IMAGES OF TEENS project: filming 1st 3 days back

[I ask] whether his attention has been directed to the lamentable amount of juvenile criminality, largely attributable to the spread of cheap publications and theatrical presentations of an exciting and immoral character, which corrupt the children of the lower classes, and stimulate them into courses of dishonesty and vice; and, whether the Government will propose any remedy for these growing and most serious evils?

[Tory MP's Parliamentary Question to the Home Secretary ... in 1868!!! Quoted in Springhall, 1998: Youth, Popular Culture and Moral Panics, p.2]

‘Medieval art until the twelfth century did not know childhood or did not attempt to portray it.’ A translator’s comment in 1556 reflects how the Middle Ages also saw age very differently than we do today: “in Latin there are seven ages referred to by various names, of which there are only three in French: to wit, childhood, youth and old age.”

[quotes from Ariès, Philippe [transl. Baldick, Robert] (1962) Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. New York: Vintage Books.]

Your teacher can still recall his outrage at being banned from watching the BBC TV drama series Grange Hill! Despite being designed for a teen audience and carrying very explicit moral messages, its pioneering use of drug addiction and teen pregnancy storylines made it hugely controversial. Not even the release of the Just Say No single [NB: many of the comments are risque!], part of an anti-drugs campaign, could convince thousands of horrified parents of the show's merit! As Simon Reynolds argues in his Retromania book, our media and culture have undergone huge changes as today's adults cling on to media (film/TV/muisc/games) they consumed when teens: thus fansites and the C4 show Bring Back ... Grange Hill [with strong language] proliferate and nostalgia rules!

I've now found a range of volunteers aged 60+ to be filmed answering two questions about their memories of being a teen!

Details below on the days/times of filming (rooms to be confirmed), plus the background to this project and intended outcomes.

This iconic 1953 image of teens was banned in the UK until 1967 - censors feared UK teens taking on the image and culture of US teens. By the time it was finally given an X certificate, many older teens were engaged in 'dropping out' as the 'swinging sixties' erupted!

FILMING: MON 31ST OCT + TUES/WEDS 1ST/2ND NOV

The only slots I have free are period2 on the Tues + Weds when we return (1st/2nd Nov), but I have also arranged for some filming on Monday lunchtime (31st October, the first day back after half-term).
I have yet to confirm which room/s to use for filming, but will add this info when I have!
Our volunteers will meet me at the main reception at the following times:

MONDAY 31ST OCTOBER: 12.15 Peter Scott, Chairman Ilkley + District U3A
TUESDAY 1ST NOVEMBER: 10.10 Les Nicholl (+ 3 others tbc)
WEDNESDAY 2ND NOVEMBER: 10.10 Elizabeth Hughes + members of IlkleyINSIGHT

There may yet be further additions, but only within these time slots

Back in '56 shots of Elvis' gyrating pelvis on the Ed Sullivan show caused outrage and his next appearance saw the camera entirely exclude his legs from the shot! The battle to control and limit what is acceptable for teen audiences has a long history; consider how today's teens are shaped, for good or bad, by a much more liberal and explicit media

THE 2 QUESTIONS VOLUNTEERS WILL BE ANSWERING

Each volunteering senior citizen will be asked two questions, as detailed below.
Each interview (or 'vox pop') will commence with the interviewee telling us their name, age and the year in which they turned 13!

1. What were you like as a teen? How did older people treat you? Do you have any memories of how the media (radio, TV, film, press) portrayed teens around that time (this could include media content that featured and inspired teens as well as media content that was critical of teens and their behaviour/tastes/fashions etc)? Did you parents forbid you from accessing any media content such as music or films?
2. How do you perceive today's teens? Please note we are not after 'politically correct' answers! Do you think today's teens are broadly similar or markedly different to teens in your day? You may also have some thoughts on how today's media represents teens, or the influence the modern media has over teens. IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER THOUGHTS ON THE TOPIC 'IMAGES OF TEENS' PLEASE FEEL FREE TO INCLUDE THIS IN YOUR ANSWER!

There are no expectations/requirements about the length of your answers. If you would like to bring along 'visual aids' (objects which might illustrate some of your points or reminiscences), please feel free!

The concept of teens is generally perceived to have emerged from the 1950s, but in truth the term was being used in the 1920s!

