GLW - Exchanging Dreams BOOKLET

Photography Exhibition Television Movie Video editing Soundtrack editing Radio show Radio drama

Between the 7th-14th March 2011, 25 participants from 5 countries (France, Hungary, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom) participated in the Grundtvig Learner Workshop ‘Exchanging Dreams’ organised by Everything is Possible and supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union.

During the week, they participated in workshops run by professionals. The participants learnt about media and gained skills in photography, displaying exhibition, editing video and soundtracks, creating a radio show and radio drama all at which they will be able to use in the future.

Monday 7th March 2011, participants from France, Hungary, Italy and Sweden travelled to England in order to attend the Grundtvig Learner Workshop ‘’Exchanging Dreams’’ organised by Everything is Possible and supported by ECORYS and the ‘Lifelong Learning’ Programme of the European Union.

Some groups arrived in London or Manchester and were then picked up by Mini Bus to Leeds. The French group was the first to arrive in Leeds. Every participant, including the group from UK has finally met for the first time in a restaurant, where they discovered the Indian food, which is renowned in Yorkshire. Some were tired by their trip, but everyone was very excited by the week.

During this night, the participants received a welcome pack with all the information that they may need during the Workshop; a guide created by Everything is Possible with information about the different workshops, maps, leaflets about the different workshops, places we would visit and finally some information about Everything is Possible and an introduction to the Workshop.

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Tuesday 8th March, the participants went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where we began a two day ‘workshop about photography, with the professional photographer Lizzie Coombes.

The morning, Lizzie taught participants new skills on using a digital camera and on how to set a good photo, lighting, the subject and the background. After giving to the group a theoretical introduction, she also inspired them showing different pictures taken by other photographers. For this workshop we made sure that every participant had a photo camera.

Then four groups comprising different nationalities went for a walk in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park under a bright sun. This park is an amazing location with an abundance of photo opportunities. Every group had to follow a special topic given by Lizzie: for example to take picture of red and circular objects. During two hours, participants tried to follow the advice of Lizzie, inspired by the many beautiful landscapes and sculptures. After the lunch, Lizzie explained to the group the way to select some pictures from a large shooting, studying the pictures of 3 participants. She helped them to select three pictures which have been edited and used in the Wednesday Exhibition Workshop which Lizzie also led.

At the end of the day, all the participants came back by minibus to Leeds, where they attended an intercultural workshop. Barbara organised some activities getting to know each other better and finding out what participants know about each other’s countries.

Emanuele, Italian participant

“ I am really happy about this workshop. We did so many things; it was such an intense workshop. What I like most was the workshop with Lizzie about photography, because we really experienced how we can free our creativity in a very easy way that I could not imagine. Then I liked the museum of Henry Moore because I think it’s something really out of the normal concept of art and it was very interesting to see that in England could be such an interesting author. It was very nice to meet all these different persons from different countries and everybody are really amazing full of creativity and energy and really interested to do something nice for their country and Europe as well. I have less barriers, before I had more barriers between me and people from other countries and now I feel more open to everybody, it’s very nice. I think this photography workshop was very useful, I learned to make videos, I learned how to be in a radio, how to make music. I learned so many things in just one week. It’s just amazing! ”

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Wednesday, the group left the Leeds hotel early for a breakfast at the Kalasangam Centre in Bradford, where the group enjoyed a mini exhibition about the Black Butterfly Photography Project. Black Butterfly was a project organised by Everything is Possible and funded by the ‘Youth in Action’ Programme from the European Union. It involved 150 young participants from Europe and Latin America, who thought about intercultural and cross-ethnic dialogue and captured it in photographs.

Then the group went to the Media Museum of Bradford (where we were joined by Robert of ECORYS) for the second part of the Lizzie’s Photography workshop. This time, Lizzie taught the participants how to set up a photo exhibition. Each participant selected three photographs which they edited with Lizzie, before preparing and designing & decorating frames for a photography exhibition at the media museum.

After the lunch in a professional catering training restaurant in Bradford college, where all chefs and waiters are undertaking vocational training to join the hospitality industry, the participants came back to the National Media Museum where they prepared a mini exhibition of their pictures and frames in this prestigious venue.

After an hour and a half visiting exhibitions on the history of photography and interacting with various radio and television filming activities, some participants went to see in a private film screening booked for the group, a documentary called ‘’Making of a Blockbuster’’ where they followed the pre-production, shooting and post production techniques of a James Bond Film ‘’The World is not enough’’. Some participants (particularly those with lower linguistic skills) choose to spend more time discovering the museum. They discovered a special exhibition about a Swedish photographer and the many interactive activities about film, photography, television, animation and new media. Some of the participants enjoyed particularly the part dedicated to television, where they were able to present a broadcast show or read a teleprompter for a News programme.

After the museum all the participants participated in an intercultural evening, during which, each group presented their country, their region, their customs and foods. Each group did a very interesting presentation which they had prepared before the Grundtvig Learner Workshop during the preparation meetings arranged by support organisations .

For example, France created a special video about their region for this evening.

