I edited this short film for the folks at LifeOnUnleaded.com to showcase their first track day at Silverstone race course. I’m quite pleased with the colour of this one!

I edited this short film for the folks at LifeOnUnleaded.com highlighting their time at the Soft Top sunday Breakfast Club at Goodwood Motor Circuit.

Louis Karsenbarg is a car enthusiast from Hampshire. He operates his own, independent supercar publication Life On Unleaded which is a hub for car news, reviews and features. He also set up the Mo My Ride; a fundraising campaign to support the Movember Foundation.

This is the fourth episode of his popular, online “Living with…” series that I’ve filmed and edited for him. The series focuses on the pros and cons of living with second hand supercars and discusses the benefits of each model. This episode focusses on the Maserati Granturismo.

As you’ll see in the outtakes my brand new GoPro Hero 3 took a bit of a beating while filming this. Falling off the back of a Maserati going over 60MPH wasn’t really ideal for the little thing. Thankfully it survived albeit with a few scratches, although GoPro had to send me a new latch for the housing. (Free of charge I shall add; absolutely top service from them!)

Gallery

It was difficult to believe that it was only -almost- one year ago that Graham, myself, and the rest of SonarTV were at the Society & Volunteering Awards 2012, arguably one of the most successful live broadcasts that we achieved as the station during our time as managers. Yet there we were again at the same event for a second time, albeit renamed. So much had changed since then (like buying a new suit) yet it still felt like a matter of weeks since we were rushing around trying to organise our side of last year’s awards ceremony. This year there was fortunately no stress for Graham and I as we had already handed SonarTV over to Tom and Kai, the new Station Manager and Assistant Manager, who organised and executed their coverage of this year’s awards superbly. (Seeing them leap into action so quickly and just get on with it was really heartwarming. SonarTV is in safe hands next year.) But it was incredibly odd knowing that the awards night had rolled around again, and that this would be our last one.

The event itself was excellent, as was to be expected under the precedent of the previous year’s awards. Although the award categories had been changed along with the name (no more “Outstanding Contribution To Student Media” – you will be missed!) we were still lucky enough to walk away with several awards for the station.

First of all we were awarded “Project of the Year Award” for NaSTAvision, celebrating the hard work we put into the event, its ambitious scope, and the experience it gave the members of our station who participated in it. Our second award was for “Most Innovative Society”. This was awarded to us for how much we developed the society over the past twelve months, for giving members of the society a wide variety of filming experiences and using our initiative to utilise opportunities that helped the society fund equipment and that sort of thing; this was the most rewarding award for me, personally.

The other major award that our station contributed toward was the “SU Students’ Choice Award” which was awarded to SonarTV’s Head of Systems, Sam Jones. We nominated Sam because he has been the unsung linchpin since joining the station. Without him we would never have been able to live broadcast, and his technical knowledge is outstanding. The award was rightfully deserved, and I’m incredibly glad that he was given this recognition. I am certain that he’s going to do very well for himself in the future. (And I hope that if he ever needs a competent camera op he’ll give me a shout!)

Overall it was a successful night for SonarTV. It was a success for those of us who were recognised for building the station over the past year or more, and it was a success for the new members sitting at the wheel of the great ship that is Sonar. Although my biggest moment of pride hit me at the National Student Television Awards earlier this month, the Student Impact Awards emphasised why being a part of student media is so rewarding and why I personally feel that it has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. When I joined the station there was no hint that it would grow into something so well formed and highly regarded; it happened and has taken us by surprise, and I’m glad that everyone involved has been recognised for it. I can only wish them the best in continuing with it.

Two of the gallery photos above were taken by Donna Slidel Photography

For information on lest year’s awards and conference see NaSTA 2012

This year the National Student Television Conference and Awards weekend commemorated the 40th birthday of NaSTA (National Student Television Association). The event lasted for three days, from the 5th until the 7th of April. Last year my station, SonarTV, travelled up to Nottingham for the event, so we were incredibly keen to be heading to Exeter this year for more student TV fun.

The weekend kicked off with the first part of the Association’s Annual General Meeting, split in two due to the length the meeting lasted last year. The AGM is far from the most exciting thing for stations, but is a really important for the running of NaSTA. And for me it contained hustings for the NaSTA Executive Officers. This involved me speaking and answering questions in front of stations from across the country in a room that must have been bigger than my entire university. (Exeter’s campus is huge, and really beautiful. Their large conference room had chairs with power sockets in them that swivelled around. Amazing!)

Following the hustings was the welcome party which was, well, welcoming! I spent a large amount of it talking to people from other stations about the past year of student TV and about my campaign for Executive Marketing Officer. It was great finally being able to put faces to names, and it was wonderful to find out that everyone was just as nice in real life as they are online. Other than that, well, I have to admit that I don’t remember all too much about the welcome party.

