ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

10 years ago - Alwyne Kennedy

I too have noticed the increasing muddle and sprawl. Posts have been appearing in inappropriate bulletins galore. May I suggest that instead of having different bulletins, simply issue one, with category breakdowns, and ensure no posts feature in more than one category.

10 years ago - Ben Mole

I wouldn't split paid or unpaid. The quality of a project or relationship HUGELY supersedes whether you're going to get paid - which is usually NMW or close to it. If a few hundred quid is what drives your decisions you're in the wrong place anyway. There are plenty of excellent sites and bulletins for paid work - which we all use to pay the mortgage etc. This site is for collaboration, and relationship building, not making money.

10 years ago - Peter Spencer

I love the thinking that people who make music videos and documentaries are not 'film makers' yet people who want to 'collaborate' on shorts and features soemhow are....because of course many great directors arrive at features by other routes, Ridley Scott via adverts amongst others. If they are creating then I think they have a place, we already have too many 'screenwriters' who spend years on one draft, never move on, never write anything new or make anything, they just sit there waiting to be discovered while attending endless seminars, hoping that someone will, finally, tell them 'the secret' and let them in...

An excellent director I recently worked with came to his first feature via making promos so no doubt you would have excluded him too, and yet his experience of working quickly and resourcefully and having to find fresh angles has released in him a great flair for film making, brilliant visual style as well as making him an excellent editor. There is no 'prescibed' route, those of us who 'get there' all do so by very individual means. So why not get on with your own work and leave them to it.

10 years ago - Kelie Petterssen

Hi Jon,

Really sorry you feel this way. When people join up to SP, they are automatically subscribed to the filmmakers bulletin. We wanted to make sure that while new members were finding there way around the site, they didn't miss out on projects if they were particularly interested in other areas of film. If you would prefer that the filmmakers bulletin is for short/feature fiction only, we can definitely review this?

All the best,

Kelie

10 years ago - Vasco de Sousa

That would be great Cath. If people had options to see what they wanted to see, and make the lists as complete or as targeted as they wanted, then I think the relevance would increase.

Cheers,
Vasco

10 years ago - Karel Bata

Worth remembering that the people who want change are the most likely to speak up here, and those who are content will remain silent.

Yes, it used to be one bulletin, and a bit of a mess, but the layout was different and has improved since.

Reminding people to be succinct in their choice of titles is always a good thing.

10 years ago - John Lubran

Whilst none of us should take our own case for a generality, I broadly agree with Ben. However there is a clear aspirational force for many within this Shooters community to be able to make film making a viable 'day job'and even a successful business, it's not just for the independently moneyed or otherwise 'day jobbed' enthusiastic hobbyist. The path to success is as varied as the individuals on it. The lay out of this website is only important up to the point where it provides the diverse networking and collaborative interfaces that people need; not just for those of us who talk a lot on these lists.

10 years ago - cath le couteur

Hi Jon/Alwyne,

Thanks for this. Very useful for us. In terms of current work - we’re re-vamping FOTM at the moment, also working on expanding functionality/features for messaging.

But ‘Bulletins’ is on our list for later this year. We're thinking of collapsing the bulletins into one - with categories. So pretty much exactly as Alwyne says - you’d select the categories you want to receive and that’s what you’d get, as a single bulletin. Which would also alleviate Jon’s point about repeats coming in.

As part of that process we should also look at where/how we should condense the amount of information presented as well. Ie titles could be expandable/contractable. Is it valuable seeing the amount of replies on Q/A, or are shorter ‘summary’ bulletins more useful. We need to strike a balance so that a single curated bulletin doesn’t also become overwhelming.

Any thoughts - from you both - and everyone else be massively helpful.

Chrs
Cath
SP

10 years ago - Vasco de Sousa

I stopped reading the screenwriter's bulletin as much because of the muddle on that one some time ago.

I can remember when it was all one list, with too much stuff, and the kind of sign of relief when there were multiple bulletins. It was good at first though, to have everyone together and to see an editor's point of view contrasted by an animator's and an actor's.

That said, what I always thought would be more useful is a paid and a voluntary/collaborative divide in bulletins. I don't need a newsletter every day if there are no paid jobs that day. (Not that I still look for work here, I'm kind of clued up by now where the real work is.)

If I were a techie running a site, I would have an option for tabs or modules within a bulletin. There would be one bulletin, but you'd tick boxes on what kind of work would show up (like, only paid editor jobs, paid and unpaid acting work but only in the UK, discussions, Q and A.) I don't know what kind of techies you have here, that's just how I would do it.

"Community" could be its own bulletin, and maybe the discussions could be the one newbies are automatically signed up to, but can opt out of. That way, people who are addicted to (or annoyed or distracted by) discussions can opt out of it, and people who are here mainly to help or to learn can dig right in.

10 years ago - cath le couteur

Really interesting Vasco. Great to hear this.

Yes to a division on paid/lo/collab, so you can select to only see paid. Really interesting about forking community out to a seperate bulletin. I'm not sure. Because you could also select to receive (or not), and whether to receive from certain categories too.
That would work right? We keep it as one bulletin, you select what you want (jobs, community, funds, events+location etc). Rather than splitting out all community into another bulletin?

Chrs
Cath
SP