Discover the Producer within You 
Since my teens I have always desired to be a TV cameraman. About 20 years ago, I thought I would like to try my hand at producing a video. An idea began to take shape. The project was to capture a collection of rare crafts in my home county in the UK. The motivation was to create a video that would be of pleasure and enjoyment to folk in their senior years. As they were not so mobile or able to attend many of the interesting cultural and community events which they had enjoyed over the years, the video would seek to provide such a service. A kind of journey "Down Memory Lane" as it were.
Soon a very interesting list of such crafts was drafted: These included glass-making, a 200 year old jam-making factory, rope manufacturing, a tithe-barn museum - highlighting agricultural history, a potter, an artist, special stone artwork, a cabinet maker, a shepherd and unique embroidery – quite a collection. A good friend, formerly working with a national TV company, kindly loaned his services for a couple of days, pro-bono.
The two days were full of tightly-scheduled excursions into the Dorset countryside to film these fascinating crafts in operation. It was amazing how it all fitted together and the end result was very encouraging. My friend had a good eye for a picture, expert editing skills and pleasant way of interviewing almost unobtrusively. He humorously recommended that I allocated more days next time or hired a helicopter!!!
So there may be a rich store of untapped stories in various fields of expertise that one can unlock and record on video or DVD. It would be wonderful if Youth Clubs could regularly shoot events and then edit the DVD for residents in retirement complexes to enjoy "travelling down memory lane". An amazing flood of possible "down memory lane" clippings come to mind: following the postman, accompanying the farmer milking cows, the mobile vet or the milkman on his rounds. These kind of programmes are often featured on the national TV channels but localised versions that could revive memories of the past for residents would be a wonderful service to render as well as being tremendous fun for the young adults while on location shooting.
Explore the producer in you......
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