The next morning started in a panic when I realised that I had woken up five minutes before the breakfast would stop being served. Thankfully I arrived just in time for a cooked meal from Exeter University’s catering team. A great preparation for the day ahead, for sure, as the next item on the schedule was The Golden Bodge competition. The Golden Bodges are a NaSTA tradition where stations team up to create a short film based on a set of anonymous suggestions from other stations. Usually they’re very crude, but often very amusing when in combination with a good style and theme.  This year we were partnered with SX:TV. Our style was “Silent Movie” and our theme was “Gangster Rap”. You can find all of this year’s bodges online, but you’ll have to find them yourself as the first rule of bodges is not to talk about bodges. Which I’ve just broken. Watch out, they might be coming for u-

After the Golden Bodges were finished it was time for the conference speakers. I attended some of the talks including one by Steven Hughes, a television director who has worked on shows such as Doctors, Casualty and Doctor Who. (Notice a trend?) His talk was really insightful and gave some great information on the television production process. There were a number of others too but I found myself enjoying Steven’s the most. While I enjoyed the talks a lot I have to admit that there was something pressing on my mind throughout all of them; the awards.

The staple of NaSTA Conference and Awards weekends is, of course, the awards themselves. This year the awards had two reasons to get me nervous and excited. The first being that my station had entered twelve categories that we were very eager to hear results for. The second reason for my anticipation was that the results of the NaSTA Officer elections were being announced the same evening.

After what felt like an eternity of getting ready we made our way down to the forecourt of the halls of residence we were staying in. Like other stations we had our photos taken, met up with our friends and braced ourselves for the next few hours ahead of us. Mainly by drinking the champagne provided by XTV, Exeter’s student TV station.

Awards time. The moment we were all waiting for. We entered Exeter’s Great Hall. In front of us were tables draped in cloth and a stage with ‘NaSTA 40′ displayed on huge screens. We were in for a big evening. Shortly after sitting dinner arrived and we were treated to a very pleasant meal.

Just as desert was being served a timer appeared on the large displays. The room erupted into cheers. Ten minutes later the awards started. A video summarising all of the great work submitted by stations played and the room erupted into cheers, whoops and claps, with stations shouting out when their work came onto the screens. The room was alive.

Now, I’m going to skip ahead a little bit. While I could probably describe every moment of the awards ceremony in detail, I fear that may be counter productive as the video will be online soon. Anyone keen enough to read through this will probably enjoy the video much more. However, I will spoil the ending a little for those of you who just want to know what happened; unfortunately SonarTV didn’t win any awards again this year, but we were shortlisted for Best Title Sequence, Best Freshers’ Coverage, Best Music and Best On-Screen Female.

More importantly to me, however, was the result of the elections. To recreate the moment, I’m going to write it how it was announced. “Next year’s NaSTA Marketing officer is…” An envelope is unfolded. A piece of paper is lifted out. “Rowan Johnson.” My table erupts. SonarTV jump on me in celebration. A spotlight shines in my eyes. I begin to walk toward the stage, trying my best to see where I’m going. I eventually get to the central aisle and a camera is shoved into my face. I either attempt to do the sign of the horns or at least think about doing it at the lens. Once up on stage my nerves settle a little. At last a success for SonarTV; a success for me!

As the awards closed the realisation that the event was coming to an end began to sink in. I spent the rest of the evening celebrating my success with various stations, eventually making it to sleep in the early hours.

Sunday marked the end of the conference weekend, finalised by the second part of the Annual General Meeting. This part of the AGM was used to decide on motions for the Association which would be used to steer it in the future, or make changes to existing plans. Most of them were fairly normal requests, including my approved motion to instate an Alumni Officer within NaSTA, but the highlight of the AGM was the One Night Stand Repercussions Act. You can read all about it here, or to keep a long story short, it basically means that if any delegates end up having unplanned babies as a result of conference weekend shenanigans then NaSTA becomes its godparent and the child’s middle name has to be NaSTA. (It has to be case sensitive, too.) The motion was originally rejected by the NaSTA Chair on the grounds of it being a joke, but as the move was unconstitutional the motion was brought up, voted on and passed. This is why we love NaSTA.

And then it was over. NaSTA 40 had ended. Like NUTS in Nottingham the year before, the students at XTV in Exeter did an absolutely fantastic job at organising the conference and awards weekend. I honestly miss being there already, and am so excited that I get to be on the NaSTA Exec helping Staffs TV plan next year’s conference in Staffordshire. They have a lot to live up to if it’s going to compare to the past two years, but I’m confident they’ll be able to pull it off. I can’t wait!

When I joined SonarTV the station had only been running for a year. Although there were huge milestones for Sonar in my first year at university the station never really produced all that much content. When I took over in my second year we began to start producing a much larger and wider variety of programming. We were ecstatic with our achievements, but when we entered into the NaSTA Awards 2012 we left amazed at how good other stations’ content was, and how much farther we had to go. The following twelve months saw us improve dramatically as we set our hearts on becoming the Best Broadcaster within NaSTA. When editing this showreel I wanted to quantify how much achievement and pride we felt towards the station. Although we didn’t quite make number one, we were shortlisted as joint top third. It’s such an honour to know that the station we built from nothing is now one of the top three broadcasters in the UK.

