Nearly five years ago, my wife and I set out on a road trip across America, armed with a couple of cameras, laptops, and a burning need to tell a story about a growing insurgency against big box stores. What we didn’t have were jobs (I was determined never to work in TV news again), much money in the bank, or any clue what we were going to do with our footage when we got home — it was all “close, but no cigar” with networks like PBS and Discovery, which meant all our effort could conceivably lead to nothing.
But thanks to a pioneering social media strategy, grassroots interest in our film, and really good timing, a lot of people paid attention, and our documentary has been viewed around the world. We continue to get requests to attend community screenings — from Hyannis MA to Port Townsend WA, even as some of the issues have evolved (Wal-Mart has turned over a new leaf, Starbucks is in slow retreat, many Americans now truly mistrust their powerful institutions and believe in “local first.”). We’ve had broadcast deals, and we’ve sold DVD’s. It was probably one of the main reasons why the University of Washington hired me to lead its graduate degree program in digital media. So have we benefited enough? Is it now time to give it away, streaming it for free on Hulu, second only to YouTube when it comes to online video? Isn’t that what you do with your content in the multimedia age?
As a new addition to the MCDM family, I’d like to introduce myself by posting a story regarding my recent travels to South Africa. Looking forward to many great happenings as the Associate Director of the MCDM.
Scott Macklin participated in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Diversity Conference – BREAKING BOUNDARIES, EMBRACING DIFFERENCES in August. Featured in the week of events included a screeing of his film, “Masizakhe: Building Each Other” and follow up panel discussions. This was the film’s homecoming.
“No information is more valuable than experiencing an epiphany” – Epipheo Studios
Have you ever watched an online video that immediately compelled you to find the share tool? Thus born the viral video, a visual experience shared by millions within days.
Last month an entrepreneur, internet marketer and videographer, with a bond formed by shared childhood summers on Whidbey Island, Wash., banned together to introduce a new noun to the global network of shared online multimedia: epipheo (formed from the words “epiphany” and “video”).
Epipheo Studios (ES) launched a beta website epipheo.com to aggregate such works that are not only viral, but “turn a light on” and transform the way people think and live.
“It’s likely that a day will come when creating an epipheo for a new campaign will be as common as writing a press release,” said Jeremy Pryor, ES cofounder.
Pryor dropped out of graduate school in 2001 and put down $1000 to start his first ecommerce business TolkienTown (“store for the Lord of the Rings and other collectibles”), which reached more than $3 million in sales by 2003. In 2004 Pryor cofounded Marketplace Earth, search engine marketing Read more…
The 2009 UW POCKETMEDIA FILM FESTIVAL: “What do U do at the UW?”
A competition of videos shot on cameras that fit in your pocket! The competition runs from April 17 to May 29, 2009. It’s free and open to all UW faculty, staff, students and alumni. Winners will be screened in a final celebration in June, 2009 (date TBD), at the University of Washington.
They say YouTube isn’t making any money. Its bread and butter is user-generated content, although it has managed to draw partnerships with some major Hollywood content providers, such as Fox and Warner Bros. Nevertheless, the money is supposed to be sparse. Then you have Hulu, which got started with content from some of the major players, like NBC Universal and Fox, right off the bat. Hulu is, according to the word on the street, doing very well. And so what we’re looking at is two models, UGC and content from mass media. In other words, a site catering to social media vs. a site catering to mass media (or, instead of simply saying “mass media”, we mean the lumbering, late arrival of mass media content providers to the social media space).
Many of us in MCDM have a working knowledge of pocketmedia, but so far the term has escaped a clear definition -it’s not in wikipedia, can’t find it in Shirky’s writings, so I think it is up to us to define.
We’re about to launch the first ever UW pocketmedia film festival to encourage filmmakers in the UW community – students, alums, faculty and staff – to shoot and submit 90 second films made with a camera that fits in a pocket, like the Flip camera!
We’re working with a great Seattle start-up, zooppa.com
that specializes in video and advertising contests. All the entries will be uploaded to zooppa, and their community will vote on a people’s choice award winner. We’ve also been busy gathering prizes and have some great ones, including an iPod Touch and a Flip camera. Enter your great idea! Tell your friends!
And then, take a few minutes to think about pocketmedia and help define it. We plan to have uwpocketmedia.org live on after the festival as a “community center for filmmakers, developers, content providers, educators, and anyone interested in sharing or learning about storytelling with small video cameras, mobile phones and other electronic devices that are small enough to fit in your pocket.” (working mission statement)
But what else is it? What goes on inside? and what the heck is “pocketmedia”? –need some crowdsource help here. Here’s a list of ideas to get the conversation started –
Pocketmedia is video from your jeans pocket
Pocketmedia is content production and distribution with low barriers to entry
Pocketmedia is a set of tools to share your message broadly
Pocketmeida is a way that everyone can report on events as they happen
Pocketmedia is a method for production of ideas
Pocketmedia is using handheld communications technologies to tell stories
Pocketmedia is a new genre in filmmaking
Pocketmedia is a new set of storytelling tools
Pocketmedia is happening at the University of Washington
[Note from Hanson Hosein, MCDM Director: This is a guest blog post by Donald Giesen, Seattle native, now in Nairobi, Kenya as Executive Director of the East African School of Media Studies. Please see below for Donald's request for donations of any old spare DV cameras you might have.]
Here in Kenya, many media practitioners still hesitate to get on the train that is the internet. Perhaps we are too used to our decrepit, colonial-era locomotives which are never in a hurry to get anywhere. We figure that we can always hop on board even if we’re caught napping when it leaves the station.
But I’m afraid this “train” is more like the bullet trains found in Japan- if you’re not in your seat by the time the whistle blows, you’ve got a looong walk ahead of you.
Strained analogy aside, the changes that the internet has brought in terms of media creation, distribution and consumption are real and those of us who are too slow in embracing this change risk getting left behind.
So when my students were given the opportunity to work on a collaborative project with MCDM, I wouldn’t have dared to let the opportunity pass. Read more…
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