Day 1

It was a very early start for me today, my train I had to catch from Penzance to St Austell left at 7.40 am. Giving plenty of time to get to the Eden Project for a 9.30am start.

I was genuinely surprised at how friendly and helpful everyone was when I got there. I would have had to walk from the main entrance of Eden Project to the Foundation Building where I was due to be working, but thanks to the efficiency and kindness of the staff there, a ten minute walk was replaced with a mini bus to come and pick me up.

Before I started any work I was shown around the Foundation Building by digital content manager, Hannah Bullock. I then was introduced to the rest of the Digital Media department and also ICT Technician, Janette Peckham. Janet went through validating my log in details for the computer system and email.

My first task was to research instructional videos on how to perform basic circus skills. This is because in the summer the award-winning Nofit State Circus will be performing their 'Labyrinth' show at Eden Project. Tomorrow, they are going to be demonstrating the basic skills as they will also be running workshops during their stint at the venue.

While researching online I came across many videos on YouTube of "How to juggle" or "How to hula hoop" etc. However, I noticed that many of them were filmed in an amateur fashion and were often fronted by children. While talking to Digital Content manager, Tom Trinkle, we discussed that we wanted it to be informative and quite fast-paced as a lot of the current videos online were a little long and filled with endless written instructions. They didn't appear to be very fun and seemed a bit more like a lecture.

We decided that we could possibly use a variety of spoken instructions and graphics layered over the footage. I was also asked to search for music that would be suitable for this. I was surprised to learn that they source their music from an online database and not music from bands or artistes local to the area. It is understandable that as it is still a rather small media department for such a large company it is quite difficult to take the time to source out local bands that may be suitable. However, Tom told me that this is a potential direction they could go down. I feel that Cornwall is an incredibly patriotic place and anything that can help publicise local acts, and on a global scale, should definitely be done. I know for sure that there would be many local acts willing to allow their music to be used and for free.

Tom also informed me that they were looking to do an introductory video for the website. So I decided to research that type of video for different tourist attractions to see what worked and what didn't.

Hannah Bullock also informed me of a lady named Lisa who is a pollinator at Eden. Pollinators are on hand to provide the public with interesting and fun ways to learn about the environment and currently Lisa is making flip flops out of used car tyres. This would be a great opportunity for an interview and blog post. So I had to arrange a meeting with Lisa for sometime in the week.

So I decided to draft a few questions I could maybe ask her:

• What is your main job at Eden?
• Where did you get the idea to make the sandals?
• How important is it to recycle rubber?
• Do you plan to sell the sandals?

Given that I had borrowed a macbook from uni for the Easter I said that I could edit some footage they had filmed at the Southbank Centre. I decided I could get on with that tomorrow.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first day and am really pleased with how friendly and welcoming everybody was.