I am ceasing to blog my progress on this host. My new website (which is still in the buiding phase) is situated at http://www.wheresollie.net - please update your bookmarks accordingly.
Not only will the new website have a new dynamic look to it, but you as a viewer will be able to interact with it much easier.
Thanks for following my progress here, now please follow me over to my new and exciting site.
After a successful meeting with the staff from The Childrens Foundation, it is full steam ahead. Expect a few changes in the near future, this includes my own spanking new website, with its own catchy URL
Watch this space, and i will let you know 'where ollie is'
In the meantime if you wish to help out with the cause with a donation, please visit the just giving link on the right side of the page, if you feel you are able to contribute in any other way, please feel free to drop me a line pmalsop@hotmail.com or create a blogger account and leave some comments (you cannot comment without a blogger account)
;)
Some areas to date that i could do with a hand include:- - Sponsorship of some webspace, i have already bought this, but i would appreciate some help with the costs, maybe if you are a business or know of a business. - Donation of some AV equipment - i am currently using a Fuji finepix S5600 to shoot the footage, but as it is my XD card will only hold 3 mins of low quality footage and even less of high quality broadcast footage. If any one would like to donate an XD card with a decent amount of memory for the duration of the filming, it would be appreciated. - Ideas for places to dance, south of Newcastle to Middlesborough - Anything else ......... if you have a good idea, let us know!
Adding comments and the logistics of this site ........
I have been contacted by quite a few people to say they can't leave commments because they are not members of the blogger site, unfortunately thats just the way it is - if you want to leave comments you will have to register, either that or give me my own web space with a decent url so i can set up a better page ;)
Another strange thing about this site is that it reads bottom to top (in order of date) - the newest posts will be displayed at the top of the page and the older ones below (can cause some confusion!)
I have some exams coming up, so i will not be updating until after then
The dancing will be happening in and around the north east over the next few months, i will be visiting places from the border to Middlesborough and across to Haltwhistle (or near enough in that sort of triangle).
The destination map will be similar to this,
If you would like to make any suggestion of destinations please feel free to contact me and i will try my best to do what i can.
In the short time between realising i had a worthwhile plan and today, i have also realised that i will adding a few new strings to my bow. The first one will be learning how to dance like a man possessed The second is digital video editing, despite only having a megre analogue video camera, i managed to get some footage and convert it to digital images (after much of a do!) The third will be learning about and visiting places in and around my home counties that i have never been before The forth will be an introduction into 'music of the world' a place where i have never before ventured, although i have to admit, so far i think it is great! The fifth will be learning to dance like a man possessed ;)
To get the backing of people who have never seen Matt and his world travels and also to show people that i am genuinely going to dance across the North East i decided i needed a 'pilot dance' (and i don't mean biggles doing the foxtrot!). I also needed to see how much support i would need editing digital videos to music, cutting them to length adding text etc, all the stuff that can make a video a delightful experience to watch.
At that particular time i had not procured a video camera, let alone shot any footage. As luck would have it, a friend decided to send me his version of my planned jig. This was a perfect oporunity to try my hand at 'e-editing' with some free shareware software off the internet.
After spending an afternoon learning the basics of video editing, the result was as follows (Thanks Phil!) ......
Now that i knew i could edit the video to a decent standard, it was time for ...... the pilot!
To do this I armed myself with an old analogue video recorder, my shoes, an umbrella, a camera(wo)man and a sense of humour. I planned to do a jig in a nice location, however, it was raining really heavy at home, so that was my back garden out of the question. We headed up the a blustery Northumberland coastline, where the weather became clearer and we had time to grab some footage.
The following is the result (please bear in mind the following is a test run, thats why it is all set in the same place!) ......
After a bit of editing i added some music that i had collected during my research of World Music. The track i added fits the bill perfectly i think, i am even more happy with the sound that i was when i overlayed Matts track. Enjoy, there will be more to follow ....
Well i shall try and explain what is going on here from the start.
I was browsing the ever popular 'Youtube' a while back and i came across an amazing video of a guy dancing around the world set to some enchanting music, this guys name was Matt and you can find his video on his website at http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/. Basically, Matt had enough of work, gave up his job, and decided to travel and travel he did, the rest is history!
After watching the video about one million times i decided to see if i could dance like Matt in front of the bedroom mirror, whilst playing an enchanting version of 'Sweet Lullaby' originally by Deep Forest in the background that can be heard on his video.
Unlike Matt i currently do not have a job to give up, or have the money to travel around the world, i also do not have access to a record producer who could knock me up a music track specifically for my venture. However, i do have two feet, a car, a willingness to learn and like Matt, i can't dance either! This gave me an idea to dance around the North East of England visiting various landmarks, towns villages and people along the way. All this will be fun, however, i always think there should be a point to doing something, so i added a point (purpose) to my plan, I am going to do it for charity. As a gesture of respect, I emailed Matt to ask for his best wishes, he gave me an encouraging response, which only added fuel to my fire.
Currently I am a 4th year medical student, studying at Newcastle university and i am fully aware of all the good deeds the future doctors do for charities all across the globe, but as my dance will be in and around the North East of England I decided to do it for a local charity, a charity that can really make a difference for the future generations of the North East. The charity I chose was The Childrens Foundation. My family have been donating to them for a while now.
"Why 'you'!?!? You can't dance for toffee!!", i hear you say. Well my rationale is simple and it is like this. My nickname is Paul 'Ollie' Alsop (yup, has a great school playground ring to it doesn't it?), when i was young(er) i used to love the 'Where's Wally' series of books as well as the TV show. I must add in my defence, my nickname has nothing to do with the character Wally, i would never sport Red and White colours ;)
I used the inspiration from Matt and Wally to make the play on words ..... "Where's Ollie" - and after seeing the final vid, many people may want to add the word 'Wally' back into the title (right after the word 'Ollie', however, i don't mind, i have tough skin ;) )
As this is a voluntary project, i will need the as much help as various people and organisations are willing to give me, to make this little endevour as successful as possible, so pleas do not hesitate to contact me if you feel you can help in any way pmalsop@hotmail.com
Welcome to my blog, expect an updated blog page real soon as well as the rationale behind the madness!
In the meantime if you would like to make a donation to this, as of yet, unidentified cause, please visit my just giving website here to donate money to The Childrens Foundation
