Shona's Blog!

Journey to the capital...

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 09:00:00 -0500

I took a trip to London with Sara Domville, fellow Young Producer Kajol Lally and Rob from SomeWhereTo. We went to Live Magazine, a magazine created by and for Young People.

They reflect innercity life in London and culture also covering a wide rage of issues. Each Young Person who works on Live Magazine is assigned a role within the magazine. I think that this is an invaluable idea to bring forward to the Blaze Magazine when and if we start creating our own.

We spent a while asking the editor questions in order to learn from Live Magazine’s experience, this was good for me as a Blogger to find out how magazines are put together which are run by Young People, showing me that it is possible to combine arts with writing in order to get people interested in the arts which I didnt believe would be that successful before visiting Live Magazine.

It was great to see Young People at the centre, taking key roles and driving the project forward, whilst learning new skills and passing on their own skills to others. It would be great if other areas, like Lancashire and Cumbria could have their own magazine just like Live Magazine.

-Shona

Presenting at the Blaze Festival 2012 (:

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 07:08:41 -0400

Presenting at the Blaze Festival 2012 (:

My Blogs and YouTube channel, check it out! Dont forget to subscribe and all your dreams will come true... (:

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 10:10:17 -0400

My Blogs and YouTube channel, check it out! Dont forget to subscribe and all your dreams will come true... (:

Working on the Blaze Festival 2012 (:

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:56:17 -0400

Working on the Blaze Festival 2012 (:

The results are in....

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 08:58:00 -0400

Blaze Festival 2012 was a huge success!

After months and months of dedication , planning and hard work, we finally took over Miller Park in Preston and created a two day festival which attracted many people with a huge buzz on the 8th and 9th September..

On the friday before the weekend, I made a VT (In the words of Keith Lemon… VT stands for video tape! ) with Let’s Go Global, interviewing Inspire Mark Project leaders, this got me excited and gave me the confidence I needed for the next few days.

I spent my two festival days working with Let’s Go Global, being their main presenter on their live stream in the Blaze Lounge… (It had colourful cushions!!!) I interviewed acoustic acts, people who worked with We Play and other important guests including Jeremy Deller.

Being presenter for the live stream has given me self confidence and I really enjoyed the whole experience. I had a microphone and a live audience as well as the viewers online! It felt very professional as we were counted down on when to speak and it was live..

I was also working with the Blaze Bloggers, this was a challenge… but we got through it creating some good work thats online.

My favorite act has to be the last three bands at the end, which were The Natives, The Colours and Kid British. They all performed on the last night of the festival and got the crowd going. I didnt get to see many performances because of the live stream but it was great to hear them from my lovely Blaze Lounge.

I’m quite sad that I dont have a microphone to interview people right now xD. I would like to do more presenting again.

I’m also sad that the festival is over now and I’m sure I’ll miss all the Festival Producers but I’m so proud to be proud of the Blaze Festival 2012. We learned so much about how to put on a festival and had to deal with problems on the spot.. Couldnt have had a better learning experience then Blaze Festival! Roll on Blaze Festival 2013!

-Shona

blazearts: Double page spread in Monday’s Lancashire Evening...

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:26:31 -0400

blazearts:

Double page spread in Monday’s Lancashire Evening Post

Making my #BlazeFestival Blog! :) Its just three days to go! I...

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:15:00 -0400

Making my #BlazeFestival Blog! :) Its just three days to go! I put together a little video blog, which I will be doing daily for the Festival and during the weekend :) .

-Shona

#BlazeFestival 2012! Presenting with Dann.

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:44:00 -0400

#BlazeFestival 2012! Presenting with Dann.

Ignite!

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Yes.

The final Ignite meeting took place yesterday. Ignite is my alternative Saturday job, where I work one day a week at the Dukes Theatre in Lancaster on Blaze Bloggers, being paid by Ignite.

I just wanted to write something about my experience working on the Ignite programme as Ignite is amazing! It has given me a chance to get experience in the area I want to work in, into the future and I have been supported by Ignite through my mentor also having other young people working on Ignite having similar experiences that I have, has been really useful to talk to each other and get advice from each other.

I have developed in self confidence, communication , working with others and many different areas that I hope I will carry forward into the future.

-Shona

Go and take a look at my Video Blog about the #BlazeFestival! :)

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:22:54 -0400

Go and take a look at my Video Blog about the #BlazeFestival! :)

Inspiring a new generation?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:24:46 -0400

I have been part Blaze for four years now.. In the beginning I remember thinking, London 2012? Thats so far away and I’ll be 18 years old by the time that gets here… and look.. here we are right now! It’s strange. Also, Blaze is a cultural Olympiad project finding the link between arts and sport, which I thought was impossible! How wrong I was!

The caption for the Olympics is ‘Inspiring a new generation’ and I think that that has been achieved. I had no interest in sport what so ever and I certainly did not think that a link between arts and sports could be made, however this link excites me now, there are so many opportunities I hope to develop in the future! This hasn’t just inspired new sporting stars but also people in the arts, like myself and other Young Producers.

