Peter Tat volunteered to work with a group of young adults to produce a short film celebrating the work of the Greater Manchester Youth Network. The charity provides opportunities for young people and supports youth organisations that work in Greater Manchester.
‘It was a real privilege to hear the young people tell us about the tough situations they'd been through’
I’d always fancied volunteering but I’d always found an excuse not to go through with it. Most of the time I'd say to myself I was too busy.
As my attachment with the amazing Blue Peter film team started to draw to an end, I saw a small poster offering the chance to be a volunteer film maker for BBC Outreach. It was perfect chance for me to put together everything I’d learnt about making short films.
Having left News a few years back, I'd not worked with disadvantaged young people for a while. I definitely needed to chat to them as individuals again.
I knew my summer involved making lots of big, medium and small Blue Peter films across the country, doing what's known as a Hot Shoes work placement, then returning to my substantive post in Bristol and also generally trying to have a personal life. So it was probably the worst time to try and make two outreach films.
But I decided to make them part of my summer and I’m so glad I did.
Having just finished the edit for a film about YMCA Bolton in Bristol at 6pm, I jumped on a train to Manchester to make a second film with the Greater Manchester Youth Network.
GMYN were having a change in staff so whilst we knew we had a shoot date we didn't yet know who'd be turning up and what activities they'd be doing.
That said, the young people did get the chance to attend an ideas session previously with my colleague, Becky Bailey, a researcher at CBBC. Becky shared her camera and storytelling skills with the group and then the young people gave me suggestions of what to include in the short film. Hearing how GMYN had helped turn some of the young people’s lives around was inspirational to say the least.
They were also in the process of simplifying their mission statement so it was hard to define easily what they did. This made asking the question "what's the story and how will I treat it" difficult, along with having every piece of kit to suit the job.
On the morning of the shoot the chief executive told us that GMYN had recently defined four key strands that will be fundamental to every project it runs. This gave me the idea to structure the film around theses strands to give the whole thing some shape.
Knowing that the young people weren't going to be around all day meant we had to shoot in a "run and gun" style.
To become a better shooter I had taken up photography. I like to take a bit of time compose my shots like a photograph, organising people and objects in the frame. On this day there was little time for that and I had to shoot what I saw - "run and gun".
It's a cliché but it was a real privilege to hear the young people tell us about the tough situations they'd been through, and the most striking thing was how positive they have become. Just having someone to help allowed them to turn things around.
We got some great stuff and I can't wait to rough cut and get into the edit with it all.
BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community support and staff volunteering.