On top of Best Broadcaster we were also shortlisted for the following four awards, which took us by surprise.

• Joint 3rd place for Best Freshers’ Coverage

  This year we took our Freshers’ Coverage up a notch. Unlike previously, where we would only cover Freshers’ Fair and Societies Fair, we were at every event, putting our station in the minds of every new student, and landing us interviews with celebrities such as Jamie Laing, Danny Howard and Mistajam.

  “Liked the friendly interviews with the presidents … These interviews were really nicely lit in places … The music bed was just the right level too, so you could still easily hear what the interviewees were saying!”
  – Claire Manning of ITV Westcountry News

Watch this entry



• Joint 3rd place for Best Title Sequence – Freshers’ Announcement

  In August SonarTV were fortunate enough to be given exclusive privileges to announce the line up for Freshers’ Fortnight 2012. As part of the broadcast I created this title sequence, using my friends as actors. Originally I had planned to have a limousine and explosions in this sequence but, as the awards results show, it was great as it was.

  “Very nice titles animated with real attitude. Short, sweet and to the point.”
  - Tom Bromwich of MOMOCO

  Watch this entry



• Shortlisted for Best Music Show – Blissfields

  In the summer of 2012 Graham Fitzgerald and I attended Blissfields music festival on behalf of SonarTV. Despite being only a two person crew we were able to cover a variety of short videos to highlight the happenings at the festival. Between the two of us we filmed and edited over thirty minutes of quality content, which was later condensed into a ten minute documentary for the submission. You can read more about the event and coverage here.

  “Nice montage at top, well shot and informative.”
  - Steven Edwards of Channel 4 Music

  Watch this entry



• Shortlisted for Best On Screen Female – Georgie Laming

  Obviously I was not personally shortlisted for this category, but I edited the showreel for Georgie, which required me picking out her best bits from a number of videos.

  “Engaged, lots of energy and connects well with the viewer.”
  - Kate Silverton of BBC News

  Watch this entry

   

As I now step out of student TV as a member of a station and enter into my new role as NaSTA’s Executive Marketing Officer, I honestly can’t express how happy I am to have been a part of SonarTV and to have built it up into something others strive to compete with. Without the station I would be half the filmmaker– Wait. No. I would be half the person I am today, and the experiences it has given me have established the confidence I’ve needed in order to jump on opportunities that I would have shied away from otherwise.

Being a part of student media in my university has been one of the best things I’ve ever done in the three years of my time here. The knowledge and skills that have been learnt taking part and getting involved are invaluable. (My technical knowledge of video equipment is purely based on the information I’ve gathered through doing SonarTV broadcasts. Having a problem with your OB rig? Just give me a shout.)

More importantly, though, are the people I’ve met. The people in student media are some of the most driven, determined and passionate people I’ve ever met, and I have no doubts that they’re going to do very well for themselves in the future. And I honestly can’t thank everyone enough for working with me and putting up with my crazy ideas.

It has been a pleasure, and I hope that myself and Graham (SonarTV’s Assistant Station Manager, my soulmate-but-only-on-a-professional-level, and someone who has contributed equally -if not more- than me to the station with far less recognition for it) have left SonarTV in a good enough ground to continue and thrive this next year. If I’m sat at the Exec table for NaSTA 2014 and SonarTV wins Best Broadcaster make no mistake that I will get up and do my best to help you bring the roof down.*

*Just to clarify that I won’t help you actually break the roof of the building. Not only will it annoy Staffordshire University but it’ll probably be quite expensive to fix. But in a manner of speaking…

Below, a complete summary of my three years in SonarTV in pictures.

Although the Robot may not the best film or video I’ve ever made, I’m still proud of the effort that was put in and how ambitious the film was considering I was working independently.

I created this short video to support Tom Richards, a friend of Life On Unleaded, who is running the 2013 London Marathon for Tommy’s; a charity that providing information for parents-to-be, and funds research into stillbirth, premature birth and miscarriage. The video is a light hearted parody of H&M’s recent advert starring David Beckham, and was shot on a Sony EX3 using techniques such as over cranking.

You can support Tom on his JustGiving page: justgiving.com/Tom-Richards1989

Louis Karsenbarg is a car enthusiast from Hampshire. He operates his own, independent supercar publication Life On Unleaded which is a hub for car news, reviews and features. He also set up the Mo My Ride; a fundraising campaign to support the Movember Foundation. This is the third episode of his popular, online “Living with…” series that I’ve filmed and edited for him. The series focuses on the pros and cons of living with second hand supercars and discusses the benefits of each model. This episode focusses on the BMW M3 E92 coupe.

This episode wasn’t without its difficulties…

But we persevered, and I like to think the video came out really well. See the gallery below for some of my favourite shots from the video.

Gallery