Flirt Connection: Dating Montage (2014)

'80s Dating Montage'

Background/Development

When I first began researching old 80s videos (so that I could see the aberrations in the analogue technology), I came across the dating montage above on Youtube. It was something that I kept coming across, the more I looked in to old video tapes/programmes. Throughout this dating video exploration, I came across 'Love Connection'. This 1970s dating programme reminded me of 'Blind Date' which is the earliest of what I can remember of video/TV dating.

This is what led me to looking into old videos; trying to find the blurred/grainy footage to gain an idea and understanding of how I could potentially recreate this in my own work. While taking my still photographs for my first outcome, I was trying to think of what my subject could be for a moving image, using an analogue video camera. I felt that because I kept coming across dating videos, it was some sort of sign that that's where my work should go. The videos make people laugh because of their absurdity and cheesiness and that is what I wanted to create in my own work; during second year I had been told to experiment and have more fun with my artwork. 

I had originally been cutting up my own video tapes and inserting clips from one film into another film. However, after finding these dating videos and, with the recent popularity of dating apps, I felt that it would make sense to create my own modern-day version of a dating video using analogue technology. 

I used the lines that some of the men had used in the '80s dating montage' and decided to find real ones that had been used on modern dating sites and apps, for the actors in the montage to use. I also left enough space for interpretation. 

Unintentionally, this was my first experience of performance to camera.

‘Flirt Connection: Dating Montage’, Moving Image, 2014

‘Flirt Connection: Dating Montage’ is a modern remake of an 80s video matchmaking service. It features several different people from the modern age, talking about what they look for in a partner. I filmed and edited in such a way as to imitate the bad quality of the original 80s dating montage videos, which I found online. This piece is a comment on the contrast between old and modern technology, and is an alternative to the contemporary online dating services which are popular today.

'Dating Montage' - Josie Hudson, 2014