The Others

Brief

You will get involved in a series of workshops/activities that promote diversity in the 21st century. Research into documentaries and filmmakers/designers/artists that promote awareness and tackle issues of equality and diversity.

You will be assigned a client, from the local area, and will be tasked with making a short (4 minute maximum) documentary about that individual/group of individuals. This documentary must respond to the client’s intended representation, whilst implementing the codes and conventions of documentary filmmaking. This representation must be positive. You will be part of a group of between 4 and 6 students, constructed by your tutors.

You will take part in a cross college group critique on the 18th of January (Wed am) in which you will in a group self manage the critiques. To help produce work that responds to the themes of ‘The Others.’ Ensure that your work is not about yourself, but about other people and situations. Use the work to promote equality, and celebrate difference.

TTTFF

My group was tasked with making a documentary about the people who make the Transition Town Totnes Film Festival possible which would be shown at the festival. This was a bit daunting as this would be the first time my work would be shown publicly. Transition Town Totnes is a community-led and run charity that exists to strengthen the local economy, reduce environmental impact, and build resilience for a future with less cheap energy and a changing climate. The film festival was organised for the first time 3 years ago to help spread this message to the general public.

We met up with a representative of the festival, Jan O'Highway, who told us about the festival, what kind of films they show there and the people that we could interview. We started planning who we wanted to interview and the questions we could ask them.

After we contacted the people we wanted to interview and set a date and time to do so we had to plan we we needed to go and how to get there. The easiest way for everyone was for me to drive us up to Totnes. We had some issues while we were there, one being that the camera lost battery quite quickly because we were filming for a long time so we had to walk around and find cafés that had a socket we could use. This meant that we didn't spend as much time filming as we hoped so we went back two more times - one to get extra footage and the other to go to a meeting of the festival and get some more on the spot interviews.