Project Definition
In the effort to fulfill the requirements of DMS Seminar, this diary will include my studies, hypotheses, observations, successes, failures, and other comments related to the process and completion of the VillageFilm Project.
Since I have begun this diary in media res, I will attempt to sum up the concept and scope of the project, as well as a few observations I have already made in the process.
the Concept
This project is an experiment in collaborative filmmaking that attempts to make use of a wide variety of free, collaborative Internet tools. At any point throughout the filmmaking process (from pre- to post-production), anyone with a web browser should be able to make comments, suggestions, critiques, criticisms, or observations about any specific aspect that they so desire.
the Tools
In an effort to limit the scope of the virtually boundless Internet application possibilities, and also to ease the process of account sign-ups, nearly all the tools we will use for the project are provided by Google.
early Hypotheses
In the small amount of time I have spent on the project so far, there are a few hypotheses that I have already developed that will likely focus my observations in the near future.
-- Blogs are NOT a good tool for multi-threaded conversation or as a forum for voting. Logo possibilities and script ideas, so far, both started out on the public-access blog that I set up for that very purpose, but were quickly moved to a Web Album and Google Groups (respectively) for ease of viewing and commenting. This move worked well for the Logo designs, but the script ideas have yet to garner response.
-- Centralization of a large number of tools is key. Google does not provide a simple way to move between different services (such as Blogger, Web Albums, Gmail, Groups, etc.), so I created one of my own using a frameset. This has greatly improved my own personal productivity so far, and will hopefully improve others as well. It also allows me to add functionality that does not inherently exist accross so many platforms, even if they are all Google's (such as VillageFilm Chat, or project-wide announcement reminders).
-- Democracy is not a good way to make decisions, at least when the decisions relate to a film project. Part of the foundational problem with the democratic method in this specific application is the difficulty getting participants to vote. So, rather than depend on the few who actually will vote to "duke it out", I proposed a completely "non-democratic" decision-making method in a post on the public blog. I hope that this philosophy promotes input and lessens the power of the few hyper-active participants.
-- Deadlines may increase participation from key players. Logo design has been dragging on for a few weeks now, which has begun to distract from the ultimate goal of the project. Hopefully the new deadlines will give the structure participants need to make decisions and input more regularly.
Since I have begun this diary in media res, I will attempt to sum up the concept and scope of the project, as well as a few observations I have already made in the process.
the Concept
This project is an experiment in collaborative filmmaking that attempts to make use of a wide variety of free, collaborative Internet tools. At any point throughout the filmmaking process (from pre- to post-production), anyone with a web browser should be able to make comments, suggestions, critiques, criticisms, or observations about any specific aspect that they so desire.
the Tools
In an effort to limit the scope of the virtually boundless Internet application possibilities, and also to ease the process of account sign-ups, nearly all the tools we will use for the project are provided by Google.
early Hypotheses
In the small amount of time I have spent on the project so far, there are a few hypotheses that I have already developed that will likely focus my observations in the near future.
-- Blogs are NOT a good tool for multi-threaded conversation or as a forum for voting. Logo possibilities and script ideas, so far, both started out on the public-access blog that I set up for that very purpose, but were quickly moved to a Web Album and Google Groups (respectively) for ease of viewing and commenting. This move worked well for the Logo designs, but the script ideas have yet to garner response.
-- Centralization of a large number of tools is key. Google does not provide a simple way to move between different services (such as Blogger, Web Albums, Gmail, Groups, etc.), so I created one of my own using a frameset. This has greatly improved my own personal productivity so far, and will hopefully improve others as well. It also allows me to add functionality that does not inherently exist accross so many platforms, even if they are all Google's (such as VillageFilm Chat, or project-wide announcement reminders).
-- Democracy is not a good way to make decisions, at least when the decisions relate to a film project. Part of the foundational problem with the democratic method in this specific application is the difficulty getting participants to vote. So, rather than depend on the few who actually will vote to "duke it out", I proposed a completely "non-democratic" decision-making method in a post on the public blog. I hope that this philosophy promotes input and lessens the power of the few hyper-active participants.
-- Deadlines may increase participation from key players. Logo design has been dragging on for a few weeks now, which has begun to distract from the ultimate goal of the project. Hopefully the new deadlines will give the structure participants need to make decisions and input more regularly.
Just the website is big enough for a whole project, methinks
I've made some significant advances on the project in the last few weeks:
The logo is chosen.
The website is up and running.
The storyline has been chosen.
A draft of the script is posted (it was already written).
I've learned a good bit, too. In fact, here's another list:
1. Sometimes you just gotta make a call.
The graphics team told me none of the logos were good enough for the project. I listened. In fact, I probably agree. But I should have forced them to pick one then. Instead, I went back to the participants and basically said, "Try again." Needless to say, no one was interested.
