The perfect course for those looking for a fast-paced but thorough crash-course in editing with Final Cut Pro X (FCPX).    This two-day workshop will teach you everything you need to know to master what has become the most affordable and popular editing software for journalists and filmmakers. We will show you how to import and organise your media, create a rough cut, trim and cut, add music/effects/titles and voice over, colour correct and export for multiple platforms. This practical, two day course will cover:

• Importing/transcoding files, creating events, keywords, grouping clips reviewing media and marking
• Sequencing clips: Magnetic timeline, adding clips to the timeline, clip timing, auditioning, story lines and compound clips
• Adjusting video: Speed, scaling, cropping, distorting, keyframing and text
• Music and audio: Editing/enhancement and recording voiceover
• Effects: Template effects, adjusting effects, colour correction, auto balancing/matching colour and manual correction
• Sharing: Quicktime/Apple devices/Vimeo/Youtube and Compressor

This course assumes no prior knowledge or experience in editing.   Praise for previous workshops:

• “As a teacher, I can sincerely say that Simon is a way above par educator. Aside from his comprehensive expertise on the subject, the clarity and structure with which he presented the course, ensured that I took in as much as was possible. . . . It was worth every penny – thank you!”
• “Simon is the best teacher that I ever, ever had. He gave absolutely clear, understandable explanations and answered all my silly questions!”
• “Simon is an outstanding trainer! I have been on several technical courses and this is definitely the best! Great if you like fast-paced learning.”

About the trainer: Simon Ruben is an award winning editor and video trainer with over 15 years experience. He has designed and delivered popular courses for the Frontline Club since 2007. Simon has also tailored courses for FT.com, Save The Children, The Telegraph, KPMG, Accenture, Medecins Sans Frontiers, LV, Soho Editors and the NUJ. Please note:  The Frontline Club will provide media with which to practice editing. However, we strong recommend that you bring your own Mac laptop with the following installed software in order to get the most out of the workshop.

• Final Cut Pro X version 10.4 can be purchased here.
• A fully functioning 30-day trail version can also be downloaded for free here.
• Please note, Final Cut Pro X is not compatible with Windows/PCs.
• You will need to have OS X v10.11.4 or later installed on your Mac. You can download the latest OS, High Mojave here.
• In order to maximise training time, it is essential that the software is installed and operational before the course starts.
• Please ensure that your iCloud settings are switched off the default in order that you can work off your computer’s desktop without files being automatically copied to iCloud. See this page for help in doing this.

More and more people are now using their smartphones to shoot and create stories whether they are for a short film, multimedia/journalism or corporate content.

This workshop is a hands-on experience which you take you through how to record video and audio, edit your footage and export the content online or social media. During the course you will also get a chance to use a variety of microphones, grips and tripods.

The workshop will cover the following:

• Learn how to record audio and use a microphone to get the best sound
• Shoot video interviews and learn how to frame the subject correctly using well established cinematography techniques
• Shoot voxpops, point-of-view shots, action shots
• Use your smartphone to film establishing shots and cutaway shots
• Learn how to use natural lighting as a key light to model and illuminate the subject
• Use good interview technique and learn how to edit for the sound
• Take photographs and learn how to use picture composition and rule of thirds
• Learn how to edit your clips on the smartphone and create a video news story
• Launch video news stories online and blogs using social media sites.

Before the course, we will contact participants to find out what type of smartphone they’ll bring to the course and to provide a list of apps to download before the workshop. The majority of these are free, but the list may include a couple of paid-for apps. These should not come to more that £20 in total.

About the trainer:
The course tutor, Bill Shepherd teaches mobile and video journalism using smartphones and mirrorless cameras at billshepherdmedia.com. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists, the Guild of Television Camera Professionals and he is also a production editor at The Guardian and The Observer.

Image: via Shutterstock / drpnncpptak

On Friday 20 May, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of ‘He Named Me Malala’, an insightful and emotional portrait of Malala Yousafzai, that usher us into Malala’s life; both now and before she was shot by the Taliban while campaigning for Pakistani girls’ right to education. The screening was followed by a panel discussion moderated by BBC journalist Sima Kotecha, with Gulwali Passarlay, an author and Afghan political refugee, Philippa Lei, Director or Policy and Advocacy at Malala Fund, and Elin Martinez, researcher in the Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. The panel discussed the right to education for refugees, all contributing their individual expertise.

A constant theme throughout the evening was lack of access to education for refugees around the world, whether in refugee camps in Jordan, or in foster care in the UK, and what barriers need to be overcome for this to change. Passarlay arrived in the UK when he was 13 years old, after travelling for one year, through ten countries. He initially found it very difficult to access education, and describing it as “the key to freedom”. All panel members agreed that education was vital for all refugee children, with Lei commenting that many governments do not spend enough money on an infrastructure to facilitate providing education to all refugees, and that rich countries should be providing more resources to those countries that are hosting the majority of the world’s refugees, stating that: “…governments have a financial responsibility to provide an education for every child”.

