I’ll let you into a secret… I’ve never done this before. I’ve written scripts, I’ve written articles, I’ve written books… but never one of these. Yes, I’m a blog virgin. So read me gently.

My colleague Michael Lally yesterday expressed his scepticism as to whether journalism was ‘a profession’ or not. As I recall, he preferred the word ‘trade’ and remarked that ‘anyone can be a journalist’. It’s an interesting debate and one we should examine…

I too am suspicious of the word ‘profession’ because it implies exclusivity. The so-called ‘professions’ – such as medicine and the law – are too often self-serving clubs with their own deliberately obscure jargon and inflated views of their own importance. Personally, I’m as willing to describe my car mechanic as ‘a professional’ as my doctor: both have the potential power of life and death over me. It’s also worth recalling that surgeons were originally barbers – yes, beard-shavers and hair-cutters who did the odd bit of blood-letting – which is why in England and America the traditional sign for a barber is a red and white striped pole, symbolising a bandage wound around a bloody limb.

But if journalism really is something that anyone can do, why have Sue, Karol, Darko and I spent the last month training – or, rather, developing – you people? Answer: because journalism, particularly television journalism, is a multi-discipline craft which requires the knowledge and implementation of a stage-by-stage process: conceptualisation, research, planning, shooting, interviewing, narrative-construction, scripting, editing, fact-checking, presenting… It requires intellectual effort, physical effort and, just when you’re totally exhausted and want to take a two-day break, supreme creative effort. Think about that – how many jobs do you know that make such multiple demands, week-in, week-out?

And one other thing… Without journalists, you cannot have a viable democracy. A vote in a ballot box is meaningless unless the voter has accurate, unbiased knowledge on which to base his/her decision.

So I don’t care what you call it – a profession, a craft, a trade, even just a job. The bottom line is this: it’s pretty damned important and you should take a pride in what you do. So, as you leave Nuremberg, keep your heads held high… and, if possible, your microphones out of shot. Bon voyage!

Michael, Trainer (from England/Australia)

I remember the first day when we arrived and everybody was presenting his / herself for one moment I thought I will not remember their names but two days later I felt I now them for ages. Four weeks training and they went very fast, successful and useful for the future. We had great time here in Nuremberg and also I learned so many new things, I will also remember the story that we did in Bosnia Herzegovina with my friend Anna.

Saturday is the day when we will say goodbye to each other with hope that we will met in the future.I am so happy that I have new friends and you are welcomed in Tirana .Wait for you.

Hugs, Orsela (from Albania)

Dear Colleagues, Friends, Foes, Lovers and Beautiful People.

Three weeks I won’t forget. It was a great event and we’re all still here talking to one another, caring and sharing with each other. How many countries did I visit in those 7 days of filming? Germany, Austria, Slovakia – twice, Hungary – twice, Czech Republic and Switzerland. How many people did I meet – hundreds. How many mosquitoes bit me – thousands. How many times did I walk up those damn stairs to Der Gruppenraum – countless. And as for the food – How many kilos have I put on – too many. BUT as for my heel, it’s almost healed – thanks to the walks in Prague and the Slovak Forest. Now it’s time for leaving and I wish you all the best for your future – think pictures, pictures, pictures and don’t forget the SOUND. Don’t forget there are more training/development courses available – check it out on the website and get in touch with me. Pass on the Circom experience to your friends. Big thanks to Heike, Zvjezdana and Sarah, a kick in the balls to Darko, a smack on the bum to Michael and a big kiss to Sue. Please keep in touch and let me know how you are getting on – drop me an email, I don’t do Facebook etc. I hope to be there in Galway in November so see you there. Finally, and most important of all, you are now members of the family – you’ve all been CIRCOMSCISCED.

Love you all, Karol

Twenty people with different culture and different language but one thing for sure that all of us will remember the bus to Strasbourg. Six hours in blue bus, we didn’t need jacket because it was hot enough (hahahah) but again not tired, ready to sing and play always ready to have great time. I feel lucky that I was a member of Circom this year, new experience, many new things useful in the future and very happy for the people that I met. For almost one month we feel like family and hope that in the future we will meet each other because I will miss jokes and great time that we had together.

I want to say Grazzi to Flora and Darryl
Go Rabih maith agat to Ebihlin, Ray and Sarah
Cheers Ta to Simone,
Tack Gittu to Maret,
Tak to Soren ,
Hvala to Kristina, Gordon, Milan and Armela,
Danke to Anna, Pauline and Timo
Dekuji to Radek
Faleminderit to Orsela , Ervin and Valbona.

Thank you for great time that we had together.

And many thanks to Michael, Sue, Karol, Darko and Heike.

Fitore (from Kosovo)

Today everybody was almost done with the European stories. Tomorrow is the screening day and I am so curious to watch the stories. Than we have to travel to Strasburg and I am so exited to see another city and the European Parliament.

