1. Participatory film
production as media
practice: a theoretical and
methodological approach.
Antoni Roig Telo
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
Remix Cinema Workshop
Oxford, 24-25 March 2011

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Index
1. Overview of previous research
2. The practice approach.
3. Some key features of practice theories
4. Why media practices are important.
5. How I use the practice perspective.
6. Media practices and remix: final considerations.

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Participatory cinema: case study structure
X-ILE PICTURES Energia Productions
(USA): related to Comparative (Finland): related to
fan culture fan culture
Transference
Transference
A Swarm Of Angels/ ASOA (UK): related to open source culture

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The practice approach.

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What do we mean about practices?
Practice’ (Praxis) in the singular represents merely an emphatic term to describe
the whole of human action (in contrast to ‘theory’ and mere thinking). ‘Practices’
in the sense of the theory of social practices, however, is something else. A
‘practice’ (Praktik) is a routinized type of behaviour which consists of several
elements, interconnected to one other: forms of bodily activities, forms of mental
activities, ‘things’ and their use, a background knowledge in the form of
understanding, know-how, states of emotion and motivational knowledge. A
practice – a way of cooking, of consuming, of working,of investigating, of taking
care of oneself or of others, etc. – forms so to speak a ‘block’ whose existence
necessarily depends on the existence and specific inter- connectedness of these
elements, and which cannot be reduced to any one of these single elements.
(Reckwitz, 2002: 249-250).

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Some distinctive features of practice theories.
•Practices span from the most simple to the more complex.
•Practices are 'everyday' and usually 'routine', but also powerful to
explain how we relate to a complex object (Knorr-Cetina, 2001)
•Practices internally organised by three main elements: understandings,
procedures andaffectiveelements (Schatzki, 1996; Reckwitz, 2002).
•Practices are interlinked: attention to external organization of practices
(Swidler, 2001).
•Hierarchy: 'constitutive rules' (implicit, normative, conflict, change…)
(Swidler, 2001)
•Practices account for innovation and reproduction (Warde, 2005).

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Why media practices are important:
• Media practices lead to a shift of attention from the 'final object', the
structures or the individual to what all the people involved are
actually doing through the different phases of the process of
creation.
• They forces us to ask ourselves a lot of questions about how the
practice is internally and externally organized.

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This is the theory. How I'm using it in practice (1/2):
1. Approach to cases as 'organizational forms’ (long term project over texts or
structures).
2. Identification of all public manifestations of the form (websites, blogs, press,
social media, even virtual worlds and of course the offline...).
3. Depiction of the development of the organizational form around its main
media project: describing historical background and phases of development.
4. Temporal delimitation of phenomena, phases or periods to be analyzed.
5. Analyse official sources.
6. Analyse potential controversies around the organizational form: the unofficial
sources.

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This is the theory. How I'm using it in practice (2/2):
7. Focus on the organization of practices in participation spaces, mainly forums:
• Structure of the Forums.
• Hierarchies among users / authority.
• Participants and participation figures.
• Identification of domains of practice: community organization, project
development, content production, promotion.
• Forum analysis attending to the practice approach.
8. Selected interviews with key participants
9. Outline of clusters of practices.
7. Outline of a production model.

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Performative practices
Organizing practices
Production practices Self-promotion practices
Community
Participation practices
Collaboration
KnowledgeSharing
Finance practices
Access/ Use
Circulation practices
Promotion
Commercialization

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Clusters ofpractices:
Organizing practices (at early stages of
practice)
construction of normativity, hierarchy,
legitimation(meta-practices)
Performative practices
Playful dimension
Affective engagement

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Clusters ofpractices:
Production-oriented practices
conception and elaboration of ‘objects’
Finance-oriented practices
business models, engagement of communities (i.e.
crowdfunding)
Circulation-oriented practices
flexibility of licenses, promotion strategies
Self-promotion oriented practices
visibility of brand and creative core
Participation-oriented practices
engagement and integration of followers as
participants into project and processes

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Is this relevant for remix projects? 15 final questions.
• Can we observe/ track the early stages of the project?
• What are the playful dimensions of the project?
• How identity and engagement to the project is produced and negotiated?
• How is the practice 'organized' internally?
• And externally (in relation to other practices)?
• What are the different motivations of the participants?
• How is normativity defined, that is, what is considered 'the right way', what is
acceptable and tolerable, and what is not?
• How hierarchy and authority is established and legitimated?
• What’s the role of the ‘brand’ (the long term initiative vs. current project)?
• How are decisions made in terms of production and circulation?
• How is 'participation' conceived?
• Which may the implicit rules behind the practice be? Where do they come from?
• What do we think the 'anchoring practices' are (which are those ones that in being
change make other practices change)?
• Which are the possible issues of conflict and change? How do they manifest? What
do they tell us about the evolution of the practice, its reproduction and innovation?
• What are the possible 'rituals' regarding the practice that show that a practice is 'like
it is’?....

15. Thanks for your attention
Questions?