Here's an interview just published by the Dutch newsblog popular with the media by Jody Donnelly (23), the opinionated bitch. Jody is a freelance writer and cyberjournalist writing for Struikgewas.be and Gent.blogt.be.

Together with three fellow bloggers you started up TWP, so are you friends, and how serious is TWP?

We are not really close friends but only people who share some common ideas and goals. As a matter of fact, while the original idea came from Marco Montemagno, an Italian journalist and media commentator, we have refined it and transformed it quite a bit since its original inception.

I am very serious about TWP and will be gradually increasing my contribution and personal investment in it. Not that I have not done so until now, but the project will require increasing attention and resources as it moves forward.

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What are your ages?

I am 47 , and my colleagues are both under 35.

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Why do you want to promote the blogosphere, don't you think there are enough blogs already?

It is not up to me to decide whether there are enough blogs out there yet or not. Most of them are crap anyway. What we want to do is realy something else: the goal here is to communicate to all the people in the world that do not know anything about blogs. And that is most anyone out there: my mother, your sister, her uncle; normal people that have absolutely no idea of what a blog is and why it is such a revolutionary tool in the world of media and communication.

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Are you planning to work with a professional producer?

Absolutely not. We are trying to actually demonstrate that there is not anymore a need to follow the classic approach to film-making, funding, promotion and marketing that has been adopted until now. Alternative ways are effectively possible today, and a small film or video clip like TWP can be produced with the minimal budget that we'll contribute together with our many supporters like you.

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Who is the producer?

Everyone in this movie can be a producer, actor or director. We don't claim any unique rights to these areas and we are just one team among many others that will produce one edition of TWP for public release.

On one hand the Project is asking for spontaneous donations from bloggers (and anyone else) who want to support the project and give wings to its many ambitious goals.

On the other, the project is open to selected commercial sponsors.

In another bold new and innovative approach TheWeblogProject has self-elected a set of targets companies and product categories that would represent their ideal sponsoring matches.

The selected companies provide tools or services that directly facilitate achieving the project objectives including for example hosting services, online visibility, editing and movie-making facilities, software, production and portable computing equipment, mobile blog accessories and tools, travel support, and a lot more.

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Any blogger can send in a two minute audio or video clip. How is that progressing, and what can you say about the quality of the contributions up to now?

That rule has evolved as well like many of te traits of this participatory project. There is not anymore a cap on the diuration of the clips that can be contributed. Individual bloggers, video-makers and supporters can send in digital clips of any length and, so far, in most any format they want to.

The quantity and quality of materials received so far it is not first class, but though we are open to receive such contributions, we have not yet really entered the core part of that phase. What I see, is that we will need to give good examples, inspiration and guidance to others of what it may be appropriate to contribute. It is easy to say send a clip about blogs in, but it is another story to shoot something of value that allows others to understand clearly what blogs are.

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Can multiple bloggers work together and send in longer than 2 minute clips?

Absoluetly yes, and as mentioned above we have dropped this limitation already.

This is a participatory and collaborative project and in this respect we have been listening since the beginning to what other bloggers and readers have been suggesting and saying to us. This approach, for however untraditional it may be, gives us freedom to say things like "we made a mistake" and "we now think it should be like this" and to gradually make our plan and policies evolve with us, instead of having to fit our mission to a set of rigid pre-set rules.

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Are there any demands for contributions, do the audio and video clips have to happen inside behind the webcam or can we step outside and create a clip?

I am just about to start writing some of these characteristics on TWP as well as posting little examples of what we need, or think that could work. The contributions can be created by recording the screen, using existing public domain or re-usable footage, or by shooting new material with your own camcorder. The type f contributions that are most in demand at this time are:

a) asking people on the street: "What is a blog" and getting a good shot and audio of their replies.

b) interviewing bloggers or other people and asking them: "What is a blog?", "What are potential uses of blogs?", "Why are blogs so important, if at all, for our society?".

c) shooting bloggers while "in action"

In all this we would like very much to see little of the typical blogger publishing multiple daily personal rants on anything from dog pee to the latest software donwload, but rather on new, cuttign edge use of blogs in specific applications like learning, education, sports, fashion, news reporting, and more.

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What do you want to accomplish: a mix the clips into one movie, or a long documentary?

Mission of TWP is the one of helping to popularize "blogs" as a new communication medium while clearly explaining a) what a blog actually is and b) what blogging means in the wider context of the media revolution.

The final goal is to open up all of the footage we will have shot as well as all the clips gathered from voluntary contributors for public re-use under a Creative Commons license. In this way we are wanting to pave a new road for open source movie production, allowing multiple authors to release different versions of the movie for completely different audiences, languages and cultures. So my approach and my final release, may have little in common with the one that you may be doing in your country by selecting different clips than the ones and favouring possibly contributions in the language of your own country.