Whole the training was great and I learned a lot of new things that probably I will use in the future. The most beautiful thing for me was the Nuremberg story at the ZOO, it was a great fan with my colleague Søren Denmark . Even the Istanbul story was a wonderful experience for me because we were a real team: Darko, Lidija and me. And I discover a very amazing city.

Now we have a lot of friends from different countries and we don’t have to feel alone in every country that we came from.

I wish to enjoy the journey to Strasburg…;-)

Valbona (from Kosovo)

You can see happy faces again. Almost every group finished today after very hard work their European story and the pressure and fatigue is now thank to ephedrine away. So we can again enjoying sunshine, hot summer and of course beautiful Nuremberg. But suddenly it seems that everything this gone today just after our finishing. But I don’t worry, we had good craic (Irish English = enjoyable time spent with other people) here every day, doesn’t matter if there was rain, snow or hailstorms. Only what we need to have a great time is guitar, Gordan and Eibhlin beautiful voice, Sean the Monitor and rest of the group singing!

And I know that we will enjoy our last week with the trip to Strasbourg and Germany’s World Cup semi-finale. Because these people from whole Europe are really crazy and I am happy that I met them here. And I hope that we will stay in touch also after this course and maybe have great craic in their home countries. So I am inviting you to the Prague, because I know you all miss trip there! It will be honour for me be your guide there!

So, thank you for great time here and let’s go enjoy our last few days here!

Radek (from Czech Republic)

P.S. Everybody who will learn this Czech tongue-twister will have beers in Prague for free!

For the first time since we arrived here to the guesthouse I had a long and good sleep. I love Armela for letting me sleep! And now we are nearly finish with our package, just a little more waiting for help. Waiting has been a huge part of making this piece. But I shall not complain anymore, soon we are done.

Everyone have been glued to computer trying to get done with their pieces. So it was so good to go out yesterday! My feet were just flying off happiness for not sitting still in the trainee-room any longer. And we danced! Too bad that most of the gang went home before we went to the club, we missed you. It was crazy how many places we had to go to for finding food, and to get a drink. I was nearly losing hope on Nuremberg. But we got to dance, that’s the important most important thing.

Now I’m waiting for Darko to finish our piece and then I’m free. Armela is in the Zoo, she took the early shift, I’m on the late. I’m satisfied with what we have done, and was so glad to see the smile on Karol’s face when he watched it. So I can almost promise you laughter again!

Tuesday we are viewing all packages, and I can’t wait. I think everybody is looking forward to that day. Because then we are really finish with the packages. Almost without any disasters. Everything can be fixed. I don’t envy you. This course have been very useful for me. Biggest lesson, you don’t always choose your partner if you are lucky as me, you get Armela and have fun the hole time. And another thing I think I will go back home and become a VJ. Or at least try.

Now it’s just a week until we are going home, so I’m planning to use this time only enjoying the company. I’m in love with you all!

Maret (from Sweden)

Yesterday, 10.30 p.m., Nuremberg, Guest House: Arriving by taxi there was first of all a big welcome, everybody hugs each other and was of course curious what we experienced while shot abroad. We, Soren and I, started our trip on Saturday in the evening. Our destination: Amsterdam, Holland. By airplane from Nuremberg took it about one hour – not bad, because there were other groups of ours who needed about 9 hours to get to their final destination (for example Darryl and Vitore on their way to the safest city in Europe: Albo in Denmark).

Our topic we covered: The right-wing shift in the Netherlands since the last general elections. What means: a really tough political story. In the recent four days did we talk to “normal” Dutch people, to a professor in political science, to a young Muslim about her feelings about the success of the far right-wing party PVV and its leader Geert Wilders and many more. We have been to Amsterdam, of course, but also to Almere, to Utrecht and finally to The Hague to do a piece to camera (PTC) in the Dutch parliament.

It was a great experience for me to work with a Danish colleague, who thinks often very similar in terms of TV working process – but as character of course is sometimes also different. So I learnt a lot, although I didn’t work as camera operator but in my “normal” role as reporter. I am really excited how the editing wills going on… our ingredients (pictures, interviews etc.) do we now have altogether. We are definitely satisfied with the results… so let’s see! I have a good feeling! Good feeling about my teammate Soren, good feeling about our story and it is a good feeling to be part of such an extraordinary Trans-European project.

