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Archive for July, 2010

180 South – Documentary Film of the Week

Posted in Documentary on July 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

SYNOPSIS: Conquerors of the Useless follows Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia. Along the way he gets shipwrecked off Easter Island, surfs the longest wave of his life – and prepares himself for a rare ascent of Cerro Corcovado. Jeff’s life turns when he meets up in a rainy hut with Chouinard and Tompkins who, once driven purely by a love of climbing and surfing, now value above all the experience of raw nature – and have come to Patagonia to spend their fortunes to protect it. Written by Tim Lynch

The film follows adventurer Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia. Along the way he gets shipwrecked off Easter Island, surfs the longest wave of his life and prepares himself for a rare ascent of Cerro Corcovado. Jeff’s life turns when he meets up in a rainy hut with Chouinard and Tompkins who, once driven purely by a love of climbing and surfing, now value above all the experience of raw nature and have come to Patagonia to help use their influence to help protect it. Written by Russ Spencer

Make sure to check out Live The Dream Films for other documentaries and Social Filmmaking actvities.

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War Child – Documentary Film of the Week

Posted in Documentary on July 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

SYNOPSIS: In his home country Sudan, a brutal civil war was raging. His father belonged to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army ( SPLA). His mother was murdered by government troops. At the time, Emmanuel was seven years old. Soon, the SPLA started shippping children to Ethiopia. Emmanuel’s father saw to it that Emmanuel was sent there too. But there were nearly 400 kids jammed into the boat. The boat was much too small to hold them. When the boat sunk, very few children survived. Distraught parents searched for their children but Emmanuel’s father didn’t show up to look for Emmanuel. In Ethiopia, Emmanuel was recruited by the SPLA. He became a child soldier. Then a human rights activist found Emmanueal and took him out of the country. So, he was rescued from this dramatic part of his life’s story. But the woman who saved him from a child killer life dies in a mysterious car accident (which the film doesn’t go into). The boy ends up roaming the city homeless. He is now 13 years old. Finally, friends of the woman who died save him from despair. Thanks to a scholarship he goes to school. In this phase of his life, he begins working through his civil war experiences by making music. In 2005, Emmanuel lands a hit in Kenya with his song, “Gua”. Since then, he is a star in Africa. He sings in English, Arabic, Swahili, and two Sudanese languages. Most child soldiers live a totally different life. For Emmanuel, help appeared out of nowhere in all the crucial moments of his childhood. Most victims of brutal war are not that lucky. In this portrait, director Karim Chrobog concentrates on the how music can be a lifesaver. Music can help people overcome very hopeless-looking situations. Emmanuel Jah’s success as a musician allows him to share the love and care that he received with other needy children.


Caution: This film has disturbing, but necessary, images that might not be suitable for child.

This film show the power of crafting a storying in the mind, but telling it through the heart.  Music is a powerful element in any story telling activity, but couple it with the powerful images from a brutal cilvil war and you have, well, magic. Don’t watch this documentary UNLESS your are prepared to do something.

Make sure to check out Live The Dream Films for other documentaries and Social Filmmaking actvities.

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No Impact Man – Documentary Film of the Week

Posted in Documentary on July 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

SYNOPSIS: Author Colin Beavan, in research for his new book, began the No Impact Project in November 2006. A newly self-proclaimed environmentalist who could no longer avoid pointing the finger at himself, Colin leaves behind his liberal complacency for a vow to make as little environmental impact as possible for one year. No more automated transportation, no more electricity, no more non-local food, no more material consumption no problem. That is, until his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two year-old daughter are dragged into the fray. Laura Gabbert and Justin Scheins film provides a front row seat into the familial strains and strengthened bonds that result from Colins and Michelles struggle with this radical lifestyle change.

So, what are you willing to do to make the documentary? What are you will to go through to create that social film? It easy to grab a camera and film the pain or happiness of others as they endure, but would you do the same in order to produce that once in a lifetime story? Colin Beavan said yes, not only for himself, but for his family as well.

