reallybigroadtrip | A geek, a bus, many guests & a huge country to explore.

Video[game] Tuesday

It might be May Day, but it’s a pretty miserable Tuesday out there in Adelaide-land; cold, grey, rainy and heading down to 9 degrees later in the week. That is a rare thing around here, and I know the rain is good for the land, so I’m not (really) complaining. But when you’re from the UK (especially North Wales/Manchester) you can’t help but look forward to blue skies.

So… I have a couple of video-type-things to bring some sunshine (and desert) in to brighten up (y)our days…

Desert videogame

First off, I was introduced to this fantastic Flash-based videogame last week when I was poorly (thanks Alex Kelly for being a constant supply of awesome*). It’s quite gorgeous both in the way it looks and how it was produced. I can’t embed it here so to give you a flavour I’ll show you the video that talks about the people behind it. I encourage you to go and have a play, though, it’s really cute.

What I love about it is the sense of pride and ownership the kids have – you can see it in the video, in their faces, but also in the characteristics of the game. Spawned from a community project over in Roebourne in the Pilbara, WA, the kids were first involved in making a zombie film. From that basic engagement a few of them decided they wanted to work together again under the name ‘LovePunks’… and you can’t deny the world needs a lot more love right now.

Thanks (again) to Alex* I’ve already made contact with Big hART, the group behind it, and hope to catch up with them when the bus and I are in their vicinity!

River/ocean perambulation

Secondly, last weekend (after being sick for a week) I felt like I needed some fresh air & exercise, so I went for a walk***. It took me five hours to stroll along the Torrens River from Thebarton to the ocean, and then up to Grange. It was a stunningly warm, clear day and I took a bunch of photos. Since I’m trying to get better at making videos, I thought I’d have a play with them. So here’s a really basic little slideshow put to the beautiful soundtrack of Rosie Catalano‘s “Because of the way it goes” taken from her freemusicforfilmmakers blog (because she’s nice like that**).

PLUGS

Good people are behind these things and some of them need your love…

* Alex and her roller derby team “Malice Springs” (seriously, best roller derby team name EVER) have a crowdfunding campaign to get a roller derby rink in Alice Springs. You should support the hell outta this, I know I have!

** Rosie is a truly delightful lady with heartwarming compositions and a heavenly voice. Anyone in Sydney on May 24th should go to her ‘intimate, candlelit warehouse’ video launch event for the single “My Secrets”: http://www.rosiecatalano.com/my-secrets-video-clip-launch/

*** Thanks to Jason Sweeney for suggesting the route for my walk and Amy Milhinch for being my current Host. Jason is currently seeking sound-based contributions for his work with Vitalstatistix‘ Adhocracy. If you make such things you can contribute via Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/adhocrasound2012

on learning (and failing) by doing

I promised that in doing reallybigroadtrip that I would learn and fail publicly. I promised myself, just quietly, that I would publish a weekly video to help push my crowdfunding campaign, improve my skills as a documentary filmmaker, and start to share some of the issues that reallybigroadtrip will cover.

reallybigroadtrip campaign trends in day 1!

The beauty of this idea is that I’m learning by doing. I’m getting myself out there, and explaining what I do and how I do it, while I’m trying to make what I want to do a reality – kind of getting over that chicken/egg thing. The downside is that video is really not my strong skill, so what I’ve in effect set myself is the task of using one of my least developed assets to sell something that means the world to me.

Frankly it doesn’t really matter if I get a video out every Friday. No one will yell at me or fire me for not doing my job. In fact very few people would even notice whether it was out at all, never mind go and watch it. But I would know.

So… this is a compromise. Instead of posting the video I planned to share here today, I’ll share my learning curves from a process I’m still struggling with. But I’ll share this because have learned something really interesting (to me, at least).

Firstly, what was the video and why haven’t I published it? I figured the first (post-launch) video for a crowdfunding program should be about crowdfunding as a concept. Crowdfunding is a relatively new thing and something I get asked to explain a great deal. If I had blogged about it I would talk about its origins, explain the model and why it’s powerful, reference the comparison to ‘traditional’ funding and offer a few comments about how these things might or might not work together, alongside tax breaks etc, to help aide a more sustainable creative economy. I would provide images, references, quotes and links. It would take time to research and articulate, but I would enjoy it because that’s my confort zone.

