People love to watch movies, people love to use social media, people hate talking politics. What do you get when you combine all three of these things together. Your Facebook friends trying to convince you to sway to their political ideology. I've seen many people post things along the lines of "You have to watch this youtube video, it will change your opinion of Trump" "Don't trust Hillary, just watch this video and you'll see what I mean." Or "I can't stand Trump and just look at this video to see why." These are all comments in one form or another that I've seen across multiple social media sites. It seems like 2016 is the year of social media and politics, even more so than 2012.
When it comes to actual film though, not just youtube videos. There are very few political activists who like to use film as a medium to sway people. Michael Moore is a very well known political activist who tries to approach his material as unbiased as possible. However, his outcome is almost always biased towards favoring a liberal leftist point of view. Similarly, Dinesh D'Souza uses his documentaries to try and approach politics as unbiased as possible but ends up biasing his films more towards the conservative right.
These two documentary directors are polar opposites of each other. Yet, when you look at the critics ratings for both sides you see a clear winner. It's no secret that Hollywood and the majority of critics favor the leftist ideology just based on these two individual's work. What matters more though is the outcome of the election and if we were to base our winner purely off of the popularity of Facebook, Trump would win. If we were to announce the winner based purely off of youtube then it would be a close tie, and finally off of the films about them, Trump would win. Luckily, it's not as easy as just watching a few videos and choosing the next president based off of how good the other side demonized the other. Though some people might argue, that it is that easy and in the end all that matters is the electoral college.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Monday, October 10, 2016
Crowdsourcing & Film
I don't have any experience when it comes to crowdsourcing for a film, however I've seen it done a lot by other people. Usually for small independent films or even fan films. One of the biggest pros to crowdsourcing with film is that it allows creative experienced or inexperienced filmmakers a chance to produce a film that they want to see without having to get a studio involved. All you need is the equipment, the cast and crew, as well as the knowledge.
That being said, it's still very hard to get a project running and off the ground. You have to market and share like crazy online with friends and family to even come close to meeting the target goal. Usually these films don't have a large enough audience to reach their goals.
As I've stated many times before, I'm a big Star Wars fan, and I've seen a couple Star Wars fan films pop up here and there on kickstarter.com. This is kind of a tricky scenario because licensed IPs are owned by large corporations and if they want to they can easily shutdown any unauthorized/unlicensed person or studio who wants to make a fan film. Most of the time, they are pretty lenient and actually encourage people to be creative and make fan films, however, they do not allow you to make money off of them and that's where crowdsourcing can be a tricky situation. I can easily see a situation where a fan film has reached its target goal on kickstarter but the studio ends up pocketing the cash and not actually finishing their project. I can't imagine this happens often but it is a possible problem. These are the kinds of people that ruin it for others and make independent filmmakers more untrustworthy.
All in all, I really like the idea of crowdsourcing and what it can accomplish. It has a lot of potential and it can really make things easier for people who wish to try their hand at filming. However, I also understand that it's not always an easy thing to do and that there can be many complications that involve the people involved with the projects, especially inexperienced ones. You are 100% reliant on whether you reach that target goal and if you don't then your project is doomed. At least they are given the opportunity though.
That being said, it's still very hard to get a project running and off the ground. You have to market and share like crazy online with friends and family to even come close to meeting the target goal. Usually these films don't have a large enough audience to reach their goals.
As I've stated many times before, I'm a big Star Wars fan, and I've seen a couple Star Wars fan films pop up here and there on kickstarter.com. This is kind of a tricky scenario because licensed IPs are owned by large corporations and if they want to they can easily shutdown any unauthorized/unlicensed person or studio who wants to make a fan film. Most of the time, they are pretty lenient and actually encourage people to be creative and make fan films, however, they do not allow you to make money off of them and that's where crowdsourcing can be a tricky situation. I can easily see a situation where a fan film has reached its target goal on kickstarter but the studio ends up pocketing the cash and not actually finishing their project. I can't imagine this happens often but it is a possible problem. These are the kinds of people that ruin it for others and make independent filmmakers more untrustworthy.
All in all, I really like the idea of crowdsourcing and what it can accomplish. It has a lot of potential and it can really make things easier for people who wish to try their hand at filming. However, I also understand that it's not always an easy thing to do and that there can be many complications that involve the people involved with the projects, especially inexperienced ones. You are 100% reliant on whether you reach that target goal and if you don't then your project is doomed. At least they are given the opportunity though.
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Content Sharing Sites as a Creative Tool for Filmmakers
When it comes to creating film and the desire to share your creation with the rest of the world, there are many ways to do that this day and age. Youtube.com is a fantastic site to upload and share your creations with other people publicly or privately. However, it has some flaws which keep it from being the best option all of the time.
Google owns youtube but can be pretty strict when it comes to enforcing rules regarding usage of copyrighted material. That's fine, but just like with the remixes and the read and write culture as discussed by Lawrence Lessig in his TedTalk "Laws the Choke Creativity" there comes a price with this enforcement. It restricts creativity and demotivates people to try and create something new that borrows from other people. Many great artists have borrowed from other people historically speaking, especially with music and film. I understand that we need the laws to be enforced in order to keep people from making money off of other people's work, but from my perspective it seems like most people who use well known works are just young people trying to be creative and aren't looking to make money.
There are other alternatives to Youtube out there where you can watch videos. Vimeo is another good site that offers someone the ability to upload their videos to the site and share it with others across the globe.
I think that one of the most useful tools in regards to using content sharing sites is that you can upload user reviews, fan films, and even music videos. People who enjoy a particular type of music, review personality, and cinematic universe can find channels that upload content for other fans to watch. I have found plenty of users who upload work to youtube. Another option is that it makes it easy to commercialize a particular skill you have. If you are great at cooking, doing makeup tutorials, playing an instrument, then sites like Youtube allow you to take advantage of that skill if you get enough subscribers and viewers.
It's a great resource for aspiring filmmakers as well, you can see works done by other filmmakers and even watch older films that have been uploaded to Youtube. Youtube is one of my favorite tools and I will most likely always use it as a resource when it comes to learning how to do something.
Google owns youtube but can be pretty strict when it comes to enforcing rules regarding usage of copyrighted material. That's fine, but just like with the remixes and the read and write culture as discussed by Lawrence Lessig in his TedTalk "Laws the Choke Creativity" there comes a price with this enforcement. It restricts creativity and demotivates people to try and create something new that borrows from other people. Many great artists have borrowed from other people historically speaking, especially with music and film. I understand that we need the laws to be enforced in order to keep people from making money off of other people's work, but from my perspective it seems like most people who use well known works are just young people trying to be creative and aren't looking to make money.
There are other alternatives to Youtube out there where you can watch videos. Vimeo is another good site that offers someone the ability to upload their videos to the site and share it with others across the globe.
I think that one of the most useful tools in regards to using content sharing sites is that you can upload user reviews, fan films, and even music videos. People who enjoy a particular type of music, review personality, and cinematic universe can find channels that upload content for other fans to watch. I have found plenty of users who upload work to youtube. Another option is that it makes it easy to commercialize a particular skill you have. If you are great at cooking, doing makeup tutorials, playing an instrument, then sites like Youtube allow you to take advantage of that skill if you get enough subscribers and viewers.
It's a great resource for aspiring filmmakers as well, you can see works done by other filmmakers and even watch older films that have been uploaded to Youtube. Youtube is one of my favorite tools and I will most likely always use it as a resource when it comes to learning how to do something.
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