Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Norman Cook's skate friends make a movie

The skaters who use the Hove Lagoon park which giving, and then withdrawing, money to and from got Norman Cook all flustered back at the start of summer have decided to reach out to the local community.

By, erm, making a film about themselves and putting it on the internet.

That'll work. If there are elderly people alarmed by the noise and - quite unintentionally unsettling - presence of young people on their doorstep, we're sure they'll Google 'hove lagoon skaters AND video' to reassure themselves, rather than just pulling the sofa in front of the door.

The skaters might find that helping with shopping and gardening might be a bit more effective than vanity videos.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was one of the main people involved in making that film and i dont find what you said very amusing. Have you actually seen the film yourself?!

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

Yes I have. Have you actually read my post?

The film is a well-made piece of community art; judging by the reports in the Argus everyone had a great time making it and being involved with it has been a positive experience for those who took part.

Nevertheless, making a love letter to the Skate Park and putting it on the internet doesn't actually seem to be the best way to address the perception problem that some local residents have with the skate park, simply because the chances are they'll never see it. As a promo for the skate park, it's a lovely piece of communication - but if the idea was to try and win over local doubters, it's the right message in the wrong medium.

Anonymous said...

Many of the complaints about the skate park were made on the internet, on the argus website. This shows people do access the internet meaning people will see the film. Also there was an article in the paper and the argus is read daily by many people. This means people will see it. We were not trying to win over the public, we just wanted to show what the skatepark is really like.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

I thought the reason the council had part-funded the film was to try and move perception of the park as being a nuisance and th promote it as a positive for the area?

Yes, some of the antagonism to the park was on the Argus website, but that doesn't mean the majority of the ill-will to the project was amongst heavy internet users.

And, yes, there was an article in the paper - but that was about the making of the film (very shrewd, by the way, to feature an Argus staffer so prominently, guaranteeing the coverage) and , it's unlikely that anyone who dislikes the skate park will read the article and then go online to watch the movie.

Still, if all you intended to do was make a film about the park for your own consumption, then there's no room for criticism. You've done that very well.

Anonymous said...

Yes the video was made to show people what the skatepark was really like and yes we did make the video for our own consumption as well as for other people. I understand many people will not go online to watch the video but hopefully some people will change their opinion on the skatepark because it really isnt as bad as everyone says it is. =D

Post a Comment

As a general rule, posts will only be deleted if they reek of spam.