But reallybigroadtrip takes me purposefully outside my comfort zone. So I promised myself that I would make more video. The media arts world is frequently not very well documented, and I want to increase the amount of documentation that is out there. I am not a filmmaker, but I have been around filmmakers nearly all of my adult life. I understand the theory and I’ve even made a few short films, mainly shot using mobile phones and treated as experiments, not serious productions. i don’t even watch a lot of video, so this whole space is relatively unknown to me. I am far from being a proficient editor and where I used to use Final Cut 7 I’m not using the new Final Cut Pro X, which is different enough to throw me considerably. But I’m a determined little bugger, so I have persevered.

And I have struggled. Last week I launched the campaign with a video featuring largely just me. I hate being photographed or filmed. Like 98% of the world I’m not comfortable with my image or the sound of my own voice, so filming and then editing myself is my own private hell. But I kept being told that people wanted to see the person behind the project, so I bit my lip and went for it. The result is, well… tatty. It lacks perfection in the cuts, has no transitions, contains to much information cut too quickly together, using shoddy titles and a rough version of an ident-idea, has no sound balance, and features what people keep telling me is a “nervous Fee, one who isn’t as smiley and cheeky as we know her to be”. But it was at least “raw and honest”. And above all, it was published! (Oh and thanks yet again to all the lovely folk who held my hand as I went though this first publishing process, your feedback & support was invaluable!).

This week I thought it would be different. I had been interviewing a few people (over Skype) about their experiences with crowdfunding. I would simply chop those together, using the questions asked as the basic structure and find flow within the footage. And overall it would be easier because it wouldn’t feature me (at least, as much). Um, yeah. If only life was so easy. I’ve been nomadic since last September and am often reliant on my little 3G modem for internet access. This means Skype calls vary from ‘stasis/dropout’ to ‘clean/high resolution’ with apparently no logic. Some of my footage is frankly un-usable, made even more frustrating by the fact that underneath the staccato technical delivery is a lot of smart observation fighting to get heard.

So, what I’m admitting with all this is that I just don’t want to publish the footage I currently have in its current form. I can add to it, I can find other ways to represent bits that are too annoying to just watch/listen to. But I want to take the time to do that properly. So today there won’t be another video. But today you get to see what I learned, and I get to note all this for personal future reference.

Lessons

filmmaking is like print. I don’t typically do print because I like to be able to make minute changes at a moment’s notice. I like writing and blogging because you can articulate your argument’s precise position, add links and justifications on the fly, and then publish it knowing you can always go back and edit it when needed. video, and print, mean you have to be much better prepared and committed to the exact final destination at the point of capture. much less flexible/enjoyable to my current way of working. but if this is a direction I have chosen to take I have to realign my perception, expectations and practice accordingly.
what I was trying to make by video is never going to be the blog post I would have otherwise written. both require significant dedication and focus but don’t replace each other. they are different communication styles and have different purposes – and often, audiences. maybe i need to do both while i’m gaining confidence in video, or maybe i need to let go of one to focus on the other.
the conversations within my interviews might ‘flow’, but i need to have thought-through – in fact, storyboarded – the final video a great deal more articulately before I get to the point of interview. going back for a re-shoot is really not often an option, even if all i’m re-shooting is myself.
i need to honestly consider if i personally need to be included in the video and if i do, just accept that instead of avoiding it. maybe then my segments will be done with a bit more fun instead of the ‘serious fee-to-camera’ face i seem to have adopted.
if the skype connection is just not good enough, then stop the call and reschedule. it’s surely better to wait until you can capture at the quality you want rather than thinking ‘oh i can salvage something later’. sure i could ask for a re-shoot, but the person i interviewed already generously gave their time for my needs. to ask that again feels like a serious imposition.
my lovely thespian colleague Kate Foy says “smile”… but how do you smile when you’re not sure what you’re doing, hate being on camera, are worried about whether or not you’re even in focus (which is rare when i film myself, it would seem) and generally just feel like a fool?! as a person who enjoys spending quite a lot of time alone, I talk to myself a great deal more than is probably considered normal. so maybe i should cut to the chase and just video those little self-narrations. over time i’ll get so used to it that it will become perfectly normal – just like when my MA lecturer forced me to do the dreaded public speaking every week until I lost my fear of that too.
i need to leave much more time for the edit. i don’t really know my tools (hell i don’t know what I’m doing in all sorts of ways) so i need to give myself more room to make mistakes without the pressure of a deadline (although deadlines are useful motivators too).
i saw Life in Movement this week. it was stunning and moved me in all sorts of ways. not least it made me realise that my ‘style’ (if i have one) is far more functional than visual. i need to watch more documentaries, learn how they maintain a flow and a rhythm in their storytelling without identing each section with a little title header like it’s some kind of database.
this isn’t a competition, and there’s no hurry. maybe understanding that will help me let go and just publish *some* kind of video at *some* stage in the next week or so, instead of ‘a video I’m proud of that explains what I think needs to be shared: today’.

