0 Comments
Viewing single post of blog Diary of an artist writer online

Moral dilemma in video-making

Using your family and friends as raw material in making videos is tricky. You walk a thin line between exploiting them or turning them into an "art video".

Bill Viola –http://www.billviola.com – never had any qualms in this area: he regarded his family as grist for his artistic mill and filmed his wife giving birth and his mother dying.

Well, the reason I bring this up is that my project is far less emotionally fraught but it crosses over cultural boundaries between East and West. Over Christmas I had two students staying (Shanghai and Hong Kong) and between us we made a short film – well 18 minutes. They have agreed I can put it up on YouTube. (After I cut it back to three mins max.) In fact they are quite looking forwrd to seeing it on YouTube…but I feel a bit squeamish turning what was an informal family occasion into a film for the world-wide web.


0 Comments