This is an example of a Collaborative Practice final Essay (Year 1 University of Cumbria) from a Film & TV Student. The grade for this essay was A.
Our project was about giving a voice to those communities in Carlisle (Cumbria - where our Campus is located) who may feel intimidated or don't feel...
HIDDEN VOICES
Our Concept & Ideas
Hidden Voices is the title of our
project, with its aim being, as the title
clearly suggests, giving a voice to
those in Carlisle who may feel as
though they do not have one. Carlisle
is a multicultural town and a very rich
one in that aspect, being home to
communities from all over the world.
As a group we were quite indecisive
of the topics we could choose from
because we seemed to have at least
one idea per theme, so we decided,
upon popular vote to combine the two
topic that had the most votes:
Carlisle’s history, which we
represented throughout our project
with the inclusion of the Carlisle
Dragon from the city crest, and the
theme of community which is the main
focus of our project.
I wanted to use this photo of the Chinese Dragon
one of our team members captured during one of
the performances at Culture Bazar as an
opening statement to the project, alongside a
brief explanation of our project proposal (as
explained above) because I think it could
symbolize the mask some people put on when
they come into a new environment that they are
not used to (in this case people of different
cultures coming to Carlise) in order to fit in. I
think the Chinese dragon can be a symbol of that
because it is a mask the performers put on to
entertain the audience. It’s a nice contrast to the
dragon on the Carlisle city crest which we use
throughout our project because we used that as
a symbol which can become a symbol of
someone’s new home, whether it is temporary or
permanent, or a place of refuge, or perhaps
something people may not see as welcoming at
first (a dragon, scary and dangerous,
, Eliska Belejova | Group 1
representing a new place (again in this case Carlisle)) but have to perhaps force themselves
to like, or to feel at home there.
Because I myself am not from the UK I immediately agreed with this proposal of shining light
on other cultures within Carlisle. However, I still wanted to include the theme of history in the
project and because many other people in the group liked the idea too I pushed it further so
we could incorporate an important symbol of Carlisle into the project and see how important
that symbol, or what it symbolizes can be to people who live here but are not from Carlise, or
even England, Britain, or the United Kingdom. For a while at the beginning of the project this
was a running joke that “Miles is making a dragon” but as we progressed he did in fact make
a dragon which is a big part of our file artwork and is a vital link between the two themes we
had chosen to portray in the project, linking them perfectly together.
The Art Works
We eventually managed to narrow down all the ideas we had and decided to create a series
of Portrait style photographs which include handwritten quotes from the models about their
life in Carlisle. Thanks to Culture Bazar we were also able to produce a “Roaming
Photography” piece which is a collection of photos showcasing the different communities
living in Carlisle enjoying traditional activities at Culture Bazar as well as other people
enjoying each others’ cultures and traditions. We also created a series of videos which I
edited in a vlog/campaign promotion style so that they can be used for our project but also
by Culture Bazar to promote the event in the future. Alongside this we also have the main
symbol of our project; the dragon. This is a dragon created out of self portraits drawn by
children (and adults!) at Culture Bazar as a way to share their identity and show how they
see themselves. These drawings were then scanned and color edited by our Dragon Team;
Jodie and Miles who created the final collage. As well as this we have multiple illustrations
which come together to create our 5th art piece; these illustrations depict the diverse culture
in Carlisle and across Cumbria and show the
most intriguing and special moments our
illustrators captured at Culture Bazar. We also
have a final video as our 6th and final art
piece of a Chinese Dragon, once again at
Culture Bazar. We included this because we
feel it really helps tie everything together due
to the importance of the dragon; it is a symbol
known in every country although the
depictions of the creature may vary from
culture to culture. Finally we have an extra,
interactive piece of work on our website in
which viewers can have a bit of fun finding the
hidden dragon from the Carlisle Crest in
different photos of Carlisle we all took on
walks through the town.
The very first thing in our group was
establishing our roles within the group and
project to make the work flow easier as well
as to increase our progress speed and I
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