The opening ceremony had arts and sports together, (I am convinced that Danny Boyle took that idea from us at Blaze xD) it was great to watch and feel part of that event because of the work we’ve been doing with Blaze.

In 2008, I didnt take much notice of the Olympics, of course I wanted Great Britain to win gold medals but I didnt watch much. This year I have watched almost every event. My favourite being Ben Ainslie in sailing, hes incredible!

Getting back to the inspiring a new generation, everyone is talking about the Olympics both on the social network sites like Facebook but also face to face, giving people something good to talk about for once! It’s been an amazing opportunity to be part of a Cultural Olympic project and I am so proud to be part of it and Blaze, as I have learned so much over the past three years which will help me with my career!

London 2012 in my opinion, has been an amazing experience for everyone at Blaze even though we havent worked with the Olympics at all really, we’ve still been set up because of them!

Ben Ainslie sailing, winning Gold, London 2012.

-Shona

Go take a look at what I got up to in Sweden at Trastock, With Blaze HERE! (:

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:21:00 -0400

Go take a look at what I got up to in Sweden at Trastock, With Blaze HERE! (:

Filming interviews at Trastock, learning just how hard it is to...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:19:16 -0400

Filming interviews at Trastock, learning just how hard it is to keep my arms still for so long when holding an IPad!

Volunteering at Trastock Music Festival, In Sweden! (:

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:16:44 -0400

Volunteering at Trastock Music Festival, In Sweden! (:

Getting ready to Interview people at Trastock Festival in Sweden...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:12:55 -0400

Getting ready to Interview people at Trastock Festival in Sweden with Dann! (:

Me and the Olympic Torch at the Blaze Press Event, I thought...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 09:48:37 -0400

Me and the Olympic Torch at the Blaze Press Event, I thought I’d post this just because I’m proud to be part of a Cultural Olympiad Project! :)

Following the Olympic Torch around Lancashire for my blog! I...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 09:13:30 -0400

Following the Olympic Torch around Lancashire for my blog! I think I turned into a magpie that week following shiny things! I got to walk down the route of the Olympic torch as media after a while of convincing the security that I was indeed part of Blaze!

Blaze... In Sweden!

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Trastock is the biggest free music festival in Sweden and I was lucky enough to be sent to Skelleftea, the very top of Sweden to volunteer along side the amazing volunteers who work on Trastock.

It was my first time on an areoplane, we took five planes in six days! Landing in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Skelleftea. It was a scary experience but well worth it!

We went as a group of eight from Blaze, Me, Rachel Walker, Matt Wilde, Zach Lawernce, Brad Bromley, Dann Allen, Han from Handstand Films and Sara Domville, with us all having our own area of interest for the festival. Mine, being media. I shaddowed Ludwig, who was team leader on the Media team, he worked so hard as did all the volunteers on Trastock. This experience brought our own Blaze Festival Producers group together.

I learned that you need the right equiptment, a dedicated team and a filming schedule in order to keep on track with your filming. They dont use Twitter at Trastock, I think that Twitter is a good tool to use to get people excited and up to date on your projects.

I also was interviewed on TV ending up on Swedish TV, this gave Blaze great coverage in Sweden. From Blaze, we put all hands on deck on helped the Swedish volunteers in whatever way we could, even picking up litter! But, no complaints as we got so much out of working along side the Trastock Young Producers.

Over all, going to Trastock was an incredible experience, I learned so much and gained alot of confidence in my own abilities working on Media. I hope to go back to Trastock and volunteer one day and hopefully I will use the skills I gained from Trastock on Blaze Festival and other projects I take part in.

-Shona

Blazing flame!

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:08:00 -0400

The Olympic Torch went through Lancaster afew weeks ago and I was there to take photos, getting up close to the torch! It was pretty exciting to think we’ve worked for 2012 for three years and its actually here! Trying to get a photo was hard work, but I felt like a journalist because I was given a brief on what was wanted for the picture and I only had one chance to take it, that was very exciting!

I then went to Burnley with the Blaze Bloggers, to blog about the Boom Bike performance! There were so many people at the event, giving the Boom Bike a great platform! After trying hard to get through the barriers, we were finally allowed to get through as press and walk down the Olympic Torch route, it was truely amazing as just moments later the Olympic torch went down the same path!

The Boom Bike as usual got a great reaction from the crowd.. again.. trying to keep up with them is still an issues, so Im hoping to get on the back of one of their bikes sooner or later.. so keep checking back to see if I make my goal and ofcorse to keep up to date on the Blaze programme! xD

-Shona

jamesbowlingblaze: Taken with Instagram Me at the Ignite...

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 07:29:29 -0400

jamesbowlingblaze:

Taken with Instagram

Me at the Ignite meeting! Its all exciting!