Youth and Media Response #8 – Youth Media Production

It’s hard to define exactly what we do in COMS. When I tell people I’m in Communication Studies, they usually smile, give me a blank stare, and ask me what the study of communications entails. I usually respond with: “it’s media theory and production.” Very general, but it get’s the point forward. However, this goes to show that, because Communication Studies is a relatively new field of study that is quite multidisciplinary, recognition is hard to find in a society that already has strongly defined fields of study. For this blog, I’m going to speak from the perspective of film production in COMS and the bureaucratic hurdles that riddle the field.

In his essay, “Wireless Play and Unexpected Innovations,” Christian Sandvig talks much about youth media production and the innovations that come out of young minds. He points out his concern that it is difficult for “outsiders” to gain sufficient exposure and resources for innovation in elitist fields of media production: “A useful way to conceptualize the state of digital media and innovation today… isn’t as a ‘transformation,’ but as something much more worrying: it is the predictable process of things staying the same while established centers of power and structure exert their influence.” (Sandvig, 90) Such is the case with This Little Piggy, a film produced in Film III last year in COMS. (I helped my roommate, Sebastien Rist, and friend, Sarah Quinn, during production… The film can be seen here: http://enroutefilm.com/2008-selection/this-little-piggy/#video)

Over the summer, the film won two major awards: Popular Choice at the Young Cuts student film festival and the Norman McLaren Award for Best Overall Film at the 39th Canadian Student Film Festival – part of the Montreal International Film Festival. All the work to get into these festivals was done independently. However, with the help of the COMS department, the film got some exposure in the Concordia Journal: http://cjournal.concordia.ca/archives/20080911/this_little_piggy_comes_home.php?&print=1

To top off the cake, the film was eventually accepted into Air Canada’s En Route Film Festival and won the popular choice for that as well—bringing home $5000! (You can see Seb and Sarah accept the award here at 4:15– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jankvaPV_I )

Though this story has a happy ending, it was not easy. Much of the difficulty comes from the lack of prestige that a film from a Communication Studies department holds—not because the department doesn’t produce good films, but because it is not as recognized as the Mel Hoppenheim School of Film. In the En Route festival, a couple films were submitted by students in Concordia’s film department, also taking home awards. The Concordia Journal has mention of their awards, but not of This Little Piggy. (http://cjournal.concordia.ca/archives/20081106/lights_camera_traction.php) Though there could be a number of reasons for this oversight, it isn’t uncommon to see that COMS productions are not recognized often in the academic world. Again, this roots back to the original issue—the multidisciplinary nature of this new field makes the subject matter hard to pin point. Because Mel Hoppenheim is delegated primarily as a film department, it is easier to funnel funding and opportunity into the school. The title makes it easier for commercial companies like Kodak to present awards and production companies like Alliance to offer job opportunities. Perhaps this is because Film is a strongly established field of study with rules that govern its application. Yet, I find that COMS’s ability to connect sound students, with video students, with intermedia students, with film students is an advantage. Though it is an unconventional way of studying and producing media, innovations are much more prone to occur through the collaboration of these fields, both young and old.