a shaggy dog's tale

Make a film for your Media Studies presentation, they said...




EDIT: In response to a request from someone in class, here's the 'justification' for the above insanity. For anyone who's not on the PGCE course, every other project in the class was about personal reflection, taking photographs of yourself growing up and doing a voice-over over a montage of them etc... weepy weepy reflections. Obviously, this piece of work is different...


A Shaggy Dog’s Tale:
The Challenges & Possibilities of Mixed Media and User-Generated Content for Educators (and Everyone Else)

In his somewhat verbose tome How To Read A Film, the film theorist James Monaco foresees the ethos behind much of the user-generated content that draws attention across the burgeoning goldfields of Web 2.0:

“What is to be done?” We cannot stop the juggernaut that is the contemporary media. It will continue to saturate our lives. New modes of discourse, because they insist the at the reader become an active participant in the process, may give us opportunities to find our roots again. But ethics is the new aesthetics of the future. We must focus on the uses to which our talents and technologies are put. It is no longer sufficient to know how to read a film. Now we must also understand in a profound way, how to use a film.
(Monaco 2000, p.561)

Monaco’s point is one to be seriously considered, no more so at the level of amateur film and video production, whether for personal, public, promotional or educational purposes. From the Golden Age of Hollywood, through the New Wave and the age of the blockbuster, it can be argued that the medium became one of passive engagement; as creativity faded into generic produce, audience demographics shifted and the cinema’s forward motion became static.

However, the advent (and now the second coming) of the internet and user-generated content, combined with the accessibility and affordability of the basic requirements for film making, have meant that film has become an active viewing experience like never before. And with the access and simplicity comes the prevolence of the next step: the rise of mixed media production.

A Shaggy Dog’s Tale was produced utilising other media beyond the filmed segments and video editing software. Also present were a basic audio recording setup, content streamed and processed from internet video websites (i.e. content created by other users), a scanner and photo manipulation software, and a variety of online freeware and search facilities.

The list of hardware and software already exaggerates somewhat the typical techniques employed: none of the skills required were any more difficult than it seems many school children are already familiar with – particularly as they continue to seemingly outpace adult observers. One has only to log onto the social networking websites like Bebo or MySpace to observe how adept teenagers are at documenting even the most irrelevant moments in startlingly profession ways. Furthermore, kids do not just produce these pieces – they forward, e-mail, comment, and respond in kind in a show of interaction to make James Monaco very excited indeed. (No clearer example of this is needed than on the video sharing network YouTube, where users can frequently record and upload their immediate responses to all and every video posted – creating a wealth of interactivity.)

But what does all this jargon and newspeak actually boil down to for educationalists? That, with no budget but a little imagination, any individual can be inspired by, interacting with, and producing film in the comfort of their own home, with equipment which it could be argued is, for the most part, available in the majority of schools, and arguably most homes in Western society. Mixing the media of film, photography, audio recording, internet content and text is, like media studies itself, still regarded with great suspicion by the academic establishment at large. However, if educationalists fail to keep up, the may soon find themselves left out in the cold by a generation who are already looking for the next level of hands-on creativity.

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References


Books:

Monaco, J., 2000. How To Read A Film. 3rd edition. New York: Oxford University Press.


Film:

Huey, P., 2008. A Shaggy Dog’s Tale: The Reflections Of Puddles T. Dawg. Northern Ireland: mediatree productions.


Websites:

Bebo - http://www.bebo.com
MySpace – http://www.myspace.com
YouTube – http://www.youtube.com

DoubleCross

In order to somewhat polish off the narrative arc begun in the last post below, I thought, what the hell... so I digitised up the epic that is DoubleCross as well. I've got to admit, for me watching back all the outtakes (that no-one will ever see... well, not for a while anyway) has actually been the fun bit - not so much a trip down memory lane as a cruise along recollection road in a battle tank constructed of things I'd blanked from my consciousness.

DoubleCross began life... actually, it's probably more relevant to pick up the story where we left off with Discarded. [Still with me? You really should try getting out more. Anyway.] If you haven't read the bit from last time, scroll down and do so now. We'll wait until you're done.

