Preview: The Future Adventures of Halesowen

He barely took notice of Ross who was stood next to Brandon, seemingly waiting for him to finish up what he was doing. Quinn was stood waiting at Daniel’s side, ready and waiting to get going.

The two had already agreed that they’d use this break to record a video about the modules they had coming up in this second year, though Daniel had a feeling Brandon would want to join them as they took the trek down to the town centre, and wanted to give him that opportunity to come.

Standing up, Daniel walked around the row of tables to get in front of the computer Brandon sat at.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

Brandon locked eyes on Daniel for a second before resuming his previous position. “Just finishing up the writing I was doing.” He let his gaze drift to the right as he continued typing. “Wasn’t Ross waiting?”

Daniel had noticed that Ross had left as soon as he had started moving toward them, but hadn’t been concerned by it. With Ross around, Brandon might have been less inclined to join him and Quinn down to town. Though he had been surprised to see the two had been slowly splitting away from each other since they had been back. Ross had already shown a disinterest in the store when they’d first been there and had continued to do so on their numerous visits during the first year, so he shouldn’t really have been surprised that Ross would eventually stop joining them when that store was so frequently visited.

“And… done,” Brandon exclaimed.

Having saved and logged out of the computer, he slung his backpack over his right shoulder, sidestepping out of the row and heading for the exit of the room. Quinn and Daniel followed.

“To the town, then,” Daniel said as they passed the rest of the group.

No-one even acknowledged the comment. He’d expected it. If they wanted to come, they’d make their own way down.

Outside, Daniel looked back in to see if there had been any movement, and quickly hurried Brandon and Quinn around the building into the car park when he noticed that Ross was near the entrance.

“What are we doing?” Brandon asked, slightly harried but curious.

“Just getting to a decent area to start the video,” Daniel answered. “A low amount of noise.”

He then remembered he hadn’t mentioned the video to Brandon before this moment, and spent a quick moment filling him in.

“I’d be a guest on the channel?” he asked.

“For today, and in the future if people respond well. I know you say you don’t like being on video because of your voice, but I’ve never heard a problem with it so I’m sure no-one else will, either.”

It wasn’t exactly true, as Brandon’s voice would occasionally get picked up weird by the microphone on certain sounds, but he didn’t need to be reminding him of that if he was willing to join in on this video and maybe others.

At the other end of the car park, they had a clear view of the hills where he and Quinn had recorded their video on the landscapes of film. It would make a perfect backdrop for the start of this video, and also allowed the rest of the group to get ahead of them on the journey down the hill.

He didn’t want any of them butting in and trying to join on this video. He had allowed it on others he’d done while at the college, but this one he wanted to be more focused. Those that had involved the whole group had certainly been lacking in focus, as had been noted plenty of times in the comments.

Daniel filled Brandon in on what would happen, though with how many of their videos Brandon had watched there seemed little need to do so, but it was always best to be prepared.

Flipping the viewscreen around to where the camera pointed, he turned the camera around so it faced the three of them. His own jet-black hair and light-brown skin showed well on the screen. Quinn’s auburn-red hair provided an outline for her pale face that was merging into the light of the sun. Brandon’s orange-tan skin was also reflecting the sunlight, though not as strongly.

He’d had to move the camera to fit each of them in, first focusing upon himself and Quinn, then himself and Brandon. With both times, the hills in the background were visible between them.

He returned the camera to focusing upon himself and Quinn, pressed record, and began.

“Hello to all! The Wandering Ramblers are here again! I’m Daniel.”

“And I’m Quinn. What you see behind us are the hills where we shot our video on the landscapes of film.”

“Half of our timetable has us scheduled to be up here at the media centre, offering a great view of the surrounding area from the car park and a canal that we can walk along.”

As he paused upon mentioning that, he had an idea of where they could go to ensure there’d be little traffic and have more time to talk.

“But first, we have a guest with us. Welcome to the camera…” He angled the camera slowly to reveal Brandon’s face in a more dramatic way. “Brandon!”

“Hello there,” Brandon said, lifting two fingers of his right hand in welcome. “It’s good to be here.”

“So, Brandon? What is our topic for today?” Daniel asked.

“That topic would be the modules of our second year here at Halesowen College.”

“Yes, we Wandering Ramblers will be covering some of the modules we’re doing on the channel, so we wanted to give an overview of what we’ll be doing. Since you’re the guest, Brandon, which of the modules are you most wanting to get stuck in to?”

“It’d be obvious to say TV Series Production, but that’s where I feel I’d be able to put my creative writing to work the most. However, I’m also interested in the Producing Installation Work module.”

“I think everyone will be interested in that TV Series Production module, and count me as another interested in the installation stuff. For anyone who doesn’t know, installation work is art within a room such as a sculpture that allows people to see it from all angles and sometimes allows for interaction. Mixing in video media with that can add another layer to the piece of art, and I think we’ll be using experimental art to carry this module out.”

Daniel angled the camera to include Quinn, and asked her the same question. Her answer didn’t surprise him.

“Firstly, the Corporate Video Production module is something I feel I’d be very good at, and in fact already have experience with. Company marketing is an area I’d probably focus on, but I’d also want to look into other areas of marketing, so the Factual Program Production module is also one I want to get stuck into.”

“And for me,” Daniel added, “it’d be Multi-Camera Productions. Studio productions are of interest to me, more the behind-the-scenes within the sound deck. We’ll be taking up roles within a production so I’ll be taking the sound engineer role if I can.”

He ended the recording, letting his arm drop.