Pauline (from Germany)

Nine hours in a train, three connections and three new friends. House for three crazy couchsurfing journalists. Our host is on a party in the neighbourhood. But, he left us full fridge, plenty Belgian chocolates and one cat in a beautiful garden…but we don’t know who is the owner of the cat? Now we are ready to start our adventure on a couch. Ok, I have to be honest and say that’s not only couch… we have our own rooms (we are lucky)…That’s all for tonight, couch is waiting for us…

Armela (from Bosnia)

The last two weeks here in Nuremberg seem to have passed in a second. Now everyone is sitting in the classroom and trying to manage the final things for their story abroad. Milan and Kristina already left for Portugal where they will interview same sex couples that are going to marry. Armela and Maret will have a couch surfing adventure in Belgium and Pauline and Soren want to find out more about the right-wing shift after the national elections in the Netherlands. Orsela and me fly tomorrow to Sarajevo where we want to film a multi-ethnic choir that was founded immediately after the war 15 years ago. But obviously the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina is still alarming. Even now, some weeks before the parliamentary elections, the political parties provoke divisions between the main ethnic groups. With our package we would like to enlighten that tricky situation. The choir is one example of how different ethnic groups can overcome their divisions. I am really exited about this and can’t wait for Sarajevo. Good luck to you guys across Europe!

Anna (from Germany)

Today was a beautiful day, the sun came out and lit up Nuremberg and it was great to see it!!! We were filming our Nuremberg Stories today, which i was delighted about, as it was nice to be out of the classroom setting and out in the real world again!! Ray, Darco and I filmed a story on the Sensory park called ‘Erfahrungsfeld’ in Nuremberg, located by the river. The park was great, with lots of kids (over 800!) and lots of action and great shots to be got!! The park tests each one of a persons sense’s and more, for example balancing etc. There were all age groups at the Park enjoying the ‘field of experience’ as they call it. We met some lovely lovely people, including a blind man called Helmut who was a guide in the Parks Dark Room. This was the highlight of the day, as it was something that none of us had experienced before and Helmut was a most pleasant and entertaining guide. He guided us around the Dark Room… which essentially is a dark house, where you cant see anything, and step into a blinds persons shoes… so it completely gives you all the feelings of what it is like to be blind. It was very moving. We also went to the Dark Cafe where we had a bottle of water and joined another group who were having coffee etc. Altogether today was my favourite day so far as it allowed me to do what I love doing most, meeting new interesting people and feeling the excitement that you can make a good story with what you got. Thank you to Darco and Ray who were a great help. And we had good fun too!! So we have 2 more weeks of learning, and enjoying each others company

Le grá mór, Eibhlín as Éirinn!!

Today it was a very tuft day because while we were in the class and taking the lectures we had also to make the final booking for our EU stories and then to fix the last things for Nuremberg stories, tomorrow is the day that we have to shoot our stories.

So far, so well.

Even the evening wasn’t so quiet because the last arrangements were by the way. For the boys I guess the evening was so nice with the World Cup matches…anyway I am to be blame.

Ervin (from Albania)

This week we started the technical part of the course, which I think is the most interesting. During this day we had a lecture to see what is the ideal shot, framing and composition. After the lecture we had to do an exercise to practice the skills we learned. We had to shoot and edit the story in a couple of hours. After the lecture we had to go and prepare for Simone’s birthday! We went to have dinner in great restaurant not far from the guesthouse. It was great fun and all the staff of the restaurant was really friendly, we had a couple of drinks! After dinner we came back to the guest house were we stayed in the reception singing…. And also drinking!!

Darryl (from Malta)

So the first week of the academy has all ready gone by so fast. ..
What have we learned?

Well, first of all I have learned the names of everybody and I even think I pronounce them the right way. A goal I seriously doubted I would achieve when we all met for the first time a week ago. When I look back at the week I remember the classes and and the loads of information we got on journalism – some was new, some most of all us all ready knew but its always good to get it refreshed. But the most important and interesting I have learned this week, is to get to know 19 other fantastic young journalists. Its facinating how different backgrounds we have and yet we are so alike when it comes to age, humour and social skills. If we all have so much fun and enjoy eachothers company after only a week and can´t even imagine how it will be after a month when we all have to go back to our countries. But untill then: lets enjoy. The training, the stories, the travels, the company and the germans beers.

Soren (from Denmark)

We finally got some action yesterday. We starded working on our stories and our classroom instantly turned into a press room. It was a great feeling, wasn’t it? Doing what we do for living, but in a different way, with completely other things to think about.

It’s really interesting how you guys think about journalism and reporting and everything else around it. Especially since I’m in a phase, when I’m contemplating a lot about why I didn’t choose another profession, something boring like a librarian, or something of that sort. I’m also really happy, that I can find out more about how you do journalism and what you think about it.

Now I really have to run, I have to add you guys to my FB profile, I have to check the photos you posted, maybe even comment on some of the statuses… Just one more thing… I started writing this from end to the beginning. See, what CESA is doing to us? Usually I have a big problem how to finish a story, not to begin it ))

Lidija (from Slovenia)

The day started with the workshop where we all had to present our stories, where I really felt like dying! I was really impressed with the other stories, I really liked the most of them!

Well my story wasn’t chosen but I really don’t mind, since I felt more comfortable in helping others with camera work and equipment – I am one of the few who is actually not journalist so far. I’m really enjoying this so far and I hope this experience gets better and better

The day ended on a sweet note of radler beer with the whole group which I really enjoyed!

