Community Media - Interactive World

There's quite a lot that nonprofits, activists, community workers and creative people can learn from corporate media and advertising in order to make a well-meaning video "go viral."  Much of the advice on viral video is common sense. Follow these simple steps in order to promote your viral video: include a link or preview of your viral video in all your emails; find out where your supporters and communities of interest are; learn about the social and ethical preferences of your viewers; take part in relevant social media conversations and mention your viral video; respond to popular and relevant videos with similar themes; choose an eye-catching thumbnail - remember that this is what will show up in search results; link to a popular event - and release your video to 'correspond' with news items; use keywords from popular events to help people to 'stumble upon' your viral video; post a personalized thought-provoking message ...

Viral videos are short films that reach hundreds of thousands of viewings and attract thousands of comments in a period of days, weeks, or months. Some viral videos are products of creative individuals; others spring from the corporate advertising machine which is worth $700 billion annually. Some are just fun and others aim to influence us in an open, or in a more covert, or secret fashion. A few viral videos have been products of chance, chaos theory scenarios, or a tipping point. Their sudden transnational popularity comes as a shock to their makers. But there are many common features and many unexpected success stories. I have recently made a study of the subject. Here are my findings 11 Laws of Viral Video: 1. Law of Shortness . Most people switch off after 3 minutes. Brevity is the soul of wit. People want to watch something that they can get through while drinking a cup of tea or coffee. However, some of the longer running conspiracy theory or environmental films hav...

“The biggest challenge in the present crisis [2008] is whether we can recover some sense of the connection between money and material reality — the production of specific things, the achievement of recognisably human goals that have something to do with a shared sense of what is good for the human community in the widest sense.” Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, writing in The Spectator (23 September 2008.) "The economic stimulus and the bailouts will not bring back our casino capitalism. And as the meltdown shows no signs of abating, and the bailouts show no sign of working, the recklessness and desperation of our capitalist overlords have increased." (187) "When money becomes worthless, so does government. All traditional standards and beliefs are shattered in a severe economic crisis. The moral order is turned upside down." (188) "They descended into orgies of self indulgence, surrendered their civic and emotional lives to the glitter...

Last night the camp was cleared by the police. If you are interested in these issues you can read my short essay discussing "Faith, Space and Occupation" here . Some time ago, the BBC published a selection of comments on the situation outside St Paul's cathedral in London, where a tented village had been established by "Occupy." Legal notice has just been served on the "Occupiers" who may be forced to leave in 48 hours' time.   George Pitcher, an Anglican priest and former Archbishop of Canterbury's Public Affairs Secretary comments "Talking about these camps cropping up like boils across our city, and indeed the mayor of London shouting at the protesters, "In the name of God and Mammon go!" I think that's really pantomime material and I'm glad that the Church is dissociating itself from it."

Why are so many low-budget and community films let down by poor attention to sound? What do we need to do to make our films a resounding success? The obvious answer is that we live in a world where the visual takes priority. We don't really listen to the sounds around us. In fact we often - without realizing - block out sounds that may be distracting. But when we play back a recording the wrong sounds leap out and obstruct the message. Our golden rules and tips for success with sound are Accept that manufacturers of budget camcorders often cut costs by using a poor microphone device. A small investment of $150 will make a big difference to your recordings. Practise listening to the world around you. How many sounds can you hear? Traffic? The computer's fan? Birdsong? The rustle of your clothes? Your keyboard as you type? A chair creaking? Your breathing? Your heartbeat? (Try to count twenty environmental sounds as a listening exercise with your film crew.) Some back...

Communities have things done to them ; they are seldom in charge of their own destiny . Sometimes it's quite difficult to work out who is really pulling the strings. The sources of power are often hidden and far away. The disparity between donor and beneficiary exists on many levels: North/South; urban/rural; male/female; black/white; bourgeois/worker; West/Oriental; Christian/Islamic and so on. Ideally the funding programme will have been informed by research with the oppressed community in order to ascertain their needs, and their priorities for change. The reality is more likely to be guided by the donors’ existing scheme of values. Their ways of doing things. Their priorities. When we enforce an alien doctrine we do more harm than good. We deal with the wrong priorities. Our efforts, perhaps well-meaning, are misguided. A recurring issue in the field of education and development work which is insufficiently documented is how certain scenarios and pressures ca...

Participation is under attack. We are encouraged to take part but in the process part of us is commodified and sold off. How can people keep hold of the power that is their birthright? Why do I constantly get stuck in the net of someone's else's program(mme) ? In the current exploitative model of participation, my contribution to the web and my use of emails, cell / mobile phones, apps etc chiefly supports global corporate power, because it permits part of me/my world to be stolen for the use of corporate interests; fragments the potential or full force of my personhood from acting on the world; duplicates and replicates the status quo; fuels the engine of consumer capitalism and hinders genuine emancipation; allows components of my personal data to be used for the profit of others; supports surveillance strategies of corporate and governmental agencies; converts my work into free intellectual capital for the gain of others; creates an illus...