Later, when it was apparent that there were no more logo submissions to be had, I realized that we needed to tie up the loose end and move on. I recalled that the graphics team had unanimously voted one particular logo as "Use It If You Have To" or "It's Alright I Guess." So I used that one. I think this was almost therapeutic for the group: the problem was solved, and they didn't have to risk their egos again on another submission.
I think it will be even more important later on for someone to just step in and "make the call". I'm sure that "someone" will be me. The challenge is figuring out how to force the decision-making process without actually making all the decisions.
2. Websites are a full-time job.
I seriously spent 40 or so hours building the website the first week. Lately I spend upwards of 15 hours a week, tweaking, editing, polishing, et cetera.
3. There is very little you can't do for free if you put your mind to it.
The biggest problem I've encountered thus far was how to get a form submission working, since I don't have a server or any possibility of adding database support to my hosting site (Googlepages). Another problem I faced was scalability: even if I could get the forms to submit to my email inbox, how would I ever keep up with the workload that could potentially cause? Think of it--what if I had to manually copy every form submission into whatever application it needed to appear in?
I found solutions, sure. But they all wanted my credit card number. And since I don't plan on making any money with this film project, I'm certainly trying not to waste any on it, either.
I finally found a third-party form submission site that did what I needed (form to custom email format), but it was ad-supported and included an ugly ad table at the bottom of everything it sent. This was not the kind of thing that made it simple to copy and paste. Not to mention, I really didn't have any idea where I should be copying and pasting to...I needed an application that was online, scalable, automatically indexed, searchable, and allowed for immediate response to anything published on it, with bonus points to an application that would allow email forwarding for publishing content.
Then it hit me: a blog! It fulfills all the requirements, including the bonus points, and it's free to boot! So my ultimate solution combines the following applications:
The result is slick. Users can submit the forms, their comments are sent to Gmail, which forwards them to Blogger, which publishes them immediately. The post includes dynamically-generated links that allow a user to see other related comments, by user or topic.
Using Gmail as a middle-man has several benefits. First, it automatically archives all of the comments made. Second, it allows me to include other information in the original form submission after a [pound]end tag (which forces Blogger not to post anything after it is invoked), such as the IP address of the commenter, time of comment, a unique ID, et cetera. And of course all of this extra information is thereby indexed and searchable, which allows me to perform rudimentary identity verification if the need should arise.
That's all for now. My next big project is the publicity aspect. We'll see how that goes.
The logo is chosen.
The website is up and running.
The storyline has been chosen.
A draft of the script is posted (it was already written).
I've learned a good bit, too. In fact, here's another list:
1. Sometimes you just gotta make a call.
The graphics team told me none of the logos were good enough for the project. I listened. In fact, I probably agree. But I should have forced them to pick one then. Instead, I went back to the participants and basically said, "Try again." Needless to say, no one was interested.
Later, when it was apparent that there were no more logo submissions to be had, I realized that we needed to tie up the loose end and move on. I recalled that the graphics team had unanimously voted one particular logo as "Use It If You Have To" or "It's Alright I Guess." So I used that one. I think this was almost therapeutic for the group: the problem was solved, and they didn't have to risk their egos again on another submission.
I think it will be even more important later on for someone to just step in and "make the call". I'm sure that "someone" will be me. The challenge is figuring out how to force the decision-making process without actually making all the decisions.
2. Websites are a full-time job.
I seriously spent 40 or so hours building the website the first week. Lately I spend upwards of 15 hours a week, tweaking, editing, polishing, et cetera.
3. There is very little you can't do for free if you put your mind to it.
The biggest problem I've encountered thus far was how to get a form submission working, since I don't have a server or any possibility of adding database support to my hosting site (Googlepages). Another problem I faced was scalability: even if I could get the forms to submit to my email inbox, how would I ever keep up with the workload that could potentially cause? Think of it--what if I had to manually copy every form submission into whatever application it needed to appear in?
I found solutions, sure. But they all wanted my credit card number. And since I don't plan on making any money with this film project, I'm certainly trying not to waste any on it, either.
I finally found a third-party form submission site that did what I needed (form to custom email format), but it was ad-supported and included an ugly ad table at the bottom of everything it sent. This was not the kind of thing that made it simple to copy and paste. Not to mention, I really didn't have any idea where I should be copying and pasting to...I needed an application that was online, scalable, automatically indexed, searchable, and allowed for immediate response to anything published on it, with bonus points to an application that would allow email forwarding for publishing content.
Then it hit me: a blog! It fulfills all the requirements, including the bonus points, and it's free to boot! So my ultimate solution combines the following applications:
- MailMyForm Form App with custom email format.
- The discovery that MailMyForm can be hacked to create dynamic links in its resulting email.
