21/02/2018 - CROSS COLLABORATION MEETING

In our first meeting of the new collaboration we had all pre-prepared ideas and styles that we could incorporate into the video. I brought along some supporting research around the gentrification of Norwich as well as a great video I found discussing similar development plans when they had been previously worked over in 1960. The video highlighted use of specific language such as "What I have noticed is a different type of person come down and shop in the street." I suggested that this stylistically could be used to suggest tongue in cheek issues with the gentrification, in a way which still very much preserved the dated ideas surrounding area regeneration and social whitewashing.


Videos of Norwich

Although I had a lot of suggestions for the research based element of the production, I was well aware and voiced my concerns around uncertainties with delivering my work and the styles and techniques we could use. If people liked this idea, I suggested that these were concepts we could further develop as a team.

Oliver then pitched his concept, with brightly illustrated storyboards, scripts and ideas. He had gone into a great deal of depth with his planning and also had based his work from a pre-existing educational framework of the Gender-bread Man. Although I had been initially unsure about the delicate nature of gender issues for a 1-5min PSA, seeing this official framework increased my confidence in the iconography and effectiveness of the Genderbread idea, and reassured me towards the concept.

I still felt like this would need to be thoroughly overseen by Oliver if we were following with his mission as none of the other members of our group seemed specifically concerned with gender misunderstandings or inequalities in particular, and key areas of his concept involved pointing out the specific and subtle nuances of gender through a montage of candid anonymous example shots.

Laura had also prepared an alternative format to discuss gender issues, using the motif of tetris pieces to suggest the problematic nature of forcing people to choose one gender or another when going to the toilet. In this idea she also suggested a greater craft element to the idea, with us creating the tetris pieces from blocks of wood to shoot in the film, which could have been good in particular for our involvement as creative artists on the project. However due to the attention to detail and planning of Oliver's idea, which would have allowed us to commence with production straight away due to the complete nature of it's storyboard and script, we ended up deciding to go with his idea, particularly taking into account the fact that we only had two weeks for what was by all accounts a very ambitious set of proposals. 

Others in our group also suggested stylistic features and ideas which they had noticed and liked from the variety of source videos we were directed to in the brief. Keira suggested a common theme in Japanese film-making which used tuneful jingles in the opening and end credits. I thought this was a really nice suggestion and could be a way to further lift the overall mood and make this piece less educational and didactic. It could also be a way to capture some of the spirited-ness from the concept of a Gingerbread Person cheerily explaining the different genders, and spread it across all corners of the film.

Another piece of footage referenced was a guide produced by comedy TV show, the Last Leg, because of the humorous way it dealt with an issue which many people do not know how to approach correctly or feel uncomfortable dealing with. Using these humorous devices helps break down the taboo nature of the topic, and opens it up for discussion. I did however feel like a great deal of the strength of this video was due to their personal involvement with the issues discussed; allowing them to portray the situation effectively and amusingly, yet still with sensitivity and contextual awareness.

We hoped that we could play with the objectivity and materiality of the gingerbread man as a comedic device. With baking related puns and colloquialisms 'treacle, pudding, crumbs' to reference the active state of the narrating voice. As well as this we suggested a scene where the biscuit could be dunked by the head into tea. Using devices such as this establishes a rapport between audiences and the narrator, opening a fun and playful narrative of interaction. As an initial idea we suggested using Jake Wise as our voice actor for this position, hoping his strong northern accent but also jolly tone of voice and disposition would give our gingerbread man lots of character and spark.

With all of this in mind, we also planned to visit local shops in the area and find a good gingerbread man to use in the filming, and planned to shoot on Friday.