Flora (from Malta)

After we all arrived at the charming accommodation, in almost a deep forest near Nuremberg, and only slightly acquainted with each other, the first experiences we shared with the always-quality German beer. However, many barriers easily disappear with an easy conversation in the garden of cafe Barcelona leaned the wall of the mighty castle-pride of Nuremberg.

The first impression is that we know eachother for years, and smiles are the ones who have driven out any doubts about the quality of future friends across Europe.Followed the meeting with one of the coaches and hospitable hosts.

After that, the magic of Nuremberg… It was interesting to hear the thoughts of people with different traditions, culture, language. More interesting-despite great differences, is to find a similarity, which we never thought that is in the front of our noses. Such as that in the Albanian and Serbian are similar to letters or Maltesian have almost the same concept of reading and writing as well as Serbs.

Drugged with impressions, today we had the first lecture. In addition to saturate good teaching skills of our coach Michael, it was interesting to see early works of some colleagues and give our opinions about them. I hope that it will be more.

Very liked the way that Michael managed to interest all present for hours … The entire group was pleased with long breaks, devised to believe that they would have time to contemplating on what we heard in preceded by hour. Me personally it was interesting to hear the experiences of other colleagues in their work and learn again about the basis of journalism, which never hurt.

Although yet to begin with stories that will take over the EU, our common story began three days ago and I think it would be most interesting. I’m sure there will be more than a fairy tale with a happy ending.

Milan (from Serbia)

The guesthouse has again prepared a special welcome for the 4th CESA participants.
The first journalists have arrived well and in time.

The CESA-office is set up in the guest house and everything is prepared. The project-team now is expecting the participants.

Still remembering the great days in Budapest with the VJ course of 2009. In the meantime, we have all stayed in touch, mostly via facebook. International holiday greetings were exchanged recently. It´s exciting to be part of an international journalist community. 

At work, I can use a equipment from my station, Bavarian Television, and did some VJ work in the meantime. I´m especially proud of my piece about a Munich coffee shop with an exciting history. The package is called “Café Jasmin” and aired yesterday in the early evening. It´s great to be able to make a whole package alone, from scratch to final broadcast!

Cherishing the VJ lifestyle – best from

Franziska R.

All the packages are done and most off us are quiet satisfied with the work we achieved within the last week. Now it seems that tiredness takes the place of the busy business that was going on the last 10 days. Instead off runing around with cameras and tripods in our hands and sweat on our faces, sleepy creatures are scuffling along the long hallways off the European Youth Centre – when it is realy quiete, you can even hear the snoaring. The last part of the Budapest VJ-Coure has come and as the night is arriving at Budapest, the goodbye-dinner is getting closer. Just one more night … but probably a long and good one. Maybe with another big 80th-90th-TV-series-movies-music-who ever knows where this song comes from-contest?

Thanks to our spirit and Palinka I am looking forward to a great night.

Cheers, Martin

There are 14 people from all over Europe, who are getting new VJs or improve their VJ-skills at a training-course in Budapest. Two of us: Franziska and Ina from Bavarian Broadcast… We learn lots of things about whitebalance, exposure and focus… And how to make a good picture. Our first exercise: film our hotel in 6 shots… Not as easy as it seems!!! But we’ve done it

Now  9 of 10 Stories are published on the Circom web-page. The missing story no. 3 will be uploaded after the 24th of August, also the IT-Version of  story no.8.  So enjoy what we have produced during four weeks of hard work.

The project office is also on the last straightline with all reports. Most of the reports, evaluations and finacial aspects are nearly fisnished.  And we are looking forward to work out the concept for a possible 4th CESA.tv in 2010.

Now 12 GB of  pictures have to be reduced to put it on one DVD, but this is a nice work for holiday time, so DVDs can be sent out during September to all participants.

Now have a great summer time and enjoy the holidays.

HJ

The first what we realised while we were leaving the airport was that the cars were driving on the “wrong” side of the road. This was new for us, but it is a relict of the time when Malta was under the rule of the United Kingdom.

Whereever you are, you have a beautiful view and you forget to work when you have a look out of a window.

The hotel is amazing, the stuff is very very hospitable and we feel realy good.

A guided tour through the first hotel shows us that the perfect facilities for a conference are given here. 

Together with Albert and Anna we checked the first hotel. In the evening, while we were looking for a

diner we could emagine, what distance means in Malta. Every place is very close to the other, and as it is extremely hot, it is good not to have  long walks. After a 10 minute walk we had a good Italian dinner in the evening.

Next day we started to visit some more hotels. It was very hot, abnormal for us Germans, as we don`t really know what summer means. Completely dressed we had a walk around beautiful pools, and we were really jealous of the people swimming around.  