Regardless of whether you support environmentalism, being committed to a process is helpful for documentarian, and necessary for social filmmakers. No Impact Man shows what is possible when you remove all the reasons why you say you can’t, clearly demonstrating that one can be both the observed and the observer.

Make sure to check out Live The Dream Films for other documentaries and Social Filmmaking actvities.

 

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10+ Essential Tools for Social Filmmaking

Posted in Social Filmmaking, Software and Tools, tagged , on July 16, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Social filmmaking connects different communities through film-based story telling. In social computing terms, the film is the media and its context is what makes it sharable, thus being a type of social media. As such, social filmmaking becomes the application of social computing technologies to the documentary filmmaking workflow.

But before we dig into these new tools, let’s briefly review some traditional tools used in most filmmaking workflows. Preproduction leverages Number to Gorilla for planning/budgeting, Final Draft AV for script management, and Storyboard to Frameforge for revisualization. The use of these tools, mostly adopted by traditional filmmakers, are proving just as productive in keeping costs low and increasing the likelihood of success.

In production, beyond the cameras and lights, we see the emergence of Movie Slate and DSLT Slate as low cost alternatives to time-code enabled digital slates and OnLocation as a means of shot management through metadata. Metadata is emerging as a production asset that is just as valuable as the digital connect itself.

Post-production has traditionally been dominated by Final Cut Pro and Avid suites, but today we see Adobe-based production beginning to displace them with their end-to-end metadata driven workflow center on Premier Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, and Soundbooth. All in all, these tools, taken together or just in parts, should be familiar to most documentarians.

With these tools as a foundation, social filmmaking requires other capabilities that aid in the realization of community to community story telling. These tools facilitate funding, create and connect communities, and facilitate the distribution of content.

Pre-production

- Facebook (personal and pages) and LinkedIn: these are two of the most popular forms of Web 2.0 tools. Through these tools, one can create public, private, and professional networks and/or communities.

- Crowdwise: A community portal designed to let everyone contribute their ideas and help build consensus about what kind of film needs to be made.

- Crowdrise: Social filmmaking is funded by the larger community and Crowdrise is the a key social network for raising money in a fun way.

Production

- Twiki and MediaWiki: Wikis are another type of website, but one that allows for the easy creation and editing of content by community members (typically non-technical). They allow production and postproduction team members to share creative, editorial, and compositional content. For a complete listing, make sure you check out WikiMatrix.

- WordPress, Ning, and Blogger: There are the premier social networks for organizing, activating, and influencing the a social filmmaking network.

Post-production

- Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr: A principal means of managing and distributing photo and video content. Vimeo, while having access to sizably small community, has several tools that are more beneficial to filmmakers (e.g., the ability to reload footage to the same URL, accredit contributors, etc.)

- delicious and digg: Allows you organize, tag, and generate recommendations to social sites and content, especially the film-based social media being generated by your work.

- Twitter: Microblogging is a capability that is can be useful during any phase of the filmmaking workflow, but is a necessity during postproduction, specifically distribution.

Wildcards

- Livescribe: Notes are an important part of any successful production, whether digital or handwritten. Pen and paper, however, lends itself to freer levels of creativity but lower levels of sharability. Livescribe, a digital pen and paper solution, achieves the benefits without its disadvantages. In addition to capturing content, you can also share information within other documents as well as posting to community portals.

- HootSuite: Social media management dashboard for most of the tools discussed. HootSuite allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, create and schedule community messages, identify and understand community trends, and add members to the community. Very powerful and very useful to the social filmmaker that is always on the go.

So, there you go. While a bit more than ten, these tools (and categories) are essential for social filmmaking. They enable effective idea creation and fundraising, enable disparate members to creatively collaborate, and content to be social distributed. All in all, today’s documentarian needs to be more than just filmmaking skills and tools, to be successful, they need to also be effective at community outreach through social networks as well. 


