48 Hour Video Race

Ok - I have to admit, I only got back from Mexico last night, and I’m definitely still in spring break mode today... inspiration is sort of lacking. But I shall still make an attempt at this post!

Reading Emma’s post about documenting life as an exchange student is a really good idea... (dammit, why didn’t I think of that first?!) But I really liked the part about the interactive media such as Skype and email and could perhaps incorporate that into a story of my own.

When I first read the guidelines, my initial reaction was to use a cell phone as part of the film. If you think about it, cell phones really do construct our daily lives and we rely on them. As I mentioned earlier, I was in Mexico last week and once we arrived, we realised that none of our American phones worked, except mine which was absolutely no use because I couldn’t contact my friends if we got split up at any point (there were seven of us) which is not very good when you are in a place like Mexico. Cell phones can be used to arrange to meet friends or family, to look up something on the internet, to take photos or videos, to make a call to a friend and so on. The list goes on forever and is expanding all the time. However, the most important thing about a cell phone is that it makes you feel safe. You can get in touch with the police instantly, wherever you are (except in Mexico!) or if you’re out with friends and you get lost you can arrange to meet them again. They are vital to our everyday lives and therefore it feels as though using one for the 48 hour video race to perhaps document someone’s day would be a relevant idea for this film in the 21^st century.

It would be cool if we were allowed to scan in photos already taken to go along with any text or voice recording from the cell phone, as it would explain the narrative further and give it more depth. As I’m writing I have come up with an idea but it literally just came into my head... I could document my spring break holiday through photos already taken and excerpts from the diary I kept. It would also be good to use cameraless filming and paint sunsets or bright blues onto filmstrips to represent the sun and sea which could be used as backgrounds. If I did use this idea, the cell phone part may then become irrelevant but I could still perhaps incorporate it somehow. I’m not sure; my brain is still fuzzy... But the more you think about it the more ideas you get! So I shall keep my thinking hat on.