During the APV in April, I and the four other leaders had planned workshops based on Graffiti Techniques, Communications and Documenting, Graffiti Animation and Graphic Design. I was in charge of the Communications and Documenting workshop, which I was to say the least a little nervous about, having NEVER made a film in my life. However in my group there were 3 very lovely girls who shared my work ethic and worker their absolute socks off! We spent the first few days exploring techniques which we were going to use, like time-lapse (a particular favourite of everyone’s), developing SLR photography skills and exploring the software we would use to make the film. It was a very steep learning curve for me having never made a film before, and having to teach others how to do so. I had to put in a lot of extra time in order to work out glitches. the next 4 days were spent interviewing people about graffiti and its role in society and taking photographs and film of people making graffiti, as well as discussing between ourselves how we could show these opinions in a visually exciting way.
It was amazing for me seeing how the participants had developed since the first day, and how they had taken on board what I had taught them about how to take good photos by using the right iso, shutterspeed and aperture, as well as thinking about the frame before they shot the image!
Finally we began to put the video together, this is where all our hard work paid off! Very quickly we began to see great results, just by setting videos or pictures to music it made them come alive! We realised that the music was very important to get right in order to make the video flow, so we spent a lot of time picking the right tracks for the right images. The last part was the hardest and most boring…getting everything PERFECT! It took so much tweaking and extending of slide times, deleting miliseconds of videos, and adjusting subtitle entry and exit times in order to make it fit perfectly. However once it was all finished we were all very excited…but EXHAUSTED!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85QIw3A1Z4c
I was so pleased with what we had created together, especially as somehow I had managed to make the workshop which I had planned and developed actually work. I was so happy that the girls enjoyed themselfs whilst making the video, and had learnt so much from doing so. There was a lot of talk about their next projects which made me even more excited at the idea that I has sparked some creative talent within them!
Another success of the project was one of the participants. To start with I was very worried about them, they didn’t want to be in Metz, and definitely didn’t want to work together with the other graffiti artists, which of course was the entire point of Urban III. However slowly, and with quite a lot of encouragement they started to come out of their shell, and to begin enjoying themself! What really struck me was when they said, “I’m amazed that everyone has just excepted me like they have”, The idea that anyone would not accept someone they know nothing about made me really sad. The negative perception that they had of themself was holding them back. By then end of the week they were clearly enjoying themselves no end!: organising energisers in their free time and asking when they could come back and be part of another project. For me this participant was the reason why it is important to do residential projects over a longer period of time. They needed time to let down their defences and learn something about other people, and therefore about themselves, something they never would have done if they had not been taken outside their comfort zone for an extended period of time….however, taking them out of their comfort zone showed them that actually it really wasnt that comfortable!
As a result of me participating on Urban III I have been asked by Luc (the President of Together) to do Service Civic for Together for a year. I’m moving to France at the begging of August. I would like to take this rather public opportunity to say thank you to Liz and Helen and OYAP Trust who indirectly have given me this opportunity. Heaven knows what I would be doing now if it wasn’t for OYAP and the Young Creative Leadership Training! SO THANK YOU!
