As the most trusted guide of life at any university comes from it’s students, they will be at the heart of each film. Their stories will be used as the narrative and we believe in showing, not telling. So each film would be based around a single event, each of which would illustrate something that a prospective student could take part in if they chose to study at UWE. They are telling their stories in their own words, not read from a script, with actuality footage of relevant events.

Radiography – Students using the Radiography facilities based at the Glenside Campus.

Engineer – An international student working at the Harbour Festival.

Product designer – After winning the prestigious RSA Student Design Award a student for the design show.

Artist – A final year art student exhibiting her work at the Bower Ashton final year art show.

Cricket – A law student who was president of the cricket team.

Business – A student returning for the Biz Idea awards as a previous winner.

Back To The Planet was commissioned by 1625 Independent People, a youth housing and support charity, to produce a short film that promotes their work.

After discussions it was decided to tell the stories of three individuals that have either previously used the service or are using the service at present. Farhan, kerri and Leonna all had very individual stories to tell of support given by 1625 Independent People and are proud to say that they benefitted from it immensely. Each now has a safe and stable home, where advice, counselling and training is on hand to find jobs or further their education, with Kerri and Leona now also working as volunteers, helping and guiding others who may be struggling with similar problems to their past.

The aim of the charity is to help people that are homeless find a secure place to stay and engage them in a support plan based on their needs. Ultimately  they offer the direction of finding a suitable place for living in shared houses or self contained accommodation. Once this is arranged the support doesn’t stop there, 1625 Independent People are always on had to help them adjust to living as an independent person, which the main goal of the charity.

Thomas Dunn from 1625 Independent People said “Having a professional film made will allow us to directly show potential supporters the work that we do with the aim to inspire them for future funding”.

Talks ranged from six to twelve minutes and were described as ‘passionate’, ‘inspirational’ and ‘revolutionary’ by those in the audience.

Alice and Amy (Playing Out)

Amy Rose has developed a passion for the use of residential street ass a space for creative and social activity. Growing up in New England she has great memories of playing along the river bank and on the railroad tracks with other neighbourhood children.

Alice Ferguson is an environmental consultant and community activist with a strong interest in children’s independent mobility and free play. She grew up in Bristol and can remember her whole street coming together to lay cobblestones together.

Bristol neighbours Alice and Amy started the Playing Out project initially by organising sessions on their own street.  It has grown into a community interest company working to promote safe play for children on the streets where they live.

Hannah Smith (COIN)

Hannah Smith manages Defending Rights for Climate Outreach and Information Network. She coordinates the UK Climate Change and Migration Coalition (UKCCMC) and works with refugees and migrants on climate change issues. She is lead author of the report Forced Migration and Climate Change: the challenge for refugee and environmental NGOs is the UK.

COIN is a UK charity dedicated to educating the public aboutclimate change with the aim to facilitate the process by which people: overcome denial about climate change; act collectively to cut greenhouse gas emissions; and offer democratic legitimacy to elected leaders to negotiate successfully for strong regulation at a national and international level.

Arthur Potts Dawson (The People’s Supermarket)

Arthur Potts Dawson, 39, is a talented chef, restauranteur, cookery writer and social entrepreneur. His newest business venture, The People’s Supermarket, opened in June 2010 and is a not-for- profit co-operative social enterprise. Jamie Oliver recently described Arthur as “the original green chef”.

Arthur trained with the Roux brothers and has gone on to work alongside industry ‘greats’ including Rose Gray & Ruth Rodgers at The River Cafe, Rowley Leigh at Kensington Place, Hugh Fernley-Wittingstall and Pierre Khoffman. He relaunched Cecconi’s restaurant and worked as executive head chef for Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Restaurant.

Arthur created two restaurants described as ‘sustainably aware urban restaurants’, Acorn House and the Water House. Arthur’s latest restaurant project is an organic ‘pop-up’, Mrs Paisley’s Lashings, profits go to organic education projects in London schools.

The People’s Supermarket is a not-for-profit co- operative social enterprise. It is a unique business model, with it’s member/owners working voluntarily. The aim is to keep costs low and good food cheap. The People’s Kitchen, within the supermarket, is also producing delicious food for sale in the supermarket.

Anne Pettifor (PRIME)

Ann Pettifor is Director of PRIME (Policy Research in Macroeconomics) an economic think-tank that promotes understanding of the nature of credit, and its role in determining macroeconomic outcomes.

Ann’s overriding concern is with monetary policy, and in particular, the rate of interest. Unlike most orthodox economists she regards the high rates of interest charged to borrowers as causal to the ongoing financial crisis. As a Keynesian, she argues strongly for ‘tight but cheap money’.

Ann’s special interests include a) the architecture of the international financial system and its impact on sovereign debt and domestic monetary and fiscal policy and b) the challenges posed to economic policy by the twin threats of peak oil and climate change.

