This is an experiment. The content is real enough. The sound may not be good enough - I forgot the 'furry' hood for the microphone and I think the camera may be the wrong one. But without trial and error I will not get these things right.
Comments welcome on the production, as well as the content.
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Excellent! One of my students, eating lunch in my classroom, watched as I did, and commented very positively on its info, brevity and clarity. Keep Vlogging On!
Thank you
And to them
Hi Richard, I liked your video and have a couple of suggestions. (In list format too)
1. Perhaps consider a stand for your video recording device to stabilise things (if only there was an stand for the economy)
2. Yeah, the sound. The level was a bit on the low side for me, background noise drowned you out partially. But you know that.
3. Perhaps consider a green screen as a background, then you can place your own bulleted or numbered lists and graphs on the video along with yourself. Think like a weather presenter.
3. The length of the video is about right IMO. Suitable for distribution on social media.
As for the content, you’re absolutely correct.
Labour are playing their neoliberal fiddle while the UK disintegrates.
They refuse to discuss the source of a large part of these problems; which is Brexit. Clearly pitching to the former red wall constituencies and thereby alienating swathes of the UK who would prefer a renewed relationship with the EU.
They refuse to acknowledge that the government can create money at will, thereby needlessly continuing with a programme of austerity for which may will suffer.
I could go on, and perhaps there should have been a list in that second paragraph, but I have money to earn to pay for the increased cost of living which the Conservative and Unionist government have imposed upon me. I hold no hope that a Labour government would do any better when both political parties of the UK’s duopoly have economic policies rooted in fallacious thinking.
Thanks
I agree – a tripod is required
The rest, all noted…
Popshield. Have a think about composition too, that fence line behind you would be better at eye level, for instance.
I think I will be moving back indoors….
I actually never intended to publish that one – but I liked the argument so I thought ‘what the heck?’. Perfection is the enemy of the good and all that
But they will get better
What you are talking about is joined up thinking. Seeing that public health depends on good housing, education , infrastructure as well as some financial security.
When each is treated as a separate market, all that is lost. Council housing has, in many areas, been transferred to ALMOs (arms length organisations) and people brought in at board level who tell existing managers ‘they don’t know about the real world’ and sidelined so they, and their experience, is lost. Sold off council houses reappear on the rental market at rents in excess of what they were as local authority dwellings.
Schools -I know well-are forced to ‘compete’ for pupils using league tables of results. The curriculum is made more academic and practical skills downplayed. One result is my neighbour, a self employed builder, can’t recruit trained trades people, and he is not alone.
The targets culture means people are , often, feeling they are failing when they are, in fact, working hard -often with reduced resources.
Public is contrasted negatively with private, and they continue to see cuts justified with phrases like ‘efficiency savings’ and ‘modernisation’. Yet we continue to rely on the good will and ‘public service ethos’ of these people.
Anger is mounting.
Very good, thanks. I too have long thought that economic and social stress results in greater ill-health in the population at large. The politicians and governments who seem to think their job is to use their position and power to put the boot in rather than to help make life better for people would never understand how constant worry about having enough money to buy food and pay bills can make you sick!
Sir Harry Burns, when Chief Medical Officer under Alex Salmond gave this, to me, ground breaking lecture.
I am absolutely convinced that, once this madness is over, his speech will be accorded it’s rightful place.
https://elevateni.org/videos/what-causes-wellness-sir-harry-burns-tedxglasgow/
Thanks
Insightful video, thank you Richard.
I don’t think you mentioned the increasingly aged society as a factor in growing NHS demand but it undoubtedly is and will continue to be so. Demographic change is readily predictable so not a surprise.
This leads to a second point linked to your other theme for today, that democracy is under threat. NHS and free healthcare (usually) at the point of delivery is a democratic right and freedom but we can see it is being undermined by Rightwing free-marketeer US aligned interests who espouse profit-based medicine. Defending the NHS, healthcare workers rights to fair pay and conditions, and our democratic freedoms are inherently linked. It is increasingly clear that some in government, probably including Sunak, Barclay, Zahawi, Hunt etc want to pull it apart. We cannot allow this.
Good point re ageing
But given it was only meant to be used for trial purposes and I just turned the camera on I think I can be forgiven
Agree second point
“Comments are turned off. Learn more”
“Comments are welcome on the production, as well as the content”
How did those two mutually incompatible claims slip through, so close together?
I am nit sure what you mean
But, if you were looking at a post more than a few days old they are turned off
I do nut have the capacity to manage comments on all 20,000 posts on here
Personally I dislike the video format. It doesn’t add anything – for me – that reading the text omits, and I distrust it because I have a long history of agreeing (temporarily) with the speaker, almost regardless of who it is. I strongly suspect I am not the only one. That suggests a vulnerability which I’d rather not expose myself to.
As a first attempt, very good. Got the message across which was the most important thing. Perhaps try indoors and see how that looks. Just experiment and see which comes across the best.
Craig
“Comments welcome on the production”
Your eye-line is too high in the frame. The impression is that you are looking down into a smartphone video recorder whilst pretending that you aren’t. You need to show a fearless (well, we know you are but…) and open view, not hooded eyes. Look out, not down.
The ratio in your photo in the sidebar here is much better.
Thanks
I watched a covidaction zoom call tonight. A nurse on there mentioned the number of patients going into hospital now with hypothermia because they can’t afford the heating. That fits your argument.
This was posted yesterday and I just saw it. Played it twice.
I appreciate this is a tryout of, presumably, your new video software, but I’m sorry but its a bit wooden and I don’t like the outside location – unless you shot it in front of a hospital, which might work. Green screen idea is good, assuming the software allows you to drop in the backround, and you could then use footage to illustrate the point, such as ambulances queueing at A&E. I also notice that TV documentaries extensively use footage that reflects a word being used. For example if you said “seachange” you’d show waves rolling into the shore.
I have done a bit of video using Serif Movie Plus (which has been discontinued) but it is all very time-consuming in the cutting room if you want to make it a real slick production. Movie Plus allows you to intersperse video with stills such as graphs which I found worked well. It also allows music on the soundtrack with a voiceover.
Keep at it though. As I said in my recent email, this sort of thing is the way to go.
I am learning
Comments appreciated
Many comments, including those where people asked that they not be published, at really helpful. I am already learning a lot.
I will be back at my desk for the next ones…..