global digital creativity research & workshops

Mark Constable, Richard Millwood and myself headed to Weymouth to install the web camera for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution)’s Lifeboats.TV project, run by Ultralab.

The project is near completion and the web camera will provide an eye for young people visiting the website to explore live images from a lifeboat station.

View some pictures taken at Weymouth Lifeboat Station on the day of the installation.

The project is really pioneering for the RNLI who are exploring with Ultralab how digital creativity technologies can be used to engage the younger audience with the work of the RNLI.

Colin and I are pleased to announce that all the footage from the eight locations which we’ve visited over the past year for the RNLI’s innovative Lifeboats.TV project have been imported ready for editing. Before the editing begins I’ve cut a movie with all the people we’ve interviewed, in the exact order they were interviewed. 180 people were interviewed, 20 hours of footage created.

We were sad to hear that the very last person to be interviewed (last in the below film) passed away suddenly and respect the families wishes that material recorded should still be used in Lifeboats.TV. Colin, myself and the team from Ultralab send our most sincere condolences to the families of the Tobermory lifeboat crew.

The following film will take a while to load, but should be worth the wait.

 Watch 180 people the movie - made by Matthew Eaves this film includes nearly everyone who played a part in the Lifeboats.TV project: Play Now | Play in Popup

17th to the 20th of March 2002.

Tobermory, the last and most ‘eventful’ of Ultralab’s visits to lifeboats stations for the lifeboats.tv project. Missing a plane, hitting a deer, arriving four hours late, and finally staying in a haunted hotel with two RNLI representatives that were scared of ghosts, what could possibly happen next?

View the pictures taken at the Tobermory Lifeboat Station.

While interviewing on the Tobermory lifeboat a real life shout came in and the Ultralab team joined the lifeboat crew at sea to record this chance in a lifetime event. We’d like to thank the Tobermory crew for all you did, we’ll never forget our days on Mull.

For the Ultralab team Tobermory helped us to understand what it really was like to be a crew member, I remember standing on the back of a lifeboat looking in the the sea, in the dark, in a storm thinking “Matt, please don’t miss seeing someone needing help in the water”….. I remember my heart beating fast.

All the research conducted so far on this project has been done in conjunction with young people, exploring how creative use of technology could be used to enhance their learning, bringing the RNLI bang up to date with its uses of technology at the same time.

Watch a male crew member being asked if he has ever been scared on a shout by our Hamish.

Team:
Matthew Eaves (Ultralab)
Colin Elsey (Ultralab)
Alex Blanc (Ultralab)
Micky Slatford (RNLI)
Aileen Thomas (RNLI)

On the 6th and 7th of March 2002 the Ultralab digital creativity team were based on the Southend Pier for the Lifeboats.TV project.

All the research conducted so far on this project has been done in conjunction with young people, exploring how creative use of technology could be used to enhance their learning, bringing the RNLI bang up to date with its uses of technology at the same time.

Southend Lifeboat Station became the fifth location for the Lifeboats.TV crew. The lifeboat station is based at the end of a pier and Matthew Eaves and Richard Millwood commented as they walked the mile pier journey that this was their strangest journey to work.

The crew were excellent and lots of footage was captured at this location, all in aid of the RNLI’s new Lifeboats.TV site, a way for the RNLI to reach its young audience using creative technologies.

Watch crew member Lance explain why the lifeboat station is based at the end of a pier..

Team:
Matthew Eaves (Ultralab)
Colin Elsey (Ultralab)
Richard Millwood (Ultralab)
Micky Slatford (RNLI)
Peter Bradley (RNLI)

View the pictures taken at the Southend Lifeboat Station.

18-20th February 2002

In Skegness we met Joel, the longest serving RNLI person in the country. Joel had been part of the lifeboat station since he was three years old. Joel’s father and grand father also served on the crew.

All the research conducted so far on this project has been done in conjunction with young people, exploring how creative use of technology could be used to enhance their learning, bringing the RNLI bang up to date with its uses of technology at the same time.

Watch a male crew member explain how the more cakes baked the worse the weather was.

Team:
Matthew Eaves (Ultralab)
Colin Elsey (Ultralab)
Dunstan Bertschinger (Ultralab Support Teacher from Summer School Project)
Pete Bradshaw (Ultralab)
Alison Gee (Ultralab)
Micky Slatford (RNLI)

View the pictures taken at the Skegness Lifeboat Station.

