City as Studio works with local Oxford schools and colleges to offers professional development opportunities for young people aged 16-21. Today we are celebrating the work of our City as Studio artists by premiering the work they have done throughout the project. Follow along on Instagram #CityasStudioTakeover.
Through a series of three workshops the students explored the rules of filmmaking, performance art and protest, covering topics ranging from climate change, mental health, education, Brexit and COVID-19.
Despite not all groups finishing their final projects, all schools have participated in three filmmaking workshops. The showreel below, accompanied with words from Lead Artist on the project Kate Mahoney, shows the outcomes of these workshops:
Workshop one: The rules of film (and how to break them!)
I introduced the young artists to the fundamentals of shooting film, shot sizes and camera angles. The young artists were tasked with dismantling the structures of existing art film Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) a short experimental film directed by Maya Deren. The young artists were asked to re-create the scenes by identifying the individual shots, draw up a storyboard and re-shoot a short section of the film.
Workshop two: Text! Action! Performance! Protest!
The young artists were asked to go through a variety of newspaper articles, drawing out keywords to help them consider current issues that are affecting them today. They then began by creating placards and banners of protest which was performed to camera. In the second half of the workshops the young artists where introduced to an array of performance and video artists who use their body, everyday actions and objects to communicate their concepts non-verbally. The groups where then instructed to translate their placards into non-verbal performances to the camera.
Workshop three: Working from Nothing
The young artists were asked to bring in objects that relate to their ideas and concerns and then shown how to animate these materials using stop animation. Producing mechanical and sculptural moving image outcomes that could provide a method of communicating their ideas in playful and accessible ways.
Kate Mahony is the Lead Artist for City as Studio and is a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University.
Find out more about each workshops on the City as Studio Padlet