Christopher, Hungarian participant

“I preferred Yorkshire photo making because it was interesting, the nature was beautiful and all kind of things and objects what we can make photo. It was interesting. I liked the exhibition of the frames because I can drown my own style frame, I can make my own feeling to the frame and to the photo and I can choose my best photo, it was good I liked it. ”

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Thursday, the group started the day with a visit to the Leeds City Museum and the Leeds Art Gallery, where participants had the chance to observe the different media methodologies used by museums to display their exhibition, and also to learn more about English culture.

After a lunch at the Farthing’s restaurant at Leeds City College (another vocational training restaurant), participants enjoyed an afternoon/ evening workshop with Lifeforce Productions, where they learned about video and soundtrack editing. First, all the participants set in Front of a mac and the software ‘’I movie’’ and created their own movies about the Grundtvig Learner Workshop using footage taken during the first three days of ‘’Exchanging Dreams’’.

Some participants choose after to participate to a backing track workshop, and others preferred to concentrate themselves on their video. One of the French participant, Leon, took the microphone for an impromptu slam, followed after by each group.

Participants left the workshop with a copy of their video on a DVD. The music ‘’Everything is Possible’’ is available for downloading online. All these production were presented during the last night in UK to all the groups in a city centre London restaurant booked for the celebration night.

Natasha, Bristish participant

My favourite workshop was the editing workshop. During the workshop we have taken all the clips that people have recorded and we put them together in short film and we like edited music and transitions and at the end of the week all the films got presented . And I’m really proud of my film because I just enjoy editing and I’m hoping to do this at some point in the future. ”

Leon, French participant

“ Well, my all time favourite workshop was the music workshop, because I was already into the all music thing and then I was able to see the production of an instrumental hip hop hit. Everybody participated in this song so that was very very interesting. Well, I actually learned a lot about photography for example, because I never really was into taking pictures, because I’m not really a picture person and then I learned that even with a simple camera you could take quick pictures. ”

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Friday, the group discovered what a typical English breakfast is in a British Pub. After trying fried egg, bacon, sausage (with other options for the vegetarians!), baked beans, hash browns, mushroom and tomato, participants had the opportunity to visit Leeds before traveling down to London. They had the choice between two options: a guided visit of Leeds or a visit at the Leeds National Royal Armouries Museum.

At 14.00 the groups came together and set off to London. The two mini buses stopped on route for a picnic lunch before arriving to Borehamwood in time to settle into the hotel and enjoy dinner at a traditional carvery restaurant. Again this cultural meal allowed participants to discover the typical meal that British would eat on a Sunday.

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Saturday, the participants went to Aculco Radio, London’s Latin America radio station offering programmes in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

They learnt how to prepare a radio show: First they prepared the topic ‘’the unemployment and the youth’’ in mini groups. Then they learned some interview techniques. And finally they realised a one hour live radio show.

For this workshop the participants were split in two groups regrouping people from different countries. Whilst a group were at Aculco, the other group went for a guided visit of London, during which they discovered Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, The Thames, The London Eye, Number 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Oxford Circus and finally Covent Garden. During this Tour, participants had the chance to use the photography skills that they developed to make their own record of London.

Martan, Italian participant

“ My favourite workshop was the one at the Aculco Radio in London. we spent there all the day and the activities were so interesting. We were divided in different groups to speak about our dreams and the opportunity about the job, especially the situation of the market of work in our countries and the problem of the youth unemployment.

After this discussion we were able to get in the radio and do our own radio emission and this was a very exciting experience. This experience has shown us how it’s possible to realise the ideas that you have and you can create almost what you want, what you think is the best for you and for your friends, for the country in which you live. It gave us a lot of hope. I learned a lot of things, I can start to know other people from all over the world and this is a way to improve the capacity of know myself and know how to manage with the relation and with other people and with other nationality is better because you have to relate with such different kind of culture and education so this was the first skill I think; and the second was of course to use this media instrument. So the first day we started using camera and that was the way to know an instrument that is so known but we cannot use in the best way, we don’t know such a lot about this. And of course the radio and we visited also places like the BBC in which they do a lot of work in an open wild world way. It was an occasion to develop the knowledge about the world, how the world is going on and why this. This was another opportunity. ”

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Sunday, the group had the privilege to visit the iconic home of the BBC and the setting for many memorable BBC radio shows and events. As well as seeing behind the scenes, the participants were also able to have a go at making their own drama, complete with music and sound effects.

Some participants recorded the sound with the help of a BBC trainer, whilst the other read the script.

The participants were split into two groups for this tour and workshop: one visited the BBC the morning and the other went the afternoon. During the time that people were not on the visit, they had some free time in London.

At the end of the day, the group enjoyed a celebration of this Grundtvig Learner Workshop ‘’Exchanging Dreams’’, in a restaurant in Leicester Square. This evening began by a meal followed by the presentation of the videos created during the Thursday video workshop. Some participants were very proud to see their work projected to the entire group. Then, in order to congratulate everyone individually for their participation in the workshop and in order to recognise the new skills in the field of media that they gained during the week, Everything is Possible gave everyone a Certificate. After that, participants completed a final evaluation about the workshop. As well as being given a souvenir of this week, Everything is Possible offered to each one a poster representing every participant (except those who did not want their photos used) and also pictures of some workshops.

After this evening the group returned to the hotel to prepare for the departure day.

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