O for Overhang

Andy Cummings talks you through a good technique for climbing overhangs and proves they are less daunting than at first appearance.

K for Karabiner

Andy Cummings talks you through the different types of karabiners available for climbing and how to make sure you've got the right ones.

W for Weather

Andrew explains the importance of checking the weather forecast before you head out climbing, and being prepared in case the weather turns while you're out.

D for Drinking Stories

Every climber has a few dramatic stories to share over a pint.

Y oh Why?

Climbers talk about why they climb, even with all the risks, it's all about the adrenaline...

H for Helmet

Protecting your head is the most important thing to do when climbing and so a helmet is an essential purchase.

E for Ethics

The ethics of climbing, what sort of environmental impact do climbers have?

Introduction

Meet Andrew and Andy, who are the presenters of the A-Z Climbing.

R for Rope

Ropes are essential kit for climbing Andy and Andrew talk you through the different types of ropes available and how to look after your own ropes.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Tags: climbing, climbing ropes, ropes, ropecare, a-z climbing

P for Prusik

Andy explains how to tie a prusik knot to be used as a safety device when abseiling.

G for Gravity

Gravity: Entertaining climbers since 1687!

I for Indoor

A short video about climbing indoors, and the wide variety of climbs that are available for practise and learning at specialist centres throughout the UK.

F for Falling

Falling is something that we don't want to do, but if it does happen, you need to know how to fall well!

C for Cam

B for Belay

Belaying - One of the fundamental skills of climbing, which all climbers need to know how to do well. Andy Cummings takes you through the fundamentals of belaying showing the correct methods and talking through belaying devices.

A for Abseil

26 free episodes for you to get inspired and ready for your outdoor adventures.
The series will be released on line over the last few months in 2009 with a DVD being released in time for Christmas.

If it is raining out then pull up your PC and watch the series Free at AZClimbing.com

AZ Going Green Pilot Episode

Everyone needs to go green!
How do we get there?
Where can we get the information?
What can we do, right now, at home, for little money?

The AZ of Going Green will help you with your quest to go green.
26 more episodes coming soon!

New Website Launched!

We've just finished a new website for local artist Cerys Morgan, and launched it online at the end of last week!

Cerys is Aberdare born and bred, and creates fine pencil drawings and watercolour paintings from photographs. She's available for commissions for portraits and is also selling a limited number of prints of the local area.

When creating Cerys's website, we kept the design quite simple so that her amazing drawings would stand out, and a pop up function enables the visitor to see the fine details in the pictures on a larger scale.

If you're looking for a unique and personal present for a special someone, why not think about commissioning a picture. Visit Cerys' site now to see her work.

AZ Climbing Trailer

The A to Z of Climbing is coming soon, and the trailer is online now! Watch it now ar www.azclimbing.com
26 free episodes for you to get inspired and ready for your outdoor adventures.
The series will be released on line over the last few months in 2009 with a DVD being released in time for Christmas.

If it is raining out then pull up your PC and watch the series Free at AZClimbing.com

AZ Climbing

Our AZ Climbing is coming into shape.
The trailer is now live. Take a look at the azclimbing.com over the next few months to get the latest films about this exciting sport.

AZ Climbing Trailer from Tantrwm Limited on Vimeo.

Our name in Lights

Annwyl Plant, made by Tantrwm Creative Director and his partner Catrin Doyle, is being screened this weekend at the prestigious Raindance Film Festival in London... This Saturday afternoon in Soho... Fame, at last!

British Council

Another satisfied customer. Last night Tantrwm provided the AV for the launch of the British Councils new offices in Wales. Number One Kingsway saw The First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, unveil a plaque that celebrated the move, which also coincides with the 75th anniversary of the BC.
Tantrwm provided sound, lectern, plasma screens and technical support for MPEG conversion of power point slides.
A very successful evening at a very nice new building for the BC.
Thanks to all who helped.

Free DVD?

