Today I visited Bicester Village in Oxfordshire.
I was primarily there to grab some cheap shoes and a shirt but whilst browsing the stores it was suggested (via twitter) by @Lauradee that i should interview a few people regarding the credit crunch. So I did.
All went well (I even manged to treat myself to a few items) until I was heading back to the car and a polite plainclothes security guard stopped me to ask why I was filming.
A great little documentary Christian, and very informative. I love the Social Media angle also. Get your camera and go for it. Very inspiring. You make it look so easy. If you weren’t such a nice guy, I’d hate you for it 🙂 More please.
Bicester Shopping Village is a very interesting [sic] place from the look of it, but it seems a bit ‘Disney plastic village’ to me, even though you’ve shown that the shop managers/workers seem to be at ease there and are prospering at the moment.
I was nicely surprised in your dealing with the Security guy and your final outcome with the call from the ‘Village’ managers (Elders??).
It does raise again, the issue of ‘Public’ space with free access and photography/recording. There have been cases where in some Shopping/Commercial areas, these places are deemed ‘Private’, which to me makes it less likely I or maybe other like minded individuals would use their facilities if it was known, so again it’s refreshing and sensible (with your timely nudging) that the ‘Village’ managers seem to have/or will make them selves welcome to all. They shouldn’t drive away perpetual customers after all.
There is a silly ‘Fear Mongering’ sweeping the nation and it’s also an easy excuse for some people to make their life easy. Take for instance the nice security guard [sic] making a statement that he couldn’t answer your query because he’s ‘not at liberty’. Ho hum!
Anyway, thanks again Christian. You’ve made some valid points and we should all take them to heart.
We’ve nothing to fear, except fear itself.
All my best,
Derek
Hi Derek,
Thank You for your comment.
You raise some great points, not least the differentiation of public and private spaces and the ‘silly Fear Mongering’ we witness should we do anything out of the ordinary in a ‘private space’.
On the one hand I’m not surprised that a bored and bleary eyed security guard is going to suddenly notice a lone guy filming in amongst a herd of shoppers. It would be the kind of thing that stands out on the usually predictable CCTV monitors.
Perhaps we all need to make this scene far more usual by actively exercising our rights of freedom of expression.. If we have any left. And if in some places we don’t, it’s simple.. We avoid those places.
cheers,
c.
First of all I love the use of Sound Effects ( Violins and Cheers ) for the end conversations. Brilliant.
it makes you wonder if 100 of us did the same around the Shopping malls and asked the same questions would we hear the same comments and if we did what would that mean about national broadcast TV ? harumph!
Great video – does kinda make me wonder whether lots of people are still shopping blindly unaware of the current ‘crisis’ which could end in more disaster on their own financial front.
i love this stuff. you should definitely do more of it!
Great work, it actually makes me a ‘little’ more at ease with the situation. Every mainstream TV news item paints such a bleak picture and I get panic attacks nearly every night 😉 It’s great to see some proper ground root interviews about the current situation.
Rich
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the comment.
Off camera one of the managers said.. “Look at the cars in the car park.. does it look like any of the shoppers here are struggling with money.”
He seemed to think it was only the rich not wanting to fork out the full price and wanting to stay rich that were shopping at Bicester.
I take some solace in the the lyric.. “If you got nothing, you got nothing to lose..”
🙂
There’s an interesting question here.
You said a lot of (female) managers wouldn’t speak to you on camera. Do you think more would have if you’d gone to the management first and notified* them that you wanted to film? They might have given you a press badge – or at least a number that shop managers could call if they wanted to check your bone fides.
Of course, you don’t need permission to record in public places – and it looks like you asked permission to record in the shops. I do wonder if things might have gone a little smoother if you’d let them know what was happening. Not as spontaneous or “found” but more productive?
And a security guard not carrying ID? Pffff.
T
*Or asked permission.
Hi Terence,
I carry a press badge and show it when needed.
