Our second day of filming for our website today with Chester University Media team.  Both Steve and I have a new found respect for anyone who works in presenting or in front of the camera because it is definitely harder than it looks!  To start with you have a huge camera in your face – but you’re not allowed to look at it!  You then have to answer one person’s questions whilst looking at another person!  Now I’ve always thought that eye contact with the person you’re speaking to is very important and also good manners so I find myself, without meaning to, turning my eyes to look at the interviewer in a kind of sneak a peek manner which makes me look really shifty on film!  Never mind, keeps the editors busy!

 Then there’s answering questions under pressure! We know all the answers and we’re passionate about our expedition – so why when asked under pressure does it come out as a jumble of mixed up words interspersed with ‘ums’ and ‘you knows’?!  But – as we get used to it and relax we’re beginning to get a little bit better.  I mean no-one’s going to be rushing to put us on tv presenting the News at Ten anytime soon, but we have faith that the media team have enough to create a pretty decent video for our sponsors.

 Watch this space!

Mission spread the word is under way!  Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been trying to get the attention of the local media to inform people of what we’re doing and hopefully inspire people to get on board and sponsor us.  We’ve had a really good response so far and even made front page news in the Flintshire Leader.  It’s also probably the only time I’ll be able to say my photo was on page 3!  Readers of the Flintshire Chronicle and the Daily Post have also been able to read about the progress made to date.

Having our expedition on the BBC Online has certainly helped us gain some interest and we’ve had a number of e-mails from groups across the country who have seen the story and felt inspired to have their own adventures.  We’ve also had a mention on Heart FM according to some colleagues who heard it on their way to a meeting!

We’re hoping this interest will now spread into the national media and generate more interest in our quest.  If anyone out their has any ideas or contacts then we emplore you to get in touch and let us know.  We don’t have celebrity friends or stacks of cash for a PR campaign so we really are depending on the power of the people to make this happen.

See the BBC Online report here

Last week I had an unexpected phone call from one of my old school friends, Chris (or Mr Roberts as he is now more commonly known). Chris is a teacher at St Augustine’s of Canterbury High in Oldham and some of his pupils were taking part in the BBC School News Report. The Year 9 Talented and Gifted pupils were planning on putting together a news report for the BBC and wanted to include the Patch Expedition, of course I said yes.

So on Thursday I recieved a phone call from a Faryaan who did my first ever interview about our expedition. She was an extremely good interviewer and asked some really interesting questions. However, what Chris and Faryaan forgot to mention was that they were going to use a recording of my answers in an online video report! I had assumed that they would be just be producing a written news report, lesson learned never assume.

So I must appologise to the Year 9 team for my rather iffy performance. The guys who put a huge amount of effort into making the report, which also included an interview with Gerard Kearns from the TV series Shameless (who as an  actor turned in a much more professional performance than I did), did a great job. Well done to everyone involved!

If you would like to see their report click here (no comments on the bit with me in it though!)