Frussssssstration!

Thats the state of things at the moment, pure frustration. We now have a backlog of about 14 hours of film tape waiting to be edited and uploaded. Included in the backlog is all the footage from ArtsFest, including our own Lyme Live ArtsFest Special, featuring among others local author Lucy Daniel Raby. There is the recent Three Cups Public Meeting at Woodmead Halls, and our own Lyme Live Woodmead Special with Mayor Michaela Ellis and Pip Evans. We have the annual Save the Children Concert from the Baptist Church Hall, the new organ at St. Michaels, a lot I can't remember there is so much, including a couple of Council Meetings. The sad thing is that some footage will be outdated by the time we can resume, or even, if we can resume., and will probably go straight onto CD and into our vast programme archive.

The hard part is that there is absolutely nothing we can do about it and we have ceased filming now because all our spare tape is locked up in the backlog. It's ironic that we now have four or five active camcorders, and have the capability of filming anything and everything that happens. We have a DVD copier that can churn out 10 Cd's or DVD's at once, which is great because out 'Postcard from Lyme' DVD is selling fairly well in town. It won't earn enough however to purchase a new laptop.

That is, in a nutshell the real problem. The only machine we have that is capable of editing video, groans and complains bitterly with real feeling every time I connect it to a camcorder. Editing video can be quite a long process, first the movie has to be uploaded into the computer in real time, That's one hour per tape. Then, besides the time it takes to edit and caption a full hour, it has to be 'saved'. That takes about another hour. After that, it takes another hour to upload to the TV Channel. A new laptop wouldn't change this, it will still take as long to edit and upload programmes, but at present, it takes the infernal machine more than an hour to save 10 minutes of video! Don't ask if we've done this or that to the computer, we have, we've defragged, cleared files, reformatted, updated, upgraded, disk cleaned up, and even hoovered the keyboard, but nothing doing. The hard drive has simply packed its bags and gone.

The thing we need, and have to have if we're to continue is a laptop with at minimum 100Gig hard drive, and about 4Gig ram memory. We could 'get by' with less, but these machines tend to be expensive, and without miracles, I don't think we will see much change out of £500. It's not all hopeless however, we beleive, in fact have been told, that forces are active in the town to get us back on the road again, and as soon as we are, I think we should have a celebration party with the headline, 'Disaster Narrowly Avoided' which I'm sure Pip Evans will describe as the worst headline he has seen since the one about small earthquakes in Chile!

Technical Difficulties

Lyme Regis Community Media Association

The current position is this: The only computer we have that is capable of editing video is about to become defunct. This means that we are unable to edit video, and therefore unable to upload video to the website. We already have a backlog of around 8 hours of film, and obviously, there is little point in recording further events if we can't edit what we have already. So until further notice, no further programmes will be recorded.

To add to this, our only professional camcorder (CanonXL1) is in need of serious and expensive repair, and we simply can't afford the expense of this.

The Community Media Association came into being in October last year as a natural progression from LymeRegisRadio and has always been organised by enthusiasts and volunteers. In just the last few months, we've recorded events and produced DVD's for B Sharp, filmed Carnival Week, produced our own 3 hour DVD now selling in local shops, produced and released an album by local singer/songwriter Simon 'The Beard' Leach, and launched LymeRegisTV.We record an average of 3 items every week, including events, meetings, interviews, and festivals plus our own promotions and presentations.

We still have CD copies of every thing we ever recorded,, which adds up to a phenomenal 1,000 plus CD's. I don't think anyone in town has avoided our microphone or the eye of our camera over the last 6 years, and if we've done nothing else, we've made a deep and detailed record of the life of Lyme Regis during this period. (2004-2009) At present, these CD's have little value, and perhaps time will be served best if I package them up and leave them in the loft for someone to find in about 50 years or so! In a few years time, everyone we filmed will be desirous of seeing how they were then, and overall, should see how Lyme was then.....

We know that Lyme loves our project, we know this from the many emails we receive, we know it from the daily thousand people who log in and view our programmes, we know it from comments from locals on the street, we know it from the visitors who recognise us and tell us they regularly tune in, we know it from our performance in Google and other search engines. It's a shame that we've failed to convince local 'bureaucracies' of the value of this work. Bill McCallum and myself have gone through hoops over the past year trying to find funding, but it seems that whatever we demonstrate, we are assumed to be just another website, which neglects the fact of our involvement in every group and organisation in the community. Beyond this, I don't know what else to say.

To continue, without expanding the project, we need at least the following:
Laptop Computer (60G hard drive, minimum 2G memory)
Canon XL1 repair.
Internet and Hosting fees for next year.

We are doing our best to resolve difficulties and hope to be continuing broadcasting soon.
Thankyou.

To Friends/Members/Crew/Contributors/ArtsFest. THANKYOU! I would like to offer my own personal thanks to everyone who took part in creating this very special event. To Christine Allison and her team who organised it all so brilliantly. To cope with a total of 60 artists, all with different needs, plus all the myriad other events surrounding ArtsFest, is a garantuan task. For local artists, £50 all in to have pictures on display in the Baptist Church Hall, the Town Mill ,town shops, and have publicity in a glossy brochure, is fantastic value, so it isn't surprising that more artisits take part every year. Add to that Open Studios and workshops, and it's easy to see how this event drew the imagination of the whole Lyme community. I also apologise profoundly to the hanging team at the Town Mill for the wet red paint on my contribution, and I promise that next year my pictures will all be completely dry.

My own event, 'Thought...for a moment' at the Town Mill, might have said 'Nomad' above the door, but it was very much a collective effort from the ComMA group, and I couldn't have done it without the special input of these friends. In no particular order, thanks to Emily Blech, local young talented musician/singer/songwriter/actor who gave us some great film footage, sang and spoke on the 'Rave' track, and (completely unrehearsed!) did the Rooftop scene with me. Simon 'The Beard' Leach who played 12 string guitar, Mary Ball who sang with me, Jon Hallet and his drum skills, and Bill McCallum who provided film inspiration and handled the Camcorder on the night. This was really an experimental trial run and I expected the techie stuff to fall to bits all the way through, but in the end, it held together, and with a great audience, we got through it. An edit of it will shortly be appearing on the MusicTV Channel of LymeRegisTV. Having had the experience, we are already considering doing something similar next year, in a larger venue, with audience particiation, and a lot of coloured light.

The real ComMA event was Friday Night Live at the Town Mill, which did indeed turn out to be an ArtsFest Special. Sally Holman dropped by and chatted about the early days of ArtsFest and its development, desperately trying to keep yours truly strictly on the subject of ArtsFest, but I always have so much to talk about with Sally, and don't see her often enough! Lucy Daniel Raby, local auther and writer of Nicholai of the North talked also about ArtsFest, writing workshops, and her forthcoming Christmas production at the Marine Theatre. We did those interviews early because Lucy and Sally had other commitments, but we'd just put Julian Shaw, singer songwriter and a regular favourite on Friday Night Live on the stage, when suddenly the room filled with people, including Jill Raines, one of the Bermuda artisis in town this week. So with the assistance of some Lancashire lads and lasses, a good time was had by all. Seems also a good time to let you know that Lyme Live returns on 12th October, in its new guise as Monday Night Live at the Woodmead Halls, and thereafter, every second Monday in the month, with a Quiz Night in December. Thanks also for all the welcome feedback on my Dream paintings at the Baptist Church Hall, and at the Town Mill.
Best Wishes,
Nomad