Filming & Photography in Public Places - You and the Law.

For all of you in the media, or have a keen interest in video and photography it will come as no surprise to tell you that you have the right to film and / or take photos in a public place. However, over the last few years this has become somewhat difficult to prove as members of the public, officals and police have disputed otherwise with a sentence roughly like "You can't film here unless you have a permit." Usually at this point there is nothing you can do but pack up and move on as you have no proof to the contrary. 

Until now....

Fortunately here at Bearleft.tv we've happened to stuble upon an open letter written by Chief Constable Andrew Trotter, Chair of the Association of ACPO Communication Advisory Group. Originally for the use of officers and colleagues it contained information regarding Guidance for Photographers.

The letter is full of useful information and clearly states that members of the media or public should not be stopped when taking pictures or film in a public place. Having emailed the staff officer he has kindly given us permission to reproduce the letter in its entirity and it can be seen below. If you are activily filming / photographing in areas likely to attract attention I would suggest familiarising yourself with its contents and even go as far as to keep a copy in your kit bag.

I must point out that this letter does NOT give the holder "access all areas" and applies to areas that are considered to be public places and not privately owned. (Even here you must not film anything that could be seen as unfairly infringing on a person's privacy) It is imperative that everyone should know and fully understand their rights when taking pictures or filming in a public place. (For instance the police can still seize your camera, or obtain a court order to do so, if they believe that you have captured evidence relating to a crime.) 

Please remember that the police are there to help and protect the community and its members from, besides other things, an event or incident that might constitute, or appear to constitute a breach of local or national security. For more information on the subject you can refer to the ACPO media guidelines.

We hope that you will find this helpful, and allow you to keep doing what you love - making awesome films and stunning photos. From all of us here at BEARLEFT.TV, stay safe (and legal) and we will see you all in the new year.

T'was the Month before Christmas, and all through the office.....

was non-stop, knuckling down, and getting on with some hard work!

You may have noticed that the tweets & facebook posts from us may have dried up lately, which usually happens around this time, and this year is no exception! Among creating promotional videos & training materials for private clients we've also been working on other things......

The first is of course making sure that all of our DVD's are available for the Christmas shoppers and with our Amazon shop up and running over Christmas for the first time, this has been a task in itself! In fact our last DVD Hywel Morgan's Fly Tying - Stillwater Patterns has been selling so many we have received numerous emails from Amazon warning us of low stock levels!!! Fortunately we are well prepared and have enough in storage to meet demand!

We also received this glowing review of "The Complete Cast" - "Bought this for one of my sons as he knows all I can teach him. This taught me some new techniques and ideas and I've been fishing for 50 odd years. Most informative and very easy to appreciate and learn new skills. Highly recommended."

You can find all of our products on Amazon, Ebay and of course our own website at : www.bearleft.tv  where you can also see trailers before you buy. All of the fishing DVD's are also available from Hywel Morgan's website at www.hywelmorgan.co.uk. The Lost Railway series is currently on sale in the Forest of Dean at the Dean Forest Railway, Coleford Railway Museum and the Dean Heritage Centre.

...and if that's not enough to keep track off we are currently on the brink of releasing one of our two new projects with Hywel which we have been working on throughout the entire year. It is currently entitled "4 Seasons - Bank Fishing on Stillwaters" and we hope it will be out in time for Christmas (It's being edited as I type - nothing like working to the wire)  :-)

The weekend is also shaping up to be quite exciting with us filming two very different events. At the first we will be filming an extrodinary sight as a man attempts to pull a 16 tonne lorry single handed and then it's off to North Wales to meet up with hywel at a Graling competition and hopefully film more episodes for his Webcast channel. We will also be trying out some interesting camera angles and hope to get shots several metres above the river bank - Some interesting pics to follow!

John Coppinger Interview

At the beginning of October we hinted in this blog and on Facebook that we were off to interview someone special. That person was artist,writer, designer and sculptor John Coppinger. For those of you that don't know John he has worked on numerous films throughout the years including The Dark Crystal, Return of the Jedi and The Fifth Element to name but a few. During that time he has helped create some of the most famous characters in movie history. With the opportunity to visit John in his workshop too good to miss we headed up there and  found out how he began his career and what it was like to work behind the scenes on some iconic films.....plus find out how Jabba the Hutt met his demise after filming!