The panel all dismissed the financial argument that educating and housing refugees will use up their resources, with Martinez observing that “resources can be found when they want to be”. Passarlay stated that these arguments, which create an “us and them” are unfair, asking

“Why are we blaming refugees [for austerity]? We should see refugees not as a burden, but as an investment”

And stating that, as Malala has said before, “we have a voice in the West but we take it or granted”. In agreement, Lei observed that “Malala is using her voice to bring some of that moral conscience back”, when she is not scared to ask difficult questions and talk about the issues that matter to her.

In answer to an audience member asking what do refugee children need the most, Passarlay, with agreement from the other panel members, told her that “What is in short supply is dignity, human value…understanding and compassion. Education is important, but, they are traumatised, before that they need love”.

For more information about any future screenings of ‘He named me Malala’ and the work of the Malala Fund, visit https://www.withmalala.org/

He Named Me Malala is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The then 15-year-old was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls’ education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry from supporters around the world. She miraculously survived and is now a leading campaigner for girls’ education globally as co-founder of the Malala Fund.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman) shows us how Malala, her father Zia and her family are committed to fighting for education for all girls worldwide. The film gives us an inside glimpse into this extraordinary young girl’s life – from her close relationship with her father who inspired her love for education, to her impassioned speeches at the UN, to her everyday life with her parents and brothers.

The release of He Named Me Malala coincided with a 12-month social action and advocacy campaign – #withMalala. Through audience engagement with global and in-country calls to action, the campaign aims to raise mass awareness, funding, and policy change by activating millions of people worldwide as newfound champions for girls’ education globally.

Sima Kotecha (moderator) is a British television and radio journalist working for the BBC. She currently is a multimedia reporter for BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme and makes regular appearances on the main BBC News TV bulletins as a reporter. She also presents the BBC1 TV news bulletin at 8pm and has presented Radio 5Live’s Up All Night and Newsday on the BBC World Service.

Gulwali Passarlay is an Afghan political refugee currently reading politics and international relations at the University of Manchester. He has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4 News and TEDx.

Philippa Lei is Director of Policy and Advocacy at Malala Fund. Philippa studied NGOs and International Development at LSE after spending 3 years in Romania working with children orphaned by AIDS. She held senior positions at World Vision and Save the Children before joining Malala Fund and has published papers and worked extensively on child rights policy, lobbying and programming related to international development.

Elin Martinez joined Human Rights Watch in July 2014, as a Researcher in the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, focused on the right to secondary education. She previously worked for the Global Partnership for Education’s Secretariat in Washington, as well as Save the Children UK, where she led the organization’s global advocacy efforts on the right to education in humanitarian emergencies and armed conflict.
Prior to focusing on global education advocacy, she worked at Franciscans International, a faith-based international NGO. Focused on human rights issues in the Asia Pacific, she worked with grassroots human rights defenders and advocacy organizations to develop national human rights advocacy strategies and to increase accountability for human rights violations through UN human rights bodies. You can follow her work on twitter via @Martinez_Elin or by visiting: https://goo.gl/V9m0jW

https://www.withmalala.org/
Directed by: Davis Guggenheim
Country: UK
Year: 2015
Runtime: 88′

To Light A Candle is a film by journalist Maziar Bahari, author of Then They Came for Me, focusing on the Baha’is of Iran and their peaceful response to decades of state-sponsored persecution. The Baha’is are Iran’s largest religious minority. Persecuted because of their faith, they are barred from teaching and studying at University. The Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) was established in 1987 to give young Baha’is a chance to pursue knowledge and receive a quality education.

The informal courses take place in people’s homes, via mail correspondence and online lectures. The Iranian government regularly raids BIHE classes and arrests its students. Hundreds of Baha’is have been jailed for teaching and studying the BIHE. Yet, the BIHE continues to function and now 79 Universities around the world accept qualifications from the BIHE.

To Light A Candle offers a hopeful story of the BIHE and Iran, highlighting a paradigm shift in Iranian society where influential political and cultural figures are beginning to speak out about the situation of the Baha’is. In 2015 the film sparked the global Education Is Not A Crime campaign for universal access to higher education.

#NotACrime works to stop the human rights abuse of Iranian Baha’is and encourages universities around the world to admit Iranian Baha’i students. Maziar Bahari, a former Newsweek journalist who was jailed in Iran and became the subject of Jon Stewart’s film Rosewater, started the initiative.

Iran’s Baha’is are the country’s largest religious minority. Baha’is are frequently jailed on false charges and denied access to higher education. Thousands of Baha’is are currently studying through an underground education system known as the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE).

#NotACrime began in New York City in September 2015 with 11 murals on education equality and freedom of expression across the city, attracting international media attention. Leading street artists from around the world painted artworks designed to provoke conversation about the Iranian government’s long history of violating the human rights of its citizens. The campaign has spread to Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, Cape Town and Johannesburg, and Sydney. Nearly 100 universities – including several in the United Kingdom, such as University College London and the University of Manchester – currently accept the BIHE certificate.

Azadeh Moaveni is a journalist and writer who has covered the Middle East since 2000. She was Middle East correspondent for Time magazine, and is the author of Lipstick Jihad and Honeymoon in Tehran. She is lecturer in journalism at Kingston University and is working on a book about women and radicalisation.

