Exploring the frame of our lives

Exploring the
frame of our lives
Evangelia Georgaki, Mary Kaldi, Evangelia Kyrmizaki
Introduction
The project “Videomuseums: recording traces of our subjective culture”,1 which was organised by the Directorate of
Secondary Education of Eastern Attica from 2009 to 2012 in
cooperation with “Karpos - Center of Education and Intercultural Communication”, created a school network in Eastern
Attica. The project aimed to invite students from secondary
schools via educational procedures to choose and record
in short videos those “items” from their daily environment their place, their neighbourhood and their culture – which
they believed should be preserved in the future, as if they
were in a museum. The teachers who participated in the
project were trained on photography and cinema and they
collaborated with exterior artists - the filmmakers- who visited the schools many times helping in the creation of the
school films. These videos that record a picture of the present
through the eyes of students from each school constitute the
exhibits of a “Videomuseum”. In the second and third year,
schools from Frankfurt, Germany also participated in the
project, because it became European. In this article, the most
important aspects of the creative process are explored from
the side of the teachers, who observe how the teams change
as the collective work is created.
Creating the team
It is a challenge for each teacher to create a group of young
people that will work together in unity from beginning to
end, in order to reach a goal that they themselves have set.
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Videomuseums – recording traces of our subjective culture
Audiovisual Education for young people
Videomuseums attracted not only students that had a personal interest in the camera and those who are attracted to
all kinds of group work regardless of the subject, but also introvert students who found a way of expression, as well as
overactive students who channelled their energy creatively.
The teenagers brought their individuality and their own
code of communication to the team. It was impressive to see
how they changed in the course of time unfolding new possibilities and how new dynamics, dexterities and talents were
revealed when the tide of creativity subsided. School, familial
or social facts influenced their relations with each other and
their close or loose relation to the collective work. While in
the beginning of the group work they focused on their own
feelings, they gradually identified with the team. After the
end of each meeting, they all longed for the next time.
Choosing the themes
According to the planning, emphasis was placed on how the
students would choose the themes of each school’s film, because from the beginning we set the aim to involve as many
students as possible in this phase, so that the film would
be more representative. After brainstorming, we discussed
which “items” they believed should be preserved from their natural, man-made or social environment and expressed their own
view of their personal and collective culture. Each member of
the team proposed the possible themes to 3-4 of his friends,
and then we had an unofficial voting at school, whose outcome determined the final subject of each film. In the course
PART A: Videomuseums: the project & the partnership
The group researches, plans, discusses.
of time, of course, as the script was shaped, the children’s
ideas became clearer, and in many cases emphasis was given
to other points, since the initial idea also included other subthemes that came up on the way. The number of team members would decrease due to various reasons, so evidently the
final team left its mark on the film. In the second year, we
had to relate our film to an object, something that could be
photographed, so that the team would focus on making a
documentary rather than a fiction film. In the third year, the
theme was chosen differently: we had to find a connection to
a film of our German partners: its theme, a subtheme, a way
of filming, a contradiction to it and so on. In general, our film
had to express our view in relation to one of their themes. This
cross-cultural connection led to many interesting new films.
It is also clear that in many schools, which worked for the
third year on the same project, students and teachers had
found their own special way of working, their own code that
could clearly be seen not only in the themes but also in the
final films.
The themes of the films varied from general, such as the
old factory, the abandoned American Base, my city, or environmental, such as the lack of green, the burned forest, the protest
against the rubbish damp in Keratea, to more personal, such
as myself, my future. From concrete, like my room, my clothes,
my computer, my music, my day, my routes, to abstract, like
escape, freedom, and internal, like friendship and love. Pieces
of a mosaic consisting of adolescent interests, often repeated
from year to year, from school to school and from country to
country. We travelled into teenagers’ rooms, classes, schoolyards, city squares, forests, parks, train stations, abandoned
houses, we viewed demonstrations, occupations, in Greece
in an era of crisis, in the past, in the present and in future…
Phases of the creative process
Each school followed certain common activities and techniques that brought the students closer as a team and prepared them for creating their film.
Ideas that expand - brainstorming: Exploring the theme
of the film with ideas by each one written down spontaneously on the same paper.
