Summerschool: The Derry Case Study

Case Study
Ultralab Summerschool
Nerve Centre, Derry: July 5th-7th 2004
Martin Doherty

Team: Martin Doherty, Anthony Russell, Hamish Scott Brown, Tony Browne, Niall Doherty

Background

The 2004 event was planned as a follow-up to the successful 2003 Summerschool held in Belfast. Originally there was to be a follow-up event in Belfast and the Derry event was an additional venture. Unfortunately the Belfast event had to be cancelled due to a combination of circumstances. The moving on of key personnel from the Belfast groups was a key factor but the rise in tension between Loyalist Paramilitary groups meant that cross-community contact became even more difficult than it had been in 2003. This same tension was to have an effect on the Derry Summerschool participation despite efforts by all involved to overcome the problems.

Rationale

The Northern Ireland Summerschool events have striking differences in emphasis, scope of participation and purpose from the base event organized in England by Ultralab for Seeveaz. That event is very much school based and targeted at pupils who are “gifted and talented”, organized through schools with an emphasis on pupils working within their own school and peer group while being supervised by teachers and ultimately designed to provide an enhanced school curriculum experience for pupils whereas the NI Summerschool operates totally outside the school system, is designed to primarily provide a vehicle for cross community interaction with a view to increased mutual understanding and involves young people from community groups working within conflict interfaces. Those involved have all volunteered to attend the Summerschool but are of mixed academic ability. In addition the model used differs considerably. Whereas the Seezeas model has pupils involved with Ultralab for a day and then returning to their schools to work for an extended period with their own teachers the NI model is based on a three day intensive experience encompassing training, visualization and production led by experienced Ultralab personnel. All the youth leaders receive the same experience as their groups in an attempt to increase the possibility of skills retention within the group and to provide a common experience that allows leader and group participant opportunity for increased interaction.

Set-up

One of the problems with the 2003 Summerschool was that when the event was completed there was little opportunity to keep the links to the groups alive and active. Although the participants had enjoyed and benefited from a valuable experience pressure of other commitments meant that Ultralab staff could not sustain contact or work with the groups to deepen the links that had been made. With this experience in mind it was felt that a local partner involved in video production might help in keeping the groups active year on year. A prime candidate for this position was the Nerve Centre (http://www.nerve-centre.org.uk ). Based in the centre of Derry and located close to the city’s walls the Nerve Centre’s location was ideal when coupled with their already impressive portfolio of video, multimedia, music and art projects. Modern computer facilities, a substantial in-house cinema and well developed contacts with the community through an on-going program of events and courses pointed to their credentials as a very effective project partner. The Nerve Centre were approached and agreed to take part in the project.
Derry and District has an impressive number of local community groups spanning the religious, political and social spectrum. Identifying which groups would be interested given their busy programmes proved to be a substantial task but five interested groups emerged. Initially three groups, one from a protestant area and two from catholic areas, were interested and group leaders attended a meeting outlining the event. A follow-up meeting with young people from the groups was set up but on the night of the meeting only the catholic groups attended. It transpired that local trouble in the vicinity of the other group had prevented attendance. This group still wished to be involved and a meeting between their leaders and an Ultralab facilitator took place to outline the project. Unfortunately, despite these efforts the group, although committed failed to turn up to the event.
After this initial contact with the young people a further two community groups were added. Both of these were from Donegal and were cross community groups. The event organization was geared towards having five groups of eight young people engaged in making movies over a period of three days. In the final analysis eight participants from four groups engaged in the event.

Costs

Engaging forty young people aged 14-17 years in digital movie making is expensive in terms of tutors, equipment and venues. In this instance the costs were split across the project partners but no funding could be sourced, despite earnest efforts, from either government or charitable sources. The brunt of the costs were borne by Ultralab and the Nerve Centre. The Nerve Centre freely donate use of their premises, computer equipment and the services of technical support staff. Ultralab provided the services of an experienced facilitation team of five - four full team members plus one youth helper.

Event Organisation

The event was based around a three day model with training in video and editing techniques being given on day one coupled with a movie creation exercise followed by an exhibition of the work accomplished. The first day culminated with the outline of the Day Two task and a short planning session on that. Day Two and Three centred on the planning, production and editing of the movie and culminated in public showing of the completed movies in the Nerve Centre Cinema. The event timetable is Appendix 1.
The event was structured into several sections which as they repeated exposed participants to information in greater depth. The basic format was:
Interaction:

• Ice-breaking: participants mixed into teams of four across groups.
• Working Together: participants given a task and a delivery timeline.
• Celebration: participants celebrate successful movie creation with an exhibition of work.

