In a multicast tactic that would make Guy Debord proud, we’ve started putting up some of our profiles up on several video streaming services. We have them on our web site and iTunesU, and now Blip.TV . A quick unscientific test revealed that the same movie uploaded to blip and youtube looked better on blip. Blip also allowed me to upload the entire 20 min. movie. Blip also has some other cool features as well.
We have some more in production right now as well as an Errol Morris inspired experiment in propaganda (stay tuned). You can get to our YouTubified vids here.
I just downloaded the Jaman video player. Like iTunes, it’s part library, part access point, part community…but in the case of Jaman, devoted solely to world cinema and independent filmmakers. It’s in beta mode, and uses some interesting peer to peer type technology called “Cascade” for distribution. I was able to watch some interesting cuban films, which, for me, alone was well worth it.
Some quotes they have on their web site:
Why should you install the Jaman Player? The press is saying… “You can contribute reviews and link videos to discussion groups. Moreover, you can read or supply comments on a film that are synchronized to the scenes as you watch.”
-Edward C. Baig, USA Today“It’s a cool product, and once you see the Jaman viewer/browser, you begin to think that a closed tool like iTunes is missing the Web 2.0 movement entirely.”
-Oliver Ryan, CNN“What makes it special is the way that it lets people comment on the films, see their friends’ reviews of them, etc, which… makes it the ‘birth of social cinema.’”
-Michael J. Miller, PC Magazine
Filmmaker magazine’s “lessons in dyi” section has an ineresting article, written by Lance Weiler (dir. Head Trauma) on how to get your film project in front of audiences, more appropriately, ways you can build audiences for your film. The article looks at how things have changed in the last 10 years or so and explores the developments of Web 2.0 (aka “open source cinema / Cinema 2.0) and how these tools of collaboration, sharing, and social networking can get your films seen. This is self-reliance big time.
The Workbook Project aims to provide information about all aspects of the filmmaking process, from fund-raising to distribution. It exists in two forms:
1.A blog that is used to cultivate ideas, links, stories and interviews that will eventually make their way into the first edition of the Workbook.
2. A downloadable filmmaking resource that can be used offline or online.
“You can contribute reviews and link videos to discussion groups. Moreover, you can read or supply comments on a film that are synchronized to the scenes as you watch.”