Good day to you all.
The Badgehat Team - as have many others scattered across the country - have come to the end of their second years in Media Production. Taking us from the fair beginnings of a wide spectrum of logics (from radio productions to multicamera studio work, from scriptwriting to digital media and design) to the intense focus of picking a field of study, our time at university so far has taught us so much into the production, creative and distribution processes required to exist in a media-intense world. And it has been wonderful. As part of the course, many people within Badgehat took on Single Cam, a module whereby small teams create numerous films across the year. Here, the Bloghat showcases some of the Experimental Short Films that were created as the last project. These films - as well as showing how film is a diverse and curiosity-driven medium - also act as a milestone of two years hard work. They also mark the turnpoint into our third years, where we will create more, focus into fields desirable and groundbreaking, readying ourselves for graduation: a time where our fellow students evolve into collaborators and competitors.
So, without further ado, here are the films where Badgehat members were part of the crew:
As well as all the people working on those projects, well done to Rose, Sam, Arron and Jim on those films. They were spectacular (or at least, we think so. I don’t think its time for modesty when you produce films of that quality).
Here are two bonus films as well that came from Lincoln University. One where Damian Clarke worked upon it (Damian being another excellent Digital Media extraordinaire) and one with James Clarke (no relation), a media-lover and fellow excellent student (that reminds me, Badgehat is always looking/stealing new talent, think I may have to pester some people… peace out).
Just a little note, Humane does contain some graphic imagery:
News from the Front. Rose Braisby has this to say:
SNC Radio is a one week special radio station situated at South Nottingham College. I’ve been working there recently and it is wonderful being with the students who produce the content for the station. Featuring a variety of shows all created and presented by students of the college, it is definitely worth a listen. Just to the website at SNC Radio and click the Listen Live! button. Thanks everyone!
So there we have it! Our Producer - and Radio Extraordinaire - is working on the airwaves. Remember to check out Dabble Radio as well and keep your eyes peeled for an animated short made by Rose and her gang as well. Wonderful!
We’re winding down our second year of university now, production has been pushed slightly ahead into later May rather than early May as we sort out dissertation proposals, experimental short films and - of course - work experience with Radio Stations! Keep your eyes peeled for more transmedia wonderment from Badgehat Media Solutions.
Production Stills from The Dark Chamber
And there we go. The Dark Chamber Behind-the-Scenes Trailer. Now, to tell you more about it.
Arron Baxter, for his photography module at university - something he is rather good at - has to answer the question “Photography is…” [though not a question, though the inspiration for the university task] through any way he deems interesting and insightful. He then came to me and asked me to write a story, set within a universe based on a camera, i.e. a universe set in a camera. Ergo, we developed the idea of a girl - Iris - who traverses a wide and curious landscape with her friend F.stop to discover The Shutter, a fabled end-of-the-universe door.
The story will be shown through a concertina book, which has the photography upon it, with an accompanying short story. This allows the viewer to open the book out and wander around it with the short story in hand, as though you are exploring the world with Iris and F.stop. Alongside the main two books will be trinkets and objects found within the world: a cocktail menu from a bar she walks by, a letter she finds in a field, et cetera.
It should be intriguing to see the finished product; Arron is busy editing the photography he has to make it gorgeous. I’ll upload production photos shortly.
In short, Badgehat Media Solutions is using this project to show how expansive we are in our abilities. Other than creating something that we think is just intriguing and curious to the eye, we hope this shows that we don’t fall into just the normal conventions of media to deliver a story or advertise a brand. Here we’ve practically made a brand press pack if you’re so inclined, and told a story in a fairly unique fashion. We hope, when we finish it, you’ll enjoy it as much as we envisage you will.
Sam Mant as F.stop for personal photoshoot, above
Our lovely Producer Rose Braisby discovered this gem of a TED talk and so, whilst Badgehat rushes around like a media production official with a lot of media to produce I thought I’d share it before a larger post is uploaded in the futureplace.
To keep you people up to date - which, I suppose, this blog is for - Badgehat has been busy working on its first short film. We’re still in the casting stage, so if you’re intrigued please click here for more information. Can’t wait to hear from you. And if you don’t contact us, we still love you. It has been such a fun process getting the story that was in my head down into script format and then onwards to what it will become now, which is telling the story cross-platform with the short film anchoring it all for your viewing pleasure (as they say).