X
Free connotations: Games of automatic writing to release thoughts and sentiments of the team.
X
Audiovisual stimuli: Watching short films created by
young people from Greece and abroad.
X
Role-playing, interrogation chair, improvisations: Theatrical exercises aiming to deepen the selected subject of
the film.
X
Frozen images: The team members are asked to make
an “image” with their bodies relevant to the theme: Activation of team - collectiveness - game - spontaneity.
X
Photographic exercises: We learn the types of shots
and how to imprint a theme with a procession of photographs. Then we comment on the photographs.
X
Storyboards: We learn how to prepare the scenes on
paper, how to choose the shooting angle of the camera realising what we actually want to show with each
scene. These are small handmade traces of our future
work: something like a handicraft of the shots and a
forerunner of the film’s editing.
X
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In front of and behind the camera: All
students take turns in front of and behind the camera as follows:
X
1. Small interviews: Free expression of thoughts on a topic in front of
the camera.
2. Presenting myself in 7 shots:
Each student draws a storyboard presenting themselves with 4 close-ups,
2 intermediate and 1 general shots.
3. Shooting of small videos for each
one: We shoot the previous shots, to
which we add music, so that each one
creates their own video.
4. Editing the photographs: We try
to edit the 7 shots in different ways:
with the pictures completely naked,
with colour filters and transitions, with
music and words in the presentation.
Comments on the difference in each
version.
Scenario – final script: The theme,
the film’s story, is finally written into
a script that will guide us through
shooting.
X
Shootings: The team meets in the
actual space of shootings and experiences the process of filmmaking in
real time conditions. It needs absolute
collaboration of the team and foresight for all that will be needed.
X
Editing: This is the final manufacture
of the film that places everything in
its place: picture, sound and anything
additive. What we outlined before is
now materialised shot by shot in the
succession of images. Incomplete
thoughts and actions are completed
into a final artistic product that will
constitute our identity and our way
of communication with the others, a
bottle in the sea of Internet.
X
A photograph of James Dean –by Dennis Stock– provides
motivation for creative commentary.
The synthesis of collective work
The selection of the theme, the synthesis
of themes through convergence or exclusion led progressively to collective expression. Students found their own place in the
team, sometimes in the front line, playing
a leading part in the choice of a subject or
“imposing” their own view, and sometimes
backstage providing technical support or
working for the realisation of the film. Dur-
Photographic exercises
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Videomuseums – recording traces of our subjective culture
Audiovisual Education for young people
PART A: Videomuseums: the project & the partnership
Behind the camera
ing the whole process, both teachers and filmmakers often
thought that we wouldn’t finally reach a collective result, because of the lack of discipline, the seeming lack of interest
and the easing off that the team showed in periods without
action. The lack of time, mainly from the students of lyceum,
was the biggest hindrance. It is very difficult to find common
time at the weekends when students strive to fit in their extra
tuition lessons, studying for foreign language certificates or
for revision tests and the like.
The interaction of teachers and filmmakers with the
team was obvious and inevitable and their interventions catalytic. Themes that concerned us were chosen by our team
and themes that were in our team’s mind stirred our own interest too. The natural conclusion of a practice that initially
struck as chaotic was the production of collective work. The
Looking for the perfect frame, video shooting, Acharnes,
Athens 2010
magic word: Synthesis. Synthesis of ideas, opinions, themes.
It was a collective creation from A to Z.
The aspect of communication
During the project, the filmmakers visited our schools and
we realised in practice how working with them was precious.
As an “exterior eye” they function as a link to the world of cinema since they engraft the secrets of their art in the teenagers’ minds. They help the team’s unity, perhaps because, as
“enchanting strangers”, they give the students the impression that they are creating something outstanding, that also
interests some distant others.
The Festival “Talking Images”2 is an occasion for exchanging ideas and creations. The teenagers present their
During the editing process
67
work in a common cultural venue, which helps them see
their common points with their peers, measure their possibilities, compare the results and continue. The creation of
blogs3 presenting a school team’s work with pictures, films,
thoughts, scripts, photographs and comments constitutes a
live diary but also a way of communicating this work to many
others. Finally, uploading the films on blogs and facebook,
on the website of Karpos,4 on the website of the Directorate
of Secondary Education of Eastern Attica5 and on the European website of the Videomuseums project6 creates sustainability, so the work of each team is recognised and is not lost
nor limited only in the final product. It is equally important
to share the experience and to interact with each other perpetually. The films constitute an adolescent diary in action. A
real Videomuseum.