If you would like a sample DVD of the great work that Tantrwm does then enter your details below!

FINAL CUT PRO TIPS

Very soon we will be embarking on some training videos. Covering loads of Final Cut Pro tips and advice. They will all be made available on line and for free. We will also be running some more Final Cut Pro training courses. So if you are interested in the wonderful world of Apple based editing then please get in touch.

7 hours until August...

And that means the A-Z Bushcraft DVD that we co-produced with Undercurrents will be going on offer for £10 from tomorrow, for two whole months! Get you mouse down to www.azbushcraft.com ASAP and get your copy.

What else does August mean? Well we're hoping sunshine! As we will be outside filming at the Big Bite Festival in Pontypridd on Sunday. Then next week out and about again, this time in Blaengarw, making a community led film about arson.

In other August news, Mr Chainey, Tantrwm's UberBoss (Founder and MD) is having his birthday next week so we hope that you will all be flooding our mailbox with birthday greetings for him!

have a great weekend folks!

Apple Anonymous - The 12 Step Plan

It is official. I am an APPLE addict.
I tried giving up my laptop. Leaving it at work. Not using it when i got home, but the addiction overcame me. First i started checking mails on the MAC MINI at home, then i resurected an old G4 and now i have brought the laptop home.

I am joining the AA (Apple Anonymous) and taking their twelve step plan:
For all of you like me, i am joining their programme.

Step 1: Honesty
After many years of denial, recovery can begin when with one simple admission of being powerless over Apple -- for Appleholics and their friends and family.

Step 2: Faith
It seems to be a spiritual truth, that before a higher power (Steve Jobs) can begin to operate, you must first believe that it can.

Step 3: Surrender
A lifetime of self-will run riot (PCs) can come to a screeching halt (Blue Screen of death), and change forever, by making a simple decision to turn it all over to a higher power (Apple).

Step 4: Soul Searching
There is a saying in the 12-step programs that (disk) recovery is a process, not an event. The same can be said for this step -- more will surely be revealed.

Step 5: (File System) Integrity
Probably the most difficult of all the steps to face, Step 5 is also the one that provides the greatest opportunity for growth.

Step 6: Acceptance
The key to Step 6 is acceptance -- accepting character defects exactly as they are and becoming entirely willing to let them go (The ONE BUTTON MOUSE).

Step 7: Humility
The spiritual focus of Step 7 is humility, asking a higher power (Steve J) to do something that cannot be done by self-will or mere determination (PLAY WMV FILES FOR JOBS SAKE!).

Step 8: Willingness
Making a list of those harmed (Microsoft, AVID) before coming into recovery may sound simple. Becoming willing to actually make those amends is the difficult part.

Step 9: Forgiveness
Making amends may seem like a bitter pill to swallow, but for those serious about recovery it can be great medicine for the spirit and soul. (BOOTCAMP)

Step 10: Maintenance (Repairing Permissions)
Nobody likes to admit to being wrong. But it is absolutely necessary to maintain spiritual progress in recovery.

Step 11: Making Contact ( MobileME)
The purpose of Step 11 is to discover the plan JOBS as you understand Him has for your life.

Step 12: Service (APPLECARE)
For those in recovery programs, practicing Step 12 is simply "how it works."

Top 10 Musical FIlms

So we have been asked to make a musical. Yes, the song and dance type. Hopefully it will come off and we can get some dancing in! That would be a dream come true. I can watch musicals over and over again.
One of the first i remeber watching was Grease, and around the same time i remember watching Oliver. They are both fantastic still to this day. If we could make something that had any level of comparison to these then i would be a happy man.
Anyhow, while researching i have compiled a list of what are my personal top 10 musical movies. Starting in reverse order of course.


