Chalke Valley History Festival – Day I

To complete one’s second year at Bournemouth University and progress to their third, one must complete a minimum four week or maximum forty week work placement in the industry their course follows. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to undertake three weeks of work experience with the Chalke Valley History Festival and spend an unforgettable week camping on site and working with some wonderful people. In total, thirty students from BU compiled the media crew at the festival – documenting the event from voxpops and photos of visitors, to filming historical keynotes and short films. Due to the extent of work completed during the week spent at the festival, I shall divide each day into a single blog post. This shall be for the accounts of our first day arriving at the Valley and any preparation days before leaving for the festival.

For the Chalke Valley work experience to tally up to three weeks, meetings and preparation days had to be conducted well before the actual event. At such meetings, not only did we get to know each other, but also define our roles we would be doing at the event. Producing, filming, editing, photographing, and audio recording would be the roles available to us – although come the event, everyone got a chance to work in a different department when the opportunity came up. I went for the filming role as it would allow me to get the most hands on experience from the event and hone my filming skills. It’s also the role I am most familiar with and want to develop in future years. There was a shortage on equipment and concerns from the uni on how their equipment would be treated so it also helped that I would be bringing my own equipment to the event, including some DIY gear.

On the 25th June 2017 we arrived at the Chalke Valley History Festival and began our one week stay working at the event. For this event I travelled medium and used my brand new CineBag. I wouldn’t have any lights or sliders with me, but I would be bringing all of my lenses, GoPro accessories, tripod, and trinkets thought necessary for the week long event. Thankfully any equipment that we would bring would be locked in the storage container on site so we wouldn’t have to risk leaving it in our tents while we’re working.

Prior to the event, travel and sleeping arrangements were made and it was decided that Chris, George, Jordan, Dan, and I would be sharing a tent together. Thank goodness George’s family go camping because this was the largest and nicest tent in the whole field! It even came with a door mat! As such, our tent became the hub for camp socials and an example of how the other half live on site. There was ample room for all of our belongings and to have our own space – although thanks to it being pitched on a gentle slope, most nights my inflatable mattress would slide into the other compartments.