But we had a great and effective time and meeting. And we discussed constructively about the conference in May 2010 in Malta. Finaly everyone was confident to work together well in preparation of the 28^th Circom Regional Conference.

While we went back to the airport on Saturday morning, it was no problem anymore to know the driver on the “wrong” side of the car.

It seems, that Peter is looking forward our trip to Malta.

We are going to have our first meeting with the host of the 28th Annual Conference in May 2010, Albert Debono – General Manager of PBS Malta and Vice-President of Circom-Regional. While I  did enjoy a cup of coffee, more than 11.000 km over the ground,

Peter is searching in the travel reports of a famous German newspaper to get some information about where we are going to- to know a litte bit about Malta in advance.

Hopefully it will be possible for many of the 60 CESA-Alumni to come to a big reunion to Malta in May 2010.

Hi Everybody,

Especially those I didn’t see when I left the guest-house at 5.15 only to be greeted by Franz, Martin, Machie and Nina returning from a night/morning on the town. Anyway good to be back home, but already missing the energy and camaraderie of CESA 2009. I’m meeting with the Circom Executives in Dublin tomorrow and I will be bringing them the good news of your participation and professionalism. It really was a joy, difficult at times – Aleksandra and Bianca, but a joy nonetheless.
I love you all and I wish you well in your future careers. Remember, you’re part of a big family now so keep in touch and don’t despair, we’re with you,

Karol xxxxx

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This will probably be one of my last posts for the CESA.tv 2009. It has been a great time for me this year. I want to thank everyone involved in this year’s academy. Hope to see you all in one of the upcoming reunions!!! Have a good start in your regular work day again!!!

Timo

The farewell dinner started traditionally with the presentation of the documentary at the last evening after four weeks.

These are always funny moments, when everybody is reminded of some situations during the last four weeks.

In the meantime, everything for a nice dinner is being prepared, this year in a typically historical celler in the “Schürstabhaus”. A famous building in the middle of  Nuremberg beside the Sebaldus church.

We were very pleased to welcome our special guests - the guesthouse team, who took care of all participants from CESA.tv in their notably friendliness.

During the dinner, between starter and main course, Peter Sauer General Secretary of Cirocm Regional handed over the diplomas to all participants.

As a special surprise for the trainer and the team, the whole group presented the CESA.2009 song, texted by themselves, with the melody in memoriam of Michael Jackson. Please excuse, that we can not publish the movie according to copyrights, but see the fotos:

See some impressions of the dinner here:

Right after the dinner, while the other group has started dancing, the colleagues had a discussion about when and where they will meet the next time. Many offers came in, so that a voting was necessary. But finaly it had been fixed -

7th February  2010 – Budapest

So Peter from Hungary will be the host for the first reunion in seven month.

Thank you for all your  kindness, support, loyality and reliability. It was a great group, nice colleagues, and now part of the big Circom family. As some of our former participants mentioned: 20 journalists arrived in Nuremberg and 20 friends left. But for sure, they will stay in touch in the future.

Have a save journey back home.

KILL THE BIRDS

CESA tribute to Michael Jackson – 14^th July 2009

There’s a place in the south of France

Where the Pilgrims go to pray

And even there, it’s more expensive than in Poland

And there’s a place next to Rome

Where Albanians tend to go

And get the jobs so much quicker than in Britain

There is a magic union

That Turkey wants to be part of

Make a little space…

To make a better place

Kill the Birds

(Sound effects; bird song and gun shot)

Let’s make a better place

For you and for me

And for Morrocans over there

There are children starving

On a Vegetarian Day

And the doctors in Sweden

Came from far away

A crazy sound suddenly disturbed the night silence.  ‘What’s going on?  Where is it ?  Is it outsite?

NO it is here, but what is it  and what to do?

Listening on  the door -  nothing to hear outiside – everybody seems to sleep. – Maybe better to collect all important things, maybe better to get dressed, maybe calling the reception desk – of course all other guests thought the same and of course the line was busy.

From one other room somebody is asking – “Don’t they realise that sound – is there nobody who can switch it off”.

But nothing happened. So better to go downstairs with one small suitcase and the handbag. Other guests were going downstairs without any hurry and quietly. At the ground floor some of our colleagues were relaxed playing pool and very fast the information circeled around: It was a  mistake.

So everybody went back to their room in the same way as he came.

It was a very relaxed situation, but I was wonderin how it would it be, if it was a real fire alarm?

Despite we didn’t have to work actively, this day felt as one of the hardest. Ok – after three weeks hard work nobody of us is ”full of energy”, but the real reason was the plenty of new impressions and discussions. In the European Council, we heard much about the difference between Council and European Parliament, why can we find the flag of the EU also in the one of Turkey or Russa as well. We met the man who co-designed the original EU-flag and heard much about human rights.