So, that’s it. These are the lessons that this week has brought. I have promised myself to stop apologising, but have still been told I act far too apologetically (including the lack of smiling!). I have also been told my blog posts are too long. Both these things are true. But I’m feeling my way through all this and just letting myself learn from what comes. It’s all about the journey…

Oh and on a different, but wholly related, matter. Today marks one week in to my thirteen week campaign and I’m near-as-dammit up to 10% of my target! I think all-in-all I can chalk that up to a pretty good start! If you are enjoying my growing pains and haven’t stumped up a fiver or two already, then at least please share the call with your networks. And thank you to everyone who has shown nothing but support for my journey to date x

reallybigroadtrip needs a bus! contribute to @feesable‘s crowdfunding campaign to help #rbrtOZ become a reality! http://reallybigroadtrip.pozible.com

on Rear Window

The Rear Window stop motion film has been doing the rounds for a while, but I only took the time to watch it just now (I’ve been a bit distracted getting my own video out).

For anyone who missed it:

Wow.

I mean, just, … wow. The thought, time and attention to detail that has gone into that work is just stunning. Usually I see something like this and I think ‘beautiful, yes’ and then I retweet it, or share it somehow. But this time I want to also make a comment.

I’m not a lawyer, I haven’t researched this and I’m doing that dreadful rapid-response-internet-culture thing of stating my mind without waiting for details. But it strikes me that Rear Window’s original footage is not in the public domain. Nor is it likely to be Creative Commons licensed. That means this beautiful piece of work, this homage to Hitchcock, this celebration of what new technology and distribution can do for old gems, would be illegal. It means that Jeff Desom, the artist who learned, honed and crafted his skill so attentively that he could create something so much more than the source (while not taking anything from it) would be a criminal.

If that is truly the case, then: That. Is. Outrageous.

This remix practice, standing on the shoulders of giants, is not harming anyone. It takes nothing away. It only recognises beauty from what has come before, nurtures the source, allows it to blossom and then generously hands something back.

If the SOPA / PIPA / CISPA / whatever-the-hell-name-they-come-up-with-next brigade have their way, this kind of work would increasingly struggle to be seen. This totally harmless, Hitchcock-celebrating gem, would just get stamped on by people claiming to “protect” rights holders.

I’m not saying Piracy per se is a good thing, or that anyone should get ripped off. But the internet is about abundance, not scarcity. What are we so desperately scared of? We should be investing in creativity in this environment, enable it to be found amongst dust, nurtured until it blossoms and can generously hand something back. Otherwise we’re just allowing some strangers to lock our cultural sources away in lead boxes and kill them forever.

reallybigroadtrip needs a bus!

Aaaaaaand so it begins…

reallybigroadtrip needs a bus, and so today, on Friday 13th, I’m launching my first ever crowdsourced funding campaign. I need $25,000 to get the bus and do some basic modifications in order to get going. Anything I can raise above that means I can kit it out with better facilities and equipment, and invite more people to join me as my Nomads in Residence.

So here’s my first campaign video. Be nice, now…

If you tweet, please use this (or something like it, with the hashtag):

Help @feesable crowdfund toward a bus for #rbrtOZ: http://reallybigroadtrip.pozible.com

Noise

From this moment on my friends, family, colleagues, social media network, strangers on streets and anyone who basically has anything to do with me physically or digitally will either learn more about me than they ever needed (or wanted) to know, or will hate me more than they ever thought possible. So I’ll say it now because i have promised myself it’s the one time I’m going to say this:

I. am. truly. truly. sorry!

I’m sorry that I’m going to be very very noisy in the coming weeks.
I’m sorry that I’m going to be pounding down your doors begging you to give me money and asking for you to help me spread the word.
I’m sorry that I’m going to embarrass myself (and maybe therefore you by association) in order to create more noise that results in more begging.
I really truly am so very incredibly sorry. I have never done anything like this before. I am fiercely independent, I never ask for help or money from anyone, ever. Until now. But now I need your help.

In my defence, it’s really important that i say this now and don’t say it again; it’s vital that I’m not ashamed about the begging side of this. I’m not even vaguely ashamed about what will be created by going through this process. After all, a grant application is still begging, it’s just much more quiet, restrained and polite.

