digital media production, Production Companies - Cornwall - M-Mad

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Over the past three years Multi Media Arts Documentation (M-MAD) has been developing ways of engaging young people with their communities using digital multimedia.

It was a dream of both Krystyna Zdan-Michajlowicz, independent film maker and Pete Lewis, sound engineer and technician, to help young people, especially the more disadvantaged, to be able to make their own films and music.

The company has gone from strength to strength, working closely with East Cornwall CVS (formally Community Projects Trust) to bring digital media technology to young people in the North Cornwall area. By using digital media, music and drama M-MAD have been able to help young people look at themselves, their environment and the communities where they live, producing a finished film that they are proud of.

Krystyna has worked in partnership with youth and community groups in the area and has built up a good reputation for engaging young people who are difficult to reach. Working with artists and musicians she has built a model that works, which reaches out to these young people and provides them with a platform to express their feelings.

Pete, a sound engineer, has worked with many local bands and has built a reputation for providing sound reinforcement that accurately reproduces the source. Pete is also a dab hand at coach building as well as mechanical engineering, he has spent the past eight years developing and moulding his Bedford TK into a vehicle for both living and working out of. In the past year the TK has seen the addition of solar panels and a wind turbine, which power the sound and video editing equipment.

The recent addition of the caravan has enabled Krystyna and Pete to take the sound and video equipment to the young people who want to use it, running workshops to them to make films about their lives. Training includes the use of cameras, developing storyboards and ideas for content, interviewing techniques as well as editing using various software packages. The young people are also able to make their own electronic music to use as sound tracks for their footage.

The outreach vehicle with caravan has opened up a whole new world; the couple can spend a whole day working in o­ne area, with a group of young people, or a whole week if necessary. As long as the sun shines and/or the wind blows the work will carry o­n.

The o­nly thing missing from the package was the ability to access the internet o­n site. Thanks to Henry Walker from Primetech Ltd in Bodmin, the last piece of the jigsaw has slipped into place. Primetech Ltd have offered to loan M-MAD a broadband satellite capable of download speeds of up to 512 megabytes per second. This has opened up the possibilities for developing a media literacy project, and will enable a dedicated website to be developed to provide a show-case for the work of the young people in the area.