StoryLab Skills Training For Democratised Film Industries
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Central Lancashire
Department Name: Sch of Arts and Media
Abstract
Building on the successful AHRC funded StoryLab International Film Development Research Network project (storylabnetwork.com) that was delivered by Professor Erik Knudsen (University of Central Lancashire, UK) and his team, Dr Nico Meissner (Griffith Film School, Australia), Dr Carolina Patiño (University of Ibagué, Colombia) and Sarah Kuntoh (National Film and Television Institute, Ghana), in the ODA countries of Malaysia, Ghana and Colombia during 2017, this proposed StoryLab Skills Training for Democratised Film Industries project will build on the experiences gained, methodologies developed and the network of independent filmmakers with whom the project engaged, to research and develop a scaleable skills training impact strategy and framework to be rolled out across Colombia. Where the AHRC network allowed us to explore the content and styles of the stories being expressed in the 3 ODA countries, a Follow-on Funding for Impact and Engagement grant would allow us to venture into new unexplored territory of seeking an understanding of how the methodologies developed in the AHRC Network project could be applied to economic and cultural benefit through innovative skills training and understanding the importance of the role of cinematic storytelling in economic and cultural development.
While there are many existing programmes that target technical (digital) skills training, young people, globally, increasingly have advanced digital skills, but lack experience of original ideas generation and storytelling skills. These are essential skills that underpin any technological knowledge and lead to advanced development of creative craft skills that can be deployed in a variety of employment contexts. The focus of this skills training research project will therefore be on story and narrative skills, contextualised within creative entrepreneurial skills, including presentation, planning and communications skills.
Three research questions lie at the heart of the project:
a) How can original creative ideas generation and storytelling skills be embedded in a skills training programme for young people that takes advantage of democratised access to the filmmaking medium and industry in low to middle income countries?
b) In what ways can entrepreneurial skills related to the articulation, selling and development of narrative ideas and stories be embedded in story and narrative film training for young people to empower and enable effective engagement with, and meaningful work within, emerging film industries?
c) How can local and regional universities, training partners and policy makers work together to create a sustainable learning environment and what might this scalable, social networked and mentored platform look like and how can these services transcend class, gender and cultures to contribute to the development of a vibrant creative economic sector within a low to middle income economy?
Using interdisciplinary approaches inspired from music and anthropology, the StoryLab Skills Training for Democratised Film Industries project will utilise a methodology developed out of the AHRC funded StoryLab International Film Development Research Network entitled Ethnomediaology. Ethnomediaology is an interdisciplinary approach inspired by practices in Ethnomusicology and Autoethnography. Ethnomediaology involves the active and immersive participation of researchers in the research culture and process, using this active personal engagement as a basis for knowledge generation, data gathering, evaluation and impact implementation. In the case of skills training, it will involve the active participation of local and regional Colombian Filmmaker-Mentors, who will deliver the core workshops, local or regional University Partners and strategic local or regional Film Sector Partners.
While there are many existing programmes that target technical (digital) skills training, young people, globally, increasingly have advanced digital skills, but lack experience of original ideas generation and storytelling skills. These are essential skills that underpin any technological knowledge and lead to advanced development of creative craft skills that can be deployed in a variety of employment contexts. The focus of this skills training research project will therefore be on story and narrative skills, contextualised within creative entrepreneurial skills, including presentation, planning and communications skills.
Three research questions lie at the heart of the project:
a) How can original creative ideas generation and storytelling skills be embedded in a skills training programme for young people that takes advantage of democratised access to the filmmaking medium and industry in low to middle income countries?
b) In what ways can entrepreneurial skills related to the articulation, selling and development of narrative ideas and stories be embedded in story and narrative film training for young people to empower and enable effective engagement with, and meaningful work within, emerging film industries?
c) How can local and regional universities, training partners and policy makers work together to create a sustainable learning environment and what might this scalable, social networked and mentored platform look like and how can these services transcend class, gender and cultures to contribute to the development of a vibrant creative economic sector within a low to middle income economy?
