The Chairman of the Board

Lights, camera, action…cut!

In an attempt to promote the use of the interactive whiteboards we decided to film a training session with 2 members of staff, both keen to incorporate the resources available into their ESOL sessions. We could use the video for further training and as a resource for staff to access when required…easy…NOT!

Things got off to a bad start almost immediately after firing up the projector and PC. To my horror the dreading red x was clearly visible over the Promethean software icon in the system tray…a sign that something is wrong!

I played it cool of course, pretending I had deliberately sabotaged the equipment so that I could demonstrate to my two eager trainees how to troubleshoot if problems should arise! After 5 minutes of desperately tugging on leads and searching for software drivers I had no choice but to shout “Cut!” to my camera man.

It turns out the whiteboard had been unplugged at the socket…it’s always the simplest of things but nevertheless the two tutors had learnt their first lesson, if there’s a problem stay calm and check the obvious first. Just because the technology is more complex it doesn’t mean the problem is too!

Thankfully the remainder of the session went smoothly but on playback of our first feature length film it became apparent that the session was too rambling and disjointed to act as a training video.

Take 2

Our second attempt at filming would be conducted without trainees, just me, my whiteboard and my trusty Promethean pen!

We decided to film very short segments focusing on easily digestible chunks and things were going very well until we decided to check some of the footage after about an hour and a half of filming.

Unfortunately we had positioned the camera directly underneath the projector and the inbuilt microphone had done a fantastic job of recording the incessant dirge of the fan, largely obliterating the dulcet tones of my voice and rendering the whole batch of vignettes utterly useless!

Take 3

Lessons learnt, for our third attempt at filming we placed the camera well away from the projector and set about re-shooting. Filled with confidence after our ‘practice’ sessions we ploughed through the basics of using the board capturing another hours worth of tips, tricks and techniques with aplomb. Tired and a little dry throated after our marathon filming session my cameraman and I returned to our desks to start the video editing process using Windows Movie Maker. On firing up the film we watched in anticipation of our first training clip only to discover that the camera had been set at an angle and it looked like I was standing in a cabin on the Titanic just before it took its final lunge into the North Atlantic!

• So, what have we learnt from our dismal attempts at filming?
  Technology can let us down but generally the problem is a simple one and is easily solved.


• Alas, human error is often at fault when technology doesn’t work as expected but it’s the technology that can get the blame.


• Practice makes perfect, if things don’t work out the first time don’t give up, try and try again!

We are currently planning our next filming session…watch this space for an update!