It was purely a vanity thing. Seriously.. I asked frankly why not and this was admitted.
Both the men i interviewed asked their head of marketing if they could speak to me so it was not a permissions issue.
I get it all the time with photography too. Some women are super careful about their public appearance and need some notice to “Put their face on.” as one women put it.
It is probably men and the fashion industry that are to blame for this.
This would make a great study subject. Perhaps this is why there are not many women in video blogging (compared to men) but those that are are far more successful.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
c.
Perhaps it’s also that women are concerned about images of themselves being used to demean or misrepresent them in the hands of a man? If you think about the culture of poking fun at women if they look less than perfect, aren’t the ‘correct’ size or shape or offer up any challenging views, you can see why their initial reaction might be a big fat NO.
There are also those women who are so paranoid about having their ‘face on’, as you mentioned, because they feel insecure about the way they look…I came across this recently when I was conducting some in-house corporate video interviews for Dairy Crest and was surprised and disappointed that out of 30 interviews only 3 were from women. They didn’t seem to think giving their opinions mattered more than whether they looked perfect on camera. Such a shame.
wonderfully inspiring citizen journalism…good tips for when one is stopped by “security”. Thanks for leading the way:)
Hey, that was a great little documentary and was really interesting!
I think the end bit about being stopped for recording in public is pretty important. A few months ago I was shooting a small documentary about culture in art, drama and music within the southbank in central London, and was down there shooting outside the Royal Festival Hall. I got approached and told I was a security risk and that I had to move on, even though I was on the walk way recording the building and not in the building or (I thought) on their land. Apparently I was and I had to move on otherwise I would be an official security risk to central London! AHHHH. Considering I was shooting a documentary that would praise the Royal Festival Hall they didn’t do themselves any favours.
Anyway, Thanks for the video, was a good watch!
Great Video Christian! What about doing it again in a few weeks to compare?
Maybe people think they should buy stuff now before the crisis is really here and they loose their money.
tom
I was most impressed by the security guard – nice and friendly and when you seemed happy to talk about your filming he seemed satisfied. It’s a fine line between the slightly “police state”-y side of security and the more sensible “just wondering what you’re doing” kind of thing that this guy goes for.
As for not being at liberty to say stuff, I suspect that was the not wanting to make comments that his bosses might not be able to back up. It seems vaguely responsible for me for the people who run the shopping centre to politely ask a guy who is filming himself talking to a camera while wandering around what he’s doing, even if it is legal. Asking you to stop is the bad bit which they happily avoided here.
Good to see that there are still a few friendly and sensible people working in the security business these days.
Hi Laura, great comment thank you. I think we need to see if we can help to reverse this state of mind. Perhaps with a Vox Pop asking, “is your opinion worth less than your appearence?”
Great points.
Cheers,c.
Sent from an iPhone.
I imagine the whole of that Bicester “village” which always appeared to me as looking like it belonged in New England rather than Oxfordshire, is private property and therefore they can ask anyone to leave they dont want there…its not the same as walking down your local high street at all.
thanks Kari, and Tom. Good idea. Maybe wait a month or so though.
C.
Sent from an iPhone
Christian that’s a great idea! I almost asked that question at the Dairy Crest event but was supposed to be all polite and shit 😉
It seemed odd that the women declined even when the cameraperson (me) and interviewer were both female…
Hmmm love your work Mr C… but im pretty sold with what i read early this week.
Even in recession the high street continues to perfom well, people need food, drinks, clothing, consumables. That never changes.
Recession just makes the corprate world shake a little, and the consumers reap the rewards of a higher competitive retail landscape.
Sure, this is not true in every sector across the board, but for the most part i follow it.
If we reach conditions like the American great depression (and i hope we do), then we may see food rationing, fuel and power shortages, and huge unemployment. But that is not likely in all fairness, as the capitalist world will always turn a penny.
Would be good to see you do a piece on the upper-class structures, and management chain reactions to the current economic climate, but i fear it would be vastly less interesting (not because of you!).