Using interdisciplinary approaches inspired from music and anthropology, the StoryLab Skills Training for Democratised Film Industries project will utilise a methodology developed out of the AHRC funded StoryLab International Film Development Research Network entitled Ethnomediaology. Ethnomediaology is an interdisciplinary approach inspired by practices in Ethnomusicology and Autoethnography. Ethnomediaology involves the active and immersive participation of researchers in the research culture and process, using this active personal engagement as a basis for knowledge generation, data gathering, evaluation and impact implementation. In the case of skills training, it will involve the active participation of local and regional Colombian Filmmaker-Mentors, who will deliver the core workshops, local or regional University Partners and strategic local or regional Film Sector Partners.
Planned Impact
Key Impact beneficiaries, pathways and impact outcomes include:
1) Around 10-20 Young Filmmaker-Mentees in Colombia will have received direct creative story and narrative training from their fellow Colombian Filmmaker-Mentors. They in turn will influence their communities that include other non participating filmmakers and collaborators. This is achieved through workshop participation and access to the project web site and social media platforms. Access to colleagues in the other ODA countries of Malaysia and Ghana through the existing StoryLab Network allows for sharing, collaboration and cross fertilisation. The impact of such opportunities to participate, share, collaborate and to continue training through a peer network could be profound in terms of potential new training and business models, international collaborations and, crucially, to the development of original and innovative story and narrative ideas that are so crucial to a successful creative economy.
2) We have identified and committed 3 local/regional Film Sector Partners and Policy Makers in Colombia: El Inconsciente Colectivo, Global Eyes Production and Fundación Cine a la Calle. These Film Sector Partners and Policy Makers will engage with the project through the University of Ibagué. These partners will be directly engaged with the delivery of workshops and the identifying and engagement of Filmmaker-Mentees. They will in turn be connected to the wider film sector both regionally and nationally, allowing for the project and its findings to be disseminated through these networks. Film Sector Partners and Policy Makers will also be consulted during the development of the project and will take part in the closing Symposium.
3) The impact of the ongoing StoryLab Research Network social media and web platform could be considerable. The global reach of such a platform enabling 'glocal' engagement is potentially highly significant. Such a platform could not only be used by individuals directly, but could also be evolved conceptually by training organisations, colleges, and small and medium sized enterprises as part of a wider face to face training regime. The online social media platform element of the project will teach us very valuable knowledge about the challenges, boundaries and unidentified opportunities of digitally networked platforms' interactions with face to face training provision in the creative industries.
Additional impact beneficiaries include:
1) From the community of 18 independent Filmmakers from Colombia who participated in the original StoryLab Research Network project, 2 Filmmaker-Mentors will be transparently selected to lead the workshops. They in turn are part of the larger network and beyond and their participation in this project will also impact on the wider network of their colleagues and collaborators.
2) Academic beneficiaries will include the project's partner academics attached to the University of Ibagué and their colleagues who will have deepened their own research and have applied it in their own local context. These colleagues will have gained comparative experiences from other ODA countries such as Malaysia and Ghana and collaborative relationships between developing countries would have developed.
1) Around 10-20 Young Filmmaker-Mentees in Colombia will have received direct creative story and narrative training from their fellow Colombian Filmmaker-Mentors. They in turn will influence their communities that include other non participating filmmakers and collaborators. This is achieved through workshop participation and access to the project web site and social media platforms. Access to colleagues in the other ODA countries of Malaysia and Ghana through the existing StoryLab Network allows for sharing, collaboration and cross fertilisation. The impact of such opportunities to participate, share, collaborate and to continue training through a peer network could be profound in terms of potential new training and business models, international collaborations and, crucially, to the development of original and innovative story and narrative ideas that are so crucial to a successful creative economy.
2) We have identified and committed 3 local/regional Film Sector Partners and Policy Makers in Colombia: El Inconsciente Colectivo, Global Eyes Production and Fundación Cine a la Calle. These Film Sector Partners and Policy Makers will engage with the project through the University of Ibagué. These partners will be directly engaged with the delivery of workshops and the identifying and engagement of Filmmaker-Mentees. They will in turn be connected to the wider film sector both regionally and nationally, allowing for the project and its findings to be disseminated through these networks. Film Sector Partners and Policy Makers will also be consulted during the development of the project and will take part in the closing Symposium.
