Regional meetings Passeurs d’images Rhône Alpes : production of a collective film for 80 people

7 October 2017. Published by Benoît Labourdette.
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Collaborative creation of a film for 80 people.

The Regional Meetings of Image Passengers of the Rhône-Alpes Region, organized by Acrira (Amaury Piotin) at the cinema of La Turbine (Michel Caré and François Bonifacj) on October 7,2017, brought together about one hundred young people who participated in workshops on image education during the year. I proposed the production of a collective film with all the participants. Why and how?

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Making a large number of people work together

How do we get a large number of people to work together, with the demand that everyone speaks? This is an important point, because the project is not to instrumentalize young people to be able to display a quantitative assessment, the project is that each one kind of this experience enriched, nourished, in terms of education to the images and lived.

It seems to me to be invaluable to be able to open up individuals to creativity, even in large groups. But how to do that?

A few years ago, I imagined the device I used here. Several steps:

  1. At the end of the morning, we give a theme, and I suggest to the participants to associate words and sentences around this theme, which I write on the screen. A very playful moment, which induces a knowledge of each other.
  2. The theme given was “Joy” (proposed by Elodie Pelloux), and in a quarter of an hour, here are the words that came out of it: JPEG - 634.2 KiB
  3. Then, I formed small groups of 4 people (those who are sitting next to each other). Each group has a number.
  4. And finally, for the meal hour, I give the instruction: each group will choose one of the words (that’s not imposed words, they’re their own), and will make, with their phone, a photo staged, of which this word will be the caption. So each group will imagine a set, actors, costumes, props, or take photos with objects, it’s free.
  5. We know that when we change the caption of an image, we can radically change its meaning. Here is the reverse experience: to think of an image that will be constructed, in relation to the word that will be its legend. Opposition, underlining, humor, distancing...
  6. During the lunch hour, I was accompanied by two intervening filmmakers, Elodie Pelloux and Yoann Demoz. We each have a laptop, so that we can retrieve the pictures of the groups (20 groups). We can advise them, invite them to take their picture again. There is real accompaniment.
  7. In the afternoon, I make a video montage of the photos one after the other, each one introduced by the names of the participants. Thus, during viewing, the names appear before the photo, producing a small dramaturgy, a desire to see the photo that these people made. JPEG - 96.6 KiB
  8. I put on the images of this “film-diaporama” a music made by some young people, which makes it possible to valorize them. The photographs each offer a real universe, worked out, built by the participants, and put themselves in relation with each other, creating a sense, a general spirit. The film is thus a true collaborative creation, rich in the contribution of each and every one of us and with a wider reach. JPEG - 361.1 KiB JPEG - 240.9 KiB
  9. At the end of the day, the film is shown in the cinema. It is a striking moment, because the large images, confronted with each other, reveal a form of “collective intelligence”, of narration. The screening is followed by a discussion. JPEG - 585.5 KiB
  10. I also put the film online immediately. It is accessible via a QR Code that I display on the screen for it to be photographed. In this way, everyone will be able to reclaim the film and distribute it in their own community. This unique creation has the potential to make sense in everyone’s real life. JPEG - 309.8 KiB
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