Tim Chatterton (UWE, Bristol)

Tim’s work deals with the wide sustainability agenda, at the point where research meets policy.  He has a background in both social and physical sciences, and over 15 years’ experience of working closely with local and nation governments in the UK and abroad.  He recently completed a 12-month Social Science Policy Placement Fellowship based in the Department for Energy and Climate Change on ‘Energy Behaviours’.

He has been involved extensively with both national and local government in the UK and abroad, including a recent 12-month fellowship based in the Department of Energy and Climate Change.  He is also a trustee of the UK Public Health Association.

His work concerns the fact that meeting today’s environmental and health challenges will mean needing to go far beyond an agenda of individual ‘behaviour change’.  In the same way that societal and environmental influences increase the chances of certain people becoming obese, similar factors also push people to towards resource and carbon intensive lifestyles.  In order to meet the current challenges we will need to go well beyond individual change, and we may even need to change our view of what it means to be an ‘individual’.

Richard Dunne (Head – Ashley Primary School)

Richard Dunne is Head of Ashley Primary School in Walton-on-Thames.  The school is a national leader in terms of best sustainable energy practice.

In 2009 the school won the acclaimed Ashden Award for Sustainable energy with the whole school community working together to bring the climate change motive into everything they do.

Richard’s work with the school on energy conservation was inspired by a visit to Antarctica 4 years ago where he was part of a team that set up an education base there run on renewable energy with the simple message if you can do it there, you can do it anywhere!

But the school’s sustainability focus covers much more than just energy.  It is core to the school’s purpose and permeates through every topic of learning in every year group.  Most importantly, the children at the school lead much of the learning around issues of sustainability.  It is their ideas and their stories that are shaping the future they want to see.

Adrian Campbell (LOW2NO, Helsinki)

Adrian Campbell has been working on sustainable building projects for over 20 years. He has a broad range of experience that reflects this long insight into the topic and its genesis of meaning within the construction industry.

He currently leads the engineering design on one of Europe’s most exciting low carbon city block projects, called Low2No in Helsinki. This incorporates a truly broad appreciation of carbon and its position within sustainability thinking including , new economics evaluations that include carbon, advanced integrated solar technologies and importantly the influence of buildings on user consumption.

Adrian’s previous experience includes a wide role from advising on city regeneration in Doha to designing very low cost schools passive schools in Malawi. He advised the Engineering Council of the UK’s on their principals of sustainability and was one of the key authors of Arup’s own approach to sustainable building design.

Dawn Keyes (Lancaster Housing)

Dawn joined Lancaster Cohousing in the summer of 2009, and will be making the final transition to Lancaster from her home in the Derbyshire Peak District this September.

Initially drawn to the ideal location of the project on the banks of the River Lune, having worked with, and come to know her cohousing colleagues over the last couple of years she now feels that she has ‘come home’ in every sense of the word.

Dawn worked as a primary school teacher in Nottingham before training to practice as a homeopath which she has been doing for the last 16 years. She also owns and manages a therapy centre having held a long term interest in health and what it means to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Dawn also teaches homeopathy, NLP and related subjects  at home and abroad.

John Gapper (Brighton & Hove DC)

In 1965 John Gapper realised that native British butterflies on the edge of the South Downs were in serious decline. Drawing on 47 years of experience John will explain how he set about collecting, cultivating, and planting indigenous wildflowers for the benefit of insects and butterflies, how for part of that time he had to work in secret, and what impact creating species rich havens from inhospitable spaces in our towns and cities can have on insects and people.

John Gapper began his working life as an apprentice for Brighton Corporation Parks Department in 1958. Since then his work as a horticulturist has taken him to every area of Brighton and every aspect of horticulture from planting the arboretum at Stanmer Park to landscaping the A27 bypass.

It was his work with the landscape architect at the Department of Transport which helped to stimulate his interest in the propagation of wildflowers, which he has now been doing for the last 35 years.

The Back To The Planet team has received a warm response to a film telling the stories of three people who have put their lives back together after struggling with drink, drugs or episodes of mental ill-health. All are now living in their own homes after periods spent sofa surfing, in institutions or hostels, or even sleeping rough.

The three were helped to make the difficult move – the second step – from living in sheltered accommodation into their own homes by the Bristol-based charity, Second Step. The charity asked Back To The Planet to make a film which they could show to others facing a similar challenge.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about it and talking about it, it was incredible”” said Nina Simmonds, who commissioned the film on behalf of Second Step. “I’ve known both Rachael and Victor for some years now, so to see them now is so inspiring, uplifting and motivating. It left me feeling that actually, what we do is working. Well done for a brilliant piece of work!”

The film – called Moving Ahead – was premiered at an event in Bristol attended by representatives of dozens of third sector organizations.

“It was really well produced and directed,” said one viewer. “The direction focused on the people and their story rather than the style. It was very professional but not gimmicky, which I think would have taken away from the content. I was gripped all the way through. Even though they dealt with some serious subjects, they kept it very real and human by capturing the different characters, it was funny and kind. Well done!”

