Local television launches fully in the UK in 2014 on Freeview channels, with Grimsby starting by launching last month. Among those who’ve succeeded in securing a licence are our colleagues in producing arts and cultural programming. Nv Tv is the broadcast name of the longstanding production company Northern Visions, run since the day of Channel Four’s workshop supported by Dave and Marilyn Hyndman.

We’re showcasing a selection of the many wonderful back catalogue of programmes from our archive, made in and around Belfast over the last decade or more. Summerhall TV wishes all those embarking on local television the best of luck in the year ahead.

Summerhall is one of Edinburgh’s largest creative hubs, providing space for artists, photographers, entrepreneurs, inventors and scientists to work in. Over the Winter months, we’ll be introducing the work of some of the residents based here. Our Features section provides a snapshot of some of the people already at Summerhall.

Over the next few weeks www.summerhall.tv will be gradually changing. We’ll continue to bring previews, reviews and highlights of arts and performance from Summerhall and literature and storytelling from around Edinburgh. We’re expanding our archive section to reflect the archives, panel discussions and plays filmed at Summerhall.

Our new channel www.artinscotland.tv will branch out and cover the arts across Scotland, providing training for PR and marketing staff and arts graduates to provide art-news for social media as well as TV channels on the web.

Dave Rushton took part in King Lambie’s contribution to the International Community Media Day, held at Impact Arts, Glasgow. Presenting the work of Summerhall TV, Dave discussed the importance of local television to local communities.

28th and 29th October

Ben Grieve art-news TV training for two colleagues from the Scottish Poetry Library. Together they produced a clip on the work of sculptor Deirdre Nicholls to be shown on www.summerhall.tv shortly, and also filmed the new Louise Bourgeois exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery. Individually they’ve filmed a preview of the theatre work of Black Dingo Productions at St Margaret’s House and have plans for filming at the Poetry Library later this month.

We’ve already been running short film courses in the Highlands and Perthshire, teaching the basics in art news and video journalism, and will now be running some initial training courses in Edinburgh with the aim to create competent and succinct news videos.

Durham’s chief constable Mike Barton has recently reignited the argument for the decriminalisation of class A drugs, and calls for policies regarding this to be revised. Barton suggests that the NHS should be equipped to provide drugs to drug addicts in a manageable environment, whilst not making them freely available.

We looked back into our archives and found an interview with Welsh author and one time drugs smuggler, Howard Marks, as he shares his thoughts on the legalisation of drugs in the UK.

Howard Marks at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Summerhall has been busier than ever at this year’s festival. From classic theatre with Shakespeare’s The Tempest, to a £10 haircut with the chopped hair turned into art, a wide variety of events have been included in Summerhall’s festival programme.

We’ve pulled together some of the highlight’s and popped them into our Features section so you can see a snapshot of the Summerhall Festival 2013.

Over the last year Summerhall TV has been working with Highland Perthshire News on video news training for media graduates and arts centre staff in Highland Perthshire.

Clips on festivals, community activity and local arts feature regularly on http://www.highlandperthshirenews.co.uk/. Some of the arts programming is also carried on www.summerhall.tv.

Have a browse through our Features section at the bottom of the Home page to see some of the work that’s been filmed recently.

Our community and arts TV courses resume in the Autumn. Please contact hello@summerhall.tv for further information.

Stop the shutdown of Public Television in Greece!

According to the BBC, the Greek government has announced that it will shut down the radio and TV services of the state broadcaster ERT.

A government spokesman said transmissions would cease early on Wednesday.

All employees, numbering at least 2,500, will be suspended until the company reopens “as soon as possible.”

Unions voiced strong opposition to the move.

An engineer at the broadcaster’s multimedia department who gave his name as Yannis said: “The government announced that channels will shut down at midnight – after that the screens will go black.

“According to the government, from tonight I will be unemployed. It is a complete shock. In four hours’ time I will not have a job.”

Let us help Greek journalists inform Greek people all over the world!
Let us help Greek people remain properly informed!

Click on the link below to be taken to the petition:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_the_shutdown_of_Public_Television_in_Greece/?tlErEab

Birks Cinema first opened in 1939 until 1982 when it was then open as an amusement hall. It closed in 2004 allowing the building to fall into disrepair. Friends of the Birks Cinema purchased the art deco building with the aim of restoring it to its former glory.

Comment TV and Highland Perthshire News have been following the rebuilding of the art deco Birks cinema in Aberfeldy up to its re-opening on 19th April. These three episodes from Comment show the work in progress up to this month’s opening night.

Northern Visions NvTv is one of several community and local TV companies to be awarded the new digital local TV licences. NvTv has held the local analogue licence for many years in Belfast and has made a tremendous contribution to representation of the region’s cultures and diversity.

STV won the local digital licences for Edinburgh and Glasgow. A further round of local licences will be announced in a few months, to include services for Dundee, Aberdeen, Ayr and Inverness.

The Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament will be staging a number of events up and down the UK, throughout the month of April. Glasgow will be hosting a number of activities from the 13th to the 15th April.

In response to this, we’ve delved into our archives to find footage from Red Star Cinemas covering protests and reactions to the nuclear war effort in the 1980s. Our Features section will comprise of a collection of newsreels documenting these events.

For further details regarding the campaign and to find out if an event is happening near you, go to http://www.cnduk.org/

Previews of some of the upcoming exhibitions at Summerhall can be found in our Features section on the Home Page. All the exhibitions will start on the 8th March and run until the 18th May 2013.

