BYFA bandageddon event

Today I have been helping out with the British Youth Film Academy Bandegeddon event, a battle of the bands event if you will. The day started with arriving early so that we could first have a stand-up meeting as to what was required for the day, and then began prepping the area so that it was clean and clear of any un-wanted items/ mess. The next task was positioning the cameras that we would be using, to everyones delight. Well everybody on the camera side of things anyway, we had a jib to play around with to get some interesting angles of the event. Unfortunatley I was not tasked with jib operation, which I was a bit gutted about, but still had a good time at the event. After much re-positioning of my camera and getting some tapes and log sheets, we were ready for our presenters to start the event.

It is true that time flies when your having fun, which is exactly what happened today, the music acts were taking next to no time setting up between performances, I think this was probably more down to how highly organized the events planning was than anything. Inbetween the flurry of tape changes and framing for band members reactions to the judges comments, I got to listen to some varied and interesting acts. Two of which I really enjoyed Roz Bruce an alternative rock singer/ musician who I have to say as well as having an amazing voice, had the image, and was kind of cute. The second stand out perfromance for me went to the competition winners Already Gone a rock band from stoke.

After the trophy presentation and one last performance from the winners, everything was packed away and I got to thinking about how successful the day had been, but more importantly how professional I felt. I hadn’t really done much just turned up and pointed a camera at the relevant place. Maybe it was the BYFA hoodies that we wore, they really made you feel part of a group and hopefully any of the non-byfa people at the event got the right impression that the byfa is a professional video producer. I can not speak highly enough of it I really can’t, my experiences from working with them has been nothing but positive and very enjoyable whether its climbing a hill with equipment, or just pulling tape of an extension cable the BYFA will always be a part of me, and for that I thank them for giving me these fantastic opportunities.

If you ever get the chance to work with them, I encourage you to grab it with two hands and get stuck in, you will meet fantastic people, learn new filming making skills, develop as a person and after all that you will have a made a film product which you can watch at a later date whether that be premier or dvd and be proud of what you have helped create.