Next: Aristotle’s View On Social Filmmaking

 

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It Came From Kuchar – Documentary Film of the Week

Posted in Documentary, tagged , on July 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

SYNOPSIS: Long before YouTube, there were the brilliantly insane, no-budget movies of underground, filmmaking twins George and Mike Kuchar. Creating stars out of their friends and family with just consumer-grade cameras, the teenage Kuchar brothers went from the 1960′s New York City underground film scene of Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger to become the twin maestros of B-movie glamour and sleaze.

In a mesmerizing stream-of-consciousness style, IT CAME FROM KUCHAR effortlessly interweaves nostalgic footage of 1950′s New York, a “greatest hits” collection of Kuchar clips and present day interviews of an all-star lineup of fans including John Waters, Buck Henry, Atom Egoyan, Wayne Wang, Bill Griffith, Gerard Malanga, B. Ruby Rich and Guy Maddin. Both outrageous and lovable, George and Mike will inspire you to pick up a camera and start making movies. IT CAME FROM KUCHAR is a must see for lovers of film everywhere.

 


There is an old saying in the writing industry, “The best way to learn how to write is to just write.” Well, while not necessarily true in its entirety, the general sentiment is right. No matter what type of skill your want to build, one of the elements to achieving success is to start doing it, keep doing it, and then do it some more. Remember, amatures practice to get it right, but professionals practice so they never do it wrong. The Kuchars bar none, is a principle example of just how true this philosophy is. 

Together, their productivity was unbelievable. While no official accounting of their total body of work has been made, it is believe to include more than 500 films. During their day, while other filmmakers made more formal and structural films that had very little happening, while Andy Warhol was making films where nothing was happening, the Kuchars made films were everything happened.

As Underground Filmmakers, they remained true to the cause through their entire career. As bohemians, they spent their time and money exploring the poetic aspects of filmmaking. Most of their work was atmospheric and highly stylized (distinctive eyebrows and highly modulated voices). Their collective philosophy that “adults are weird” transcended the conventional films of the day and impacted the tone and tenor of their work.

This is a great documentary for those looking to jump start their creativity, for those looking for somebody to lead the way in just doing it for the sake of doing it, and for those looking to be less weird. For ten bucks, grab some wine, turn the lights down, and see what is possible when you remove all the reasons why you say “I can’t.”

Make sure to check out Live The Dream Films for other documentaries and Social Filmmaking actvities.


 

 

 

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5 Essential Elements of Effective Social Filmmaking

Posted in Social Filmmaking on July 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

 

All story telling processes, documentary or otherwise, are not created equal. The social filmmaking process, being just one type of story telling approach, tends to have Several distinctive characteristics that separate it from other techniques. Some key characteristics to think about are:

1. A community is the embodiment of the story being told. The community is a large group of individuals that share a common value system as it related to some sharable media of interest. The fundamentally represent story.

2. They are funded by the community that want to tell the story. Traditional documentaries are self funded by an individual, corporation, or institution. These grantors often are not representative of the community itself.

3. The community significantly contributes to the production of the media (beyond being used as talent). The community is actively involve with content identification, creation, production, and management.

4. The community promotes the story to other members not belonging to the community.  This is a significant part of social filmmaking, getting other to experience the story. Interconnecting social networks (bridging the community to other networks), becomes a principle passion of the community.

5. The Internet is the Network. The Internet is the principle means through which the film is created, produced, promoted, and distributed.

Next Post: 10 Essential Tools for Social Filmmaking

 

 

 

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Social Filmmaking and Salmon Rushdie

Posted in Social Filmmaking, tagged , on July 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Salman Rushdie might have been the first to define Social Filmmaking. In one of many inspirational quotes about documentaries, Rushdie says “If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you’ve got to find a language. Which goes for film as well as prose, for documentary as well as autobiography. Use the wrong language, and you’re dumb and blind.”