After lunch we had a quick walk to the European Parliament. We were guided a shorter way directly through the buildings, but at the door between Council and EP we stopped. The lady sitting there was very strict and didn’t let us in, despite we had  “guide”. As our badges were from the Council and the EP badges were at the main entrance of the Parliament – no chance. So we had to sprint through the Council-building – elevator up, next elevator down, passing doors and than walk around all two buildings to the main entrance of the Parliament – and………………….. we were there in time at 3 pm.

You are abroad with a group of journalists from all over Europe -  expecting nobody. Visiting the European Parliament, looking around, having new impressions – suddenly there is one well-known face – looking around more and more people are around smiling, because they recognise you. -  This happend to Chris from Malta.

He was very surprised, when he met many of his colleagues all very serious in suits with tailles. It was the first day, when the new European Parliament had a session in Strasbourg and traditionelly the new President of the European Council held his first speach at the EP. 

Chris changed the group for a while and it seemed that he felt at home – but

he came back to his new family.

But not only Chris, Franz also met an old friend from a former Circom-training.

Whereever we are, we are recognized.  First of all the bus…………….

Than the sign on the bus:

So everybody can see – CESA.tv is on the road!

Today, all stories were shown for the first time and all participants had to vote for the stories they like the most.

After a dicussion about the production and the movies itselfe, Michael told us the secret………………….

Gibraltar won,  second place was Turkey 1 and on the third place with same number of votings – Turkye 2 and cross-border shopping in Poland/Lithuania.

Now we are on the way to Strasbourg. During the long bus drive the colleagues arranged a choir rehearsal. The result will be presented tomorrow.  In memoriam of Michael Jackson  they created a song with one of his melodies and CESA lyrics including all stories. I heard a little bit and it sounds really good, so I am quite curious how it will sound in the end.

the choir and the conductor:

It was a beautiful, sunny day in the garden of the guesthuse in Nuremberg. In our free hours one evening, some members of the Circom group played golf… then suddenly…I was bitten by a very dangerous bug. From that moment onwards, my future changed.

My left foot swelled up like a balloon Fortunately, it did not affect my play and, as always, the King was victorious. But for the first time ever, I could put a price on my leg… 140 ,– €uros!

And becaue I am from the Republic of Macedonia, my health insurance is not valid in the EU… it cost me a fortune to fix it!! But the good will of the Circom team sopared me from economic desaster. When I go back to Macedonia, I promise to return the money from my health insurance. Now we are on the last part of our trip and my economic worries are over. But I still have the memories of the bandages while we where shooting in Lourdes…the constant hanging of them, my limp and the unusual pain. All part of the sacrifice for Circom.

Perhaps I was also helped by the mediation of the Holy Water in Lourdes.

God was on the King’s side.

Dime

and the King at work:

The last great event is the trip to Strasbourg.  We, mainly Brigitte from the Deputy-Office, were working hard on the agenda for our visit until the very last minute. Now I think, it will be a really interesting and useful time in Strasbourg. We start with a visit at the European Council and the Audiovisual Department at the European Parliament, take part in a CESA.tv-Show produced by Europarl.tv for the web-based TV channel of the European Parliament and finally visit the Court of Human Rights. It will be two hard days, but we hope all participants will enjoy it.

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After arriving in Nuremberg, everybody worked very hard to edit their stories.  In the late evening on Friday, the first recording was finished and the editing was done during the whole weekend. On Monday morning everybody was sitting relaxed in the training room, because they have finished all 10 stories. After some information about the  coming days in Strasbourg now it was time to have a break and go for some shopping or touris trips. Only the trainer had to stay and check the scirpts and stories again, work on several documentaries, perpare the layout for the DVD and prepare the show for Thursday.

Right after arriving from shooting, all ten teams started immediately to edit the material.
The trainer were left alone in the large meeting room,

and the CESA-participants were caged in their rooms.

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Aleksandra was invited from the “City radio” in Nuremberg for an interview about her participation in CESA.tv and the story she is producing together with Bianca. It was a great experiance for her, because she was asked to do the interview in German.  So this was the first link between our academy for TV-journalists and radio. The interview will be broadcast on Friday 17th July between 3 and 4 pm on “Stadtradio” Nürnberg.

Now I can truly say, I know what it’s ALL about. As you know I’ve been involved with CESA from the start -technical training and support. But this year was a first for me in that I actually travelled abroad with a group to help with their filming.
This experience for me opened up, and made me realise at first hand, one of the core elements of CESA, the opportunity and experience of filming abroad.
My group were Aleksandra (journalist) from Bulgaria and Bianca (producer) from Romania and neither had worked abroad before. The story of mental health issues in the Workplace was based in the UK and we had to visit 5 locations, across London, doing 6 interviews in 2 days – not an easy task for those who know London.
It all went very well, and I have to say that Aleksandra and Bianca did a lot of good work in setting things up before we arrived and co-operated brilliantly on location, especially during filming.
And this is the point, seeing Aleksandra and Bianca grow in confidence over such a short period in time was a revelation to me. It made me fully understand the opportunity that CESA and Robert Bosch have given to young journalists in allowing them to film in a foreign country. I could actually see with my own eyes and experience with my own participation the fact that Aleksandra and Bianca also understood this opportunity and took advantage of it in a truly professional way.