- Gmail's built in Filter: Forward To app.
- Blogger's built in Mail-To-Blogger address for publishing.
The result is slick. Users can submit the forms, their comments are sent to Gmail, which forwards them to Blogger, which publishes them immediately. The post includes dynamically-generated links that allow a user to see other related comments, by user or topic.
Using Gmail as a middle-man has several benefits. First, it automatically archives all of the comments made. Second, it allows me to include other information in the original form submission after a [pound]end tag (which forces Blogger not to post anything after it is invoked), such as the IP address of the commenter, time of comment, a unique ID, et cetera. And of course all of this extra information is thereby indexed and searchable, which allows me to perform rudimentary identity verification if the need should arise.
That's all for now. My next big project is the publicity aspect. We'll see how that goes.
Website, Compensation, and Publicity: a Tall Order
As the end of the semester approaches, I am scrambling to try to complete as much of pre-production as possible.
The website keeps me insanely busy, as ever, and I'm always finding new things to tweak. I read an article recently on a blog called "Design 2.0" that accused several websites of "mini-homepage syndrome". According to the author, this is when the website designers create a homepage that simply looks good, or is useful only to the long-time user, rather than using the space to explain what the site does and how it is useful. The author suggests that people will not click through a website trying to figure out what it is. They will either figure it out on the homepage, or they will leave the site for good.
Thus I decided to alter the design YET AGAIN, by including useful information on the splash page, and setting the actual homepage of the site to what was formerly called "FAQ." This solved my rather dubious problem of not one, but two "mini-homepages" in a row. I think the website has gained a great deal of usability due to these changes.
Publicity is difficult. I have been trying to figure out ways to attract "outside attention" to the project, but so far my efforts have been in vain. It seems that I really need more people on the home front that are committed to this project as I am.
I think the real issue here is compensation. How do I energize a group of people to devote time and energy to a project that they've never done before, wasn't their idea, and don't expect to be compensated for their time? I'm still working on this problem, but I have a couple ideas that I think may work.
The first is to try to achieve a sense of "community momentum." I think if there was a general feeling that others were spending time on the project, then others might be more willing to jump in. One of the ways I'm trying to do this is by instating a weekly chat session with anyone that would like to participate. My hope is that the chat session will not only allow us to deal with specific issues regarding pre-production, but will also create the feeling that people are actually interested in working on the project, and thereby encourage others to do the same.
Another more obvious concept is to simply offer film credit. I've been doing this from the beginning, but I think I need to step it up. I'm still wondering if weekly (or more frequent) updates can accomplish this goal.
As always, I realize that the the success of this project is going to rely on two or three committed individuals who will push it to completion. I know I'm into it for the duration, but I'm still looking for those one or two others.
My next step (besides posting the first storyboards and casting auditions) is to pursue some advertising in some forums and blogs relating to filmmaking.
Onward!
The website keeps me insanely busy, as ever, and I'm always finding new things to tweak. I read an article recently on a blog called "Design 2.0" that accused several websites of "mini-homepage syndrome". According to the author, this is when the website designers create a homepage that simply looks good, or is useful only to the long-time user, rather than using the space to explain what the site does and how it is useful. The author suggests that people will not click through a website trying to figure out what it is. They will either figure it out on the homepage, or they will leave the site for good.
Thus I decided to alter the design YET AGAIN, by including useful information on the splash page, and setting the actual homepage of the site to what was formerly called "FAQ." This solved my rather dubious problem of not one, but two "mini-homepages" in a row. I think the website has gained a great deal of usability due to these changes.
Publicity is difficult. I have been trying to figure out ways to attract "outside attention" to the project, but so far my efforts have been in vain. It seems that I really need more people on the home front that are committed to this project as I am.
I think the real issue here is compensation. How do I energize a group of people to devote time and energy to a project that they've never done before, wasn't their idea, and don't expect to be compensated for their time? I'm still working on this problem, but I have a couple ideas that I think may work.
The first is to try to achieve a sense of "community momentum." I think if there was a general feeling that others were spending time on the project, then others might be more willing to jump in. One of the ways I'm trying to do this is by instating a weekly chat session with anyone that would like to participate. My hope is that the chat session will not only allow us to deal with specific issues regarding pre-production, but will also create the feeling that people are actually interested in working on the project, and thereby encourage others to do the same.
Another more obvious concept is to simply offer film credit. I've been doing this from the beginning, but I think I need to step it up. I'm still wondering if weekly (or more frequent) updates can accomplish this goal.
As always, I realize that the the success of this project is going to rely on two or three committed individuals who will push it to completion. I know I'm into it for the duration, but I'm still looking for those one or two others.
My next step (besides posting the first storyboards and casting auditions) is to pursue some advertising in some forums and blogs relating to filmmaking.
Onward!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)