When a digital film editor begins to put a film together he has a variety of clips or digital files to choose from. Think of these clips as a database; files of information waiting to be used. These 'files' can be assembled in a logical sequence, or can be out of sequence. In a story the events are typically in chronological (time/event) order; in the narrative plot we may begin in the middle of thins ( in media res ) and then have flashbacks. Dislocations of sequence add to suspense and keep the spectator intrigued. The plot becomes a kind of puzzle and the spectator may have to do more work. One result is a feeling of greater participation. Also it is possible to re-tell the story with a different outcome, if the components are re-arranged. An example is the film Run Lola Run . In some cases clips or files that have been uploaded can be played back by the application in random order with the result that each viewing will be different from the one that came before. ...

PostFilm supplements and supplants the modernist project of Film - its heavy demands on capital; its specialisation and division of labour; its guild restrictions; its white male supremacy and its glossy media moguls. PostFilm is an interaction between the emerging vitality of the community and the enriching ambition offered by an artistic outlook. It is process and product. PostFilm embraces innovation and creativity but it also critically inhabits the life forces latent in tradition and ‘the past.’ PostFilm overthrows the capitalist structures, metaphors, motivation, ego-laden late capitalist film processes and products. PostFilm is everyday. It is a cultural materialism more than a textual postmodernism. Kant’s logical tact, tricks of Homer’s Odysseus and untheorized ordinary life of Michel de Certeau. PostFilm shakes hands with visual studies, visual anthropolo...

Recently I have enjoyed reading Julio Garcia Espinosa 's Jump Cut   essay "For an Imperfect Cinema." ( Translated 1979 [ 1969]).  Before considering the relevance and living force of his ideas for contemporary cinema of the people may I propose reading some short samples of his work that clearly express the appealing direction of his thought, his vision, and his relevance for us today? "Nowadays, perfect cinema — technically and artistically masterful — is almost always reactionary cinema. The major temptation facing Cuban cinema at this time — when it is achieving its objective of becoming a cinema of quality, one which is culturally meaningful within the revolutionary process — is precisely that of transforming itself into a perfect cinema. [...] What happens if the development of videotape solves the problem of inevitably limited laboratory capacity, if television systems with their potential for "projecting" independently of the centra...

In the traditional classroom it's often the same children answering the questions. As a result many young people feel left out and they may become alienated from education altogether. They feel that their educational needs are lost in the large class environment. Their voices are drowned out. But children are our most precious resource. Like our fragile planet they need care, support and respect in order to thrive. Let' be honest: teachers struggle too. Larger classes, less money. More bureaucracy, less creativity. Examinations not celebrations ... Collaborative learning can be a very effective way to promote participation in lessons between children. In collaborative learning projects the teacher provides supportive interventions, and acts as a guide or facilitator, rather than the discipline-obsessed dictator in the corner. I'm not suggesting that teacher abandons his or her role. But the emphasis shifts from teaching to learning; from a state of spoon feeding de...

How to improve your confidence and effectiveness as a public speaker.

This video was produced in order to support the work of community groups, charities, nonprofits and voluntary organizations.

This video was produced in order to support the work of community groups, charities, nonprofits and voluntary organizations.

My Life: A Portrait . The life of Muslim community leader Cllr. Chauhdry A Rashid, who has served as a Justice of the Peace and the Lord Mayor of Birmingham (2008), in the United Kingdom of Great Britain. He was born in Kashmir, Pakistan, but has lived most of his life in Birmingham and Workington. He has been a leading campaigner on diversity and equality issues and has been an inspiration to many in his community. In this film he talks about the importance of education and what he loves about living in the City of Birmingham.

--- ARCHIVE --- The International Community Film Festival 2008 Patron: Baroness Falkner of Margravine   The second International Community Film Festival was held at The University of Northampton 11 th September – 12th October 2008. The festival  featured a selection from over 100 films sent to us from twenty countries. Several films included in the opening night presented issues of conflict, peace and violence. They remind us of an ongoing cycle of terror, aggression and dogma that 9/11 is an occasion to commemorate. But the stories selected by our film-makers were primarily concerned with the people behind the headlines, and by the work that they are undertaking to improve their community-life. The directors find ugliness and beauty; a sense of visual poetry often reminds us of compassionate and redeeming human qualities. A sense of hope, based in collective action, comes through more powerfully than the familiar portraits of tragic s...