Philip B. on Stroud High Street

I tried to escape from endless email discussions concerning proof reading the next print job for the Neighbourhood Plan, what the design of the new chair lift in the Hall should be, preparing a response for the local paper about the accidental damage to the new gates into the park and sending my technical query to BlipCentral about the quality of the colour of my journal entry yesterday. 

I need a haircut and went to town to get one, but my favourite barber shop has become the favourite of all the men in Stroud.  There must have been a queue of at least twenty people ahead of me.  I don't need a haircut that badly.

Lightroom, my new photo processing software, is requiring a lot of my attention and I need to learn a great deal.  I have bought a good guide book, but as I read I must write down the various tips and workflow suggestions or else I will forget.  I also need to sort out my existing Apple Aperture libraries which are too full of pictures that I should have trashed ages ago.

After finding a new notebook I will dedicate to my photo management, I walked back up the High Street and spotted the always cheery face of my friend Philip B..  I had just received an email from him before I left the house updating me on the Stroud Community TV Awards, which we are organising as part of the Stroud Film Festival in March.  Philip both started and also coordinates the Stroud Community TV website, which provides a forum that links to all the locally made films uploaded to Youtube.  In the three years since it started more than 1500 films have been given a home.  Really amazing.

I am one of the judges of the Awards and will be playing all the winners from this very computer in our local pub on 18th March when we all gather to celebrate local talent.  Philip is a great asset for Stroud, and having given up his former role as a District Councillor, he is now employed by a charity to help local groups around the county to gather  together in new ways that may change their lives.  I will be meeting him next week to finalise the plans for the event but we are also thinking about running training events for local people to lear about film-making techniques.  Philip can't stop picking up his video camera and making short films himself, so he knows what he is talking about.   Hopefully we will involve some more people in the community who have professional experience in media output  who want to pass it on to others.