3) The impact of the ongoing StoryLab Research Network social media and web platform could be considerable. The global reach of such a platform enabling 'glocal' engagement is potentially highly significant. Such a platform could not only be used by individuals directly, but could also be evolved conceptually by training organisations, colleges, and small and medium sized enterprises as part of a wider face to face training regime. The online social media platform element of the project will teach us very valuable knowledge about the challenges, boundaries and unidentified opportunities of digitally networked platforms' interactions with face to face training provision in the creative industries.
Additional impact beneficiaries include:
1) From the community of 18 independent Filmmakers from Colombia who participated in the original StoryLab Research Network project, 2 Filmmaker-Mentors will be transparently selected to lead the workshops. They in turn are part of the larger network and beyond and their participation in this project will also impact on the wider network of their colleagues and collaborators.
2) Academic beneficiaries will include the project's partner academics attached to the University of Ibagué and their colleagues who will have deepened their own research and have applied it in their own local context. These colleagues will have gained comparative experiences from other ODA countries such as Malaysia and Ghana and collaborative relationships between developing countries would have developed.
| Title | StoryLab Colombia 2019 |
| Description | This 62 minute documentary is a document of the StoryLab Skills Training for Democratised Film Industries, which took place in Colombia during 2019-2020. It includes the story of the research project as well as creative film outcomes produced by citizen filmmakers as part of the ethnomediaology workshops. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | StoryLab Colombia 2019 has provided an opportunity for the participants of the growing StoryLab project from across continents to share with each other their stories and creative development. With reference to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 4, 8 and 10, a total of over 90 independent and citizen filmmakers in Malaysia, Ghana, Colombia and California have been enabled and empowered through the innovative StoryLab skills training research initiative to develop their own creative voices in pursuit of meaningful cultural contributions and employment opportunities within growing democratised cultural and professional moving image sectors. This unique lateral transnational collaboration across 5 continents has led to profound transformations in ideation practices, enabling new co-development and production partnerships, enhanced visual storytelling skills, better engagement with local cultural preservation and deeper awareness of the opportunities of narrative filmmaking, thereby enhancing the voices of independent and marginalised communities. |
| URL | https://vimeo.com/388972044 |
| Title | StoryLab: Measuring Impact |
| Description | A 32 minute documentary film focusing on the impact of the StoryLab project. The film features interviews with StoryLab participants from Colombia, Ghana, and Malaysia. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | StoryLab: Measuring Impact has provided an opportunity for the participants of the growing StoryLab project from across continents to share with each other their stories and creative development. With reference to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 4, 8 and 10, a total of over 90 independent and citizen filmmakers in Malaysia, Ghana, Colombia and California have been enabled and empowered through the innovative StoryLab skills training research initiative to develop their own creative voices in pursuit of meaningful cultural contributions and employment opportunities within growing democratised cultural and professional moving image sectors. This unique lateral transnational collaboration across 5 continents has led to profound transformations in ideation practices, enabling new co-development and production partnerships, enhanced visual storytelling skills, better engagement with local cultural preservation and deeper awareness of the opportunities of narrative filmmaking, thereby enhancing the voices of independent and marginalised communities. |
| URL | https://vimeo.com/348799645 |
| Description | Using interdisciplinary approaches inspired from music and anthropology, the StoryLab Skills Training for Democratised Film Industries projects utilised and further refined a methodology developed out of the AHRC funded StoryLab International Film Development Research Network entitled Ethnomediaology. Ethnomediaology is an interdisciplinary approach inspired by practices in Ethnomusicology and Autoethnography. Ethnomediaology involves the active and immersive participation of researchers in the research culture and process, using this active personal engagement as a basis for knowledge generation, data gathering and evaluation. The StoryLab workshops and reflexive Symposium discovered ways in which original creative ideas generation and storytelling skills could be embedded in a skills training programme that takes advantage of democratised access to the filmmaking medium and industry in a low