[sudo-discuss] Open source documentary

Fri Jan 17 11:17:12 PST 2014

do any of the main video editing software packages have a human-readable format of how the edits are made?  I think it would be pretty cool to allow people to contribute source footage from all over, then people can hack together the post production, forking as desired.  alot of fine tuning can go into how you cut and rubberband the audio and video so crowdsourcing this really piques my interest...also does anyone know of open source editing software?  I used to use adobe premiere 5.1 and it was a nightmare.

Jan 17, 2014 08:49:52 AM, ryan.bethencourt at gmail.com wrote:
I'm with Max and think its a wonderful idea Naomi. I'd be happy to participate as a sudo room biohacker :)

On Jan 17, 2014 8:43 AM, "Max Klein" isalix at gmail.com> wrote:
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>On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 7:19 AM, Noemie Serfaty noemieserfaty at gmail.com> wrote:
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Hello sudo-ers

Let me introduce myself, although some of you know me
already. My name is Noémie, I'm French - among other things. 

I discovered sudo-room last September. It was the
first time I set foot in a hackerspace, and it kind of blew my mind. At sudo
room, I discovered the concept of open source, a concept I didn't really know
till then. That, together with a lot of really great encounters and
conversations, kind of changed things for me, and made me realize that even in
what I do in life (films), I can do things completely differently. Up to now
the film industry has been very hierarchical, in many different ways, and it
always made me uncomfortable. Only recently did I understand that if I sense
that something’s not fair, I can actually do something about it. That was an
empowering realization.

>This is so heart-warming to read. 
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So I've been playing with the idea of making an open source documentary film
at/about sudo room. Before I go any further, I would just like to say that I
saw you're trying to agree on a sort of chart about the conditions under which
you'd be willing to have people film at sudo room, and it all seems very
reasonable to me. 

I'd like to expose you my idea, for you to tell me
what you think, and also, if anyone among you would like to participate. I’m
hoping that (at least some of) the ones who will be in the film will also
participate in the making of the film. The project would probably be scattered
over a few months, so that it doesn't feel heavy, but also so that there is
time to develop a genuine narrative, and to follow one or a few projects that
could constitute the backbone of a story. 

The question I've been fiddling with is the following:
how to make it open source? And beyond just putting the footage under CC
license and leaving it available somewhere on the internet, how to make it an
exciting experiment, an opportunity to create new processes in film making that
are non hierarchical and more participative? To me the question is also a
pragmatic one: how can this participative process allow to create compelling films
with a vision, films that people actually want to watch, beyond the open source
community? 
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>A thousand times yes. Reminds me of the quote.
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>“When the structure of a work is one of its themes, another of its themes is art.” - Gertrude Stein
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The idea is to develop a sort of github for editing movies in a collaborative
way, so that as the film is being shot and made, there is a tool online that
allows to do things together: 
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- rate, annotate, underline the footage or parts of it, organize it
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- upload videos, music, etc.

- edit sequences.

- fork the
project to create a different timeline and a different movie.

This tool would
be free of access and available not only to the people involved in the project
but to anyone, and hopefully will generate a cool community of users who want
to be empowered film viewers and makers. To me it's the continuation of
genius director Chris Marker's work with the Medvedkin Groups in the 60's. *
(see below if you want to know more about it!).

>
I've been talking about the possibility of building this tool with a really great
and talented hacker that some of you know, Robert M Ochshorn.  He's already made some great advancement on
the future of video (two works of his:  http://interlace.videovortex9.net also check http://montageinterdit.net) and he'd be excited to continue
with this project. I’m excited too actually! I think it could change the whole
idea of how to make films, and what it is to be a spectator, and what is a
truly participative movie... So I’m offering to do an experiment, and I think
sudo room would definitely be the best place to do it, not only because of all
places, it is the one where I would want to experiment in a fun way. Also
because I envision a really good, touching, fun and awakening movie...  hopefully more than one movie!! I hope that after the 1.0 movie is released, it is only the beginning of an adventure consisting in hacking the movie. Making a different version of it, maybe more than one. 
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I'll be in Oakland starting from February and I'm
thinking of spending some time at sudo - probably for other projects as well.
I'd like to take this time to think of how to do it, what story (ies) to tell,
talk about the project to whomever among you is interested in participating in
it, and see more concretely how it could be done in a participative way, but
also with a vision, and a unity, so that it actually has a reach. 

I wrote this email today because I’d like everyone to
know about it, and open a discussion that I hope will mostly take place in real
life when I’ll be here in February rather than on this email list, although I
would be happy to already get some feedback, questions, advice or ideas that
you think are relevant at this stage… 
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>I love this idea. As well as sudoers being involved, I think it'd be cool to work on it with some other groups who'd be excited. For instance the film-studies groups at Bay Area Public School (radicals in our same building) and others. In that way, sudoers could learn film-making theory, and film-makers could learn open-source theory. I'd love to dedicate some time to the project.
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>--notconfusing
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Thank you!

A bientôt :)
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Noémie

* Chris Marker
went to film the factory strikes in Besancon; and when he showed his film to
the workers, they said that he’s completely incompetent, that it does not
represent their point of view at all, that this director from Paris is just
like the bosses that exploit them. Chris Marker agreed that the film was filmed
from his point of view, and created with the workers the Medevkin groups. He shared
with them the material, the means and the knowhow to create their own movies,
and helped them to re-edit his own footage. Some of the films of the Medvedkin
groups are amazing.
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>-- 
>Noémie Serfaty
>108 rue du Faubourg du Temple
>75011 Paris
>Tel: 06 27 76 88 84
>Tel: 01 71 50 51 82
>noemieserfaty at gmail.com

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