We shot with a small crew of 4, who was meant to be 5. We actually had another presenter lined up who unfortunately had to pull out due to illness, but Christian who was meant to be our second camera man bravely stepped up to interview the teams and did a fantastic job at the last minute.

(Trystan on Boom, Bailey on Camera and Christian)

Here we are interviewing some of the teams:

As well as interviewing the teams, we got to talk to some of fringe events that were happening around the event, such as the Bury Hill Bikers, Amberly Working Museum and the Birds of Prey.

During the race we had the crew out on the water in one of the Safety Boats (thanks guys!). We also had a mini cam attached to our teams boat:

The aim of the video is raise awareness of the event, show people how much fun we have at the event and give the competitors a memento of the day. Editing will start this week… watch this space!

This was my third year of taking part, and what a year it was! The themes seem to be getting bigger and crazier with each year. We entered a team of 4 people in an acrylic bathtub, and called ourselves the Pompey Ninja Warriors – no guessing what our theme was!

And here is our tub in all it’s glory

Some of the best themes included a Tennis court, a floating castle with knights, and a roman chariot complete with 7 (hobby) horses. There was also an entry from Spirit FM who had a Baywatch theme, and Chestnut Tree House entered a team this year as well.

For those who don’t know the whole event is in aid of raising money for Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice, you can find out more about their charity here: www.chestnut-tree-house.org.uk

A total of 36 teams took part this year, and I thought we had placed quite well until I was informed we actually came 24th! (oh dear!)

Well done to all the other teams who took part, it’s definitely one of my favourite days out of the year, roll on 2011!

For the full gallery of photographs, click here

Check out the official website www.arundelbathrace.com

Every day of the week is like a Saturday night. There are street performers who are there every night for your entertainment. The highlights being the guy playing amazing piano on the street, and the breakdancers.

The highlights include various live bands such as Paper Planes at Wayne’s Bar and Foxy Lady who played at Akathor, both brilliant bars! Wayne’s Bar was brilliant, everyone was up dancing on the tables.

The walk up to the Chateaux at Nice is amazing, and when you get to the top you get this amazing view… (click to enlarge)

Check out more photos of Nice in my gallery

We also took a trip to Monte Carlo whilst we were there, which was also beautiful, but with a bit of a different vibe to Nice. It was lovely to walk round and have a look at the (very expensive) cars and boats though and just people watch!

Check out more photos of Monte Carlo in my gallery

Design Meltdown

www.designmeltdown.com

My favourite site – it has pretty much every style of website you could need. Personally I prefer the Classic Meltdown site because it’s all listed in categories.

CSS Drive

www.cssdrive.com

Great site with lot’s of CSS websites ordered into various styles. My favourite categories are the Menu designs – great when you’re stuck for a bit of inspiration for trying something different.

CSS Elite

www.csselite.com

Another great CSS gallery – designs are rated so you can see which are the favourites.

Colour Scheme Designer

colorschemedesigner.com

Not only a great place to discover great colour schemes, but also a brilliantly designed website.

Further inspiration

Just by typing ‘beautiful websites’ into Google you get loads of blog posts listing some of their favourite sites, there’s tons of inspiration out there.

What’s your favourite sites for inspiration? I’m always looking for more so feel free to post them or Tweet me @Starboard_Media

At the top

Sounds obvious but include the title of the film at the top.

Then below have the shooting date, location name, and call sheet number (if you have more than one). Having the date and location in clear bold print at the top will help when you have a few call sheets to juggle with!

Crew Details

Ensure all crew and cast / talent contact details are on the list, including name and role. You never know who might need to contact who and not all cast and crew may have met by this point.

Location Details

Have the address, telephone number and a map is also a good idea as people driving may not have sat nav and I’ve always found a map on the call sheet to be very important!

Health and Safety Notes

It’s a good idea to consider all elements you may come across on your shoot and include them on the call sheet. Examples of these might be:

1. Environment – busy environment / in a dangerous area, busy road, next to water
2. Weather – waterproof equipment, clothing, sun cream, lots of water, extreme temperatures
3. Equipment – awareness of any special equipment such as lighting rigs, cranes, etc
4. Clothing – any special clothing requirements, footwear, hi-vis jackets, etc.

Schedule

A short, concise schedule for shooting is a great idea. Ensure you include a call time and wrap time so no one is late. Then list what scenes / shots you will need by which time, or if you’re shooting an event list the order of events. For example:

08:00 – Call Time

09:00 – Interview with Joe Bloggs

10:00 – Interview with John Smith

11:00 – Exterior Shots

13:00 – Interview with Company

14:00 – Live music gig

17:00 – Wrap

No need to go into extensive detail, that’s what the shooting schedule is for!

Transport / Travel Schedules

Some crew members may have special transport or travel arrangements sorted, such as:

• Train tickets
• Mini Bus departsure
• Lifts from a crew member
• Plane ticket.

Include departure/arrival times, booking references, and contact info for all those involved.

Equipment

I like to include an equipment summary for smaller shoots so everyone knows what they are using. This also includes whose supplying stock (us or them, don’t want to turn up on the day with no stock!), where equipment can be stored safely and any available power sources.

