teadfast determination is beginning to show real fruit for a young Bermudian entrepreneur. McCal Roberts, a full-time waiter at Pompano Beach Hotel, admits he may soon have to reevaluate his priorities as his love of videotaping has begun to take off. Mr. Roberts, head of Mac10 Entertainment, films school events and provides them on various formats for students, parents, and the general public to purchase.

?I offer VHS, DVDs and CDroms,? he said.

The 33-year old said it all started when the headmaster of Southampton Glebe primary school approached him to shoot some footage.

?Principal Gladstone Thompson asked me to shoot the school sports day in 2003 and then after that, the school?s graduation ceremony.?

Mr. Roberts said it then struck him that there was a real need in the community for someone to do this work. ?No one was doing this,? he said and so he approached all the Island?s schools with a view to filling the void.

But despite the void, most Government schools were wary of Mr. Robert?s idea.

He said he approached each school individually and found the private schools quickly receptive. ?But I was unsuccessful with the Government schools,? he said.

Still determined, Mr. Roberts returned to principal Thompson. ?I asked him for advice and he suggested that I go to the chief education officer Joseph Christopher and present my service.

?I submitted a proposal to Dr., Christopher in about August or September of 2003 and heard back in November. He said: ?It sounds good we?ll try you out.??

But Mr. Roberts said that Dr. Christopher?s endorsement had almost no impact in changing the stance of the Government school principals. ?I approached all the Government school principals individually again but was still largely unsuccessful,? he said.

Convinced that his service offered a positive to the lives of hundreds of Bermudians, Mr. Roberts sought the advice of another principal who could vouch for him.

?I went to Stansfield Smith of Northlands who suggested that I get reference letters from principals who had used the service,? he said, ?and finally this seemed to work.?

Mr. Roberts said in addition to Mr. Smith, Beverly Daniels of Harrington Sound, Melvin Bassett of Sandys Secondary and Nancy Manuel of Prospect Preschool all gave him recommendation.

Mr. Roberts said he now has shot footage of events at 24 of Government?s 37 schools and all of the Island?s private schools.

?Saltus were very eager, as were BHS, Mount Saint Agnes and Somersfield Academy,? he said.

As a sign of how far he?s come with the public schools, Mr. Roberts had Education Minister Terry Lister officially launch the release of several DVDs of school Christmas plays.

Mr. Roberts does all the shooting and editing himself. Self taught, he said shooting had been his serious hobby for at least eight years. He has purchased editing equipment and said he uses 13 different software packages to put together the events.

?I add in graphics and for the first time this year also include DVD authoring. This means that my finished product is very much like the commercial DVDs you buy or rent ? there is a menu with the ability to choose scenes, see bonus material like deleted scenes, or have audio in Spanish.?

In addition to providing the DVDs, videos and CDroms for sale at $35, $15, and $20 respectively, Mr. Roberts also provides the edited footage to all three broadcast stations free of charge.

?They (broadcasters) say they do not have enough local material ? so I try and help out.?

And in this community spirit he gives $5 of the sale of each DVD back to the school.