Salman encapsulates the real meaning of Social Filmmaking, although not using the term directly. He points out that while some stories have broader appeal than others, all stories need to be told – all voices need to be heard. Without the right language, even documentaries are “dumb and blind.” Therefore, the true language of social media is social filmmaking.

Next Post: 5 Essential Elements of Effective Social Filmmaking

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Social Filmmaking: What’s That?

Posted in Social Filmmaking on July 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

As I was beach combing over a weekend many months ago, I had the chance to talk with fellow combinites about filmmaking, specifically social filmmaking. Of the dozen or so folks partaking in this casual, almost Zen-like exercise, not one had a filmmaking background. All of them, however, without exception, had a deep interest in the subject. All of their questions, bar only one, were very different. That one question that was consistently asked by such a diverse set of people was – What is Social Filmmaking?

Having answered the question a hundred times before, I was prepared with my standard 30 second elevator pitch and responded with:

“Social filmmaking is a type of social network, where story telling is through the principle media of film/video (a type of social media) and the internet becomes the principle means of production (a type of social computing).”

Like every one of the hundred previous times the response was along the lines “sounds really interesting, sooooo what about those Jets?” Being a computer scientist, it never truly dawned on me that what I thought made sense did not have meaning. As a matter of course, not only did it not make sense, it turned people away from really appreciating the Zen-like nature that social filmmaking can create. Well, it never dawned on me until out of the mouths a one small child came the statement, “So, do you make movies?”

This took me back quite a bit. If social filmmaking is so great, then why can’t a young person understand it? The answer was not in the message, but the messenger – more precisely, the way the messenger was delivering the message.

In that split second, out of my mouth came, “Yes, we make movies. We tell stories that you and your friend know about, to others that don’t have a chance to be a part of your neighborhood.” The response was compelling, “I want to do that when I grow up.” As I stood there thinking about this educational moment for me; I thought, ya me too.

So, what is Social Filmmaking? While formal definitions are always needed, it seems that a more practical way of looking at this emerging field is to say,

“Social filmmaking is a meaningful way of life through which a community tells a compelling story to non-community members.”

Yes, it is still is a type of social network. Yep, it still uses film/video as a type of social media. It still uses the Internet as a means of social computing. But more importantly, it is a way of life through which the DNA of our lives is passed on from one community to another, from one generation to the next.

Next Post: Social Media and Salman Rushdie

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Objectified – Documentary Film of the Week

Posted in Documentary on July 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

SYNOPSIS: Objectified is a feature-length independent documentary, by Gary Hustwit, about industrial design. Its a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. Its about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. Its about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. Its about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them.

Analysis and Commentary:
You make assumptions about objects whenever you see them, but do you take the time to realize it? Well, if you are like 78% of Americans, the answer is NO. Objectified shines an inquiztory light on to the subject of how stuff is created.

As discussed in the documentary, “design is the search for form.” It is not the form itself, it is the search – the journey. Henry Ford said, “Every object tells a story if you know how to read it.” Learning how to read the story that is implied in every design is a key part of Objectified.

So, what make for a good or great design. Take a moment to think about this, especially if you are in the product development business. Can you list two, three, or four criteria? Well, here are just a few items that the list of the top designers in the world:

Elements of a Great Design:
- Innovative by comparison
- Makes the product useful
- Creates the design aesthetics
- Must be honest
- Unobtrusive, hidden by it nature
- Long lived by its nature
- Details are consistent
- Environmentally friendly
- Feels un-deisgned; that is, it has as little design as possible
- Enable users to get better use with it than without it

In design, one needs to engineer for the extremes in order for the middle will take care of itself. In essence, design for the weakest and the strongest, through this process the average will be taken care of.

Lastly, design thinking is in reality a systematic way to be innovative. It is about mind mapping form to functional needs. It should be a way to take you to places where interesting thing should happen.

Make sure to check out Live The Dream Films for other documentaries and Social Filmmaking actvities.

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