At Long Last, It's Happening!

[+Simply Paul]

Yep. I sent them an e-mail last year, and they got in touch with me again in the summer, but the cogs of the BBC have turned slowly and it was today that a nice lady turned up with an 'if you die it's not our fault' form for me to sign and a fancy camera for me to borrow. All I need to do now is sum up the colourful world of geocaching in 3 1/2 minutes, while avoiding making it sound too anoraki. I know, tricky.

 

It seems likely I'll have the equipment when I'm looking for my 300th cache (I'm on 276 now, and I want the 0.3k by the end of the month) so that'll be a part of it, plus I'll talk about www.geocaching.com, fresh air and exercise and GPS handsets, of course.

 

Since I'll be representing the UK caching community, I think it only sensible to find out what you think I need to be talking about - or perhaps what I need to *avoid* talking about. All feedback would be appreciated.

 

SP

[+Laughalot]

Sounds a fun challenge.... good luck with it and don't forget to mention all the fab people that you've met through Geocaching.... you know the ones, they go out in the dark on a spooky Halloween night, get covered in mud, while wearing alternative dress of witches and ghouls - (got the picture?) or ... you've guessed it, an anorak !!!.

 

Seriously though, the few people I have met have been really friendly and very welcoming to a newcomer. Thanks to you all !

 

I am sure you will do a great job Paul - look forward to hearing and seeing it all.

 

Nancy (Laughalot)

[+2202]

Paul

I would have thought a get together bash would have been worth including, although the drunken revelry of the West Wycombe Halloween bash may have been a bit much to take.

Also somewhere wild and desolate place.

Edited November 15, 2004 by 2202

[markandlynn]

Undiscovered country right next to where people live, you know the "would never know its there" without geocaching. I would stick to ones where there is definite land owner permision and speak deliberately slowly when filming.

[Ben Pid]

Paul

I would have thought a get together bash would have been worth including, although the drunken revelry of the West Wycombe Halloween bash may have been a bit much to take.

Also somewhere wild and desolate place.

 

Yes, possibly not for day time viewing - more post Watershed viewing.....lol.

 

I think what should be filmed are great views, places and scenery. Obviously everything kept within the guidelines. Possibly planting and finding a cache....Showing around the sites, even possibly stick in an Urban cache....

 

But mainly we need to show that we do not....:

 

1. Wreck the countryside / town

2. Leave Litter

3. Be incompetant

4. Park illegally

5. Ever not ask permission to plant

6. Cause a nuisance to anything

7. Dig up buried treasure.....

 

All these things have been brought up before....but if we show in any way that we do any of these things we'll give ourselves more of a bad name.

 

Peace

[+2202]

And if you get in front of the camera.

Check that your flies are done up!

[+Simply Paul]

Sound advice Tony, and yes, I am expected to host the piece, as well as 'voice-over' some of it. Which means I'll have to have a shave and smarten my self up a bit, I suppose.

[+kbootb]

When I teach media classes the 2 key words are:

 

PURPOSE

 

and

 

AUDIENCE

 

i.e. what are you trying to achieve and who are you trying to tell.

 

The audience part then expands into audience expectation. Once you have identified 'who' you then need to work out 'how'. i.e. what kind of presentation do they like/tolerate/get affected by.

 

i.e. sub 25 yrs, banging house music, text scrolling by so fast you can't read it, camera held at any angle other than vertical, preferrably at least one other picture-in-picture to to be as distracting as possible. Voice over repeating the same info at least 3 times. (Have you watched the latest Horizon series lately... how little material can you spread into 50 mins)

 

Any way, you get the picture.

 

I think Purpose is the most difficult here.... back to the debate... do we want a lot of people knowing about us?

 

Do we want a lot of cachers. Do we want landowners to be more forgiving? (yes to the last one for me, but the others are still in the balance)

[Deego]

maybe lose the green hue

 

Good luck and lookforward to seeing it

[+John Stead]

How about working in some reference to the giving back to the community efforts of some of our friends - CITO at Flint Castle, RNLI at Happisburgh Cash Bash and CIN at Dewsbury next Sunday.

[+DomHeknows]

i wouldn't mention your other day job either :-)

[+Inukshuk and Arwen]

A mention for the mag would be nice too!

Tell me what size T shirt you want!

 

good luck

Inuk

[davester]

And a mention for GeoHikes!

 

[team tisri]

I'd stress all that's positive about geocaching. Getting out in the fresh air, finding places you might never have known existed before (especially a lot of the smaller London parks), the fun of seeking and finding (if you can get at least one "real" cache and one micro that would be good) etc.

 

On the top of CITO, make a point of mentioning it if you're in an area where there is a little bit of litter. Make some remark about the litter and be seen picking it up and putting it in a nearby bin. Sounds trivial, but the action backs up the words... it's not much good to mention it if you then kick a discarded beer can into the bush as you go on your way.

 

And I wouldn't mention the incident with Green Park #1 either

[+Rocky Balboa]

1. Wreck the countryside / town

2. Leave Litter

3. Be incompetant

4. Park illegally

5. Ever not ask permission to plant

6. Cause a nuisance to anything

7. Dig up buried treasure.....

Wasn't that your mission statement when you started caching???

[+Kitty Hawk]

Was that barbers pole permenant or removeable? I'm no expert, but I'm just thinking that it may be best not to wear it on telly.

[+Gavotteers]

That's how they get the pictures back to the studio is it?????

 

Mel

[+The Hokesters]

Good Luck Paul - one word of advice - don't take them on your Moronic Atomic series - they will think you are mad - oh you are!

 

don't want the General Public to think so though

 

[Edit: Due to the vagaries of the educayshun sistum - it apeers that i can't spell]

Edited November 16, 2004 by The Hokesters

[+Alibags]

Let me know if you want a hand SP (eg hold your barbers pole for you). BTW, I have NO interest in being on TV at all, but I don't think you normally have enough hands free for caching as it is, without having a video camera to lug along too!

[+The Hokesters]

eg hold your barbers pole for you...

Can you say that on here?

[+Alibags]

Can you say that on here?

Behave!!!

[+Simply Paul]

even possibly stick in an Urban cache....

It *is* called COUNTRYfile, Pid

 

Thanks very much for all the suggestions so far, folks. I will try to get as much info in as I can, including a mention of the e-zine, how friendly & lovely caching folk are and play up the CITO side of the game too. I'll also talk about this being my 300th find (fingers crossed) and how it's a great sport for dog owners and families. I really want to emphasise the 'even the locals don't know this place is here' angle too, and slide a CIN / RNLI mention in as well. Ultimately I'll shoot much more stuff than can be used so it'll be up to the editor to decide what's vital to the 'story' and what's not. But the more I talk about, the more they have to pick from.

 

I did speak to the woman from the Beeb about setting caches but given I've less than 4 minutes to get the message across, I think I need to keep it simple and stick to finding them on the day.

 

I'm hoping Dan will be joining me as I dare say some of it will end up being shot in the dark, he's a fine driver and has experience of filming caching - but thank you for your kind offer Alibags.

 

SP

 

P.S. This is my second attempt at doing this post. My first one was much better but AOL crashed and ate it. Bum.

[+Rocky Balboa]

Yep, i'm quite happy to help out. Should be a laugh