Thank you to everyone who came along to our Macmillan Coffee morning and baked, bought & cake. We had a lovely morning meeting old friends and new, plus we raised around £120 for a fantastic cause! 

Right, what has fifteen legs and makes great videos? The answer, of course, is the six Community Journalists who, thanks to Lister Steps and Jon and Paul from Periscope Productions, have been transformed from ardent amateurs to, well, if not quite the Steven Spielbergs of this parish, to a group who have acquired the necessary skills to put together a series of short videos charting the progress of the Lister Steps Project to be uploaded to the likes of Facebook.
 
We were quite a diverse band, ranging from an A-Level student to a grey haired old codger whose refusal to enter the 21st century was evident by his initial enquiry as to where does the roll of film go in a digital camera (the Periscope lads knew they had a job on with this dinosaur – I’ll own up, it was me).
 
But, over six three-hour sessions in July and August (the first four at our very own Lister Steps and the remaining two at Periscope’s state of the art studios in Bootle) , we were taught how to interview people; camera techniques; lighting principles; video and audio editing; and how to upload the finished product to the relevant social media platform.
 
Special thanks must go to Jon and Paul from Periscope whose enthusiasm was so contagious that each three hour session flew by – and this from a man who hurls abuse at the inanimate objects such as traffic lights which have been on red for more than three seconds. Honestly, they could convert the world to a planet of Marmite lovers if they put their minds to it.
 
And thanks to the fabulous Lister Steps for facilitating this course. Seriously, we enjoyed every single minute of it and, from a personal perspective, I met a great bunch of people, so thanks to you as well.
 
So, we’ve got the journalists, all we need now is the community i.e. YOU! Happy to be filmed, giving your views, getting involved and helping us to record the rebirth of the library and the progress of the Project and the benefits it will bring to your community.
 
By the way I cheated – six people equals twelve legs I know; but I counted in the three legs of the camera tripod; an essential part of the team!
 
Steve Sneade, Community Journalist (yes, the grey haired dinosaur …)
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