This Is Not Us

@thisisnotusphd-blog

In the Spring of 2013 I made a Channel 4 documentary Crazy About One Direction about fans in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Dublin during the Take Me Home tour. When it was broadcast in August 2013 the documentary was overwhelmingly rejected by the fandom who sent me thousands of angry messages and death threats on Twitter. It was the most tweeted about documentary ever on British television. I am now doing AHRC-funded doctoral research at the University of Sussex to determine why the fandom hated my documentary so much. My research is about documentary ethics as well as the relationship between television and twitter and how meanings are altered between mediums, with particular reference to Larry shippers. Please email or tweet me on the links below if you'd like to contribute a video to my new film, 'This Is Not Us', which is being made for the practical element of my research, from the response videos of fans to my documentary. With their permission this film will be seen online and in gallery space in 2015.

12 posts

Larry Stylinson is officially more powerful than the actual president

takemehomefromnarnia

What is the purpose of Rainbow Direction?

We want all fans to feel safe, welcome, and supported. The One Direction fandom can often be unwelcoming to LGBTQIA+ fans. At Takemehomefromnarnia we want to change that. We want to speak out to show support, and stand up proudly to make our...

Crazy About One Direction generated the largest number of tweets of any documentary ever on British television, by about 10 times.

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR PARTICIPANTS

1. What did you think of the documentary Crazy About One Direction?

2. What do you think the documentary got wrong about the fandom?

3. Why do you think the fandom reacted like they did?

4. In what way do you use the following and for how many hours per week?

a) Television

b) Twitter

c) Tumblr

d) YouTube

5. What are your thoughts on Larry shipping?

6. Should some things be kept within the fandom? If so, why?

7. If you had been involved in the documentary what would you have done differently?

Chelsey's 'This Is Not Us' Youtube video - thanks for taking part Chelsey!

Twitter has been awash with unconfirmed rumours of One Direction fans committing suicide after Channel 4 aired a documentary about them on Thursday night. 'Crazy About One Direction' prompted outrage among the One Direction fan community, who cla...

#RIPLarryShippers

#RIPLarryShippers became a Twitter trending topic, but there have been no confirmed reports of 1D fans taking their own lives.

#RIPLarryShippers

Crazed fandom is a very weird phenomenon. For whatever complex reasons, fame—a concept which barely existed 150 years ago—is a very powerful thing and people can act mighty strange when confronted with it or in the presence of someone well-known. A few years back, I attended the premiere of the movie version of the Hairspray musical. After I’d parked the car, it became difficult to get anywhere near the theater itself as there was such a dense crush of fans, tightly packed and blocking the way in every direction. As I finally got across the street from where I needed to be, every time a celebrity would arrive, there would be a ton of flashbulbs going off and loud squeals of delight from the crowd. When Christopher Walken strolled down the red carpet, I watched as five young black girls, all preteens, went completely bonkers for him, even crying and sobbing! Christopher fucking Walken. I kid you not. Does that make any sense? Not really, but that’s just what a brush with fame does to some people… At the Sheffield Doc/Fest a few weeks ago, Tara and I went to a panel about documentaries that...

#Dangerous Minds

Another favourite from BitOfAFangirlx

One of my favourite response videos by Abnormally Adam

Crazy About One Directio, 47 mins Channel 4 August 2013

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