Lunchtime Talks are a series of informal presentations at Watershed's

In the early days of digital media fifty people across the UK were given camcorders and training and invited to record during the course of a year. The resulting recordings were edited into a variety of programmes for BBC2. Video Nation was best known for the two minute Shorts which ran just before Newsnight five days a week for five years. Each recorded by one person, the Shorts brought an intimacy and directness rooted in local experience into the broadcast schedule. The recordings looked very much like YouTube, a decade before YouTube was invented. On BBC 2, they reached audiences of up to 5 million people.

Director of UWE Bristol's Digital Cultures Research Centre and Co-Director of i-Docs Mandy Rose was Video Nation co-founder and producer. This year she was invited to look back on the experience of running the project for The Story 2018 StoryThings. We missed that talk, as it coincided with the Studio’s 10th birthday celebration, but we noticed the tweets coming out of Conway Hall, so we’ve asked Mandy to reprise her presentation in this Lunchtime Talk edition.

The Pervasive Media Studio is located within the Watershed building. Let us know if you'd like a tour and we'll be happy to show you around. Send an email to studio@watershed.co.uk

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