10: HAIR
9: EVITA
8: THE BLUES BROTHERS
7: GREASE
6: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
5: THIS IS SPINAL TAP
4: TOMMY
3: MOULIN ROUGE
2: ROCKY HORROR SHOW
1: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

I hope that some people disagree and offer some other suggestions.
Ciao

FREE DVDs and BIG WEEK THIS WEEK

Do you want a quality pressie for someone. If you pop along to azbushcraft.com and take a look you will find a link to get the DVD for "What you can afford". This ends very soon. So head over and grab yourselfs a bargain.

Its going to be a busy week for every one at Tantrwm this week.
We start filming a film about Anti Social Behaviour. Stephen is in charge of that and is all ready for a good few days filming in and around the South Wales Valleys.

On top of that we kick off a new website for Llanharan Drop in Centre and start a film about Arson with a group from Blaengarw in Bridgend.

So we will keep the coffee flowing and try and keep awake.

Glamorgan Purchase Prize

Hoorah, Tantrwm Creative Director, Stephen Hanks and long-time Tantrwm collaborator, Catrin Doyle are short listed for the Glamorgan Purchase Prize, for their film Annwyl Plant.
So Stephen is suited and booted and ready to head to the Wales Millennium Centre to find out if they will be winners. Fingers crossed!

Boys don't read!

Boys don't read! from Tantrwm Limited on Vimeo.

We recently worked with some lads from across Rhondda Cynon Taff on a project to help get them reading.
It really worked. Some of these non-readers have come a long way in a short time. They have been writing poetry and performing. Something that would not have happened if this programme did not exist.
So well done and keep on reading guys.

What are we up to?

We realise the Tantrwm blog's been a bit quiet of late, apart from our ping experiments! So just to let you know that we are still busy working away on projects, not just kicking back with margaritas - although we'd like to! So what have we been up to?

Well, besides the new website design which is gradually growing from a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, we've been editing a number of films. 26 climbing films to be precise, which will be released online soon at www.azclimbing.com, at the same time we've been working on videos for the other A-Z series - A-Z of Climate Change and A-Z Ecobuild. In other A-Z news, we've been busily dispatching the A-Z Bushcraft DVDs around the world after launching the website back in May - see it for yourself at www.azbushcraft.com.

We've also been working closely with the South Wales Police (and behaving ourselves!) to create a short film about the work of their School Liasion Officers, which will be seen very shortly in schools across Wales. Along the same line, we are currently planning the production of a film about ASBOs to be filmed next week, when we're hoping the weather will improve.

We've been out and about at a few awards ceremonies preparing visuals for the Love Where You Live Awards in Pontypridd last month, as well as filming at the RCT Business Club Awards and the Heads of the Valley Innovation Programme Awards last week.

In between all that, we've been working with young people on E3+ programmes in Tonypandy and Pencoed to promote the scheme and get them interested in media production, as well as training some young people in an evening programme in Cwmparc.

Phew, so busy all round. But no rest for the video producers, we will very soon be starting another brand new project in Blaengarw with an arson theme - but don't worry, we won't be starting any fires, we're trying to prevent them!

Watch this space for some new videos going up online soon.

Okay so our ping didn't get onto facebook yesterday so I'm trying again! It's going on the blog too...

New Site Coming Soon

We know that we've been keeping you waiting at www.tantrwm.co.uk for a while for our new website to arrive, but it's now in development and will be appearing very soon. Sign up to follow our blog for all the updates.

So now we are pinging Twitter as well.
Anyone who is reading this. Please excuse while we test out some cool pinging and tweeting software!

Well we have now set up ping. Apparently PINGU invented it!

The A to Z of Rock Climbing

IT was sunny last week. Brilliant, as we had 3 days of filming on cliff faces planned.
Unfortunately for us the clouds rolled in.
However, we still got some great stuff.
Team Tantrwm along with Paul from Undercurrents, Andy Price from Dryad Bushcraft and Andy Cummings from Manzoku embarked on a new project called the A to Z of Rock Climbing.
The website and films will be live soon.

But for now enjoy some of the test clips.


Sony Z7 SG Blade Nikon Lenses Rock Climbing from Andrew Chainey on Vimeo.

