dear fandom, please help me be awesome

[some_stars]

So here's my situation: I'm in an M.A. program in English Education, preparing to be an English teacher, which this semester mostly involves taking classes (although that is about to change for 15 hours a week, which is part of why this appeal, as will soon become clear). For one class, I have a not-quite-final project due in eight weeks with extremely open guidelines, but the core project is to present...something, in a multimodal format (engaging more than one sense), on the subject of literacy, probably but not necessarily focusing on teaching and learning in a school/classroom context. Because I am a ridiculous person with no respect for my own time or need for sleep, I really really want to make a vid.

Specifically, I want to make a massively multisource vid examining some aspect of literacy through any of a wide variety of possible lenses that I haven't decided between yet, because I got this idea this morning, but which include historical, multicultural, political, new media and/or remix culture, many other things. Actually whatever I do will probably end up being political.

I am 100% confident that I can do this and do it well, and I think it's a brilliant approach to this assignment in particular and will let me meaningfully incorporate almost all of the texts we're reading. The problem, of course, is that I've never made a multisource vid before, and I've definitely never made one with a deadline of less than eight weeks, a full three of which I expect to spend trying to fix technical problems. Three at minimum. Probably four. But that's not even the main problem; the main problem is that the reason I've never made a multisource vid before is because I have an absolutely terrible visual memory, and also regular memory, and I can't come up with possible sources, especially since I almost never watch movies and haven't really seen that much TV.

And this is all made more difficult by the fact that my primary audience is my classmates, not fans, so I can't count on them knowing any of the sources or having any vid-watching experience, and I can't rely on context for almost anything. Obviously I would like to make it with a second layer so that many of the clips become even more meaningful when you know them, but that priority comes a distant second to making something other people in the class can understand. (Although I definitely do want to use the format to engage with the concept of 'literacy' beyond written text, and the experience of reading a vid.)

Basically, if this is going to have any chance of happening, I'm going to need help. A lot of help. I have to mostly crowdsource the entire brainstorm stage of gathering sources, because I just flat can't do it myself in the time I have. Obviously I will then watch this stuff and choose what to use and do the rest myself, so I feel like this is completely legitimate in terms of not asking the internet to do my homework.

Which brings us to my request: please help me find sources for clips of the things on this list, and please point other people to this post!

1. People reading or writing


2. People trying to read or write and having difficulty or failing


3. Text (written, typed, chiseled into a slab of stone, etc.) that's particularly visually interesting either in itself or in the way it's filmed, especially if there's some kind of motion involved


4. The above three items but with other kinds of texts, probably visual but not necessarily--anything that depicts the process of production, reproduction, reception, transformation of any kind of text, the development and practice of any kind of literacy (in a form that I can vid--so the process should be clearly and immediately visible in some way even if the text itself is not)


5. Classes happening in classrooms, especially if there's reading/writing happening but also just depictions of classroom teaching and learning (or not learning) in general

(EDIT: I've done some more planning and posted a slightly updated request list.)

This list obviously includes a massive range of possibilities. While I'm interested, at this stage, in just getting a ton of options that I could take in all directions, here are some optional additional criteria:

1. Some kind of historical-change element is pretty high on my list of possibilities, so I'm especially keen to find both older sources and sources that depict many different historical periods (where the period is obvious from a two-second clip) (actually that parenthetical applies to everything I need)


2. This being an inevitably-political project about education, race and class are going to come into it even if they're not the primary focus. Sources featuring POC and sources depicting a variety of socioeconomic contexts will be especially helpful. ESPECIALLY historical sources (in either sense) featuring POC, and especially non-Western sources (or at least sources from anywhere that depict non-Western cultures and texts, although obviously this leads directly into a minefield that I probably won't have time to deal with properly).


3. I am particularly desperate for sources about schools that deal with race WITHOUT being grossly racist. (I'm strongly considering including a clip from the "Nice White Lady" sketch; I don't want to replicate the pattern it's mocking.)


4. Another major possible theme is the evolving concept of what "literacy" means as the cultural experience of reading shifts increasingly to images and multimodal text and screens/screen environments instead of traditionally printed text, so sources that address this kind of thing are great. Basically--computers, technology, new media, people reading and writing texts that are something besides lines and/or columns of directional text on a page. Or any kind of reading/writing/texts that could fall under the conceptual umbrella of "remix culture."


5. I'm also especially on the lookout for stuff that deals with the ideas of decoding and deciphering and/or translating and interpreting.


6. Almost everything I'm going to be able to come up with on my own is relatively mainstream American TV and movies from the last 20 years, and just in terms of visual interest that's going to suck, so anything with a very distinct visual style--very different from, as a general category, "stuff fandom likes"; it doesn't have to be not American or not recent--will help a lot.


7. Non-fiction is welcome/encouraged, as long as I can get at it, and bearing in mind it's going to be enlarged to fit a projector screen and needs to not dissolve into pixels when that happens. Mostly I'm thinking documentaries, but really, anything visual and available could be useful, throw it all at me. Game shows, talk shows, infomercials, music videos, games, reality TV, home movies, educational filmstrips, absolutely anything that could possibly go in a vid.


8. Also welcome: animation!

Some practical considerations:

1. I need to get this stuff ASAP, so unless it's in my tiny DVD collection (unlikely) or you can upload it for me (which would earn you my eternal gratitude but I seriously do not expect that), I need to be able to torrent it. The list of "stuff I can probably torrent" is pretty long, though. Basically if it's famous, or from the last 40 years and not actually obscure, I have a good chance of finding it, especially if it's Anglophone TV or anything that might be on AsiaTorrents.


2. Relatedly, if there's a way to download video from Netflix or Amazon streaming, I would LOVE to know about it. I'm pretty sure there isn't, though, since that's probably literally the very first issue streaming media companies address in their business plans.


3. If, given the above two items and this post being unlocked, you don't want to leave a comment, you can PM or email me, or comment anonymously.


4. I need to at least skim everything and find all potential clips by November 1 at the very latest, so if you can point me to specific scenes--or even, may angels shower endless kisses upon your face, specific timestamps--that's going to help a LOT. Obviously with some sources the relevant scene would be "all of them," but even with those, if you remember particular moments where the reading and/or writing were extremely immediately visible, that will be a big help. Especially for non-English sources that may not have subtitles, really especially then.

ALL THAT SAID: I would rather get many suggestions with several that I can't use than get no suggestions at all, so if something comes to mind and you're not sure how obscure it is or if it's available with subtitles or exactly where the useful part is, please go ahead and tell me about it! I will be so happy, I promise. All that other stuff is just in case some beautiful and unlikely person wants to invest some serious thought into this.

One more request: please please please signal-boost this post! This is only going to work if lots of people read it and I don't have a particularly huge readership on either of my blogs. I wish I could offer some kind of incentive for helping me (aside from "in December you get to watch a vid! :D? :D?"), like writing people fic or whatever, but the basic premise of this post is that I don't have time for anything ever and never will again until possibly next summer, sooooooooo, yeah. I'm going to give this crowdsourcing thing a shot for two weeks, and if it doesn't work out I'll figure out some other, less awesome thing to do for my project. But I really hope it works out because this could be SO GREAT, and also because any other idea I come up with probably won't allow me to incorporate Newsies. Which is not to say I will not try.

Oh also, if anyone has song suggestions I am 100% open to hearing them, because I have literally no ideas for that so far. Although it has been less than 24 hours so I'll probably be okay.