Halloween Gashes & Slashes

As we mentioned in our last post we ended September by meeting some friends and managed to film some episodes of our 'Prop Shop' series with them. Well, we have now edited the first one in time for Halloween!

It features Nicole Klein who is the owner of 'The Hourglass - The Pin up Experience' which gives women the opportunity to experience a pin up and burlesque make over and photo shoot. If your interested you can check out her site at: www.thehourglass.eu. However before making women look beautiful, Nicole's role was quite the opposite as she worked as the Head of Make up on many of the horror experiences at the Warner Brother's Theme Park in Germany. Upon discovering this Nicole very kindly demonstrated her skills on Alan transforming him into one of the undead with half his face missing....

Upon our return to BEARLEFT HQ Aaron roped in the help of Erin, a friend who happened to pop around, who ended up having a massive fake gash applied to her arm. Needless to say she loved it! All of the products featured in the programme can be found online including here: www.brickintheyard.com who supplied us with the 'Gel 10'. Oh, and for some unknown reason we decided to finish the show with some stickmen zombies...why? ...because we're just like that sometimes.....;-)

So that's it for now. Hope you enjoy this episode of prop shop and we will see you all soon.

Make-up, Monsters and Madness!

Can you believe it's October already! Where are the months going?

Since our last post BEARLEFT.TV have been working on numerous projects both in-house and for exterior clients and if we were to go into detail this could turn out to be a mamoth post, so we'll give you the highlights. 

As previous blogged the beginning of August saw our new DVD being launched - Hywel Morgan's Fly Tying - Stillwater Patterns. This was due to numerous requests for Hywel to demonstrate fly tying that was suitable for all levels of experience, and you can see a free pattern over on his Youtube channel. The DVD is available to buy from us and we are now also selling through Amazon and you'll find a new link to all of the places where you can buy our products over on the right. -------------->

Our website also had a slight overhall, and along with a new promotional video on the front page, you can now watch trailers, view product information and purchase our programmes direct from the relevant page. 

September was certainly a busy month for our cameras as we found ourselves heading to locations both near and far. We have filmed a large part of the city of Gloucester for an up and coming project and even Coleford for a local businessman. One of the most exciting shoots was at the Kustom Kulture Blast Off - a great event of the best custom art and artists in the country. We were pleased to support Ty Lawer and our friends at Pageant Paintwork who won not only the Best Airbrush Award but Best in Show! A great achievement made even more rewarding that they are celebrating 25 Years of business. We've editied higlights of the show and you can see it here:

We ended September by meeting a great couple, and without giving too much away, one worked on the legendary Star Wars in the creation of Jabba the Hutt and the other was a make up artist in the Warner Brother's theme park in Germany. Needless to say we have filmed some episodes of our Prop Shop series with them both, and with a few little extra bits from us hopefully they will be out in time for Halloween. (By the way if you missed what we did last year... please put down any hot liquids, breakable objects or small children then watch this)  

This month we are back out filming with Hywel Morgan for two new DVD's covering 4 seasons of stillwater and river fishing and should be out in time for Christmas. We have also got a few other things in the pipeline that may require cast and crew so if you would like to get involved please follow us / subscribe (there are shortcuts on the right---->) and make yourself known to the Bearleft.tv crew.

NEW DVD - Hywel Morgan's Fly Tying - Almost Available!

Here at Bearleft.tv we have been working very hard. Not only do we have a great project going on with the Osbaston Hydro electric power station and new Fishing DVDs in the making but also to help all you enthusiastic fly fishing followers here we have a new programme to show you how to tie your own flies.

We did some research and found a few DVDs out there which showed fly tying, but most were either beginner focused or pattens for the more experienced tier. However our programme takes you from the basic tools of the trade, some of the materials and some of the basic techniques any beginner fly tier will need when starting this addictive hobby.

The way we have structured this DVD is similar to our Complete Cast DVD where you can watch it from start to finish or you can use it like a learning reference tool by picking from our menu system and clicking where you want to start.

Allowing you to find where to begin or to jump right in at the patterns you are curious about tying.