Training with Ben Cole

Last week the Tantrwm staff teamed up with those great dudes at UNDERCURRENTS and had the most fantastic camera training with Ben Cole.
Ben is best known for his work with "One Giant Leap" and on the Joe Strummer film "The Future Is Unwritten".
Ben came to sunny Aberdare and was met by the locals in Wetherspoons. They proceeded to share recent stories of Death Threats at the Job centre and what methadone smells like! A warm welcome for a new visitor to the valleys.

The training was amazing. So much so, that Tantrwm has now invested in a whole new lens system that should see our filming technique take a whole new direction.
So keep your eyes on the site to see what we come up with. The first project will be the "A to Z of Climbing", which starts filming in April.

If you want more info on Tantrwm, or want to be involved then get in touch.

Chill

The Museum of Wales and More

So it has been a busy few weeks here at Tantrwm.
Many people ask "What do you do there?". Well in order to answer that i thought that i would run through a few things that we have been up to in the last few weeks.

VIDEO
We create video for all sorts of customers. Tonypandy community college has had us making films with their students, teaching them how to use Apple Mac computers and cameras. The Museum of Wales is letting us make some video based Welsh learners packs at the Woollen Museum in West Wales. We have made two pop videos in the last few weeks with RCT Cultural Services and we are doing VOX POP videos at a GALA Dinner event tonight. These clips generally get put onto DVD and the web.

WEBSITES
Our web mistress, Rhiannon, takes care of the web side of the business. From simple static HTML sites to full blown Content Managed Sites, she co-ordinates the design, implementation and hosting. We came to web site design from the fact that it was always a problem for clients to add video or other content, we make it easy. Lately this has meant creating sites for Rhondda Breast Friends, Maesgwyn School, Breakthrough Change, The Mac Lads, GovernmentVideo.co.uk and a new clothes rental service soon to be launched.

DIGITAL SIGNAGE
Tantrwm are the only company in Wales providing MAC based digital signage solutions for schools and colleges. We provide ALL the hardware (Screens, computers, brackets etc) and install and train people on the software. But we do not leave it at that. We also support the client in creating content for their new signage system. Tonypandy community college is the first school in the area to test the signage system.

TRAINING
We provide APPLE certified training and run introductory courses. Our high end course runs from Thursday to Monday over the last weekend of every month. The course covers the Apple FCP level one requirements but adds much more. We bring in award winning cinematographers, film makers to inspire and help students get the most from their training. The courses are limited to 4 people. Our last course took place on the last weekend in February and saw the Grammy Nomiated Ben Cole come and give us an insight into high end film making.

Well that is enough for now. If you want to find out more about Tantrwm then please get in touch.

Chainey

Genesis event

Spent a day making some amazing on line video for one of the top marketing companies in Wales.
Just hope my card gets pulled out.

Wool Wool Everywhere!

Luckily Rhiannon our web designer knows a thing or two about knitting. Why? Well we start a new project next week for the National Museums and Galleries of Wales. We will be making some Welsh learning resources based around the Wool Museum in Drefach, Velindre.

We are capturing the amazing machinery in action and gathering anecdotes from staff and villagers.
Tantrwm have completed a number of projects for the museum, most notably the "On Common Ground" website.
The wool museum project is of special importance to Andrew, director at Tantrwm, as his granddad was born in the same village.
Check back in April to see the finished project.

Music Media 2009

And so, January has come around again, and once again, we are all wishing we'd gotten thermal socks for xmas and wondering how soon we can break our new years resolutions and still be able to say we made a decent attempts at giving up chocolate/drinking/video game (delete as appropriate).

But this year, I've made a resolution that should be a pleasure to keep; to find some new music to listen to. And giving me the head start I need is the 2009 edition of the Music Media project, which will introduce me to some of the best new bands in the RCT area.

The Music Media project teams up up and coming bands with hungry young film makers to come up with a music video that hows what they can do.

Here's hoping that this year vintage keeps up the high standards.