Worker co-operatives are celebrating Co-operatives Fortnight by creating a short film on what it means to be a co-operative.
The film is a collating footage from all types of co-operatives across the UK. The initiative is part of the promotion behind Co-operatives Fortnight that aims to show how co-operatives are “local, loved and trusted”.
To participate in the project, co-operatives had to send 20 second videos in which they explain what they do and what they think of co-operatives.
The Media Co-op then compiled this footage to create a final video. The idea behind this project was to bring co-operators together in a joint effort to promote the co-operative enterprise model.
A worker co-operative, The Media Co-op has been involved in other user generated projects before, including the finale video for Co-operatives United last year. With this collaborative film, they hope to enable co-ops from all over the UK to reach a wider audience.
Paul Cameron, Digital Media Manager at Media Co-op says he was delighted with the positive response they have received from co-operatives across the UK. “We want the message to go out,” he says, referring to the aim of the collaborative film project.
Co-operators tried to show their support for co-operative values and principles by printing and cutting out hearts on which they write “local”, “loved” or “trusted”.
They were also asked to come up with a word of their own that would describe co-operatives. The word was written on another cut-out heart. Some popular word choices have been “future”, “ethical”, “fair”, “inclusive”, “co-op to co-op”, “helpful”, “unique”, “education”, “solidarity”, “wonderful” and “community”.
The Media Co-op is also using the best captions and sending out postcards from movies that co-operators will be able to post.
“We wanted to make it manageable, easy and fun. And there have been a nice variety of shots,” says Paul. He adds that co-operators tended to be creative individuals, which meant the videos sent in were innovative and original.
The Media Co-op had set up a target of 35 responses, but overall more than 40 co-ops have signed up for the film project. The final version of the film will be released during the Fortnight. The filming project was organised by Co-operatives UK, and sponsored by Scotmid Co-operative and Chelmsford Star Co-operative.
In this article
- British co-operative movement
- Business models
- co-operative
- Co-operatives Fortnight 2013
- Co-operatives UK
- Consumer cooperative
- Cooperatives
- Debbie Clarke
- Economy of the United Kingdom
- Fortnight
- Labor
- Law
- Marketing
- Media Manager
- Mutualism
- Paul Cameron
- Quotation
- Social Issues
- Structure
- The Co-operative brand
- The Co-operative Group
- Unicorn Grocery
- Worker cooperative
- United Kingdom
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