Some of the questions that are asked regularly are coved in this DVD like,

• Which is the best fly tying vice to use?
• What do i need to buy to start fly tying?
• How do I do the hitch knot or the whip finish?

All this is covered in the beginning section and then over 16 pattens are all tied in realtime so you can follow Hywel Morgan along and tie with him.

The pattens include, nymphs, lures, bugs, buzzers, blobs and boobies.

Each chosen for their particular techniques that once mastered then can be used to tie almost anything you could want in your fly box.

Priced at only £14.99 this is the tool in your tying kit you will keep coming back to again and again.

The Art of Foley

Hey all,

Well we're currently in full pre-production for our latest commission and it's proving to be really exciting. We are still documenting the process and will write some decent blog articles when we get chance. In the meantime check out our latest film on Youtube where we pull back the curtain and reveal some of the tricks of the trade when creating sounds in film.

A Production from Start to Finish! - Part 1

Hey folks, 

While working on one of our productions the other day it occurred to me that although people watch films they may not know the full extent of the work that go into making one ,or they would like to have a go themselves but don't know where to start. So I thought that for our latest production I would try and document the procedure in the hope that someone out in the big wide world may find it interesting or even help them! This is not going to be an in-depth breakdown but we will cover the basics just to get you started.

So the obvious starting point is the script. If you want it to look right (or if you want anyone in the industry to take you seriously) you will have to follow the age old standard layout that everyone uses. There are software programmes out there such as Final Draft  which you can now pick up for around £160 and which will correctly format the page for you.

If you can't afford specific software don't worry, you can still write your script in Microsoft Word or other word programme, it might just take you a little longer to format the page. If using Word you must use the Font  - Courier at size 12 which looks like this. (This is because it resembles the old type writer font which was used when scripts were first written)

Some Important Points to Remember when Writing:

• Ideally your script should work out to one page of dialogue = one minute of screen time. 
• Do not put anything in Bold
• Do not write camera directions - This is the job of the Director and will be added by him / her.
• The following should all be capitalised in the script: Sounds (including music) ,the names of the characters the first time they appear , the speakers name above each line of dialogue and every word in the header: INT. SHOP. DAY

As I said these are only the basics and you can get more information easily on the net. One of the best ways to learn is by looking at professional scripts. These are sometimes given away with film magazines, or you may be able to find them on the web. Just remember that scripts vary slightly depending on the programme / film genre so make sure you learn the style that’s right for you.

Next time we'll start to breakdown the script.

Free Google advertising loophole!

Now here is a loophole I don't think Google ever anticipated. But its our job as our tag line rightly says we are here to 'Dream - Create - Share'.

So after a huge amount of training and research we have come up with a great video to share with you all.

Let us know if it works. :)

I have posted it over on Youtube so remember to subscribe while you're there to see all the other great stuff! With lots more to come.

Watch this space!

Hi everyone,

Well, we are now well and truly into the new year and already it's starting to look exciting! As already mentioned below we entered the top 100 requested videos on Scuzz and our new fishing DVD To Lure A Killer has appeared on numerous websites and articles like the one below...

But that's just the start! We have big plans this year and we are already well under way with several new products and programmes in the pipline. In between all of that we will also be making fun short films on whatever we feel like so if you have any ideas what we can film or what you would like to see let us know! Below is our video for January in which we decided to have a lighthearted look at our slow internet connection speed :-)

We also aim to make this blog more exclusive giving you the chance to see things here before anyone else including behind the scenes footage and other fun stuff. So thanks for checking out bearleft.tv in 2010 and we hope you enjoy what we do in 2011.

BEARLEFT.TV in the top 100 requested Videos on SCUZZ!

Over the winter holidays SCUZZ channel compiled a great festive tune fighting 100 countdown of the most requested videos, and the video BEARLEFT.TV produced for the awesome Northampton band 'Sacred mother Tongue' titled ' The End ' kicked off the whole proceedings at number 100! Ok its a start but from the thousands of videos you can request it made us smile with pride here in the office! Lets just hope there was more than 100 videos to choose from! :) Well done Boys and I look forward to the new album out soon and the call to make the next cinematic master piece! The guitar master that is Andy James from SMT is about to embark on a US tour with the dark and black-tastick ' Cradle of Filth ' go see this guy he is a shredding Jedi master!
Thanks
Aaron