7th Student Film and Photocomics Festival, “Talking Images”, Athens 5/2011
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Videomuseums – recording traces of our subjective culture
Audiovisual Education for young people
PART A: Videomuseums: the project & the partnership
The teacher’s bet
Over these three years, we have progressively passed from
discreet or absolute control of the technical means of children’s expression –camera, shots, editing–, when everything
was supervised by the experts to the stage of absolute confidence in the children’s abilities. The students have progressively developed a sharp eye and a familiarity with the
camera and they experimented with everything: shooting
angles, shots, moving camera etc.
How can you form without deforming, inspire without gaining the game for yourself but letting the children
take the lead, and give the call guiding them to discover
themselves?
This is the bet of the teachers. To set the children’s creativity free, even if they do not know where it will lead – certain that it is worth travelling and that they will be glad with
the result. They invest in the natural curiosity of the young, in
the freshness of their glance, they cultivate the children’s artistic expression and their only reward is that their own view
has also changed. It is much better than finding themselves
in a school with bored to death adolescents. Deep down,
mischief and delinquency are actually a need that was not
expressed, a videomuseum that went lost.
Through the Videomuseums project the children discovered a medium of self-expression and communication and
brought their ideas forth. They saw the adults taking them
seriously, they saw themselves on the screen and they experienced the joy and the game of spontaneous creation. They
improved their place in the school team, they collaborated
in multiple ways and they left their mark on the school’s “history”. Knowledge. Experiences. Creation. School enthusiasm.
Nothing less or more than the students’ words at the end of
the festival: “Shall we do it again next year?”
Changes in our daily routine
“We learnt how to make a film, about directing, about the
camera and the scenes. We made the film in order to show
our way of thinking. We managed to show what we are
worth, to have fun and to come closer to other people. We
showed our talents. We all had talent, but some of us did
not know it. When we grow up, it will remind us of what
we made, when we were young. I understood that the most
important thing is to put our imagination to work. It needs
a lot of work but it is worth the effort. I learnt that when we
begin something we shouldn’t stop it. I met children that I
did not know. Now we spend more time together. I learnt
that even if they do not want you or if you do not have
friends, you can find friends.”
From the team which made the film
Rendez-vous at the Wall
It is very important for the students to project their
identity into their school and listen to the comments of students and professors. After the film, we often observe many
personal status changes of those who dared to expose their
known or unknown side in front of a wider public. Many chil-
dren who began timidly, in the end of the year continuously
brought new material. Children with problems in verbal expression and low grades acquired a voice and a place not only
in the team of Videomuseums, but also in the whole school
community. Their smile bloomed, they found their voice and
their self-confidence. They even forced some professors to
see the unnoticed student, to acknowledge their ability, to
observe something that until then remained expressionless
and silent in the hostile atmosphere of a formal class. A characteristic example is Nikiforos who was distinguished with
the film “Old Factory” and has continued his involvement in
photography and cinema even as an adult.
Along with the children, we also learnt how to make a
film and how to take shots that captivate our eyes. We also
changed and became better viewers and creators. We have
discovered the power of pictures in a world that is continuously changing. We got acquainted with the children’s way of
thinking by looking at the world through their eyes. Each film
was a game and an adventure of intense action.
The particular sociological importance of cinematographic art into the spectrum of literary-artistic modernism was
that it familiarised wide masses with the programmatic
and deliberate segmentation and reconstruction of daily
experience - and in particular it taught them to like this.
Panagiotis Kondylis7
Theatre, cinema and literature have a common narrative code. The technique of narration uses the same materials: the parameter of time, action, alternation and twist, in
two different ways, verbal or optical. The familiarisation with
the different language of cinema strengthens knowledge
that already exists by acquiring hands-on experience in an
endless game of feedback. The practice of actively observing
a film sharpens the viewer’s look, the perception of sounds,
pauses and alternations of pictures and it eventually changes
our perspective of the world, ranging from the way we watch
cinema to the way we conceive the “frame” of our lives.
