On Thursday 29th October, Northern Film and Media are running a one day conference – entitled New Directions – for anyone searching for inspiration on how to engage young people in the media. We’ve only recently posted on this subject – read our thoughts here – and it would be entertaining, if not very instructive, to see how our thoughts on creating interactive, worthwhile media projects about and with young people compare with those put forward by the sensibility that offers “a demo of Friispray infra-red graffiti and screenings of short films presented by the Tyneside Cinema’s Pickin’ Flicks young programming team”. The modern audio-visual media already has a habit of demonising children and teenagers – or at best turning them into grotesque versions of adolescence, obsessed with sex, drugs and pop fashion – that any conference on the subject is doomed to failure from the start because it originates from that very same bigoted mindset. In their world, all children under 16 are preoccupied with graffiti, and any past time that offers them a creative outlet with spray paint and marker pens is a good idea.
As previously mentioned, this is a Northern Film and Media arranged event, and the focus is just as much on networking, funding and shared experiences as it is the speakers and the topics they are discussing. Those invited to take part are the usual round of media professionals with too much public funding in their pockets and not enough on their minds, including the usual suspects from 4Talent – Channel 4′s redundant talent acquisition department – and various poseurs concerned with creating the ubiquitous DIY Media – a phrase which justifies the discrimination between the amateurs (those who make films at home, with friends, i.e. in a non-professional environment) and those attending the conference (i.e. media wannabes). There are many outlets to work with young people, be it your own family, friends or community centres across the country, and in the end the only way to make a project succeed is to get out there and do it, not sit around for a day talking about it.
Find out more about the conference here.
Get ready to engage ‘yoofs’ in the media
On Thursday 29th October, Northern Film and Media are running a one day conference – entitled New Directions – for anyone searching for inspiration on how to engage young people in the media. We’ve only recently posted on this subject – read our thoughts here – and it would be entertaining, if not very instructive, to see how our thoughts on creating interactive, worthwhile media projects about and with young people compare with those put forward by the sensibility that offers “a demo of Friispray infra-red graffiti and screenings of short films presented by the Tyneside Cinema’s Pickin’ Flicks young programming team”. The modern audio-visual media already has a habit of demonising children and teenagers – or at best turning them into grotesque versions of adolescence, obsessed with sex, drugs and pop fashion – that any conference on the subject is doomed to failure from the start because it originates from that very same bigoted mindset. In their world, all children under 16 are preoccupied with graffiti, and any past time that offers them a creative outlet with spray paint and marker pens is a good idea.
As previously mentioned, this is a Northern Film and Media arranged event, and the focus is just as much on networking, funding and shared experiences as it is the speakers and the topics they are discussing. Those invited to take part are the usual round of media professionals with too much public funding in their pockets and not enough on their minds, including the usual suspects from 4Talent – Channel 4′s redundant talent acquisition department – and various poseurs concerned with creating the ubiquitous DIY Media – a phrase which justifies the discrimination between the amateurs (those who make films at home, with friends, i.e. in a non-professional environment) and those attending the conference (i.e. media wannabes). There are many outlets to work with young people, be it your own family, friends or community centres across the country, and in the end the only way to make a project succeed is to get out there and do it, not sit around for a day talking about it.
Find out more about the conference here.
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