Training:

• Demonstration: participants are shown examples of finished movies
• Instruction basic: simple instruction is given to achieve success.
• Instruction intermediate: more instruction is given in “How To” sessions.
• Instruction advanced: individual instruction is given on a problem solving basis.

Task:

• First Learning Challenge: parameters are set involving use of:-

o planning
o video
o music
o editing
o exhibition within a short time frame.

• Second Learning Challenge:

o extending planning
o advanced video shooting
o music creation
o project editing
o exhibition within an extended time frame

The whole event was very much challenge driven with deadlines being set and expectations being kept high. The Challenges, with complications were:

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Day 1:

Summerschool Ireland
July 5-7th 2004
Task 1

Challenge:
Create a movie on the theme:


The Lost Romance.. between two shoes!
Or
Derry- doorway to heaven!

Complications!!:

1. Your film must be approximately 60 seconds long!
2. there should be 4 researchers from different groups working together
3. Your work must be suitable for distribution –no swear words!


Tools
IMovie - iTunes - Garageband

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Day 2:

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Summerschool Ireland
July 5-7th 2004
Task

Ish -Yous
We care about!

Challenge:

Can you make a movie that changes someone else’s POINT-OF-VIEW on an ISSUE important to you. Your challenge is to produce a MOVIE incorporating:-

• VIDEO and stills
• SOUND

o Song/songs or Music you have created yourself
o Recorded sounds

• One PHRASE! For instance:-

o “I would STOP cars driving fast to save children’s lives.”

Complications!!:
1. Your film must be 100 seconds long ….exactly!
2. there should be 4 researchers from different groups working together
3. apart from your PHRASE… You cannot use any other SPOKEN words!!!
4. You should try to include original music
5. Your work must be suitable for distribution –no swear words!
6. If your work is good enough it will be included in this year’s SummerSchool DVD, shown at the Foyle Film Festival, shown on BBC2 in November and screened at the Summerschool event at the Victoria and Albert Museum in December.

Tools
IMovie - iTunes - Garageband

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Outcomes:

• the groups produced eight movies for exhibition.
• cross group participation was high
• leaders report that participants were enthused about the project
• a relationship has been forged between Ultralab and the Nerve Centre
• a relationship has been forged between the community groups and the Nerve Centre
• the Ultralab Summerschool movies will be shown at the Foyle film Festival 2004, the Ultalab Victoria and Albert Event (December 2004) and have been submitted to BBC2 for broadcast
• contact between the groups has continued and an Online Community has been established for dialogue

Anecdotes:

The difficulty of work in this area was illustrated by the experience of three participants from the same cross community group. The problem arose with Participant A who on arrival clearly had not been prepared for what was to come and was more interested in mischief than learning. By the end of day one he had failed to engage in the tasks, threatened another participant and fallen out with the group leader. This trend continued on day two, despite being assisted by an interested facilitator, to such a level that the community group withdrew him from the program before day three. The initial distress was caused by Participant A telling another participant that he was the son of a protestant farmer who had stolen the land he farmed and that his own father was an IRA man who would soon sort him out. This obviously caused distress to one participant and to the group’s leader when the threat came to light.
It is difficult to see how any level of organization of this event could have protected against this type of activity or threat. Hopefully the group will have learned something about the levels of preparation required for engaging in cross community events.

Problems:

The biggest problems centred around finance. With no governmental or charitable funding in place Ultralab bore a heavy burden for this work in terms of staff salaries, accommodation and travel costs. The event would not have been possible without the partnership forged with the Nerve Centre and their generous donation of premises, use of facilities and assistance with technical staff.
If there is a lesson to be learned from this it must be that there is a need for early application for funding for such events. January application is advisable for July events.
On a positive note great strides were made in the identification of possible funding sources for 2005 and beyond.

Conclusions:

• the participants report enthusiastic enjoyment of the event
• group leaders report participants engagement with the event and excitement about movie making
• cross community groups can work together to make these event happen
• using the event format participants can make good quality movies
• more time needs to be allocated to the music creation aspect of the event
• a five day model might have a less frantic feel to it
• funding needs to be in place at an early stage for any future event
• underlying sectarian tensions can surface at any time in such events and can limit the participation of individuals or, indeed, whole groups

Follow-Up:

• group leaders have expressed an interest in some participants attending the V& A event in December and are organizing a meeting to see funding for this.
• the movies will be shown at the Foyle Film Festival in November 2004
• an online community has been established as a forum for the project leaders to discuss future directions and participation
• an Ultralab facilitator is maintaining contact with the groups and partners involved