Tim Keay

Final Major Project

A short film or piece of moving image work, with scenes / sections filmed by many different people on their camera phones, and submitted over the internet.

Throughout the course I have become increasingly interested in moving image work, and in the idea of the 'digital aesthetic' – the use of digital networked technology and new media in design. From one perspective, modern digital equipment has enabled film makers to produce increasingly realistic special effects with high definition and computer modeling. Digital technology has also, however, made film making equipment smaller and cheaper – virtually everyone with a mobile phone and a computer now has the ability to produce and distribute work. It is this aspect of the 'digital aesthetic' I would like to investigate.

The project would allow me to carry through ideas which closely relate to my dissertation, with mass media picking up on the concept of the citizen journalist, and the increasing importance / popularity of websites that contain and distribute user generated content – Youtube and Revver being two obvious examples.

I have not yet decided whether the piece would be entirely original, or based around some existing work – whether it would be tightly scripted or if people would be asked to respond to more ambiguous themes. The project would become very interesting when then the content of the film starts to work with, or contrast with the medium.