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Beowulf the Event: The Video (Feedback Requested)
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So a week ago, my local SCA group put on this event. We re-created an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon meadhall, split the entirety of Beowulf between 31 performers, and then recited the epic. The goal was to tell the story the way it would have been told in 1000 A.D. It's an "immersion" event; we basically tried to strip away as much of the 20th century as we possibly could, and try to transport ourselves back in time. Each performer put their own spin on things; several performers chose to do musical renditions, for example. We also had bits of Old English spoken in there.
This is a video clip of my own performance - I'm known as Magnus the Stout in the SCA. At this point in the story, Beowulf has already slain Grendel and Grendel's mother, freeing Heorot and King Hrothgar of this terrible plague. Beowulf and his men (the Geats) return to Gotland, where he essentially de-briefs his king Hygelac and the rest of the Geat-folk on his adventures. Beowulf has just told the hall what he learned of Danish politics while he was over there. In this segment, Beowulf now proceeds to give an accounting of his battles with monsters.
I'm not looking for a critique of the technical aspects of the recording. It's crap and I know it. This is a quick-and-dirty compression that I did to get the file size down to 100 megs. The hall was dimly lit, I had to shoot from a fixed position in hands-free mode, and the camera isn't the best for shooting in these conditions. I could probably crop out the left quarter of the shot and the top part of the frame, to remove the most obvious modern aspects. The audio comes from the camera. There is a better audio recording, and I might splice that in if this proves to be a useful endeavor.
Generally, I don't want feedback on lighting or framing or anything like that, because I know that all needs a shitfuckton of work. That's not what I'm after.
See, I'm aware that the SCA is typically shown as a bunch of nerdlingers in cardboard armor beating each other with sticks. And to be fair, we are. That's a lot of what we do. However, that's not the group's goal, and my hope is that this video can at least try to get that point across.
So I'm talking about higher-level feedback here. Given the technical problems with the video, what do you actually think about the thing that's being done here? Is it cool? Could you maybe see yourself doing something like this? Does it look less like dorks in cardboard armor and more like an amateur theater group?
I also know I said that I "generally" don't want technical feedback. However, if the technical feedback you'd give relates back to the higher-level questions I posed, go ahead and give it. Bear in mind that this is what the video looks like. I could fuck with light levels and cropping, but this is the data that the camera recorded. The uncompressed video shows my hands a little bit better, but not by a lot. The next time we do an event like this, we're going to build video recording into the set. However, at no point will the lighting ever be better than this. We will not bring in a light panel, because it would break immersion. If the video just isn't feasible or workable, we won't do it.
So be honest. What do you think? Could you see yourself watching more of this? Telling your friends about it? Does this make you interested in looking into what the SCA is all about?
EDIT: Changed thread title to be more direct.
So a week ago, my local SCA group put on this event. We re-created an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon meadhall, split the entirety of Beowulf between 31 performers, and then recited the epic. The goal was to tell the story the way it would have been told in 1000 A.D. It's an "immersion" event; we basically tried to strip away as much of the 20th century as we possibly could, and try to transport ourselves back in time. Each performer put their own spin on things; several performers chose to do musical renditions, for example. We also had bits of Old English spoken in there.
This is a video clip of my own performance - I'm known as Magnus the Stout in the SCA. At this point in the story, Beowulf has already slain Grendel and Grendel's mother, freeing Heorot and King Hrothgar of this terrible plague. Beowulf and his men (the Geats) return to Gotland, where he essentially de-briefs his king Hygelac and the rest of the Geat-folk on his adventures. Beowulf has just told the hall what he learned of Danish politics while he was over there. In this segment, Beowulf now proceeds to give an accounting of his battles with monsters.
I'm not looking for a critique of the technical aspects of the recording. It's crap and I know it. This is a quick-and-dirty compression that I did to get the file size down to 100 megs. The hall was dimly lit, I had to shoot from a fixed position in hands-free mode, and the camera isn't the best for shooting in these conditions. I could probably crop out the left quarter of the shot and the top part of the frame, to remove the most obvious modern aspects. The audio comes from the camera. There is a better audio recording, and I might splice that in if this proves to be a useful endeavor.
Generally, I don't want feedback on lighting or framing or anything like that, because I know that all needs a shitfuckton of work. That's not what I'm after.
See, I'm aware that the SCA is typically shown as a bunch of nerdlingers in cardboard armor beating each other with sticks. And to be fair, we are. That's a lot of what we do. However, that's not the group's goal, and my hope is that this video can at least try to get that point across.
So I'm talking about higher-level feedback here. Given the technical problems with the video, what do you actually think about the thing that's being done here? Is it cool? Could you maybe see yourself doing something like this? Does it look less like dorks in cardboard armor and more like an amateur theater group?
I also know I said that I "generally" don't want technical feedback. However, if the technical feedback you'd give relates back to the higher-level questions I posed, go ahead and give it. Bear in mind that this is what the video looks like. I could fuck with light levels and cropping, but this is the data that the camera recorded. The uncompressed video shows my hands a little bit better, but not by a lot. The next time we do an event like this, we're going to build video recording into the set. However, at no point will the lighting ever be better than this. We will not bring in a light panel, because it would break immersion. If the video just isn't feasible or workable, we won't do it.
So be honest. What do you think? Could you see yourself watching more of this? Telling your friends about it? Does this make you interested in looking into what the SCA is all about?
EDIT: Changed thread title to be more direct.
Comments
And really, video cannot replicate this sort of live performance. There's an indescribable "magic" that happens when this all comes together, and it doesn't translate in film.
Basically, the video is to show the world what we strive to do. If you think it looks interesting, go research your local chapter.