Great Video on the mighty Bicester Village…growing up in Kent my parents used to drive us all the way up there (over 3 hour drive) they loved it so much….
Thankfully a bit closer these days…Miss Sixty lady is right…at weekends it’s full of Japanese people…think they are bussed in from Oxford day trips or something…
….who knew social media could be so suspect…fair play to bicester village for getting back to you…
Hi Alex, It’s worth keeping stuff like that in for the DVD extras or releasing separately. Let’s make it normal for people to be filming in public.
c.
Hi Swinhoe,
You make some really good points. Did you see this piece I did over a year ago? I am thinking i should maybe revisit this guy.. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GLnryKeQ16A
Hi Orju,
Yes i imagine it is private. I just feel that we should not be made to fear the wrath of any security official should we want to take a picture, film a blog, or communicate with our friends. I for one make a point of avoiding places who enforce silly rules that try to suppress my personal freedoms.
The times they are a changing. What about when we have cameras embedded into our clothing.. Will they ask us to undress before we enter? What about all the footage they shoot of us and that we have no access or control over at all?
All important questions that we need to ask now before more ridiculous laws are slipped in under our noses.
Did the lady from Miss Sixty really touch wood?
@bbcbusiness on twitter has just reported this news …
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7646984.stm
Great video Christian. You certainly know how to “put it over”. As for the credit crunch/ recession I think, “What the hell, you’re only here once!”. I have been to the fantastic brand new Highcross Shopping Centre in Leicester today and blown a few quid I could ill afford on some new clothes and a lavish lunch. If ever you’re this way again, pay it a visit, but beware the security guards! They’ve got big sticks!
That last bit with the security guard was bloody brilliant, a joy to watch.
As for women on camera….I can’t really comment, I’ve often vlogged and seesmiced all tired and sans make-up but then I did get very paranoid about being filmed at Twestival looking all sweaty and crack addict-esque.
It may not have been a beauty thing, they may have just not had anything intelligent to say and were worried about looking silly on camera as opposed to worrying about looking unattractive.
As for people buying too much on credit, I don’t see that stopping…we seem to think we can have what we want these days. I can be a pretty naughty shopper, I can justify hundreds of pounds on a purse for example, but I have never bought anything on credit in my life….and yes, I’m fucking smug about it 🙂
Great work as always Christian!
Really enjoyed that! I venture into Bicester Villiage once in a while to the Paul Smith outlet and I completely agree with you about it being a bit of a ‘second life’ type place. A lot of people you see shopping there are not the sort you see en masse in your average shopping centre. Do they have some kind of forcefield to keep to proles out I wonder? Although I did see that boy from the Eastenders chav family (does he sell cars?) there last time. But I guess that’s OK cos he’s a celebrity.
I love the sound effects you added – the kids cheering ‘yeah’ in your commentary. Also, was the clapping at the end of the main piece added after or were there a bunch of people there clapping you? The dramatic music for the security guard bit upped the tension which I liked a lot.
Next time you should do a study of the cars in the car park. Work out the average new cost of the cars found in there and then go back in about a year and see if it was still full of Astons, BMWs and Porches. Oh and maybe talk to some of the shoppers too cos I’d really like to get a picture of the kind of person that shops there.
Great stuff, thanks again.
Guy, i love the idea of a car survey.. genius. I think a shopper survey needs to wait until the forward thinking management take down all of the ‘Do Not Photograph or Film’ signs.
great film, just a little footnote from me…. their staff training hasn’t worked! i was visiting the shopping village last week and was approached by security who asked what i was doing with my camera.i replied that i was going to take a picture of my friend and was told “no, you can’t do that, we don’t allow photography here. ” i pointed out that it was not signed to say this and that i would take my picture and then leave. as i drove out of the village another security person jumped in front of my car and told me that if they saw me with a camera again i would be banned from the site! great way to run a shopping centre that claims to be a tourist attraction!