Notes
1. The “Youth Videomuseums partnership: recording traces of our
subjective culture” has been organised since 2009 by the Directorate
of Secondary Education of Eastern Attica in the context of Cultural
and Environmental Programmes. For years 2010-2011 and 20112012 the project was also approved in the frames of a European REGIO Programme (2010-1-GR1-COM13-03741 1) that was organised
by the Directorate of Secondary Education of Eastern Attica and the
Regional Directorate of Secondary Education of Frankfurt (Staatliches Schulamt Frankfurt am Main – SSAFFM) in Germany.
2. The Festival “Talking Images” has been organised by the Directorate of Secondary Education of Eastern Attica since 2005 and is
held each year in May. Students participate with photo-narrations
and short films. Available on: http://dide-anatol.att.sch.gr/perival/
FAKELOS_FOTO/indexFOTO.htm [accessed 4-6-2012].
3. There are two blogs of the 3rd Gymnasium of Acharnes: a. Videomuseums – 3rd Gymnasium of Acharnes, on the theme of graffiti.
Available on: http://Videomuseums-graffiti.blogspot.com/ b.
Σκηνοθετώντας τον εαυτό μας – παίζοντας με την εικόνα [Directing
69
Ourselves – Playing with Images], about the way teenagers dress and
the students’ work (2010-2012). Available on:
http://videomouseia20113gymacharnon.blogspot.com, [both accessed 4-6-2012].
4. “Karpos” – Center of Education and Intercultural Communication is
one of the Greek partners of the Youth Videomuseums partnership.
Available on: www.Karposontheweb.gr.
5. The Project Videomuseums is presented on the website of the Directorate of Secondary Education of Eastern Attica. Available on:
h t t p : / / d i d e - a n a t o l . a t t . s c h . g r / p e r i v a l / FA K E LO S _ F O TO /
Videomuseums/indexVM.htm [accessed 4-6-2012].
6. All films are presented on this website with English subtitles. Available on: http://Videomuseums.eu/ [accessed 4-6-2012].
7. Kondylis, P. (1991). Η παρακμή του αστικού πολιτισμού [The decline
of urban civilisation] (p.168). Athens: Themelio.
Evangelia Georgaki holds a degree in English
Literature and a degree in Greek Philology. She
took her Master in Archaeology and has been a
member of the Akrotiri Thera Excavations since
1989. She was appointed in Secondary Education
in 1992. She was in charge of a School Library for
5 years and since 2011 she has been Principal of
the 2nd Geraka Senior High School. She has extended experience in organising educational programmes: European, cultural, environmental, of
Health and of Active Citizen.
Mary Kaldi studied Pedagogy at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Ioannina. She studied the piano in the Hellenic Music
School. She played the piano in Nicolas Assimo’s
band “Enapomeinantes” (1983-1986). Since 1983,
she has been working in Secondary Education
and during recent years in the 3rd Gymnasium
of Acharnes. She has worked with school theatre groups and has participated in international
conferences, meetings and teacher training as
member of Organising Committees. She was the
Vice-President of the Hellenic Theatre/Drama and
Education Network (2008 -2011), responsible for
the Editions Committee, and member of the editing committee of the Education and Theatre journal. She films and edits audiovisual resources from
TΕNet-Gr’s seminars and conferences. She has
been involved in the projects “Literary laboratory”
and Videomuseums (2009-2012).
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Videomuseums – recording traces of our subjective culture
Audiovisual Education for young people
Evangelia Kyrmizaki studied English Language
and Literature at the University of Athens. She has a
Master’s Degree on Education with special emphasis on Counselling from the University of La Verne,
California. She worked for her master’s thesis on how
to teach Drama to children with special needs. She
has been teaching in primary and secondary education schools since 1991. She has attended a course
on EFL teaching through Drama at the University of
Edinburgh, UK. She has organised a variety of cultural
programmes and participated in the programme
“Pame Cinema” (2000-2003), a pan-hellenic school
filmmaking project. She has also participated in the
Comenius-Regio programme “Videomuseums: recording traces of our personal culture” for the last
two years (2010-2012) and she has been organising
a Comenius programme for the 1st Lyceum of Glyka
Nera since September 2011.