to middle income country, such as Colombia? The StoryLab project discovered that ordinary citizen filmmakers could, using ethnomedialogy approaches, empower their entrepreneurial skills related to the articulation, selling and development of narrative ideas and stories and that there was a strong appetite by various communities to embed in their culture story and narrative film training to deliver and enable effective engagement with, and meaningful work within, emerging film industries? Through the University of Ibagué's involvement, and the involvement of sector partners, StoryLab has initiated a working context for these partners to work together to create a sustainable learning environment and to further explore how this scalable, social networked and mentored platform could be further developed with a view to creating supporting services that can help transcend class, gender and cultural isolation in order to contribute to the development of a vibrant creative economic sector within a low to middle income economy. |
| Exploitation Route | The ethnomediaology approach offers opportunities for transdisciplinary exploration. Stories and their narratives provide rich opportunities for understanding people and their cultural and social contexts and the findings from this research could therefore be deployed in a range of disciplines, including health, anthropology, law, business, peace and reconciliation studies and other fields. No matter how much effort is made to level the relational playing field, the money for GCRF projects and the money delivering impacts comes from the UK, a former coloniser in most of the countries we work. This fact has an intangible but important impact on the psychology of north/south partnerships and any subliminal acquiescence that might be exercised as a consequence. Second, the subject of the gaze of the research, or the beneficiaries, are people in ODA countries, who too often as a result of this gaze are encouraged to think of themselves as victims in need of foreign intervention, potentially entrenching disabling perspectives and behaviours, perpetuated by post colonial anthropologies of other cultures. Third, the assumption behind intervention often presumes that beneficiaries are powerless and therefore need empowering, rather than assuming that beneficiaries already possess power, but require assistance and encouragement at enabling that power. Notwithstanding the important contribution that the Global Challenges Research Funding is making to achieving the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, there is a need to compliment these GCRF initiatives by exploring new, innovative and disruptive ways of achieving these goals by engaging in a research projects that notionally challenges underlying assumptions and seeks to add new insights into how we can equitably develop the relationships between the global north and the global south. Perhaps one important way to challenge the underlying assumptions we make in relation to engaging with people in the global south is to reverse the gaze. StoryLab is now looking at this issue with a new research funding application to the AHRC called StoryLab Reversing the Gaze in Skills Training for Democratised Film Industries. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Education |
| URL | https://www.storylabnetwork.com |
| Description | In seeking to contribute to addressing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 4 (Quality Education), Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities), the project's impacts are focused in two areas: a) more confident and advanced locally inspired ideation practices; and b) enhanced career focused screenwriting and production skills. Around 45 participating filmmakers from across the ODA countries of Malaysia, Ghana and Colombia took part in workshops in each country during 2017 and were able to share and access the ideation processes and discussions of all participants across 3 continents through a closed Facebook Group. This was followed up with follow on workshops in Colombia during 2019, in which a further 40 citizen filmmakers were able to participate in the evolved workshops led by local filmmaker mentors who had taken part in the first workshops. Two sets of workshops took place in Colombia. One set with young people in a deprived inner city area of Ibagué, a city previously caught up in civil war, and the other with the Chimila tribe near Santa Marta in the north of Colombia, who are not recognised by the Colombian government. Participants across all three workshops were asked: since you took part in StoryLab, have you done any of the following things? 89% said they had written a new script, 33% said they had specifically developed a new idea originated during the StoryLab workshops, 22% said they had sold a new script or idea and 11% said they had gone so far as make a new film. (5.5 - Q20). Additionally, since completing the StoryLab workshops, 44% said they had applied for a new filmmaking or writing scheme, 22% had subsequently started a new university or other training course and 22% had started a new job in which cinematic storytelling played an important part. (5.5 - Q21). Given these clear trends, participants were then asked: what do you think have been the main reasons for your success and proactivity in the areas mentioned in questions 20 and 21? Some 44% cited the increased confidence they gained from participating in the StoryLab Workshops, 67% cited the fact that they now feel the quality of their ideas has improved, 33% said they now had new ways of working and 22% cited the fact that new creative partnerships had helped them develop. (5.5 - Q22). The most compelling evidence of the profound impact that StoryLab has had on participants in Malaysia, Ghana, Colombia and California is evidenced in the scripts and films that the participants themselves have made (5.7) and in the documentaries that have been made about the projects, including some of the films participants made. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | AHRC Follow On Funding (GCRF) |
