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

A great time at the Royal Television Society awards last night saw WeVee nominated for best digital innovation and its promo up on the big screen in Birmingham University's Great Hall. Although WeVee didn't scoop the prize on this occasion it did make it to the last three in this Midlands-wide competition.

We're out and about at the moment with WeVee workshops and about to add more clips from the Mini archive, so watch this space and keep WeVee-ing.

The WeVee roadshow team were out again yesterday. This time at the Library of Birmingham's Centre for the Child. We had 3 large gleeming iMacs and banners galore to attract the half term crowds.

It was a tough job as Sponge Bob Square Pants game was showing on neighbouring computer screens, but the children loved WeVee. We even spotted a few parents picking up a WeVee sticker...

There are some great new WeVee additions to the gallery and all created by complete novices in under 20minutes. So well done!

Have a look at the new WeVees in the gallery here

And (one of) the nominees for RTS Best Digital Innovation Award...

is...WEVEE!!

We're delighted to announce that we have been nominated for an RTS Award this year. Best Digital Innovation and we are very excited. Not too sure who we are up against yet though.

Thank you for your continuing interest in WeVee and if you're not already, please become a fan on our facebook page or follow us on Twitter

The WeVee Team (RTS Nominees)

x

Becky on the radio! (again!)

Unfortunately, or fortunately for Becky, you can't listen again to her radio interview with Carl Chinn from Sunday 26th September. BUT I can tell you that it was great! Becky and Ruth Ward from ReWired PR (pictured above) spoke to Carl ALL about WeVee, from the seedling of the idea to the clips we've chosen for the site and it's success to date!

BAFTA Young Games Designer Workshop

WeVee was invited to present at the BAFTA Young Games Designer Workshop at the MAC in Birmingham last week. This was a chance for young people (although the room was full of young men actually, come on girls!) to hear about games design from some of the best game designers in the country.

We were up after Pete O'Donnell from Freestyle Games, the company who designed DJ Hero, so the pressure was on to hold the audience's attention. It was a great chance for us to show a group of people something new and with their 'gamer' hats on, WeVee was a great opportunity for them to explore their creativity as well as learn the art of editing.

We'd like to thank Screen West Midlands for inviting us along and also good luck to all the entrants to the Game Design competition. Information about the competition can be found here

WeVee in the classroom

Want to stretch your pupils' knowledge and creativity? Want to know how to create the best mash-up or where to find the best clips? How would you like to have your very own WeVee workshop at your school for a day?

We know that using WeVee at home or in the classroom can be a bit daunting for users if they don't have any guidance or topics to kick start their Weveeing experience. So, how about we come to your school, take over the IT suite for an hour or so and guide pupils and/or teachers through choosing the best archive clips and a suitable track to create their very own mash-up videos to share with friends and family? Like a private tuition session!

From October we will be visiting schools in the Midlands to run WeVee workshops with pupils and teachers, working around current topics they're covering in History or using clips from the town or county in which they live.

All we need is enthusiastic pupils and an IT suite for an hour or so. Feedback from our workshops earlier in the year have been incredibly positive, with teachers now using WeVee as part of their creative lesson plans.

If you'd like to be involved please contact us at info@weevee.co.uk we're looking forward to hearing from you.

The WeVee Team

Wevee's hypnotic!

The football archive we unearthed in time for the World Cup is proving popular! Of special interest to Gloucester City fans is the clip of the team being hypnotised before the game. Click here to see the news article on the This is Gloucestershire website and here to see the clip for yourself!

Not only has WeVee news been spreading online and in newspapers, but the WeVee team have also been out and about in schools and at public digital events.

School workshops - Fancy having the WeVee team demonstrate how you can use WeVee in your lessons? All we need are enthusiastic pupils and a set of computers and we will transform your class into a team of editors and wannabe film makers in an hour! Contact us for more information.

Since our last blog post, in March, (that seems like such a long time ago!) the WeVee team have been busy finding topical archive clips for you to play with.

The General Election saw our 'Lets Vote' campaign put into action, with WeVee populated with lots of politically themed footage including Maggie Thatcher's visit to Birmingham in 1977 and snippets of what children had to say about politics in the run-up to the 1964 election.

Next up? We're calling all frustrated football fans!...

Come and relive England's golden era and create your own perfect score with our newly added football clips including vox pops taken on the streets of Birmingham during 1966 World Cup, and footage from the England Team's training sessions with Sir Alf Ramsey in 1973.

We've added over 30 football themed clips from the past century at www.wevee.co.uk Footage comes from across the West Midlands region and includes women's football game in Tipton from 1957, three Leicester players in match against elephants from the local circus! and selected FA Cup final matches dating back to 1904.

Don't forget that once you've viewed the clips, you can edit them to music and share your mash-ups on facebook and twitter. If you have a twitter account, follow us here