blockade. This video was produced for a Direct Action training session. | missing | 85mb .MPEG1 | ||
 | GM Debate? - 25 minutes Our longest film to date.Dozens of people who attended the governments public consultation events on GM foods speaking out about what they thought of the process. Available to download as screenable PAL MPEG1 from archive.org | various | |||
 | Troubled Times April 2003. When censorship struck in Totnes, Totnes struck back with its own newspaper. This short video tells the tale of the Trouble Times to the sound track of David Rovics. | missing | 31mb .MPEG1 | ||
 | Minstry of D'Fence This video will get you cheering in a whistle stop weapons inspection at USAF Fairford in the UK, one of the few airbases in the world from which US B52s can operate and used for daily bombing of Iraqi civilians. | .mov | 62mb .MPEG1 | ||
 | Soup Kitchen A protest in London at the introduction of changes to Asylum law. January 2003 | mpeg4 | 46mb .MPEG1 | ||
 | Scrap Trident Plymouth people demonstrate against refurbishment of a Trident nuclear submarine. | .rm | mb .MPEG1 | ||
 | Farmers and the GM Maze A 10 minute mini documentary about GM Maize variety Chardon LL. Made especially for dairy farmers. | mpeg4 | |||
 | Anti-biotic resistance is fertile / Hilton August 2002. When it is revealed that an illegal genetically modified organism has been unlawfully released into the countryside local people took direct action in an attempt to remove the threat. | mpeg4 | 74mb .MPEG1 | ||
 | Stop Live Exports This quick edit of historic footage taken by one of the collective in 1995, was made in response to the resumption of exports of live animals in Dover in 2002. | various | 31mb .MPEG1 | ||
 | Convoy / Messages to DEFRA The first vido made by the group that became Real2Reel. Anti-GM campaigns journey to London from all over the UK to dump bags of trashed GM crops at the door steps to DEFRA. | .DivX | 93mb .MPEG1 | ||
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Konspire2B is a pioneering new multiplatform peer2peer technology which we think may have massive potential for online video publishing. It's a bit experimental at present but you can download the client software and check out the channels we have set up. Email us for details and reciever keys.
OFFLINE: If you don't have access to broadband or can't be arsed to download stuff yourself, you will be pleased to know that we also produce video CDROMs, VCD and occasional DVDs, or even VHS. These can be obtained directly from us, or, if there is enough interest, we may start distributing via CultureShop (www.cultureshop.org)
We will require payment to cover the costs of the CD burner, blank media, labels, spoilage, cases, packaging, postage etc. We hope to sort out a bank account real soon but in the mean time we are sharing the Lifecycles bank account so you can make cheques payable to 'Lifecycles'
| Real2Reel Volume 1 is a CVD containing a selection of the videos produced during the our first year of making videos - July 2002 to July 2003. | |
| The videos are supplied on a PAL MPEG1 VCD which should play in most DVD players and the majority of computers. The disks also contain radio shows (buynothing day, drive time, independence) and PDF resources from some of the actions shown - leaflets, booklets etc. Obviously this extra content can only be accessed using a computer. Other formats may be available on request. |
| Real2Reel Volume 2 should be ready by Oct 2004. Content not yet fully confirmed. | |
| We should have fingured out how to produce DVDs by the time volume 2 is ready. We will however continue to supply VCD or SVCD as a prefered format as they are cheaper and less elitist. The compilation will also contain additional contect including; DSEi radio, Anti-war Radio, GM FM!, and various PDF resources from some of the actions shown - leaflets, booklets etc. Obviously this extra content will only be accessable using a computer with the appropriate software installed. |
COPYRIGHT: All our content, unless otherwise stated, is made available under the Creative Commons NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. . This basically means that you can copy and distribute our work freely as long as there is no profit involved. If you use our work, the licence terms must persist and, if we wish, you should allow us to use your work under similar conditions. Credit for our work is appreciated but not essential. Licenses for commercial use or broadcast can be negotiated (ask for our fee card).
MONEY: Sometime we sell our footage or stills to the mainstream news services and any resulting fees/royalties received are feed back into the project to pay for travel, expenses, tape stock, blank media, equipment etc. Real2Reel is a not-for-profit organisation and does not employ anyone. The people involved volunteer their time and efforts for free (with the exception of specifically funded 'big' projects which may occasionally provide somebody with subsistance level living expences).
DONATIONS: Needless to say, we welcome funding or donations, both financial or equipment. Computers, large hard drives, microphones, used DV tapes, lenses, filters, tripods, batteries, additional cameras etc would all find a good home either with us or with our associates, Lifecycles, Westcountry IMC, or Totnes Genetix Group.
EQUIPMENT: Real2Reel has had a bad year. We've suffered a lot from the theft of our Sony TRV900E 3CCD miniDV camera, our telephoto and zoom lenses, microphones and our minidisk recorder. Appeals for funds to replace the equipment bought in under 10% of the amount needed and it left us feeling disillusioned. However, having dipped into our personal pockets, we are now pretty much back on track.
SOFTWARE:: Saddly we have not been impressed by the provision for video editting under Linux so we have stuck with Micro$oft Windoze. We cut our teeth with Adobe Premier but got fed up with it crashing so we briefly flirted with Avid DV Express before settling down with Sonic Foundry (now Sony) Vegas which is stable and well featured. We use BBMPEG or TMPEGenc to encode mpeg1 and also find VirtualDub indispensible. While we're recommending software, Media Player Classic and VideoLanClient are bloody great.
WC IMC, 03.12.2003 12:02
