Volunteer Work: National Take Over Day

National Take-Over Day

National Takeover day was a wonderful opportunity for young people to engage with people and businesses all over the UK. I was more than excited to take part in such an inspirational and productive day, we were able to interact and network with the children that took part and the warm welcoming doctors and nurses of Ward 10. The day involved the takeover of the Ward by the children, to take us and educate us on what Ward 10 is all about. With their confidence and striking personalities in front of a camera they took us on a virtual tour showing us where the facilities were and spoke about why they see the Ward as such a friendly and comfortable place to be. We were delighted to meet the Ward 10 clowns and playroom staff that keep the children well entertained on their visits, also taking part in an adventure trying to get rid of a squeak! Overall we rated the day as a success and hope to carry on being involved with events like this, especially at the brilliant James Paget Hospital. A special thanks to everyone that took part in the day. 

Ward 10. The clowns and activity for the day.

 The day began at 11, we arrived kitted up and ready to film, boom mic, 4 DSLR's and a 50ml lens. We met the children who were to be filmed taking us on a tour of the ward and interviewing the consultants and nurses on the ward. We had several duties and split up into teams, team 1 took pick up shots, which add effect to the production and give the opportunity to expose more areas of what Ward 10 has to offer. Team 2 and Team 3 worked together with the sound and the filming. My role was occasionally behind the camera and also communicating with the children helping them construct the lines and what to say on camera (as they were nervous). I also got a part on the video, introducing take over day and what it includes.

...Action! (myself in the middle)

 It was time to wrap it up and begin placing footage together, we filmed an introduction and an ending to the production. This was a really helpful experience for our media class because we were able to work with people of all ages, taking different kinds of shots and working with different people. We also learnt a lot about the roles in the hospital ward which was useful when filming because we were able to speak to our tutors back at college when reporting feedback of how the day went. I also got a sense of directing as you can see this image to the left, in this scene I was counting down to the action clapper sound so that we could effectively sync the audio into the footage. I also helped the children prepare and rehearse what they were going to say.

Editing time came and we had a bunch of footage, so we spent the first week arranging the files for audio and visual. Working in pairs we each had the opportunity to edit the footage and each place our own creative input on what would look best. This client work was very helpful to us because of the creative freedom we were allowed to have while filming and editing the content. We did however have notes to work from to keep in mind what the client did specifically note that they wanted to include, for example and introduction and a goodbye message from the children. The final product will be presented by myself and two other volunteers to the board of governors of the hospital. 








The finished product: