Hello,
I’m looking for ARRG members and ARRG family who would be interested in taking part in a series of film-making workshops with the ultimate aim of producing a film about ARRG…
Here are some details:
Why?For my PhD I want to make a collaborative film about ARRG. So I don’t just want to make a film about ARRG, I want to run like a group film-making project, that anyone who wants to can join in with. I am interested in finding out how we would choose to represent ourselves and our league in the medium of film and I want to write about this in my PhD.
What?I am going to run a series of film-making workshops, divided according to the ‘Design & Planning’, ‘Filming’, and ‘Editing’ stages. Anyone who would like to take part is welcome.
When? Each workshop will last about 2 hours and be scheduled at a time that suits people. The workshops will run through September, October and November this year. The workshops will probably either be in the Jack-Kane Judo-Room of dreams or a university room around George Square.
I’m interested! What do I do? Fill out this doodle poll to give a rough idea of your general availability, I will then contact you and try and arrange days and times for workshops.
http://www.doodle.com/ypmvem5f69s6q5zhDon’t worry about exactly when you’re available – I’m just trying to gage interest and get a feel for when works best. If no one is up for it I just won’t do it. Or I’ll make a film on my own. Ha!
If you fill out the doodle – can you put your email address as your name? And don’t worry about the dates – just like, “in general 6pm on Thursdays is good for me” kind of thing.
Thanks! I am excited about making a film.
Maddie Breeze
*********************************************************
If you’d like even more information you can check out the below in horredous detail:
More Details…
What else do I need to know?> This is not an ARRG project but rather something that I am doing off my own back for my PhD. Hopefully the end product will be useful to ARRG though, for fun or for promotion.
> I’ve met with the Board to discuss my plans, have got their permission to go ahead and have signed an agreement with them – I can email you a copy of this if you like.
> The workshops are open to everyone [you don’t have to be a full member] but there is no obligation to be involved, and if you do want to be involved there is no obligation to do anything you don’t want to!
> With permission of those involved I will audio and video record the workshops themselves and use the discussions we have in them as ‘data’ for my PhD research.
> Throughout the workshops everyone involved must agree to abide by the ARRG Code of Conduct.
> The rights to the finished film will belong jointly to me and ARRG, so ARRG can show the film however they wish and so can I.
> In the unlikely event that ARRG or I make any profits from the distribution of the film they will be split 50/50 between me and ARRG.
> I’m going to keep the board updated with what I am up to.
Hi so I do derby and I sleep. Why on earth would I give up even more of my precious time for this?! Uh yeah so I realise it is cheeky asking people to do more derby stuff. But I think it could be really good, so much stuff in the ‘mainstream media’ about derby seems to be slightly off the mark somehow and this is a chance to make something about derby and about us that we are in creative control of.
Also if you want to be involved you can do as much or as little as you like. You could come to every single workshop. You could come to one a month. You could just come to one. You could just email me and say “I think the film should be about…”
I can’t be bothered to read the rest of this – can I just ask you about it sometime?Yes.
I don’t want to be in a film!!That’s okay – just let me know and I’ll make sure you’re not in it.
Why are you doing this?! Because my PhD is on roller derby and gender I’m really interested in how we construct ourselves and ARRG, how we make ARRG what it is. I’m not just interested in whether we wear fishnets or not [yawn] but all the more subtle things like how we explain what roller derby is to other people, what we are working towards for the future of the league, how we run and organise meetings, what it feels like to play roller derby and all kinds of things like that.
So I think it would be really good to go through the process of a bunch of us making a film together, because it would be a creative way to work out how we think about ourselves and ARRG, and how we present the league, the way that we want to be perceived by other people.
Obviously the final film will be very dependent on who gets involved, so it won’t be like ‘here’s the official story of ARRG’ but rather just one way of interpreting all the things that we do and making a representation of ARRG.
Will there be snacks?!Yes.
What will the workshops actually involve?! Okay so they will definitely involve discussions, and making decisions about how to make a film about ARRG, there will be actual filming and actual editing too and all of this will be groups of between 2-10 people.
In the
Design and Planning stages (September) the workshops might involve working in small groups to brainstorm ideas, come up with storyboards or narratives, deciding on the feel and look of the film, generating ideas for a soundtrack and thinking about who the film is for and the kind of effect that we want to create. We’ll also try and work out the kind of things it would be important to include in the film and things to leave out. Should the film be a straight up documentary or should it be a fictional tale? Should it be about ARRG’s past, present or future? Should it focus on individual stories or the league as a whole? Things like that. I will probably try and make people do things like make up a five minute play about an important ARRG event or something but I guess everyone would hate that. We could also watch bits from other films about roller derby, or read newspaper articles about ARRG and discuss what we like and don’t like and plan our own film in response. By the end of the design and planning workshops we should have a rough list of things to film and good justification as to why we want to film those things.
In the
Filming stages (October) we will break out of the judo room to actually film things. I’ll work out who can have the camera when and be on hand to help with technical things and stuff like that. Maybe we’ll be filming practices and bouts. Maybe we’ll be filming an interpretative dance sequence about what it is like doing team selection. Maybe we’ll be making a real time animation of the 2008 AGM. Maybe it’ll be a musical. Who knows. By the end of the filming workshops we should have ‘shot’ enough footage to start editing.
In the
Editing stages (November) we will work in small groups to watch the footage we have shot, talk about it, and decide what to include and how to put it all together to make a film. We will also use editing software to put it all together. This stage might end up taking considerably longer than one month. I will be able to put in the hours doing the fiddly bits of editing in response to discussion and direction from everyone else if it turns out this is necessary.
What will happen at the end?! At the end hopefully we’ll have a film that didn’t take a year to edit, is enjoyable for us to watch and useful for ARRG in some way. I’ll also try and put on a screening for everyone who was involved and anyone else that would like to watch, maybe at an actual cinema, maybe in the back room of the White Horse. There will be snacks.
In 2012 I’ll run some ‘review’ workshops so that everyone who helped out and people who have watched the film can give their feedback, why it was good and why it was bad.
What are you going to do with this film?!The film will jointly belong to me and ARRG. ARRG can use the film for any purposes (or none) that it wishes. I can use it for my PhD and other academic activities.
In the unlikely event that there is any profit made by the film it will be split 50/50 between me and ARRG.
I’ll also be writing about the process of making the film, and the end product, in my PhD writing, in journal articles and maybe in a book. I might try and show the film at exciting academic conferences and ‘ethnographic film festivals’ in Slovenia.
What if the film is really bad and we all hate it?!I really hope it won’t be, especially if it is something that a group of us have made together, so like everyone involved in the workshops has some say as to what the film should be like. I do care about representing ARRG in a good way but in three months we’re probably not going to produce a really swanky professional feature film. For me it is the process of making it, rather than the film itself, that is the most interesting and important thing. So even if we watch it and decide ‘lets never speak of this again’ then it will be okay, we can just never speak of it again. I would probably still talk about the film and show bits of it in academic contexts though, even if just to say “this is the film we made and everyone hated it.”
