Final fling with history?

Have you ever wondered what it was really like to live during wartime? How much luggage were evacuee children allowed to take with them? What did enemy planes look like? To find out, just take a look at our latest additions to the archive clips!

We've added a whole host of clips that allow you to explore what life was like for ordinary people during the second world war - panic shopping for gas masks and tinned food, preparing for blackouts, bidding farewell to soldiers leaving for the front, children being evacuated, as well as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in London. There's even footage from across the Channel in Paris.

The initial funding we had for the WeVee website came to a close at the end of March. Supported by the UK Film Council's Digital Film and Archive fund and administered by Screen West Midlands, this funding enabled the launch of WeVee in January 2010 and the activity which then followed through our WeVee workshops and on the website.

It's been an exciting journey so far and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank the funders and SWM for their support. We have also worked with some fantastic people from the community of archive holders across the region who have contributed material to the site. Thank you, we are thrilled with the range of footage that you have enabled us to add to the website, much of it previously unseen in the public domain. A special thank you goes to Emma Morley and all the team at the Media Archive for Central England for their patience with our requests for footage and their continuing support with WeVee. Finally, a big thank you also to Ray Johnson, who recently received an MBE for services to the arts. The Staffordshire Film Archive collections never cease to amaze us and we're especially excited be some of our recent additions from here, featuring Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

We very much hope this isn't the end of the WeVee journey. Over the coming months we will be working with some key partners to explore the future of the WeVee website, so will keep you posted.

Until then, what are you waiting for? Do get stuck in and explore the latest additions.

And please don't forget to share your creations by saving your WeVees and publishing them to the gallery for everyone to see.

Happy WeVeeing and Happy Easter!

The WeVee Team

First Light Awards 2011 Competition

Here's your chance to create a WeVee which could be screened at this year's First Light Awards Ceremony at Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square, London on 15th March. To enter, you need to create a WeVee (of 1minute 45 seconds long) using the clips tagged with FL2011 or FirstLight and save it to the website's Public Gallery so we can see it!

The competition is open to 5-25 yr olds and closes on the 14th February. For those of you under 13 years old, please make sure you have permission from your parents or guardians to use the WeVee website.

The clips are extracts of short films created by young people across Britain who have been nominated for the First Light Awards 2011. Use as many of the clips tagged with FL2011 as you like and make sure you use the competition music track "Chaos Engine" to create a promo film of 1 min 45 secs. The winner will have their First Light WeVee shown at the Awards ceremony in ODEON Leicester Square on 15th March.

Please Note: You will only be able to hear the music track when the winning WeVee is screened at the awards ceremony. However, you can still use the dialogue from the clips for you edit, this dialogue just won't be heard during the awards screening.

How to make a WeVee:

1. First, REGISTER on the site to create your profile area. Here you will need to enter a username and password which you can use to log-in to WeVee again in the future.
2. Once logged in, click CREATE NOW. This opens the video edit tool window. You'll see that the MY CLIPS is empty, so click on ARCHIVE CLIPS. Here, you’ll find all the clips in our WeVee gallery.
3. Type FL2011 into the search box and this will display all the clips available for you to use in your First Light competition promo film entry. To select the clips you want, click on the image once. A tick will appear and the box will be highlighted in green.
4. Next up is to select the audio track. Click AUDIO button. And select ‘Chaos Engine (FL2011 Track)’ this is the special track assigned to FL2011 competition entries.
5. Click back to MY CLIPS and you’ll see that all the video clips you’d chosen from the FL2011 selection, are now arranged down the left side of your screen. The Audio track is there too when you click the AUDIO button.

Now, you’re ready to edit your WeVee.

6. Select the clip you want to start with and simply click and drag it to the EDIT line.
Here you can adjust the length of the clip. Move your mouse cursor to either the beginning or end of the clip and a black arrow will appear, click and drag on this to shorten the clip. You can preview the clip in the left hand viewing pane.
7. Once you’ve selected the section of the clip you want, drag it to the video line. You can view your progress in the right hand viewing pane.
8. Adding audio is simple. Click the audio track and it automatically appears on the audio edit line. (You can adjust the volume by selecting a point along the line and moving it either up to increase or decrease the volume).

REMEMBER – Your WeVees for the First Light Awards Competition need to be 1 min 45 seconds long. Do try and include as many of the FL2011 clips as you can, even if it is only a very short clip.

To save your WeVee click the ‘save’ button in the bottom right hand corner of the edit tool, give it an appropriate title, make sure you include the FL2011 tag in the tags box and tick the add to public gallery box so we can easily search for your entry.

GOOD LUCK!!

See First Light's website and more information about the competition by clicking HERE

A Christmas round up

Seasons Greetings WeVeeers!

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support during our first year. Our launch was only in January this year, yet the ever growing footage and interest in the site has made us feel so proud of our archive holders, the regular visitors to the site and our regional heritage as a whole. So thank you for watching the footage, playing with it and sharing your WeVees.
Here are some of our highlights from 2010:

* Managing to encourage owners of archive material that has previously been locked away in cupboards, to showcase the films on WeVee and allow users to learn from its history and use it creatively.

* Being featured in the Guardian's "Internet Picks of the Week"

* The great feedback and huge audiences we reached at both Artsfest & SXSW festivals

* WeVee workshops in schools around the region and in BirminghamLibary have helped us guide users through the site and the WeVees that have been published during those workshops have been incredibly impressive. Especially when you think that these pupils have never used edit tools like this before. Well done you!

* Mentions in national and local press have been incredibly positive and motivating and we've even been interviewed a few times for radio broadcasts and promo films!

So, to end the year on a high, we've added lots more clips to the Archive Clips section of the site that have a Christmas or Wintery feel to them. Why not create a Christmas themed WeVee and send it to your friends! Much more creative and inventive than a Christmas card, and it saves paper and stamps. :)

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The WeVee Team x

Fancy coming on Safari?

Yes! We've done it! We've managed to get hold of some rare and special footage from inside West Midlands Safari Park for you to use in your WeVees.


There are clips of the endangered white lions, cute playful lion cubs, hippos, elephants being washed, and an Aye Aye! Yes, we didn't know what one of those was either!

Looking forward to seeing what creative WeVees you can create using the new animal clips...

Juniper Cinema and WeVee

We've been given the fabulous opportunity to showcase WeVee at The Jekyll and Hyde's Juniper Cinema nights on Wednesday evenings. You will be able to watch the WeVee 'trailer' whilst tucking into your popcorn and cola before the screenings of classic and contemporary films.

Keep your eyes peeled for new wevee footage being added this week!

The WeVee Team