After 5 days of not being here, today I am back again in the Guesthouse. I am really relieved, that all 10 teams have arrived well back “at home”. It was surely a great welcome party yesterday night – guests from Bundesagentur für Arbeit, please apologize, but it is an unique situation, when all come back with plenty of experiances and impressions, it has to be told to all other colleagues, but we promise to be careful from now on.

It was really nice and impressive, when I was knocking on each door, to welcome everybody and to listen to all the stories they have experianced. Actually we should write a book about it. But now it is  a really stressful time, because all stories have to be finished till we travel to Strasbourg.

Now it is time to start with preparation of the financial report and I await a lady from Florida, who will support me in this case. I hope that this year it will work better than the last two years, when I was left alone with this part of the academy. But I am confident that Eileen will do a good job.

In the meantime, the Strasbourg agenda has to be fixed and our colleague in France is working hard on this.

Everyone is sitting in his room, watching the raw material, working on shooting lists and preparing the paper-edit.

I am really looking forward to seeing the finished stories.

Sue Beardsmore arrived well in Nuremberg and will be one trainer for the final periode of CESA.tv.
Welcome Sue, and enjoy your third time here in Nuremberg at the Summer Academy.

At the moment we are sitting at Istanbul airport after a seven-hours-long bus-trip from Istanbul to Ankara, five hours of rest (in a great hotel, thanks to Mariann ;o)), our last interview with the Coordinator of the national program of Turkey to join the EU and a last-minute-booked domestic flight back to Istanbul.

During the last two days we were pacing through Istanbul, filming mosques, bazars and interviewing people. For such a short visit, we saw really a lot, thanks to our guide and interpreter Hayer (genius for languages and handling Turkish taxi drivers).

Wow, what a city: Official number of inhabitants: 16 million! Larger than London or Paris – and in between the Bosporus, dividing the European part of the city from the Asian. Indeed, there seem to be two cities in one: The western, vibrant, metropolitan Istanbul and the quiet, charming, eastern part.

Thanks to our well organized and charming guide (if you bribe us, you will get the Facebook-contact ;o)), we survived the jungle of Istanbul, got savely to Ankara and are now on the way to Nürnberg.

Tomorrow morning, work again – there will be no rest, as it seems. ^^

All I can say is Blisters. these woman have had me walking everywhere. Heike has them so scared of going over budget that my request for a camel was interpreted as “You are a camel”.
My own country and I get kicked off Tower Bridge for filming a wide shot of the city, worse still we got kicked off a park for filming the Sky. Filming in the Free World hey. The stupid thing is tourists are now walking around everywhere with small digital cameras that are capable of shooting in HD but because you have a tripod……
Back to the camel drivers, Aleksandra and Bianca. See you tomorrow, Karol

Thank you Mariann for the well-chosen accomodation in an animal’s village in Belgium.

After a seven hour trip with our car our navigation system said: “you have reached your destination” but we couldn’t see the hotel. We saw just one private house. But guess what: it was our hotel! It looks good from the inside, even the toilet and the shower (without doors), but the outside looks like …

We are almost the only people in this hotel except for the owner and our car in the front of the hotel. Our first night was quite boring but the second night was ……

The weather is crazy here. But not just the weather. I’ve never seen so many bycicles in one city and I don’t like bycicles!! Two belgian people were almost killed because I drove the car like I’am used to drive it in Kosovo and the bycicles didn’t want to stop.

Our vegetarian story:  It was all fine. Today we visited some veggy family and we had dinner with them but if somebody asked me to eat  vegetarian food only I would just refuse. 

Tonight will be our last night in “chalet de maalte” and I am alone this night …

good night and see you tomorrow.

gandi

Hi to all of you around Europe. I hope you had a good journey,  your first day was fine and you filmed everything you needed for today. If not: Don’t panic, drink a Gin tonic and stay calm. Believe me, it works.

Here in Stockholm everything is fine except the sun – she is just weird. Have you ever been out at night around eleven and the sun was still shining. That’s crazy. I just heard that it’s supposed to shine so late. Fortunately at this time I have my curtains already closed and am dreaming of another night at the Karaoke-Bar in Nürnberg.

So see you back home – where the sun knows when to shine and when to sleep.

I send a big wisha to everyone!

Martin

Uff – after four days of extreme-booking finally all trips to the shooting locations are fixed now. Flights, hotels, rental cars: hundreds of different confirmation emails are flooding my email account. And as I try to arrange them in proper order, I look back on the last week, the French credit cards which obviously refuse to cooperate with German online travel agencies, the maps of different European airports, changing camera operators  and not to forget the nice elderly lady on the other end of the telephone line – doing her job for 30 years – trying to convince me to take a single Rome flight for 900 euros!  Never heard of low-budget airlines?!