Through the SCVO’s Creative Industries Graduate Internship scheme, we have a position for Studio and Broadcast Technical intern to join Summerhall TV and help with the conversion of Summerhall’s Cairns Theatre into a studio.

The Arts and Creative Industries Graduate Internships are open to people aged 24 or younger, who are unemployed and hold an HND/Degree or higher in a Creative Industries subject.

To apply for an internship, please speak to your Jobcentre Plus advisor who can check your eligibility and give you a referral and application form.

Further information can be found here : http://www.scvo.net/Home/creativeinterns.aspx

Closing date is March 5th, with interviews held on the13th March. The candidate should be available to start before the end of March. 

We want you to send us your music videos so we can feature them on our site. We want to showcase the best that Edinburgh and beyond has to offer!

Just drop us an email at hello@summerhall.tv, with a link to your video (e.g. YouTube or Vimeo), and a note saying you give us permission to use your video on the site.

The Edinburgh International Festival is known as one of the most diverse and prestigious cultural events in the world. We’ve updated our features section to include some of the highlights from this year’s festival.

You can take away the videos and put them on to your website should you wish to share them with your friends and fans. Simply click the embed icon that is in the top right hand corner of the video screen, the code will appear and you’ll have the option to copy it, then you can paste it on to your site.

POST GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN LOCAL TV

Post-graduate Certificate (online and face-to-face) course run by the Institute of Local Television, Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL

With the launch of local TV channels on Freeview in 2013 and 2014 local television will be the growth sector for public and arts television and broadband. With www.summerhall.tv the Institute of Local Television is pioneering the launch of local arts-news channels and programming throughout the UK.

If you’re wanting to break into local television broadcasting and web TV, this course will help you secure your goal. You will receive direction and support in filmmaking for broadcast and Internet TV and you’ll learn how the industry has come about and is developing. You’ll understand the regulatory and policy framework with access to the Institute’s library and archive and understand how the new local commercial and community channels operate. Local TV professionals will be on hand to provide valuable insights while you contribute content to local channels and build up a network of contacts for your CV.

On completion you will have a portfolio of broadcast TV clips offering the necessary catalogue of work and experience and understanding of local television inn the UK and Europe, knowledge to help set up as well as work on local TV channels.

Over this twelve-month course you’ll acquire collaborative skills and increase confidence in presentation and work with arts, theatre and music organisations. You’ll acquire relevant finance and fund-raising strategies and an insight into how this new industry is being built and sustained.

You’ll learn by several teaching methods including online lectures and tutorials, group activities (using the Institute’s online learning) and Skype for online tutorials combined with independent written and practical study and submissions.

There will be three face-to-face workshops throughout the year and held in Edinburgh offering an opportunity for work-placement and/or project delivery at Summerhall. The second and longest of these workshops will take place during the annual Edinburgh International Festival.

Entry to this exciting new and independent course at Summerhall is by First or Upper second-class honours degree in an appropriate subject – for example, a degree in television, filmmaking, creative writing or journalism (but we’re open to persuasion if these are not your first degree subjects).

On the strength of written submissions, applicants will be invited for interview, in person or via Skype and accepted on the basis of evidence of aptitude, appropriate experience, qualifications and enthusiasm and in addition by indicating the community as well as personal benefits they anticipate as a result of undertaking this course.

Applicants are invited to submit the following with their CV:

• A personal statement outlining why they want to work in local and community television (maximum 300 words)
• URLs of up to three Vimeo and/or YouTube clips of between 1 and 7 minutes each – indicating role they have undertaken
• A 250 word outline of the role local television could play in their local community

Applicants will be expected to have access to (or to acquire) an HD camcorder/DSLR with inputs for external mic and headphones, a tripod (preferably with fluid head) and a suitable PC or Mac together with editing software (such as Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro 7 or X or similar).

The course will be run by Dr David Rushton, Director of the Institute of Local Television with tutors from broadcast and Internet TV.

Places are limited and recruitment will commence in January 2013.

For questions or further details please contact local.tv@virgin.net

BACKGROUND

on the Institute of Local Television and Summerhall

The Institute of Local Television was established in 1989 to support the introduction and delivery of local public service and community TV throughout the UK. The Institute was recognized by the Secretary of State in 1998 and is a company limited by guarantee and member of Social Enterprise Scotland.

Summerhall was established as an arts and education centre in 2011.

“Every city should have its own Summerhall”, BBC Review Programme

“Summerhall is the best new arts facility in Edinburgh, perhaps the UK” Independent On Sunday

“I’d urge anyone not to miss out on Summerhall…. Art lives here” Daily Telegraph

Summerhall won over 10 awards during the Edinburgh International Festival in 2012 including 4 Herald Angels for theatre and one Herald Angel for its visual arts programme.

Summerhall launched to great acclaim in the international press, had over 55,000 visitors in 4 weeks in August 2012 and held over 70 theatre, music, film events, and talks and put on display 30 visual art exhibitions – over half of the visual art shows to take place in the Edinburgh Arts Festival.

To coincide with the January 2013 8^th Annual Local TV Forum the Institute of Local Television is launching the first annual competition to find the UK’s Best Local and Community TV. Our initial competition will feature programmes produced over the last ten years ahead of the launch of local digital terrestrial TV in the UK.

For further details contact hello@summerhall.tv by entering ‘Competition’ as the subject in your email.

Further details of the 2013 Local TV Forum taking place at Summerhall in Edinburgh will be published over the next few weeks.

The Institute of Local Television is inviting graduate volunteers who would like to develop a portfolio of art news videos covering the arts in Scotland.

• hello@summerhall.tv