Back To The Planet has already started work on a new video about young people living independently, which was commissioned by a housing association which had seen the Second Step film.

It was an absolute pleasure working with everyone involved with Music Preserved and it looks like our relationship will continue into the future.  Filming at Locations such as the Royal Opera House with Sir Mark Elder, a world renowned conductor, and at the Borthwick Institute, which is part of the University of York, where musical archives are kept in climate controlled conditions, Back To The Planet recently produced a marketing DVD for the charity Music Preserved to secure further funding for the charity’s work.

Music Preserved was founded to preserve documents of public performances in recorded sound for future generations, securing the integrity of the performances and the performance contexts. It is dedicated to capturing the spontaneity and emotion, power and excitement of classic music performances through rare recordings of public performances and interviews.

The charity is currently seeking further funding to enable this work to continue and to expand the collections currently available to the public. The DVD produced by Back To The Planet will allow a detailed an powerful presentation of the work of Music Preserved and will feature interviews with key contributors, artists and engineers.

In 2009, the record label mpLIVE was launched which allows archived material held by Music Preserved to be downloaded over the Internet and “exists to ensure that historic performances can live again in a format which is accessible to all”. Funds from the sale of these recordings over the Internet contributes to funding the charity’s work. It is hoped the DVD will further boost support for their valuable work in preserving and making available historical music performances.

Back To The Planet has been working in collaboration with the Media Trust to produce a film for the Herefordshire Nature Trust, focusing on their scheme of ‘Wildplay’ and is due for broadcast on the Community Channel during April 2011.

It’s like a cross between a Children in Need appeal and a David Attenborough programme on endangered wildlife. But there is a bit of ‘Why Don’t You…’ mixed in for good measure – this is kids gently teasing adults and appealing for a bit more space to have fun with, with some ‘The Goodies’ style slapstick too!

The children play themselves, their parents, and the two presenters (one male, one female), who are dressed in exaggerated wildlife attire – combat clothes, waistcoats, wellies and a pith helmet. And with Sir David Attenborough’s encouragement, for children to get out more and explore the natural world, we are all very happy with the final outcome.

Our upmost thanks goes to Katrina, Jo and Phil from the Herefordshire Nature Trust for making this project so much fun to work on. It’s been a pleasure to work with a group of people with such enthusiasm and desire to encourage and teach children about the wonders of the natural world.

After travelling to Turkmenistan in November Back To The Planet has produced a promomotional film for the Turkmen ministers. It highlights how successful the mentoring of natural history film-making went with the Turkmen television team and provides an indication of what we will be able produce with longer periods in the field.

We have since been back to Turkmenistan, again to work with the Turkmen TV but also we travelled to Badghyz Nature Reserve to set up 20 cameratraps in the hope of recording the ever so elusive Asiatic Leopard. We know it’s there as we came very close to seeing it during our trip. However, as it has a massive territory within the rough terrain of the steppe region and accompanied by scorching summer temperatures it’s still not certain that we’ll be able to capture the footage we are so keen and excited to get.

Time will tell and we will keep you informed as and when we do….Fingers crossed!

Flogas approached Back To The Planet to produce an animated film to promote the use of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) to power commercial businesses as an alternative to oil.  The short film would clearly highlight the economical and environmental benefits of switching to this recycled product which can reduce CO2 emissions and is accredited with the Carbon Trust Standard.

We were given a clear outline of how Flogas wanted the film to look and created a simple graphical theme to run through the film. Back To The Planet produced a clear, informative film to capture the attention of potential corporate clients at conferences and shows to be used by Flogas as part of their marketing strategy.

At their 2010 expedition leaders conference, Outlook Expeditions required a short video clip that reminded leaders and link teachers why they had chosen to work with the company and what they could expect to gain from the journey they were all embarking on.

Back To The Planet delivered an uplifting and inspiring video that shows why Outlook Expeditions has been so successful in leading overseas expeditions for schools across the UK since they were established in 2001.

Using soundbites from interviewees combined with graphics, and film footage taken in the UK and abroad, we created a clear message about the benefits to participants of going on expedition with Outlook and why staff can feel proud to be part of the team. The technique of using a green screen behind interviewees, allowed still images to be inserted, creating an interesting and powerful video.

Webcasts allow an event to be streamed live over the Internet and accessed by multiple viewers and offer organisations and businesses a number of benefits. These include a reduction in the cost of hiring a large venue, transport and accommodation costs and the associated environmental impact of people travelling to the event potentially from across the country.

Screen shot of the website created to host the webcast.

By hosting a webcast, remote viewers can receive a live broadcast of the presentation or seminar over the internet and interact with the presenters by submitting their questions for a live response. AEA were pleased with the number of viewers who watched the webcast and submitted questions to the presenters, in this, their first webcast for Cross Compliance. The webcast video is available to view to those who weren’t able to log in to the live event.

We expect this form of online communication to become more and more popular as businesses and organisations want to reduce not only costs but the environmental impact of their operations.