Tagging, Chain Letters and Shakabuku Films.

Robin has now left the Queen Victoria, for now, and is on his way home.
As he set off from Istanbul he called to say he was delighted at the prospect of 10 days at home.
Not surprising really as he hasn't been here for that long since July.

So whilst Robin reclines at 30 000 feet, and whiles away the hours with his new Sony Reader, I started thinking.

It was connected to the recent post I ran, 'I've Been Tagged', where I had to 'tag' six friends.
Apart from warofthewords who was unable to participate due to the lack of a blog, (which she hopes to rectify soon), there has been a fantastic response.
You can read Jessica Duchen's reply here, Ben Clapton's here, Chris Hambly's wonderful experiment here, and Ari Adler's here, in which he discusses the ease of communication these days and mentions the similarity of tagging to chain letters.

And this is the point I have been pondering.
What is it that makes us reply to these intrusions into our busy lives?
Chain letters have been around for many years, in fact one landed on our doormat only a few weeks ago.
It was sent to son number one with the promise of entry into the 'Guinness Book of Records' if he completed his part of the chain.
He did and this is why.
As you know he has been in a short film, 'Lollipop', which you can watch if you click the link in the side bar, and read about it here.
Since then we have remained in contact, and become friends with, many of those involved. (Thanks to Nick Rowntree for the quick response to my e mail yesterday!)

The company that made this film, Shakabuku Films, (and yes, that is son number one on their home page) have made many others.
One of which is called 'Chaingangs'.
This was an incredible achievement as the entire film, from writing the script, filming, editing and even down to adding the music, was done in 48 hours, as part of the National 48 hour film Challenge.
They did it, and they won.
But what has all this got to do with tagging and chain letters?
Well, watch the film, and you'll see why I couldn't quite bring myself to ignore the task I was set....