week 1

week 2

week 3

The first talk in the series about hedge schools was in some way a call out to people to engage with this new space and process that had been created, a statement of the need for a new radical political education. Pass this on to people and come down for the last few recordings.
–

Fin Dwyer gives the second of the 5 Wednesdays talks. He looks at the Land League which, from 1879 to 1882 spurred on by An Gorta Beag in 1879 sounded the death knell for landlordism.

Patrick Bresnihan gives the first of the 5 Wednesdays lecture series telling the story of the hedge schools. Originating in the reaction to the penal laws the network of hedge schools had up to 400,000 pupils enrolled in 18th Century Ireland and the hedge school masters taught latin, greek as well as Irish culture and learning. Patrick talks about how the creation of spaces for learning combined with enlightenment texts such as Tom Paines Rights of Man provided a base for the United Irishmen to work in during the 1790′s.

Above is the 1 hr 15 minute video of Fin Dwyer delivering the 2nd of the 5 Wednesdays talk series.The entertaining and informative series is a partnership between Occupy University, DCTV and the Ireland Institute and is filmed live every week in May at the ireland Institute in Pearse Street.

Read further for information on how the series is made. Click for More

The 5 Wednesdays series is filmed each week by a crew of 4 using a mobile studio system , the NewTek Tricaster which belongs to NearTV. There are three cameras on tripods which feed their video back into a Tricaster where it can be mixed. One camera is to the side of the speakers and films the audience while the other cameras give an establishing shot of the room from the rear and closer shots of the speaker.

The series is all to be shot in the Ireland Institute at 27 Pearse Street but episodes 2 and 5 are in the upstairs rooms while episodes 1, 3 and 4 are in the theatre space at the back of the Institute. In the theatre space all audio goes through the PA system – two lapel mikes and a handheld mike on radio transmitters are then picked up by portable receivers plugged into the standard theatre desk. This sound is then mixed and a single feed is taken into the tricaster. Lighting is from the overhead theatre racks. In episode 1 this was used not only to spotlight the speaker (Patrick Bresnihan) and chair (Helena Sheehan) but also the audience allowing contributors to be picked out clearly. One minor issue that occured was the lighting had been set for seated contributors only – which caused difficulty when one contributor stood.

The second episode was shot in two rooms upstairs in the original house. Lighting on tripods was brought in and the house lights were left on. The sound was this time plugged directly into the Tricaster system and the talk was given without amplification in the room. Again a camera was operated from just to the side of the speakers but the much tighter space made it more difficult to pick out single shots of audience contributors.

For the second talk Fin used a powerpoint of images of the key characters in his talk. This was converted from an Open Office Impress file to JPGs for each slide. These were then imported into the Tricaster and were mixed into the output during the talk. The slides were not fixed for Aspect ratio so they were displayed with a mix of backgrounds.

Set up of the system in each location takes about 2 hours and production has had a crew of 4 (counting door and mike). The talks take place at 6.30pm and generally are finished by 8 – 8.30pm At this point the set up is taken down and the files for the show are transferred onto a portable drive. Currently the system records an MPeg2 video and a MP3 audio file. The audio file was uploaded without editing the first week on the evening of the talk. The following week it was edited on Adobe Audition and uploaded from the DCTV office the morning after the talk.

Each week the full video was imported into Adobe Premiere and topped and tailed with graphics produced by a DCTV volunteer. The intention is to create an ‘as live’ record of the talk – the first week there was a computer crash and very poor lighting for one contribution which meant the version released had some minor edits. The second week the only edits were minor sound fixes and the video released is the live capture on the Tricaster. This is the intention for the remaining 3 talks.

If anybody wishes to look at the Tricaster in operation it will be installed each of the next three Wednesdays in the Ireland Institute. The talks at 6.30pm each evening are by Emmet O’Connor on syndicalism, Conor Kostick on soviets and Mary Cullen on first wave feminism. Programmes are uploaded to the vimeo album and are on DCTV on Friday at 7pm, Saturday at 11am and Sunday at 3pm on both UPC ch 802 and Aertv.i/#dctv

Photos are courtesy of Steve davis – more are available at flickr.

We’re celebrating joining AerTV with a world premiere on Sunday 6th March at 6pm of our new documentary, A Joyful Slog. We’ve other treats organised – a new DoleTv is in the offing and the first of our poltical talks series starts tonight at 7pm Friday, 11 am Saturday and 3pm Sunday (and will continue every week in May).

www.aertv.ie/#dctv – check it out.

5 Wednesdays – Promo long from DCTV on Vimeo.

Chaired by Helena Sheehan, Professor Emeritus DCU these five talks were selected by the group who curated the Occupy University series of 78 talks last Autumn in Dame Street. Many of the original series were filmed by DCTV volunteers and speakers such as Kathleen O’Neill, Richard McAleavey and Eamonn Ryan have been broadcast on DCTV in our afternoon Occupy the Cable slot. For this season of talks we are hoping that the move in doors, away from the traffic and street noise of Dame Street will allow us to capture this important reflection on our shared political heritage in the quality it deserves. We will be filming with a multi-camera set up and will broadcast weekly across multiple formats. We hope you will follow the series as it happens whether on cable, internet, VOD or podcast and then pass on the links.

If you wish to attend the talks it is necessary to register at dctv.ie/5Wednesdays and the first lecture will be on DCTV UPC ch 802 & Aertv.ie/#dctv on Friday 5th May.

For those interested in volunteering with DCTV our Mayday project provides a quick and easy way to get involved.

For two days we’ll be recording interviews, performances, debates and anything else that respondents to our call out want to have a go at. You can fill in the form at the following link click here to express an interest in getting involved.

We’ve a production meeting on the 18th April – if you can’t attend get your ideas in early to mayday@dctv.ie . We have two studio days available and are looking for people who want to use cameras, edit, record sound, write scripts, sing songs, interview, present, have ideas, build sets and generally have a go at making some television in a relaxed environment. No experience necessary but something to say is always helpful.

The videos made by last years volunteers with fertility rituals, trade union songs, comedy and politics.

Remember: Fill in the form and put the following dates in your calendar:

April 18th – Production meeting and date to send in ideas / volunteer

April 24th – Studio Day 1 (Tuesday daytime)

April 28th – Studio Day 2 (Saturday daytime)

May 1st – DCTV will broadcast 24 hours of programmes related to Mayday.

DCTV has shown you Northern Visions programs for years, but now its funding is being cut. Support Northern Visions today and prevent the closure of Belfast’s only open access community digital media and arts centre. Click on the link below to sign the petition…

http://www.northernvisions.org/index/supportform.html

Catch the FINAL EPISODE of Journey of a Joke to see the five comedians’ final routines at the Comedy on the Corner club. This exciting episode is not one to miss! Watch it right here.