Video Nation reborn on BBC "Where I Live" websites
People
across England will have the chance to share their passions, emotions
and stories of everyday life in a new BBC English Regions project
that goes into the heart of local communities.
Video
Nation, an interactive multi-media initiative, will convey the thoughts
of hundreds of people across the country directly to a global audience
on BBCi's network of local Where I Live sites.
"By
harnessing 18 Where I Live websites to the Video Nation concept
- which ran so successfully on BBC TWO in the mid-1990s - we are
tailoring for the growing interactive market an idea which was originally
developed for a quite different medium," says John Allen, Head
of New Services for BBC English Regions.
The
network of 37 Where I Live sites on BBCi has been set up by English
Regions over the last two years to serve local communities with
news, sport, entertainment and information - www.bbc.co.uk/england.
The
audience for these sites is growing by the week, as the general
public increasingly turns to BBCi for relevant, entertaining and
interactive local information.
In
January of this year over 250 of the original Video Nation short
films were made available to view on BBCi - www.bbc.co.uk/videonation.
At
the same time a trial was launched at the Leicester, Liverpool and
London Where I Live sites, where local teams were equipped with
the resources required to produce new videos.
"This
trial was really successful," adds Ian Myatt, Senior Producer
in English Regions New Media, "so we've decided to extend the
project to the 18 sites across England.
"Each
site will offer camcorder and laptop editing support to people interested
in producing their own personal video shorts."
Each
of the 11 BBC regions in England will have at least one of its Where
I Live sites linked to the Video Nation project when it is launched
next month.
Video
Nation will also utilise video material being produced for Hull
Diaries, part of the BBC Hull Interactive broadband pilot which
was launched last year on the Kingston Communications ADSL service.
Video
Nation began life in 1993 as an experimental television and archive
project for BBC TWO, inspired by a mass observation project of the
1930s.
Contributors
were given equipment and training to film their everyday lives,
and over 1,200 shorts were broadcast, telling the personal stories
of hundreds of volunteers.
|
