Tuesday’s the day young people call the shots
A REMARKABLE documentary project is taking place all over Ireland on Tuesday.
But it won’t be professional filmmakers and producers calling the shots — instead, it will be hundreds if not thousands of Irish children using camera phones, camcorders and handicams to document a part of their day.
They’ll be filming footage for RTÉ’s Life’s Like This project, which aims to capture what’s going on in the lives of under-18s in Ireland.
Production company Macalla Teo will then put together all the selected clips into a one-hour documentary. Cúán Mac Conghail is one of the executive producers of the programme.
“I was reading a lot before and during the summer about the children’s referendum and I thought it was odd that nobody was telling me what it’s actually about,” he says.
“We dictate everything for our children — what hobbies they have, what time they wake up and so on. But we rarely ask them about what’s really important to them and what’s going on in their lives.
“If a parent asks their child what happened at school that day, they might talk about having double geography. But if a friend asks, they might get a different answer. Maybe something happened during the break at 12 o’clock. Children can feel a lot freer when talking to their peer group.”
Cúán says that Tuesday next was picked because it was a school day but that other than that it was just a random day to choose.
“What’s really important with this project is that we want the participants to film part of their day in whatever way they choose. It’s not in any way up to us to dictate what they film. I think kids are very much into the YouTube culture and understand the point of having three-minute video clips. Young people are visually more literate than previous generations and even the very notion of seeing themselves on a camera isn’t as daunting as it would have been when I was growing up. They live in that world.”
As well as putting together an hour-long documentary that will be screened around Christmas time, some of the video clips will be used on RTÉ Young People’s programming and will be available through a website.
“We know that children watch TV in so many ways now so we’re making sure that there are a few different ways for them to watch back clips.”
The only age restriction is that participants have to be under 18. That means that parents or older siblings can get involved in capturing the life of a younger child.
“That’s probably a good idea as a toddler can’t quite get the tracking shots to work,” laughs Cúán.
There’s no application process involved — the children just shoot around two to three minutes of footage and then upload it to a site. The deadline for submissions is 8 o’clock this Thursday but allowances will be made for tape that needs to be posted.
“It’s simple to send in the material and the fact that so many people now use camera phones means it’s very easy to upload,” says Cúán. “We don’t want anyone to edit the footage or add soundtracks. It’s just the raw footage that we need.”
While there have previously been projects to capture one day through lots of different videos, this is the first youth generated project of its kind.
One teenager who is planning to take part is Ashlyn O’Neill, who is from Dublin city centre.
The 15-year-old was previously involved in an RTÉ young people’s programme and is taking a class in videography as part of her Transition Year studies.
“When I heard about this programme, I just kind of got interested that they want to find out what the life of a teenager is like,” she says. “I think there’s a lot of stereotypes around teenagers — that they’re noisy, messy and don’t care about anything. But there are so many teenagers that get involved in things.”
Ashlyn hasn’t narrowed down her footage yet but says she plans to film some friends during a lunch break to see them bantering about their school day.
Someone else who is planning to get involved is Adam Cummins, who is 17 and from Ballyfermot, Dublin. He’s involved in filmmaking and is now doing a course in theatre studies.
“When I heard about this project, I knew straight away that it was something I wanted to be involved in. It’s such a unique idea and it’s got revolutionary potential. I think RTÉ should have more opportunities for young people to show their lives and shatter the stereotypes of youth today.
“We have the typical image of a typical teenager but everyone is so different and it’s important that there are opportunities for younger people to be heard. Sometimes I feel that TV is dominated by older people and it’s time to tune into the younger generation.”
* Filming for Life’s Like This takes place on Tuesday, Sept 25, and footage can be uploaded to the site www.rte.ie/trte/lifeslikethis
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