When food is shown in commercials it is almost never the actual food you would be eating. In fact, it is likely that the food you see in the commercial is totally inedible.
Even though you're getting the one on the right, you are tasting the one on the left (at least I do, because I like Big Macs. Wanna fight about it?).
What you have posted is doing a disservice to what you guys are tying to do and would hurt you more than it helps.
But I think you guys might be on to something with the idea of shooting a "commercial." I'll collect some more feedback first before I launch into something like that, though. We'll need to recruit a lot of extras, and there's no fucking way we're going to rebuild that entire set just to shoot a commercial. Does this video pique your curiosity and make you interested into looking into it more, or does it make you say "WTF you nerds?"
Technically, it would've been a scop - probably an old, retired warrior - with a lap harp or similar instrument, reciting the tale. It wouldn't have been a blind beggar, as the storytellers were widely regarded as being old, wise, and valuable.
It's a little tough for one person to memorize the entire epic alone, so we split it. Think of it like watching snippets of 31 different renditions.
It might make more sense when you see more of the performances.
Of course, this is also Anglo-Saxon times. There really isn't much difference between a guy in the king's court and a beggar anyhow.
But in the strictest sense, no, the storyteller was generally not comparatively destitute. OK, you memorize 3120 lines of verse and then get back to me. :P
I also enjoyed having the multiple performers, as it gave you some insight into the different ways that you can interpret the work.
I know the point and all of your event, but isn't there anyone in the SCA (asking because I don't know - serious question not meant to be sarcastic) that would just devote himself to playing the scop, or are all people in the SCA pretty much playing knights and warriors and cool stuff? Are there any hapless yeomen? Any toothless, syphlitic old whores? Any shit-covered serfs?
The SCA is notorious for being a massive hobby. And you don't have to limit yourself to one thing. A couple of the guys in this are both warriors and bards. In fact, one of the criteria for knighthood is that you be a well-rounded gentleman, with more to you than just fighting.
By and large, the people who show up just to don cardboard armor and beat each other with sticks are called "stick jocks," and they're not typically held in high regard. Some are, but those guys are good sports.
I know a blacksmith, several bards (including myself), a couple of brewers/vintners (including myself), a carpenter, seamstresses, musicians, knitters, cooks, and a whole host of non-fighting types.
The SCA is a participatory organization, so you get out of it what you put into it. You want to be a shit-covered serf? Be the best goddamn shit-covered serf you can.
As for the memorizing all of Beowulf, it's a tall order. Two of our performers are professors of English literature, whose Ph.D.'s focus on Old English literature specifically. They each have about 20 - 25 years of instruction under their belts, and are incredibly familiar with Beowulf. One of them recited about 25 or so of her lines in Old English, to help create the proper atmosphere. They each took sections of approximately 200 lines each, because that's all they could really manage.
The problem with memorizing the epic isn't a lack of dedication - it's just that, in this day and age, it's really almost impossible. A scop in the 11th century only told stories. Maybe he fought and farmed too. But replace every bit of your modern idle time with storytelling. That's how people actually knew the whole epic.
But if you could pull it off, your local group would love to hear it.
You might also mention that the creative anachronism part is the part where we don't cover ourselves in shit and die of the plague. There's a reason it's the Society for Creative Anachronism and not the Society for Strict Re-enactment.
There are people in the SCA crazy enough to try it. I mean, we were crazy enough to build a set to mimic an 11th-century mead hall and then perform the entirety of Beowulf in one sitting. That's a little nuts. The video comments mention that.
Basically, we took the good stuff and cut out the parts where you lived a horrible life and died before you were 30. That's hardly any fun.
Also, the more I look at that newcomers page, the more interested I get. The idea of cooking a massive feast and then camping seems pretty awesome to me. Building a page of more "mainstream" SCA stuff might also be worth your while, if people want an entertaining way to get more information. This episode of The Supersizers for example, has a lot of the elements without total immersion.
Boozing, camping, eating, and women in corsets? What's not to love? I think a "behind the scenes" series of interviews is totally the way to go with that. We're planning on doing this again at Pennsic, though without the set. I'll take it. The video is what it is.
At this point, the performers have all demanded that this go up on Youtube, irrespective of quality. Some of the segments are definitely better than others, and a good number are actually pretty cool. I'll be putting up the clips without any additional compression (the hands-free easy mode that I used for filming shoots a high-bitrate MPEG by default), so they'll be anywhere from 150 - 300 MB each. In this era of plentiful broadband, that shouldn't really be much of an issue. This can definitely kill it. I lucked out in that I met awesome people right off the bat. There are definitely wankers about, and if you're not careful, they can wreck your day. These are the people that are your in. If you liked them as people, you'll like them as SCAdians, for the most part. When you decide you have the time, get back in touch with them and express interest. A lot of getting involved in the SCA is being introduced to the right people. Damn me and my relentlessly patterned behavior.
Part of the thing about advertising the SCA is that it's a participatory organization, not a spectatorial one. So, we want people to join, but we also want people who want to be involved instead of people who are just looking to gawk at shiny things. Does that make sense? Granted, the only requirement to attending anything is that you make an attempt at 16th century (or earlier) garb. Still, that's enough of a barrier that it keeps out the "unwashed masses."
Ideally, the video would serve partly to put forth the spectacle, and the idea would be to get people interested in being part of that spectacle. Personally, I don't have a problem just throwing stuff out there, but you wind up having to do a lot of explaining every time someone asks "What the heck is this all about?"
But I definitely like the idea of using a poster as general advertisement. We're actually having T-shirts made to commemorate the event, so little things like that might be a good way to get people asking what the heck is going on.