But we aren’t just working on that. Badgehat prizes itself for trying to be innovative with its projects, and similarly with how it utilises its team. Ergo, myself and Arron Baxter have been working on a photographically driven project called The Dark Chamber (follow the hashtag here). I’ll put up a big sexy post about the whole project soon, but the basics are that it is a concertina book of photography Arron is producing alongside a story I have written. The tale is of a group of people living in a universe which, in its most basic form, is the inside of the camera, as they search for the mythical Shutter. I’m very excited by this, especially after working with Rachel and Sam (our lead roles) who were just exceptional.
On a little note, if you check out the previous post or go here you can see our first documentary we’ve uploaded to you all, In Vitro. We follow a few events at In Vitro gallery in Lincoln. We’re entering it in the Staffordshire Film Festival, wish us luck!
Sadly I must depart back into the realms of writing, media debauchery and other tomfoolery. I’m writing for the Nick Darke award, as well as a plethora of other projects, and I must retire from pleasant ol’ Tumblr to continue. I can say wholeheartedly Badgehat is rolling like a steamroller rolling stones down a hill - which is a poor metaphor for working hard - and soon you’ll be wallowing in the worlds we create.
I leave you with a clip from DIY Days with Sparrow Hall and Ryan Aynes who speak of Brand Entertainment and linking Story to the Brand. Badgehat will be one such brand-story hybridiser, when our feet are firmly on the terra firma of firm Media, and so I ask you to peruse that ickle talk. Just because its a product doesn’t mean it can’t have a story; it is what fuels our imaginations!
In Vitro: Documentary
As I sit here eating my lunch which happens to be an egg and some soldiers I got thinking (and this is not always a good thing as I often go off into my own little made up universe) but I shall carry on typing anyway.
Egg and Soldiers to me is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Being one on my favorite things to eat I see it as one of the simple pleasures of life. But – my mind is anything but simple and eating egg and soldiers soon got complicated. Looking down at the little gooey tasty egg I was dunking my soldiers into, I thought about the egg having a face (hang on – I am not crazy ((yet)) so stay with me)… yes a face. What if I drew a happy face on this happy egg?
[Source: http://www.43things.com/entries/view/5173401 ]
It instantly gives it character and draws emotion and feeling, yes minor feeling but feeling nonetheless. Now I know we have all seen an egg with a smiley face and cress for hair and I am sure at some point in our childhoods we made our own (if you haven’t, do it now it’s great!!) So then what? … What if I started taking pictures of that crazy little egg. (again, I’m still not insane and do not get some weird kick out of photographing eggs) But I could take photographs right? Then.. then I could come up with a short story in my mind about the eggs and photograph the egg and edit the photographs together in the form of stop motion. I could, in a sense, photograph the action creating a short film. So that tasty little egg is no longer just a tasty little egg but the main character in a pointless little film. But it’s a start. And all ideas start somewhere.
We here at Badgehat take the things we see and learn on a day to day basis and use them in our ideas to create innovative and original media products that we distribute over the web and more. Sometimes we hit our boundaries where we cannot get the funding to shoot that incredible scene of that film or we do not own the materials but we work around it. We challenge those boundaries and smash them into space. And you should do the same. What is the point in having fantastic ideas if you just keep them stored away in your sock draw and you occasionally take them out but they soon end up back in that draw and eventually get pushed to the back when you buy newer socks?
We like challenges, we like to be challenged, and we most certainly like ideas. We all have ideas, and most of the time they’re okay, but every now and again we hit a home run. But don’t stop there – no – keep running and running till you can run no more and see where you get and what you end up with. Talk to us.
Tweet us about that film we made which you didn’t really like. Blog to us about that documentary we created and tell us what we could have done differently. Challenge our ideas and opinions and give us yours. Talk to us. We are not media professors but thinkers and doers and we like to be challenged. So, send us your script for that film you considered making, ask for our opinions, tell us about that thing you saw on the internet which looked pretty amazing and tell us your ideas, because maybe we could help you lift that idea and turn it into something outstanding.
If I can say one thing, let it be this – if you have an idea you are crazy about, use it. If it doesn’t work, try the next one. Abandon all logic and run freely and take that burning ambition from your heart and let it explode into the world.
Talk to us.
Rose Braisby - Head Producer
KONY 2012 (by INVISIBLE CHILDREN)