| Amount | £92,679 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/S005706/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2019 |
| End | 01/2020 |
| Title | Ethnomediaology |
| Description | Utilising interdisciplinary approaches inspired from music and anthropology, the Research Network developed a methodology entitled Ethnomediaology: an interdisciplinary approach inspired by practices in Ethnomusicology and Autoethnography. Ethno- mediaology involves the active and immersive participation of researchers in the research culture and process, using this active personal engagement as a basis for knowledge generation, data gathering and evaluation. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | A number of approaches have been made to the storyLab team about exploring this methodology in other disciplines: a) a health and well being project wanting to find ways of engaging with stroke patients in India, where there have been problems with communication and engagement; b) an archeology project based in California who are seeking new ways of engaging contemporary Native Americans in their histories through cave paintings that have been discovered; c) a history project looking at ways in which the people in the global community of former British colonies can engage with audio visual materials made during the colonial periods as a means of re-evaluating this material in innovative and inclusive ways. All of these examples have included StoryLab Team and concept being included in research funding bids led by others inbound these disciplines. |
| URL | http://www.storylabnetwork.com |
| Description | Griffith Film School |
| Organisation | Griffith University |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Mentoring of early career researcher in international research project. International collaboration with partners in Ghana and Colombia. Opportunities to embed existing research in South East Asian film career practices into a wider global project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provided a Co investigator. Provided direct financial contribution to additional travel costs from Australia to Malaysia. The Co-I, Dr Nico Meissner, was able to contribute expertise on South East Asian film production and education to the project, in particular expertise of Malaysia, where part of the project took place. As Co-I played a role in the management of the StoryLab International Film Development project and the StoryLab Skills Training for Democratised Film Industries project. |
| Impact | 1) StoryLab Malaysia Film Development Workshop; 2) StoryLab Ghana Film Development Workshop; 3) StoryLab Colombia Film Development Workshop; 4) StoryLab Research Network Symposium, UK, January 2018; 5) StoryLab Skills Training Workshop, Santa Marta, Colombia, 2019; 6) StoryLab Skills Training Workshop, Ibagué, Colombia, 2019; 7) StoryLab Skills Training Symposium, Ibagué, Colombia, December 2019. 7) Conference presentation by Co-I: StoryLab Research Network: Media Democratisation in the Digital Age, ASPERA 2018, Australia. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | University of Ibagué Colombia |
| Organisation | University of Ibagué |
| Country | Colombia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Mentoring of early career researcher and contributing to the development of the research culture at the University of Ibagué, particularly in practice led research. Enabled the development of research partnerships with institutions in Australia, Malaysia and Ghana. Laid the foundations for future research to be carried out in Colombia and for this to be connected to a global research engagement. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The University of Ibagué contributed a participating researcher's time to the project and facilitated a 3 day workshop at the university with space and support staff in 2017. During 2019, the University of Ibagué, led by Co-I, Dr Carolina Patiño, developed and managed two StoryLab workshops; one in north Colombia and one in Ibagué. In December 2019, the University of Ibagué facilitated and hosted a StoryLab Symposium which brought together participants from the 2017 workshop and participants from the 2019 workshops. Provided access to a network of Colombian filmmakers and expertise, via the participating researcher, into Colombian filmmaking. |
