The BUFVC Moving Image Gateway includes over 1,400 websites relating to video, multimedia and sound materials. These have been subdivided into   over 40 subject areas. To suggest new entries or  amendments, please contact us by email or telephone or visit  the Gateway at  http://bufvc.ac.uk/gateway/

Backstage Science
Series of videos sponsored by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, which offer an insight into the research “backstage” at a number of British science facilities, including the ISIS pulse neutron and muon source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh and the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, which is a centre for research in fields such as accelerator science, bio-medicine, physics, chemistry, materials, engineering and computational science.

The site can be navigated via an aerial view page, where thumbnails of the videos are shown next to the location where the research is carried out. The videos show scientists in their workplace explaining the work they do. These short films are supplemented by a series of Q&A videos where the scientists go into further detail about their work.

Culture Shock!
This website is the result of a two year project based in North East England, collecting digital stories from people across the region. The aim of the project was to use objects and artefacts from museums and galleries to inspire local people to tell their own stories, in their own words, and then to make these stories accessible in digital form in order to raise awareness of the diverse heritage and backgrounds of people across the North East. The site also features a regular podcast.

Left Field Cinema
Mike Dawson’s podcast offers an intelligent and engaging look at cinema, covering not only titles suggested by the ‘Left Field’ tag – Asian Avant Garde and Contemporary Obscurity – but also presenting fresh perspectives on mainstream films under the headings Overlooked Gems and Misunderstood Modern Cinema. In the latter slot he looks at Michael Cimino’s much-maligned Heaven’s Gate, which he considers a masterpiece. Dawson’s critical acuity and willingness to go against the consensus is matched by his knowledge of the filmmaking process itself (he is a director in his own right), elevating this film podcast above many others in a crowded field.

New Media Literacies
Developed by a team based in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies programmes, this project aims to help lecturers and teachers give young people “the social skills and cultural competencies required to become full participants in an emergent media landscape and raise public understanding about what it means to be literate in a globally interconnected, multicultural world.” In essence this means encouraging a move away from traditional teaching practices to participatory learning, which acknowledges how the changing digital and social landscape means that young people are increasingly using the internet as a tool for creativity, not just consumption.

The site features a number of useful resources, including a video page which has short films giving examples of various types of participatory culture, including a look at Fansubbing as well as videos giving more general advice for teachers on how to confront the challenges of participatory culture in a positive way.

Visual Elements Periodic Table
Brilliantly designed interactive resource on the Royal Society of Chemistry website. The table features history, alchemy, podcasts (with transcripts), videos, and data trends across the periodic table, which can be navigated via tabs at the top of the table, or by clicking on the symbols for the individual elements themselves.