Mad Cap'n Tom's entrance

In March 2008, I was elected Students' Union President at the University of York, after campaigning as a pirate and not trying to win. Here's a summary of the story from the local press.

Every year, the Students' Union has a half-hour slot in the induction talks for new students, and traditionally they put together a few quick videos to keep people entertained. This year, I helped put on a whole damn show.

So here's my entrance into the hall, sash flailing and toy duck on my shoulder — someone later said that it felt a bit like being in a theme park attraction. As we join the action, the university's Academic Registrar is just finishing up her speech...

Behind the Scenes

• I directed the exterior shots, with the lovely Ed Crooks on camera and a support team of pirates and ninjas (who didn't make the final edit thanks to time constraints). The zoom out from smooth sailing to riding on a porters' trolley is done entirely digitally: the shot is actually filmed in HD, framed in post, and exported in standard resolution.
• All the sounds, except for my "hup" and trolley-jump, are added in post — even my footsteps. There was actually a lot of construction work going on nearby when we were filming.
• The interior shots, filmed by YSTV, were during the third of three talks. Sadly, it was also the toughest crowd: the second audience kept cheering so long that I had to gesture for them to calm down after I got on stage.

• Embarrassingly, I realised after finishing my opening speech and sitting down that the fly of my trousers was undone. Fortunately, the frilly shirt and sash covered it more than adequately, and no-one noticed.

YUSU Dragon's Den

Then it was time for the rest of the team to be introduced. We had only one evening to put this together, and I'm so, so grateful to the big group of cast and crew that helped out. We'd been short of ideas for ages, until someone — and I forget who — came up with the idea of Dragons' Den. It was quick to film, quick to edit, and got laughs from the audience.

Watch out for some sterling acting from Sports President Alex Lacy. "Sure."

Behind the Scenes

• The audio on this was a nightmare: an office has way too many background noises that can't be switched off, and I had no time to set up microphones. It's covered quite well by the background music, though.
• The final "I'm out" took four attempts before everyone successfully managed to say it in time.
• The team were incapable of doing a power-walk across the car park without cracking up laughing.

Other videos

• All the other things I've produced for the Union — including a rather nice Freshers' Ball promo — are up on its YouTube page, along with more footage from the talks.

Contact

• Email me your thoughts!