The noise I make and the confidence that I display (regardless of how I feel at the time) are all part of this process. The more noise I make the more attention I’ll receive. The more attention I receive the more people hear about my call and therefore can choose to contribute to my begging bowl. But more importantly, the more attention I receive the more likely I will be able to attract ‘other’ types of attention – the stuff that only celebrities get, things like sponsorship and radio interviews/newspaper articles, and other people wanting to make noise about the noise that I make. A huge amount of my ‘success’ here depends on the kind of other people who help me shout out about it all. And that means YOU.

Stats

So here, for the record, are how things stand at the moment. I’m not doing this to show off (um, clearly!). I’m doing this to publicly take account of the ‘return on investment’ from generating all this noise. When I’m consulting I advise that people do this when they’re developing their digital strategies & trying new things. It’s worth doing so that you can see what strategies work or don’t & can realign your efforts accordingly. Most people (if they do this at all) do it quietly. But I’ve promised to try and fail loudly, so here y’go.

As of Friday 13th April 2012, I have:
– 3946 Twitter followers.
– 877 Facebook friends (which I keep to people I’ve actually met and/or would call at least ‘an acquaintance’ so please forgive me if I don’t add you until we have at least had a significant conversation).
– 146 Facebook Page ‘likes’ (something I’ve been careful to build slowly and gently rather than pimp myself out… until now).
– 431 Google+ … what, friends? followers? (I’m not even sure what to *do* with the people I’ve never met/heard of /spoken to on my G+ account but I was curious to see what would happen if I opened the floodgates and said ‘yeah, sure, come on in’. and besides, hangout is cool…).
– 122 Foursquare followers – something I’m careful with since I will say ‘yes’ to most people but I don’t always check in so frequently and when I do, honestly, it tends to be after i’ve left. Just in case.
– 397 was my biggest blog post audience in one day (5,199 views all-time).
– 35 average daily views for my blog.
– 12 newsletter subscribers (another thing I’m growing slowly).
– $1200 grant from XTK (for projects that don’t make sense!) and $160 in Paypal donations.
– 1 video published (but sooooooo many more to come!).

geekartbook shopping

I’m a little bit excited. I just ordered two books that I’ve been desperate to get hold of for ages. I’ve been putting it off because I’m nomadic and trying to keep as little physical stuff as possible lately. But I can’t get these as eBooks, and things are going to get really interesting around here soon. I deserve an inspirational boost every now and then, don’t I?!

I’ve tweeted about them several times before, and, as a disclaimer, I do know them all personally*, but again: BUY THESE BOOKS! They are essential reading if you care about the history of International New Media Arts practice. I’m not saying they’re the only ones that matter, but they’re gold dust to me. By all means please share any other favourites, I’m about to spend a lot more time reading such things.

(*no bribery has taken place)

Synthetics Aspects of Art and Technology in Australia, 1956-1975

I was at the launch event last year in Sydney for ‘Synthetics, Aspects of Art and Technology in Australia, 1956-1975‘ by Stephen Jones. It’s huge, and the very notion of it made me grin. I have so much to learn about this country, and what better place to start than an aussie geek arts history lesson?!

I met Stephen when he was a peer assessor for one of the Digital Culture Fund grant rounds at the Australia Council. I’ve been promising I’ll buy a copy as soon as I get the bus, but I can’t wait anymore!

Euphoria & Dystopia

And, recently released, Euphoria & Dystopia Edited by Sara Diamond & Sarah Cook. This tree (seriously, it’s massive) captures a small segment of activities around the incredible Banff New Media Institute from 1995-2005. I am spoilt to have spent many good times there since 2001. Each visit slightly changed both my professional and personal world, just a little bit. Enough to reveal a whole world that I knew I wanted to be more deeply part of. I’ll never stop being grateful to BNMI for providing such holistic, generous, inspiring, challenging experiences to a relative newbie. And such a beautiful community of people, each gathering hand-curated by Sara Diamond.

I consider myself very lucky that I am part of a peer community who care so much for what came before. We all stand on the shoulders of giants; epic research efforts like these help us know who we’re thanking. So I’m thanking Stephen, Sara, Sarah, and all the other contributors to this and other media arts histories. Much digital culture has a bad habit of not being well documented or archived. Far too much great work has been lost, corrupt, outdated, erased or requires some particular hardware or software combination that’s impossible to find these days. It will be a real delight to work my way through these valuable fragments as I’m pushing on to the next chapter in my personal creative history.