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Participants in the Pedal Project and Dublin cycling enthusiasts gathered in the DCTV studio to review DCTV’s recent use of the documentary format to instigate a city wide discussion on cycling.

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In this age of high media turn over, the sound byte and the roar of celebrity culture – its quite difficult to hear any sensible debate take place in the main stream media.  With talk shows dominated by expert panels, talking heads and those in power, its rare to see people from the ground or marginal communities get an inch in to have their say.  Whenever they do appear, usually their contribution is already framed to suit a particular narrative or thread of discussion.  Often, this is totally against the wishes of the contributor – but that’s how the media plays it.  This course is dedicated to tearing aside the sanctity of the media and highlighting the game it really is.  Through a combination of collective class room discussion, and hands on role playing in our fully digital modern studio, this course arms participants with the critical tools and experiences needed to play the media at their own game.

Making television can be really complex – but as a whole range of community groups proved during 2009 with our Community in a Studio programme it can also be quite simple. We’ve put together a basic package that replicates the model of the studio discussion shows shot during this project at the low price  of €1,500 which can be added into your budget for a launch or a report. Add this to a hundred professionally produced DVDs for another €500 and you have the most effective member communication possible.  You can read more about this offer here.  Oh and if all that technical studio jargon daunts you, don’t worry we’ve got this handy little comic that tears away the mystery!

Sometimes when a conversation takes place, obvious faces are missing from contributing.  The exchanges and content is lost to all but those that participated directly.   Through our work with people in community and the adult education sector,  DCTV devised a mechanism that breaks down the studio space into something of more collaborative and horizontal form that can be used to capture seminars, mini-conferences, retreats  or free form discussions.   We did this by breaking out of the standard TV studio model where a panel a face a bank of cameras, instead trying to create a space that was inclusive and communal.

The centre piece is a 3 part circular bench that was purposely built for DCTV that facilitates discussions of up to 13 people. By using the full scope of the studio along with a ceiling camera we can film a larger group talking which, we feel, fits better with the idea of creating formats and spaces that are open to much more collective explorations of ideas and identities. The circle tends to hold the energy in the group and, with good facilitation, is a much more relaxed way to have a discussion show than standard TV formats. The benefits of using this format as a means of opening up conversations in your organisation to a larger set of participants should be obvious!

photo credit: stevendepolo

Children’s stories are very often fables that use characters and the story itself to gently illustrate how good behaviour can be rewarded and vice versa. There is a rich tradition of story telling all over the world and although stories are told in many different languages and styles, a good story rather like a good piece of music, has a universality that knows no boundaries and can travel with ease around the globe.

Working alongside Spirasi we are looking to bring this rich tradition of story telling to live studio audiences of school children from inner city schools. As we enter the production stage of our Storyworld project with our partners Spirasi, we are on the look out for materials and props that can be used to create theatrical sets that will capture the imagination of our audiences, both live and on our screens. If you can help donate any of the following it would be greatly appreciated. Get in touch here if you can help provide any of the following.

List of props, set materials required etc:

Crew TV is finally online for your viewing pleasure. This show was completely put together by a group of young people working in the DCTV studio last summer. Read more about it here.

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Working with Young Urban Arts, DCTV invited 14 young people from youth projects across the city to get involved in scripting, acting, directing and producing their very own series called Happy Pizza. The young crew trained from January until June 2009 in preparation for the production in July. Happy Pizza follows the life of John Murphy, a pizza guy going through the trials that his life has thrown at him. Happy Pizza is a slice of comedy packed with funny shorts and a strong story. As John delivers pizza, Crew TV, delivers a great production in 3 half hour shows. As employees of DCTV for July, they earned money while gaining invaluable experience in an arts focused environment.

CREW TV/ HAPPY PIZZA plays from December 12th as part of Fresh 2 on Tues 1900, Wed 1230 and Sat and will play out all December and January.

Check out Irish Times coverage here.
Check out The Crew TV blog here.