Whatever, I hope that all of you arrive save and come back with awesome pictures and stories!!!

Mariann

20 stories have been reduced to 10 now.  Teams were built up, changed again and again -  and finaly fixed. Camera crews got an order for shooting,  around 30 journeys are booked and as many hotel rooms. Interview guests are waiting for journalists asking them questions………..everything seems prepared for the 4 days, when the shootings in 10 different destinations will take place.  But journalists and producers are still in preparation, changing concepts and discussing the best way to produce the story.  Guess who is the journalist and who is the producer………………..

……..but of course everybody did understand correctly, and of course all did work hard to get the best shoots……..

Since Monday this week, training has changed completely. The training room is filled in with 10 cameras, tripods and plenty of technical equipment. Karol and Darko have joined the group as trainer for the technical lessons. And immediately on Monday all participants started shooting by themselves.

But it looks not always very easy…………………………..

It seems as if some didn’t understand correctly- it was asked for SHOOTING, NOT CARRYING……………………

As I mentioned before, the rain was following us also in the so called “‘Golden City” and we could only see a grey city, if we were able to see something at all.

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Trip to Prague June 24th – 25th

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A ha aha, ha hh, aha ha hahahahaha ha, enough, maybe you know what I mean. If you don’t know I don’t care…, because “ich bin heute zuständig für den CESAblog”

Well, after two days shooting, …sorry….  studying, we had a surprise trip to Prague, but Michael wasn’t with us.

We changed Prague!!! Beleave me, and I thought this city never had the opportunity to be tached in such a moving way.

After five hours travelling in a hotel with 20 flors, in superb of Prague which was build 100 years ago, was the first destination. The dinner on the boat and the party in the Disco  were most impressed part of visit.

After we had enough sleeping, German Embassy was our next destination.

Everything that we had opportunity to see, was one interesting documentary and the garden of embassy.

GANDI

It was a great day of culture, sightseeing and partying that we spent in the golden city. It just went by in a rush: arriving at the Hotel – just a quick trip to the centre – return to the hotel – head again to the centre – doing a guided city tour – boat trip on the Vltava – Partyyyyyy. But this time we had a special guest to party with us. Michael Lally, the president of CIRCOM, was entering the dancefloor to throw himself around.

It was our fifth day we spent together. But this first day of our Prague trip revealed more differences between the cultures and the countries of the participants of CESA.tv than any other day did before: in Germany escalators go much slower than in Czech Republic, in Czech Rupublic children are told, that Bambi’s father is not of the same race as her mother is, Macedonians are surprised when they have to pay nearly 50 Euro for an espresso, a cappuccino, a sparkling water and a sandwich and finally Slovenians and Romanians don’t even know what’s a „wisha“. Just check this link, if you still don’t know:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wisha

But it was not only an educational journey. All the time we had the main principle of tv-journalism in our mind: The picture tells the story. So at least 100 group pictures on at least 100 spots were taken along our way through the golden city.

There remains just one question: Why is it called the golden city? In fact I just saw one single and just partly golden roof! But anyway it is a gorgeous place.

Martin

Our newest project within CESA.tv – the Cesablog will be filled everywhere – also in the bus while driving to Prague, with mobile phone first as text, than as telephone call. But anyway only one aspect is important -  to blog wherever and at any time possible. HJ

After a hard work day and night ending in the very early morning, a 4 ½ hour busdirve to Prague. After leaving the luggage in the hotel room, all 20 participants went directely - as one group – to the city center of Prague. Knowing that it will become a very long day as well. This colleagues are together, every single one, since the arrival day on Saturday when we brought the last colleagues to Nuremberg downtown to join the group at around 11pm. This is the reality of a united Europe.

HJ

…I can´t remember who wrote that song, or indeed any other lyrics from it, but it seems very apt (suitable) for our Circom trip so far. I admit that I may be to blame – first Nuremberg was dull, rainy and dreary for our first three days, then the morning we left for Prague it turned drier, but alas… in the Czech Republic it was … wet! Ironically, I gather I left behind thirty degree temperatures in the U.K – typical!

Anyway day 4 and I am still chuckling to myself about the Nuremberg presentation that some of us ended up in yesterday: we were being kind when we offered to join a presentation of another training group in the hotel… little did we know it would be spoken in monotone …. German. I haven´t laughed so hard in ages! Lucky for Martina… her phone (conveniently) rang….

So Prague here we come! I gather there is a huge nightclub we will be heading to (purported to be Europe’s largest, though Franz was convinced that was just great work on behalf of the club’s PR team!)… after what is set to be a wet boat trip. Tune in next time to find out what happened…

Lynda