Facilities

If you’re filming outdoors on location, you may need to list things such as:

• Toilets
• Food and drink
• Parking
• Green room availability

Expenses

Remind crew about what they need to do in order to claim expenses i.e. bring receipts and expense forms to hand in on the day.

Weather Forecast

Especially if you’re shooting outdoors.  You can usually find a weather forecast up to 5 days in advance.

You can watch the film online here at the BSLBT’s website

Enjoy!

So here’s my list of kit that I use pretty much on a day to day basis, many of which will be familiar, but hopefully can introduce you to a few as well.

1. Dreamweaver

Kind of an obvious one – but I know a lot of you hand code in other programmes out there. I don’t let Dreamweaver code for me, but I do like how it finishes your sentences… makes coding a lot quicker and your keyboard won’t get so worn out.

Price: From £387 (Amazon)
OS: Any
Use for: Web development

2. Filezilla

Simply a good FTP programme – it stores all your log in details and makes uploading / transferring a lot easier.

http://filezilla-project.org/
Price: Free
OS: Any
Use for:  File transfer

3. Basecamp

Amazing project management software. Manage to-dos, milestones, upload files and folders and keep everything in one place. I don’t just use it for Web Design, I also used it for managing a film project as well which was really effective.

http://basecamphq.com/
Price: $24 a month
OS: Any (web based)
Use for: Project management

4. Tweetdeck

If like me you enjoy Twittering throughout the day, Tweetdeck is great as it will buzz when there are new updates and you can stay logged into multiple accounts.

http://www.tweetdeck.com/
Price: Free
OS: Any
Use for: Social networking / Just for fun

5. Preview

Simply for the fact you can re-size multiple images at once through Tools > Adjust size. Life saver.

Price: Free with a Mac.
OS: Mac
Use for: Image editing

6. Adium

Since working as a project manager for a design agency I’ve end up with a login for various messengers, and can get confusing to have MSN, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, etc open all at once. Adium signs you into them all simultaneously so you only need to have 1 messenger open (phew!). The only messenger it doesn’t cater for is Skype.

http://adium.im/
Price: Free
OS: Mac Only
Use for: Project Management

7. Firebug & Firefox Web Developer Toolbar

View and edit CSS / HTML directly in your browser to find fixes. It can save hours of tears and tantrums by letting you tweak the CSS in browser to find whats causing an issue.

The developer toolbar is great too. Far too many features to list but has everything a developer needs for the browser.

http://getfirebug.com/
Firefox Tool Bar
Price: Free
OS: Any (requires Firefox)
Use for: Web development

8. Google Calender

It’s just a simple calender, with the added bonus that it will sync your calender with your workmates, so you can see whose working on what and when. I’ve found it’s been an excellent tool for time management and use it all the time now.

http://www.google.com/calendar/
Price: Free
OS: Any (web based)
Use for: Project Management

9. Freshbooks

If like me you work on an hourly rate, then you’ll probably find Freshbooks highly useful. Features a handy timer and syncs with your workmates Freshbooks accounts so if there’s more than 1 person working on a project, you can see how many hours have been spent in total.  There’s too many features to go into, so check it out for yourself.

http://www.freshbooks.com/
Price: From free.
OS: Any (web based)
Use for: Project Management

10. Spotify

I can’t work without some music playing, so Spotify has been my savior. Listen to any album you want for free (just have to listen to an ad every 10 songs or so). It used to be completely free, but now you need an invite from someone with a Premium account to have that privilege now.

http://www.spotify.com/
Price: From free
OS: Any.
Use for: Just for fun

11. Mockupr

Mockupr will let you upload your mock up and will display it in a browser for you. Simple, but highly useful.

http://mockupr.com/
Price: Free
Use for: Web Design

12. Jing

Can’t describe what you mean with words? Create instructive videos, annotate your site with arrows and text and send it to your client / designer.

http://www.jingproject.com/
Price: Free
OS: Mac & Windows
Use for: Web Design

13. Streamclip

I tend to work on a few sites which deal with streaming video. Streamclip is a free tool which allows you to convert most video types into most video types.

http://www.squared5.com/
Price: Free
OS: Mac & Windows
Use for: Video conversion

14. Colour Scheme Designer

If you’re stuck for inspiration for a colour scheme, this could help you. Not only that it’s just a cool site.

http://colorschemedesigner.com/
Price: Free
Use for: Web Design

15. Design Meltdown

Again, just a little help when you’re lacking inspiration. It’s just a huge catalogue of websites organised into sections of colour, style, theme… I get lost for hours on this site!

http://www.designmeltdown.com/archive.aspx
Price: Free
OS: Any (web based)
Use for: Inspiration / Just for fun

Please feel free to post a comment and add to the list – I’d love to know what everyone else uses.

Not only did we see 1, we saw 3. Couldn’t get a pic of all 3 together but managed to get 2 of them. Apologies for quality of pictures I didn’t have my telephoto lens with me so had to crop the pictures to get up close…

[View with PicLens]