Director: Maziar Bahari
Country: Iran/United Kingdom
Runtime: 54′
http://www.notacrime.me/
@notacrime

Charismatic cleric Abdul Aziz Ghazi, an ISIS supporter and Taliban ally, is waging jihad against the Pakistani state. His dream is to impose a strict version of Sharia law throughout the country, as a model for the world. A flashpoint in Aziz’s holy war took place in 2007, when the government leveled his flagship mosque to the ground, killing his mother, brother, only son and 150 students. With unprecedented access, Among the Believers follows Aziz on his very personal quest to create an Islamic utopia, during the bloodiest period in Pakistan’s modern history.

The film also follows the lives of two teenage students who have attended madrassahs (Islamic seminaries) run by Aziz’s Red Mosque network. Throughout the film, their paths diverge: Talha, 12, detaches from his moderate Muslim family and decides to become a jihadi preacher. Zarina, also 12, escapes her madrassah and joins a regular school. Over the next few years, Zarina’s education is threatened by frequent Taliban attacks on schools like her own.

Aziz’s foil is nuclear physicist and leading educational activist Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy. He passionately opposes Aziz through his public appearances, lectures, and in the media. Opposition to Aziz comes to a head in December 2014, when Aziz insults a grieving nation by trying to justify the brutal massacre of 132 school children in Peshawar by the Taliban. The attack ignites a movement to end extremism in Pakistan’s mosques and madrassahs. Led by Hoodbhoy and others, Pakistan’s moderate majority focuses on Aziz and calls for his arrest.

Intimate and shocking, Among the Believers offers rare insights into the ideological battles shaping Pakistan and the Muslim world.

Directed by: Hemal Trivedi and Mohammed Naqvi
Country: Pakistan
Year: 2015
Runtime: 84’

On a panel moderated by David Loyn, Gordon Brown, Julia Gillard and Kevin Watkins discussed funding education for Syrian child refugees.

More than 20 global leaders – including former presidents, prime ministers and Nobel Prize winners – will meet in London on 23 January to champion the world’s young people by bidding to reverse a dangerous decline in financing for education, particularly in conflict zones.

Following this meeting, the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Rt Hon Gordon Brown; the chair of the Global Partnership for Education and former Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard; and the head of the Overseas Development Institute, Kevin Watkins, will be in conversation at the Frontline Club. The discussion will be chaired by foreign correspondent David Loyn, and will focus on how the international community must fund 1 million school places for Syrian refugee children. The event takes place just 10 days ahead of a major United Nations-sponsored Syria relief funding conference, also being held in London.

The International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity is supported by the Government of Norway and Prime Minister Erna Solberg and co-convened by President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, President Peter Mutharika of Malawi and the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova. It will review the future of global education, which currently leaves 124 million young people out of school. The selection of this diverse group of individuals comes at a crucial time, when more children are out of school than a year ago and increased conflict has forced millions of children out of the classrooms – becoming refugees with no prospects of education. The Commission will explore how over the next 15 to 20 years, education could lead to greater economic growth, better health outcomes, and improved global security.

In 2014, 14,792 asylum seekers arrived in Denmark, 2,940 of them were children. At Home in the World follows the day-to-day lives of those children whose families are seeking asylum in the EU.

This remarkably intimate and touching documentary focuses on one Danish Red Cross school for refugees, where classrooms are filled with children from more than twelve countries. The students have had to learn Danish while adjusting to new surroundings and, in some cases, dealing with the traumas of conflict. While some students thrive and find friendship despite their difficult pasts, others act out with feelings of alienation and frustration. Some are denied asylum and sent back to their countries of origin, while others are granted residence and graduate to standard Danish language schools.

With stunning and unobtrusive camera work, director Andreas Koefoed masterfully captures the social and psychological impacts of displacement from the outlook of young people and the educators who are tasked with guiding them – and at times their parents – through daunting new experiences.

Directed by: Andreas Koefoed
Produced by: Sara Stockmann
Production company: Sonntag Pictures
Runtime: 58′
Country: Denmark
athomeintheworldthefilm.com

Meet Kisilu Musya, a Kenyan farmer and father of eight children, living at the front line of our changing climate. Through Kisilu’s poignant video diary and director Julia Dahr’s observational footage, we follow Kisilu and the Musya family through their day-to-day life over three years. We experience their struggle against the extreme storms and increasing droughts that threaten to destroy their home and ruin the crops that provide their food.

This personalised narrative documents a grassroots environmental awareness movement, as Kisilu determines to inform his community of tactics to help prepare their homes and crops for extreme weather.

Kisilu is an intimate portrait of a tightly knit family and one innovative and impassioned man battling the impacts of climate change to create a better future for his local community.

Kisilu: The Climate Diaries was awarded the Student Award at the 2015 One World Media Awards and will be broadcast on Al Jazeera Witness on 2 December 2015.

Director: Julia Dahr
Production Company: Banyak Films
Producer: Hugh Hartford
Runtime: 60′
Year: 2015
Country: Norway