I’ve just added some links to the blogroll on the right hand side of this blog that link to sites working to protect our digital rights. The more excited I get by the possibilities for filmmakers in the digital age the more aware I am that we need to fight to continue to exercise our creativity (flexible copyright law is key here) and keep the channels of distribution open (if you don’t know what net neutrality is I really urge you to go to Save The Internet now). This is our video republic, our commons, our future.

With regards to copyright, watch this TED video from last year in which Lawrence Lessig, a well-known expert on copyright issues, explains his vision for reconciling creative freedom with marketplace competition.

Scott Kirsner of CinemaTech was commissioned by ITVS to investigate how indepedent filmmakers are working with new technologies and to answer the following questions:

Opening Up Production to Participation
During pre-production and production, how are filmmakers communicating with audiences, widely dispersed teams, funders and prospective subjects in new ways? What new opportunities for involvement and participation are they exploring?

Finding New Audiences
Once a project is completed and ready for release/broadcast, how are filmmakers using blogs, social networks, games and other technologies to reach audiences that will care about their project?

New Distribution Opportunities
How are filmmakers presenting their work on websites, cell phones, iPods and the new generation of Internet-connected TVs and set-top boxes? Do these distribution avenues create conflict with more traditional outlets? Are there substantial economic benefits or simply promotional positives?

You should check out the suggested strategies for connection-creating, marketing and promotion and distribution.

Case studies include:

Byron Hurt:HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
Katy Chevigny: ELECTION DAY
Curt Ellis: KING CORN
David Iverson: STILL LIFE
Hunter Weeks and Josh Caldwell: 10 MPH
Tiffany Shlain: The Tribe

Shooters,

If your film is engaged with campaigning for social change, you might be interested in co-pilot.net as a means of discussing and seeding your project. Please come back to Tools to report when you have had a chance to try it out. Launches 22 October:

co-pilot.net is an online resource designed to collate knowledge and experiences and enable open discussion for those working at the intersection of art, technology and social change.

Anyone is welcome to join, share and exchange views, resources, skills and experiences. co-pilot.net features case studies of convergence between the spheres of art, technology and social change as well as interviews, podcasts, videos and lists of useful resources. Users can add content, comment on topics and direct people to their own or other interesting projects.

There currently exists an extensive unmapped landscape of socially engaged work that inspires change through art, technology and participation. This includes working with older people, young people and the socially excluded through the ever-expanding field of new and emerging creative technologies. It is impossible to provide a one-size-fits-all toolkit for a terrain as complex and diverse that is still rarely discussed in a free and open fashion.

co-pilot.net provides the framework to aggregate the wealth of experience and knowledge held by talented individuals and groups to inspire discussion, exchange and action.

From 22 October to 2 December 2008 co-pilot.net will host a live online debate. Every week a guest host with extensive experience in the field of art, technology or social change will upload information and lead a discussion forum for the exploration of issues and debate.

You can contribute to the growing pool of knowledge, resources and debate at http://co-pilot.net.

Calling all Scottish Shooters,

Early Bird Booking for Partnerships 2.0 closes at 5pm, Wednesday 10 September 2008.

The Forum, which is being is being hosted by the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, will explore how to develop audiences for the arts, film and the wider creative industries by maximising (Web 2.0) technology and new partnerships.

Chaired by Scottish broadcaster and journalist Muriel Gray, international keynote speakers include Zurich-based Gerd Leonhard, one of the world’s leading media futurists, and Brian Newman, CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute in New York. Pat Kane, lead singer with Scottish band Hue and Cry, will lead a seminar on a musician’s quest to find a business model in this age of networks. Further participants – just confirmed – include Richard Hadley, Audiences Europe Network, Hannah McGill, Edinburgh International Film Festival, and Roberta Doyle, National Theatre of Scotland.

The Forum will attract a wide audience of professionals, united by their passion for audiences and audience development.

For booking information, please visit www.scottisharts.org.uk or contact forum08@scottisharts.org.uk.

HD EXPO is coming to NYC (September 22-25) after seven successful years establishing itself as the premier trade show, education, and community event for the content creation industry. Registration for the EXPO is FREE in advance and includes all panels, exhibit hall and Intensive Workshops which sounds like a very good deal to us indeed! Workshops include Sony, Panasonic and Adobe equipment and software and there will be panels on subjects like The Art of Editing in the 21st Century: Creativity and Technology – plus lots of exhibitors to check out.

You can stream panels and workshops from past expos on their website too.