| Impact | 1) StoryLab Malaysia Film Development Workshop; 2) StoryLab Ghana Film Development Workshop; 3) StoryLab Colombia Film Development Workshop; 4) StoryLab Research Network Symposium, UK, January 2018; 5) StoryLab Skills Training Workshop, Santa Marta, Colombia, 2019; 6) StoryLab Skills Training Workshop, Ibagué, Colombia, 2019; 7) StoryLab Skills Training Symposium, Ibagué, Colombia, December 2019. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | StoryLab Colombia 2019 Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The culmination of the StoryLab Skills Training for Democratised Film Industries project in Colombia during 2019-2020 was a Symposium held at the University of Ibagué in December 2019. The symposium attracted over 70 people, most of whom had participated in the StoryLab Colombia 2017 workshops, StoryLab Colombia 2019 workshops, as well as a number of academic and regional policy bodies connected to there Chimila tribe in Santa Marta and the Ibagué Sur Youth Project. The symposium heard mainly from the participant mentees and their filmmaker mentors. Project work, including films made during the workshops, were screened and discussed and the process of ethnomediaology was explored and defined further as part of a reflexive process. The projects aims and objectives were reflected on by all participants as part of the symposium proceedings. Experiences and best practices were shared. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.storylabnetwork.com/workshops/storylab-skills-training-for-democratised-film-industries-... |
| Description | StoryLab Skills Training Workshop, Ibagué, Colombia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Approximately 25 predominantly young inner-city people were able to participate in the StoryLab workshops led by two local filmmaker mentors who had taken part in the first StoryLab Colombia workshop in 2017. In a city previously caught up in the Colombian civil conflict, StoryLab was able to help participants engage with the opportunities the narrative moving image offers. Objectives included: 1) encouraging and building the confidence in young men and women in Colombia to develop their cinematic storytelling skills, enable them to articulate, present and manage their ideas and product outcomes with a view to making them attractive to employers in their media sectors and clients in need of media products; 2) empowering young men and women in Colombia to fully participate in the emerging film production, film dissemination and film consumption economic sectors with a view to engaging with meaningful work and career pathways; 3) developing a training model that will make use of existing independent filmmakers in Colombia in a mentor-based approach to skills training in cinematic storytelling and creative entrepreneurship; 4) providing a starting point for a scaleable national and international network, framework and platform for local and regional educators and policy makers in Colombia, as a vehicle to build upon and extend connections, to build on to provide ongoing accessible skills training in cinematic storytelling and creative entrepreneurship. As documented with testimonies from participants in the documentary film, StoryLab Colombia 2019 (https://vimeo.com/388972044), the following impacts were achieved: 1) StoryLab has changed creative ideation practices. 2) StoryLab helped participants connect with personal sources and voices, opening new ways of thinking about ideas development. 3) StoryLab enhanced confidence to articulate and promote personal ideas in the public domain. 4) StoryLab changed the way participants see how cinematic storytelling can be used in the pursuit of public and political recognition. 5) StoryLab has helped give people some tools to re-imagining their heritage and histories. 6) StoryLab has played an important role in enhancing cultural identity, preservation and inter-generational engagement. 7) StoryLab helped participants transform their screenwriting skills. 8) StoryLab helped participants advance their professional and educational careers. 9) StoryLab advanced the teaching methods of filmmaking mentors and teachers in helping participants to create meaningful work. Many of those who participated in the project have gone on to be mentors. 10) StoryLab has transformed participants aspirations, ambitions and helped make what seemed impossible possible. This is particularly evidenced by the impact on the Chimila community in the remote Santa Marta region of Colombia. Participants across all the workshops were asked: since you took part in StoryLab, have you done any of the following things? 89% said they had written a new script, 33% said they had specifically developed a new idea originated during the StoryLab workshops, 22% said they had sold a new script or idea and 11% said they had gone so far as make a new film. (5.5 - Q20). Additionally, since completing the StoryLab workshops, 44% said they had applied for a new filmmaking or writing scheme, 22% had subsequently started a new university or other training course and 22% had started a new job in which cinematic storytelling played an important part. (5.5 - Q21). Given these clear trends, participants were then asked: what do you think have been the main reasons for your success and proactivity in the areas mentioned in questions 20 and 21? Some 44% cited the increased confidence they gained from participating in the StoryLab Workshops, 67% cited the fact that they now feel the quality of their ideas has improved, 33% said they now had new ways of working and 22% cited the fact that new creative partnerships had helped them develop. (5.5 - Q22). The most compelling evidence of the profound impact that StoryLab has had on participants in Colombia during the 2019 workshop and symposium is evidenced in the scripts and films that the participants themselves have made and in the documentaries that have been made about the projects, including some of the films participants made. Please see related links for full access to these works. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.storylabnetwork.com/workshops/storylab-skills-training-for-democratised-film-industries-... |
