Ignition

An academic study into the owners of modified vehicles within the UK that takes the form of a 35 minute documentary.

A 6 month project involving modified car enthusiasts over a national scale with the aim of highlighting the positive subcultural attributes unlike the negative deviant side we see within mass media.

This project involved great deal of pre-production, production and post production from ideation, storyboarding, crafting a narrative, talent scouting, filming and of course editing. All of these steps were completed to an extremely high standard allowing for a production that fulfilled its purpose to an exceptional degree.

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A summary of the project:

"The modified car subculture is often a largely neglected topic within academic literature. With the act of ‘improving’ the manufacturers original design to suit one's tastes being a historically developed creative outlet since the invention of the automobile. This however, has ignited much misrepresentation in mass media with the modified vehicle subculture being slandered with deviant, illegal activities which are visualised as the forefront of the scene. With the positive aspects associated with this subculture being neglected within academic literature, this study aims to fill the literature gap, assessing the scene through a visual ethnographic study to deduce why and how individuals associate with the subculture of modified cars, in relation to the topic of personal identity and belonging. The study’s findings respectively answered the research questions proposed, igniting that non-deviant association is often bound by one’s family/peer influence, media influence, personal social inclusion needs and strive for inclusion within a community, thus suggesting that association with the subculture often reflects their pursuit of developing one’s identity and belonging."

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