Those who have been following the recent is-the-sky-falling-on-independent-film debate might be interested in The Conversation “a two-day conversation — definitely not a conference — about the future of cinema, video, games, and telling stories with new media” coming up in Berkeley, CA later this year and bought to you by Ken Goldberg, Scott Kirsner, Tiffany Shlain and Lance Weiler. Here’s more info about some of the speakers and subject areas to be covered:

• Reed Hastings / Founder & CEO, Netflix
  How is the home viewing experience evolving?
• Phil Tippett / Founder, Tippett Studio
  Jonathan Rothbart / Co-founder, The Orphanage
  The future of visual effects
• Sara Pollack, Film Manager, YouTube
  Alex Afterman, Founder, Heretic Films
  Tiffany Shlain, Director, “The Tribe” & “Connected: A Declaration of Interdependence”
  Jonathan Marlow, Director of Content Development, Vudu
  The new landscape of distribution
• Mike Curtis, HD for Indies
  Jeremiah Birnbaum, Founder, San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking
  Insights from the edge of digital cinematography and post-production
• M dot Strange, Animator and Filmmaker, “We Are the Strange”
  Building a fan base online
• Gregg Spiridellis, Co-founder, JibJab Media
  Michael Ferris Gibson, Director, “24 Hours on Craigslist” & Producer, “Truth in Numbers: The Wikipedia Story”
  New avenues for creativity and storytelling
• Michaelene Risley, Independent filmmaker
  New approaches to fundraising
• Alex Lindsay, Founder, Pixel Corps
  Producing high-end series for the Web
• Lance Weiler, Director, “Head Trauma” and Game Developer, “Hope is Missing”
  Peggy Weil, Artist & Game Developer, “Gone Gitmo” and “The Redistricting Game”
  Opportunities at the Convergence of Games and Cinema

This weekend is the Hide and Seek Festival in London (27-29 June) and tomorrow they start with Hide and Speak – a day of discussions on games and the future of play.

Lots of Toolsy issues being covered and, interestingly, a session considering what might be gained from not using the technology available.

Friday 27 June 2008

- The ARGs Don’t Work, 9.30am-1.00pm
There’s a major problem with the structure of alternate reality games (ARG). How do you keep your core players happy while making something that lets the casual audience in throughout the life of the project? An international panel of ARG designers meet to discuss their experiences and their visions for the future.

- And Some History for Good Measure, 2.30-3.10pm
Pervasive games explore the space where games overlap with other cultural forms. This talk looks at some of the highlights of games-plus-something-else from the last thousand years or so, from an educational arithmetic game of the Middle Ages to alternate rule sets for duelling.

- Taking the Pervasive Game Turing Test, 3.30-5.00pm
The Pervasive Game Turing Test poses this question: could I be having an equal or greater amount of fun playing this game without using technology? This issue has challenged us at Hide and Seek to consider the role of technology in every game that we make. From text messaging to Wii hacks to GPS (Global Positioning System), a panel of games and technology designers discuss the possibilities and pitfalls of going past paper and pen.

Hide and Seek is a festival of social games and playful experiences, running in London from the 27-29 June 2008.

For more information, bookings and the full programme of events visit their website.

Finding useful tools for downloading video from the web can be very confusing.

Check out Liz Gannes’ article on newteevee.com about the different options, their perks and their pitfalls.

Paul Harrill over on Self-Reliant Film has compiled a great list of resources about the Red One digital camera – from forums and wikis to training videos and software.

Great quote from Steven Soderbergh on the Red website: For me, this is Year Zero; I feel I should call up Film on the phone and say, “I’ve met someone.”

So once again Radiohead have pioneered a new and interesting model for distribution

To celebrate this week’s single release (we still have those in England) Radiohead have broken up the song ‘Nude’ into pieces for you to remix.

For those of you who enjoy this sort of thing, you can buy the separate components or ’stems’ (bass, voice, guitar, strings/FX and drums) and remix your own version of the song. You can do this by adding your own beats and instrumentation or just remixing the original parts. More information here: http://www.radioheadremix.com/information/

You can buy the stems here: http://www.radioheadremix.com/buy/

You can upload your finished mixes here http://www.radioheadremix.com and be judged and even voted on by ‘the public’.
You can also create a widget allowing votes from your own website, Facebook or MySpace page to be sent through too.

Hope you enjoy it

For those of you who aren’t that way inclined, Nude is also available in its entirety on CD and 7 inch (UK release) at the usual retail outlets.