| Description | StoryLab Skills Training Workshop, Santa Marta, Colombia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Approximately 40-50 members of the Chimila tribe in the remote Santa Marta region of Colombia were able to participate in the StoryLab workshops led by two local filmmaker mentors who had taken part in the first StoryLab Colombia workshop in 2017. In an area caught up in the Colombian civil conflict, and for a community still not formally recognised as a distinct ethnic grouping, StoryLab was able to help participants engage with the opportunities the narrative moving image offers. Objectives included: 1) encouraging and building the confidence in young men and women in Colombia to develop their cinematic storytelling skills, enable them to articulate, present and manage their ideas and product outcomes with a view to making them attractive to employers in their media sectors and clients in need of media products; 2) empowering young men and women in Colombia to fully participate in the emerging film production, film dissemination and film consumption economic sectors with a view to engaging with meaningful work and career pathways; 3) developing a training model that will make use of existing independent filmmakers in Colombia in a mentor-based approach to skills training in cinematic storytelling and creative entrepreneurship; 4) providing a starting point for a scaleable national and international network, framework and platform for local and regional educators and policy makers in Colombia, as a vehicle to build upon and extend connections, to build on to provide ongoing accessible skills training in cinematic storytelling and creative entrepreneurship. As documented with testimonies from participants in the documentary film, StoryLab Colombia 2019 (https://vimeo.com/388972044), the following impacts were achieved: 1) StoryLab has changed creative ideation practices. 2) StoryLab helped participants connect with personal sources and voices, opening new ways of thinking about ideas development. 3) StoryLab enhanced confidence to articulate and promote personal ideas in the public domain. 4) StoryLab changed the way participants see how cinematic storytelling can be used in the pursuit of public and political recognition. 5) StoryLab has helped give people some tools to re-imagining their heritage and histories. 6) StoryLab has played an important role in enhancing cultural identity, preservation and inter-generational engagement. 7) StoryLab helped participants transform their screenwriting skills. 8) StoryLab helped participants advance their professional and educational careers. 9) StoryLab advanced the teaching methods of filmmaking mentors and teachers in helping participants to create meaningful work. Many of those who participated in the project have gone on to be mentors. 10) StoryLab has transformed participants aspirations, ambitions and helped make what seemed impossible possible. This is particularly evidenced by the impact on the Chimila community in the remote Santa Marta region of Colombia. Participants across all the workshops were asked: since you took part in StoryLab, have you done any of the following things? 89% said they had written a new script, 33% said they had specifically developed a new idea originated during the StoryLab workshops, 22% said they had sold a new script or idea and 11% said they had gone so far as make a new film. (5.5 - Q20). Additionally, since completing the StoryLab workshops, 44% said they had applied for a new filmmaking or writing scheme, 22% had subsequently started a new university or other training course and 22% had started a new job in which cinematic storytelling played an important part. (5.5 - Q21). Given these clear trends, participants were then asked: what do you think have been the main reasons for your success and proactivity in the areas mentioned in questions 20 and 21? Some 44% cited the increased confidence they gained from participating in the StoryLab Workshops, 67% cited the fact that they now feel the quality of their ideas has improved, 33% said they now had new ways of working and 22% cited the fact that new creative partnerships had helped them develop. (5.5 - Q22). The most compelling evidence of the profound impact that StoryLab has had on participants in Colombia during the 2019 workshop and symposium is evidenced in the scripts and films that the participants themselves have made and in the documentaries that have been made about the projects, including some of the films participants made. Please see related links for full access to these works. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.storylabnetwork.com/workshops/storylab-skills-training-for-democratised-film-industries-... |