11-13th February 2002

The Ultralab team headed up to North Wales to meet the crew of Beaumaris, home of the lifeboat ‘Blue Peter 2′. Here we mocked up a rescue launch, showing the tractor and Atlantic 75 lifeboat in action. The footage will be used online on the RNLI’s innovative Lifeboats.TV website which Ultralab is building in conjunction with the RNLI.

Watch one of the films created at the location as James Vaughan interviews a crew member.

Watch one of the crew set off a flare.

Team:
Matthew Eaves (Ultralab)
Colin Elsey (Ultralab)
Tony Browne (Ultralab)
Micky Slatford (RNLI)
James Vaughan (RNLI)

View the pictures taken at the Beaumaris Lifeboat Station.

Hamish Scott-Brown, Colin Elsey and Matthew Eaves headed over the sea to Dun Laoghaire in Ireland to begin the second lot of filming for the Lifeboats.TV project.

The crew there were amazing, providing excellent stories and accounts of rescues which were turned into video and audio files, and incorporated into the Lifeboats.TV website.

All the research conducted so far on this project has been done in conjunction with young people, exploring how creative use of technology could be used to enhance their learning, bringing the RNLI bang up to date with its uses of technology at the same time.

Watch a male crew member explain what it is like to be in a lifeboat on a shout.

Click to watch a movie about the kind of person do you need to be a lifeboat crew member.

This movie explains why a female crew member does what she does.

A young male crew member explains what he thinks a person has to be in order to be a lifeboat crew member.

View the pictures taken at the Dun Laoghaire Lifeboat Station.

And finally…

This film is one of the best we managed to capture, and explains with emotion why it is that lifeboat crewmembers are prepared to risk their lives to save those of others.

Team:
Matthew Eaves (Ultralab)
Colin Elsey (Ultralab)
Hamish Scott-Brown (Ultralab)
Micky Slatford (RNLI)
Peter Bradley (RNLI)

One year after the initial pilot in Burnham-on-Crouch we were off. Colin, Mark and Matthew headed to Dorset to meet and interview the Weymouth Lifeboat crew and their families. With 40 people to interview it was no easy task, we had to break up into three film crews to capture the footage. Pete Bradshaw from Ultralab joined the project as the local Ultranaut based in Weymouth.

The initial research conducted over the previous year meant the Lifeboats.TV crew would begin to film lifeboat crew and volunteers for their lifesaving stories, ready for compression and delivery on the internet on the lifeboats.tv website. Construction of the ‘virtual lifeboat station’ would also begin once the panoramic images were constructed from real images captured in each of the six lifeboat stations.

Weymouth’s crew room would begin as the first location on the tour, tricky with its unbalanced floor.

All the research conducted so far on this project has been done in conjunction with young people, exploring how creative use of technology could be used to enhance their learning, bringing the RNLI bang up to date with its uses of technology at the same time.

View a film showing one of the crew from Weymouth explaining why he is a volunteer.

Team:
Matthew Eaves (Ultralab)
Colin Elsey (Ultralab)
Mark Constable (Ultralab)
Pete Bradshaw (Ultralab)
Micky Slatford (RNLI)
James Vaughan (RNLI)

View the pictures taken inside the Weymouth Lifeboat Station.

The second of our two pilot studies with young people. The lifeboats.tv team and some of the researchers from Ultralab’s notschool.net project worked together to test pilot the filming. St. Helier is on the island of Jersey, it was in ‘interesting’ flight in a six seater plane. The journey home was less bumpy.

The objective of the pilot was to find out what young people who were out of the formal education system thought about the lifeboat service and to also find out how to engage them using the latest technologies.

Team:
Matthew Eaves (Ultralab)
Jonny Dyer (Ultralab - Notschool)
Jean Johnson (Ultralab - Notschool)
Micky Slatford (RNLI)

Eight Notschool.net researchers were involved in the research process and provided valuable information. The notschoolers also manned cameras and filmed on behalf of the project.

The Lifeboats.TV team rolled into Burnham-on-Crouch today to begin the film research for the RNLI’s Lifeboats.TV website.

Thanks to all the team from Burnham involved in the pilot filming.

Team:
Matthew Eaves (Ultralab)
Colin Elsey (Ultralab)
George Variopoulos (Ultralab)

From the initial footage, George Variopoulos made this initial film (it will take a while to load, but is worth the wait):

 George's Action Film: Play Now | Play in Popup