TWP offers anyone the ability to create a new, independent, final new version of the movie and to release it through us for online distribution. This is an open-source movie that wants to be re-mixed and re-edited in as many versions and languages as possible.

Finally TWP wants to exemplify for the large independent movie-making audience the potential and opportunities that have rapidly become available though the online world.

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Is there a title or subtitle besides TWP which you can tell people about?

Film Industry Gets Challenged by Bloggers First Film: Open Source, Grassroots, Free, Remixable

"What's a 'blog'?". "What do 'bloggers' do?". "'Bloggin' - what's that?". "Where's the 'blogosphere' exactly?". To find an answer to these questions, TheWeblogProject has come to the rescue: here is the first Film for, by and about Bloggers.

TheWeblogProject is the first movie in which everyone can actively participate by sending in video clips. But there is more: TheWeblogProject allows anyone who wants to become the producer of a new independent film release. TheWeblogProjects adopts and puts into action some of the key founding principles of the blogosphere: open, participatory, daring, collaborative, inclusive, created by the people, not by big corporations.

Each movie release will have its own title, editing, scene selection, and soundtrack as each participating blogger will be able to remix and produce a new version of the film by tapping into the vast library of footage and clips gathered during the first phase of the project.

"You'll be able to remaster, edit, transform any or all of the content into your own unique movie - your "personal take" on the blogosphere."

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Circa when is the movie to be released?

The earliest date we have planned for is January 2006. It is possible that as the project grows and more people participate in it we decide to extend its timing, but for now that is what we are looking at.

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Is the movie to be released in the movie theater at first, or will there only be a downloadable version available? Why not in the movie theater for some charity?

No, the movie is intended to be downloaded and viewed mainly online. Theatrical release is only a secondary, if not marginal interest. I believe that the future of movies is not in blockbuster productions costing millions of dollars and meant to be viewed by audiences of millions, but in the unlimited access and availability of video/film content that can be downloaded/streamed and viewed by millions of niche audiences at small prices and just-in-time when they need it. As TWP wants to be a promoter of the revolution taking place in the independent movie production industry thanks to infinite storage and bandwidth that have started to become available recently and the mounting battle from major players to index and provide access to all the video and film content available online.

Why go to a movie theatre anymore, when you can watch it on a large plasma display in the comfort of your home and with your friends, on the date and time you want?

Centralized, mass distribution of video/film content through physical venues that restrict people to specific locations, dates and times is over. The costs and benefits of it make it an impossible contender to the online distribution world where all the rules and facts about production, delivery, shipping and distribution are all completely subverted.

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Are all contributors mentioned in the generic of the movie (also the non-selected)?(and will the names + the url's be in the generic?)

All contributors will be credited in the movie releases where their contributions are used. It is possible that also those whose contributions have not been used, will be credit too, for having participated in the overal process.

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Do you want to share any tips on creating future contributions?

Yes, certainly. Clips should be shot on MiniDV and possibly with a wide angle lense adaptor. I would suggest close-up shots rather than zoomed images from the distance. Make the clips short but very relevant, either by asking questions to someone face-to-face, or by catching a blogger "in action" under peculiar circumstances. Explanations and definitions of what blogs by "non-geeks" are particularly valuable.

Save recorded clips to your computer and after having edited out unnecessary stuff, save as MPEG or Quicktime files at 320 by 240 resolution or better.

The clips will be uploaded to the Internet Archive via CCPublisher (a free tool) or Ourmedia.org, an open ended new resource that hosts and provide access to independent rich-media producers. (More information about this to appear on our blog in the future).

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Do you want to say anything else about TWP?

To learn more about TheWeblogProject and the ideas behind it, please see:

http://tinyurl.com/9cc43

TheWeblogProject premieres a revolutionary and innovative way to movie production, and one which according to its creators, may seriously start to challenge Hollywood in the near future.

TheWeblogProject is in fact the first grassroots film that will be freely distributed, via the Internet and via those very P2P networks seen today as the major threats to Hollywood own sustainability.

"TheWeblogProject is a movie to help people better understand why blogs are important and what it's possible to do with them" says Robin Good, who with Marco Montemagno and Massimo Stella, is one of the three project founders.

There's no charge to participate in the film and the project is fully non-commercial.

To follow the unfolding of the project, TheWeblogProject publishes its own blog, RSS feed and will soon start showcasing clips of the first material submitted.

This entry was posted by Robin Good on Monday, May 9, 2005 at 1:05 AM and is filed under General. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 

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