THE BACKGROUND OF THIS PROJECT + INTENDED OUTCOMES

The Creative Arts team at the school got together to discuss the work being undertaken by each of the subjects within the area: Drama/Theatre, Music, Art, Photography and Media.
An idea of collaborating on a project grew from this, with 'images of teens' suggested as an interesting topic which could fit well with the courses and syllabuses each of us deliver.
With the exception of Media, which is currently only run at A-Level (Years 12+13, or 'post-16'), it will be Year 9 students who work on this project.

Back in the 60s teens were targeted with older actors...

The basic idea is to generate stimulus material with which to inspire additional Creative Arts projects and productions, eventually leading to a DVD featuring aspects of all of this.
The first step is for AS Media students to film (if available; it may be myself and our Media Technician as we're working to short notice) a range of senior citizens answering the two questions detailed above.
Media students will then upload this footage into computers, add some imagery to illustrate some of the points and references made, and then present this to a Year 9 Drama Club. They will look at re-enacting or dramatizing some of the answers given, or points/ideas raised in one or more answer.

Instead of the mature, often aristocratic/upper class characters of the 60s/70s Hammer Horror films, starting with Wes Craven's 1973 proto-slasher The Last House on the Left (banned in the UK until very recently) cinema screens were increasingly dominated by teens (this image is from Friday the 13th 2, one of the many teen slasher franchises which have churning out huge profits for four decades now)

The outcomes are flexible: the spirit of this project is to give our students creative freedom to shape their own responses.
Our Media students will add some filmed footage from this work and present a re-edited film to Year 9 Music students to soundtrack.
The video of the interviews, imagery and Drama work, with soundtrack, will then be passed on to Year 9 Art and Drama students for further creative projects, the nature of which will emerge from their own independent thinking and discussions with their teachers.

Debates on what is suitable or acceptable continue, but the influence of American media remains central to teens' media consumption. The Twilight franchise reflects the growth of religious influence in the US and the exporting of such ideologically-loaded campaigns as the 'silver ring thing' (although, ironically, there is a sense of puritan ideology in slasher movies, with sexually active teens being punished for their deviance by the killer!).

As far as possible, I will upload relevant footage onto the IGSMediaStudies channel on YouTube which participants can freely access. This also means that participants can easily share their contributions with friends and family no matter how far flung! When we have all the strands in Media students will create a DVD which will be distributed to all participants. This should be around Christmas (and a second version may emerge following later Art and Drama work), although Media students will be busy with coursework and creating a DVD of the Ben Rhydding Primary Nativity which that school uses for fundraising (so this may be after the holidays).

The acceptable face of teen pop back in the early 70s! A forebear of Justin Bieber?! There has long been a real tension between representations of youth as innocent and pure and as deviant and immoral, a binary opposition that really centres on issues of adults attempts to control teens' behaviour and cultural consumption. Today's teens might not believe it, but most of them will inevitably utter the dreaded phrase it wasn't like that in my day/young people today... as they get older!

The project is a creative process, and requires the collaboration of a range of colleagues who are all very busy overseeing and inspiring the tremendous output of students within the diverse Creative Arts department at Ilkley Grammar, so the full range of outcomes from this experimental project are far from predicatble! Everyone participating would be very welcome to attend the annual Creative Arts Evening which showcases some of the fantastic talent we are priviliged to work with each day. This takes place on December 14th from 7-9pm (a modest entrance fee is applied, reflecting the cost of running this event), and could conceivably (depending on timescales for editing) feature the premiere of the short film featuring interviews, images, dramatic performances and a soundtrack!

While the economics of today's media are strongly oriented around attracting youth audiences, their representations of youth are often highly negative, with pejorative and collective terms often used to deindividuate and demonise today's youth, with moral panics frequently whipped up in newspapers such as the Daily Mail. Before some of our students went on the London protest march against tuition fees I predicted to them, using Chomsky's propoganda model, that the press coverage would be hostile regardless of their actual experience. The 'story' of that day, when 50,000 students marched, became not about the remarkable level of responsible behaviour or police tactics later declared illegal, but of a fire hydrant and a royal's car. This partially explains why the newspaper industry is undergoing a crisis with fast-falling readership: today's teens read newspapers much less frequently than their pre-web predecessors.