0 comments There’s so much science out there these days. In London, on any given day, there are dozens of science events, exhibitions, lectures and more. With so many insitutions pumping out so much great content, its difficult to find the events you really want to go to. Here, at The Refinery, we’ve created a website that collates and organises all these events into a single website, to help you find the latest, interesting sciency-things going on in London.
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The Refinery has just completed a stint working for Lion TV series producing a new three part science documentary programme called Engineering Giants.
It was an extremely tough gig in terms of access and logistics because, unlike Nature’s Giants, these giants of industry (in this case a Boeing 747, an offshore gas platform and a North Sea Ferry), are still worth millions of pounds to multiple stakeholders, even at the end of their lives.
The original working title for the programme was Machine Autopsy, but such was the difficulty of finding giant machines that we could follow through from the end of service to final scrapping, that we adopted a hybrid approach instead.
In all three episodes our intrepid presenters got into nooks and crannies that, frankly, no normal person would even try to get into. From changing the toilet bowls on the 747 and finding out how a vacuum flush really works, to climbing inside the ballast tanks of the ferry, no space was too cramped for the intrepid Rob Bell and Tom Wrigglesworth.
The programmes have now transmitted on BBC 2 and have received outstanding feedback with an audience appreciation index of 87/100, which is very high (and means the audience felt it was worth the licence fee!). In the meantime we will bask in the glow of satsfaction of work that was bloody hard, but which paid off in the end.
Giants is currently available on BBC iplayer.
To get the insider detail on a Boeing 747, we were lucky enough to get access to British Airways Heavy Maintenance depot at Cardiff Airport (actually, its near Barry, home to “Stacy” of Gavin and Stacy fame, not to mention Uncle Bryn). BA let our cameras in as they tore a 747, Victor Xray apart as part of a major overhaul, but we also went to Cotswolds Aerodrome to see a different 747 being munched up by excavators before the aluminium fuselage went for recycling.
The rig in question was not actually a drilling rig, but a gas production platform – the Lima platform. Lima was part of a constellation of gas producing platforms located in the Indefatigable gas field 50 miles off the coast of Lowestoft. (Indefatigable is actually the name of the shifting sandbanks on the seabed, 2km under which gas was found).
Lima was installed in the 1970s and we managed to track down some of the original team who had helped build and install her to come back and help us understand how she worked during her final demise and recycling. From the multi million pound operation out at sea to sever her from the seabed, through her final journey home to Tyneside and subsequent demolition, we got to learn how living offshore was a way of life for the family of men (and it was mostly men in the 1970s) they called the North Sea Tigers
The Pride of Bruges has been taking passengers across the North Sea from Hull to Zeebrugge for decades, but it was time for a major overhaul to be carried out at the A&P yard in Hebburn ont he South banks of the mighty River Tyne.
The first challenge was getting her into dry dock in the darkness at the dead of night. With just a few inches of clearance on either side, it was a feat of piloting skills and navigation, and our presenters got to pull the plug, signalling the exodus of water from the dock. Just a few hours later The Pride was sitting on oak blocks in a massive dry dock, ready for work to be done.
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One of the projects we’ve been working on recently is highlighting the endeavours of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Drawing on the wealth of knowledge and expertise provided by its Fellows, the Academy runs a mentoring scheme for trainee academic clinicians. It matches these aspiring young clinicians with a relevant Fellow, allowing them to meet on a one-to-one basis for advice and encouragement. The scheme has been running successfully for 10 years now so, to mark this milestone, a special booklet was produced, and the Refinery was commissioned to produce a film that promotes the scheme and the positive effect it has had on mentors and mentees alike.
The film was created to launch a new manual for the scheme, and features a number of prominent academic figures in the medical field, from Sir Mark Walport, the UK’s new chief scientific advisor, to Sir John Saville, Chief executive of the MRC. The film was screened at the Academy of Medical Sciences’ conference in Newcastle in March and is being distributed to universities and colleges and medical schools as part of a suite of films, currently in production, which will form a “mentoring toolkit.”
Watch it here.
0 comments The REFINERY was thrilled to be asked to support the Neurosciences Team from Barts and Queen Mary’s University of London as they held their second Multiple Sclerosis Research Day for Patients and their Families.
We had the great pleasure of filming the inaugural research day in 2010, but wanted to help the 2011 events be bigger, better and more engaging than ever. This year, we came along and did some filming with key speakers before the event itself. This let us prepare some short films with music, stings and a bit of humour to help introduce the speakers.
In addition, we commissioned and produced some excellent animations which helped lift the power point presentations and make them less academic and more engaging. Adding music and a bit of fun helped create a lightness of touch to the day that attendees appreciated, giving overwhelming support and positive feedback for the new elements included the day’s proceedings.
You can see the intro films and the day’s talks on our specially created page HERE
0 comments The REFINERY has been working closely with the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford on several fine-art projects designed to create new public works of art, and place the SLC at the centre of the local community.
Stephen Lawrence was a promising young student who dreamed of being an architect, but those hopes were dashed when he was cruelly murdered in a racially motivated attack in 1993. His mother, Doreen, became a great campaigner for social justice, and her dreams of creating a lasting legacy for her son Stephen were realised with the opening of the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford in 2008. Designed by internationally renowned architect, David Adjaye, the aim now is to place the physical building at the heart of the community, and The REFINERY is helping to do this through the public art projects its is involved in. One of these projects was also carried out in collaboration with The Museum of London Docklands, in which participants created a model of a new public artwork to stand outside the museum at West India Quay.