SO... despite the lack of a narrative or any real skill whatsoever, Discarded did actually start something. The following summer, after several nights in a row spent immersed in film (regularly racking up five a night, stats fans... it was reckoned at the time that we watched at least 30 more during the course of making DC, which probably explained the number of script changes to incorporate swiped lines) I sat down and hacked out a script called Blown Away. The expletive-laden draft read somewhere between Snatch and Mallrats. Either way, it was pretty much unfilmable. I blame the rage on the fact that I did most of the writing whilst waiting for Russ to wake up in the morning, regardless of how many objects were hurled at him.

So we took it, and I started rewriting. I'd write a few pages, and we'd work out how to film it. The other two 'actors' Matthew and Martin, were roped in pretty early on - Russ subsequently used them both in legitimate short films over the next few years: Matthew's now something of a cult figure, I suppose.

Anyway, long story short, it turned out pretty great.

a) The police car at the start is, as previously hinted, a real police car. The Gardai resided across the road, and the local sergeant was usually warned before Russ started blowing things up to avoid any confusion. However, someone further up the street rang in to complain that some young hooligan was sprinting down the road with what appeared to be a handgun, and they came around just to make sure. Russ decided to leave the camera running to see what would happen, and got the perfect shot. It's pretty hilarious with the original audio. ("Howya lads... what's going on today then?" "Ah, howya Pat...")

b) The sound dips a lot in the YouTube cut for the obvious reason. Didn't want anyone to be offended.

c) The narrative is actually pretty understandable. There's a bit of a dip in quality in the middle, as some of the dialogue seems to have been swept behind Bob Marley at one point. A great pity if you're a fan of wordplay.

d) As in all productions, Puddles appears. Spot for a prize.

e) Early on, it was decided that for the look of the thing, we would film at the "Magic Hour" every day to try and get that really soft lighting as the sun goes down. It meant we could only really film for an hour and a half each day, and made rehearsals a mad panic. And we did rehearse!

f) The shoot out at the end was meant to have flash-and-smoke added, but we ran out of time in the edit - so it looks a bit wick.

g) Check out the irony in the "No Dumping" sign just at the end. Genius.

h) The graveyard featured is the same graveyard mentioned in another famed tale of decadence from this stable; it will however, not be discussed here.


So without further ado, ladies and gents... the two-parter that is DoubleCross




If you aren't sure about any of the storyline, check out this (old) synopsis.

Discarded

Every now and again, it comes up in conversation: at what point did I decide to get into film? I remember a great conversation had at my enrollment as a fresher for QUB Film: something around the area of, "Your A Levels are in... I'm sorry, what?" [For the record, Maths, Chemistry and Physics (ABB, don't be pedantic.)]

Anyway, I could cite lots of vantage points along the way. But really, my cousin Russell is to blame more than most. I spent two summers in a row sleeping on his floor and pestering him to let me do stuff. The second production, DoubleCross has moments in it that I can honestly say remain among the most special I ever had anything to do with - come on, it's REAL cop car and a graveyard shootout in a REAL graveyard! With fleeing spectators! - but the first, Discarded was, well... different. In all honesty, it was buried pretty quickly at the bottom of a deep pile of shame. But tonight I finally managed to get the VHS copy digitised. But perhaps I should explain a bit more about the production.

a) It was made on one of those big ass '80s cameras. You put a VHS-C straight into it, taped what you want, and never even imagined editing existed. The picture quality is something to behold - believe it or not, a lot of the 'damage' - e.g. light distortion and glare - was there on the original.

b) We circumvented the editing issue using two VHS machines. About as accurate as trying to hit a paperclip with a custard pie. From 100 yards.

c) Sound? No sound. Weeeelll.... we opted to have no dialogue (bad move - narrative is completely incomprehensible) and instead used pillaged film music throughout. How did we get it on tape? Used a HiFi turned up really, really loud...

d) Colour filters? What colour filters... went to the hardware shop, bought some coloured bulbs.

e) There's actually a truckload of our homemade fake blood - it's a bit lost in the graininess of it all though. Look out for it on the tree near the end.

f) The exploding grave shot makes me squeal with joy. I might upload the blooper reel, which gives away how it's done.

g) I had never acted before. I had never written anything before. I was, in fact, 13.

h) I mentioned the lack of a coherant narrative. To find out what the film is actually about, check out this page I built about it on my old, old website (geocities-tastic).


And so, ladies and gentlemen... surfacing for its first viewing in at least five or six years... I give you, the genesis of it all: Discarded.