Dunno if I managed the instructions but tried my hardest! Just finished one of the most awesome (and loudest) days ever! Will upload pics and footage tomorrow! For now I will try and get some rest... If this noise in my head will quiet down! Also, for those that know my drinking habits... I tried a Jack 'n Coke, not too bad actually!

                                 

Been a long, hard day. no energy left to write. Some random pics from the day instead.

Sitting here looking out onto the river watching an eight and a coxed fours rowing by one could almost be in any river town in england on a summers day. That is until you look either left or right...

Looking left I see the vast expanse of high rise buildings making up the Austin Skyline, with wide roads and yellow taxis.

Looking right to the river crossing you are faced by hoards of super-huge Dodge and Ford pickup trucks reminding you that we are most certainly not in England.

Arrived late last night to the Motel, checked in, very friendly staff, customer service is definitely a thing that the yanks do well it seems. Couldn't see much in the dark so chose not to investigate till morning.

Didn't sleep too long, jet-lag n all so was up fairly early. Had a wander around the Motel and it's just like something out of a CSI episode! Coming around the corner to the pool area I half expected to see a dead body floating in the pool with crime-scene tape everywhere.

Although it feels like I'm on a movie set, the hotel is clean and quiet and only about 10mins cab ride into the thick of the action so all in all a good choice, thanks Julia!

Last Saturday saw the second #conkertu tweetup held at Conkers in the heart of the National Forest. Another good set of speakers lined up by the hard work of Emma and Phil. As well as a good number of speakers to keep the adults busy, there was also a games corner with 3 xbox's and a Wii for the young ones to play with. 

For the teenagers, the amphitheatre was turned into a gigspace, with upwards of 10 local, young, bands performing to their peers and parents. The stage setup was provided, rigged and operated by the West Street Music Project who work closely with community youth organisations. 

Unfortunately the weather was rather poor and I think it discouraged many from turning up but the turnout was still good and I think those that came, not only had a good, fun day but also managed to come away with some knowledge and insight into the hyperlocal sustainable community action happening in the heart of the country. It was also encouraging to see many local councillors and some not-so-local ones engaging in conversation with their constituents. 

Frieda Beckett

Gerry O'Brian, Ranger at Conkers

Jon O'Farrell, revisits the planting site from #conkertu in November

   

Emma & Phil wrap up the day

Version 2 of the #geekbag had its first outing at @conkertu last weekend. Unfortunately, things have been manic in the run-up to SXSW that I haven't had time to upload any content. Hoping to get some of it edited down and ready to upload whilst on the plane over. Never been good at sleeping on planes, add to that the fact that I have started snoring again badly, I will be trying to keep myself busy and awake for fear of being lynched by my wingman phil or being thrown into the luggage compartment by the rest of the angry passengers.

The new configuration of the bag seemed to hold up well, highlighted a few new modifications to be made and ideas for the V3.SXSW version.

The addition of the protrack was a bonus this time as the nice folk at conkers changed the venue to the waterside area, a lot more comfortable, nice leather sofas to sit on while listening to the speakers and presentations. Major drawback though was that it was their working cafeteria and there was a steady flow of punters chatting and ordering steamy lattes from the nice man in the corner. Anyway, to the point, this meant that the sound I was getting on the camera mics was no good this time so added a table mic and protrack into the mix nearer the speakers to pick up better sound. I realise tis means post-synching the audio and the video, making more work but at least we could hear what they were saying. As the day progressed and the “visitors” became louder, I opted for my Sennheiser radio mic plugged into it and 'close micing' the last few speakers to cut the babble out. This highlighted the first change to the V2 bag.

I had taken along 3 radio mics, 2 for interviews and one for the protrack. Two should suffice. Only interviewing one person at a time and recording the audio on the protrack from the panels means the third one was taking up space. I did a roundup at the end with both Phil & Emma but by that time all the panels were finished. One mic down, more space for.....

A new addition to the bag (great find @hadleypaul) is the XLR to USB cable, allowing me to plug a microphone into the macbook and record the audio directly into FCP, Audacity or Garageband.

Batteries... I took along 5 batteries to be safe but found after a 7 hour day and 4.5 hours of footage filmed I was still on the first battery. Two should do well enough, but I'll pack 3 from now on to be safe.

V2 bag has a set of 8 lens filters but takes up quite a lot of space. If I had of though about the type of filming I would be doing beforehand I could have easily let them behind. No use for a ¼ promist filter if you are shooting a panel discussion! :-) The raincover was also not needed as there was plenty of space to keep my kit inside if the weather had turned sour.

All in all I think I was more prepared on this outing and the choice of kit held up well. It was also a pleasure to carry around all day compared to my Bletchley Park shooting day.

I have a few hours tomorrow to rethink and come up with any last minute changes for V3 as I am schlepping it half way across the world this time and will probably end up with it on my back 9 hours a day whilst running around and filming all the craziness of the Southby week.

Mmm, running round with cables, not a good idea, must rethink.....