A Life Time Hobby 10 minute version featuring Pendon Museum

This is my feature film I filmed, edited and produced for my Journalism degree course at the University of Lincoln.
This film has been awarded the BBC Look North Award for TV Journalism 2013, by David Jennings, Head of regional and local programmes for East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
David Jennings commented:
"All the films were judged on the criteria of originality, story-telling, production quality and broadcast potential. I took into account under the last heading how likely a broadcaster would be to regard the film as transmittable without further work or development.
"In a close decision, Katie's film scored best across the four criteria, most notably "broadcast potential". The film was beautifully observed, and Katie demonstrated brilliantly the film-maker's art of making the camera invisible.
Her subjects clearly trusted her and found it easy just to be themselves. The result was a truly charming portrait of a pastime that a lesser producer might turned into an easy caricature. We learned much about the people, about an aspect of social history, and about how the hobby is helping to preserve a vanishing way of life."
So what is the film all about?
Modelling is a hobby which unfortunately comes with a stereotype, none more notable than that of the rail enthusiast. Whilst some think the hobby is dull and those involved are old men who share a love of anoraks, I wanted to show what a highly skilled hobby modelling really is and the importance of preserving Britain's heritage, one railway at a time.
From a county level railway club, to enthusiasts homes, I was welcomed in to capture a piece of preservation in the making. I gained access to Britain's largest railway model landscape Pendon Museum's Vale of the White Horse scene which can be exhibited in Didcot, Oxfordshire.
This film tells the tale of a boys childhood toy and how that toy captures their imagination and carries them on a journey into adulthood. A Life Time Hobby proves that railway modelling is more than a hobby, an obsession, it's an escapism from every day life for a man who's lost his son, it's a social club for a man who's lost his wife and it's a hobby with a purpose, recreating something that time has altered, dismantled or changed.
I hope you enjoy my work, please do feel free to leave a comment if you wish to do so.

[@MrDavil43]

Just found this lovely film. Now in my 70's, I have returned to railway modelling after a break of twenty+ years. And it is the perfect antidote to all the pro and anti Brexit bile consuming this country. Creating a little world set in the "secure" past is so therapeutic. It gives me new friendships, a need for historical research, the impetus to develop skills in carpentry, electronics, scenery and railway operation from the past. And a space away from the demands of a family (occasionally!)

[@stevie65able]

Dear Katie, this is an absolutely spot on video of the model train hobby that so many of us enjoy. As someone who works in the hobby on the retail side, you have nailed it. Cheers from Melbourne, Australia.

[@caahacky]

Excellent straightforward and informative presentation. The choice of music was just right. It would have been so easy to display some sort of "agenda" or opinion on the subject but you let us the viewer do that ourselves. I hope you have gone on to have a rewarding career and have the space to apply the same approach.

[@bluebellModelrailway]

great video / documentary always enjoyed visiting Pendon visited and done my own videos.

[@katiegriffith1066]

Please feel free to leave a comment if you wish to do so.