Momentshowing

Since Ryanne and I now live in San Francisco, we thought we’d make a community videoblog.
Introducing Ryanishungry.com.

(Yeah, the name is weird and that’s how we like it. The fun is you making sense of it.)

We take our inspiration from Minnesota Stories by Chuck Olsen and his friends.
The idea is, of course, very simple. Post video about your city on a specific blog. Interview cool people. Attend events. Make announcements. In this way, your community videoblog could become a real source of info for people who live near you.

For our community videoblog, we plan to cover what is appropriate to San Francisco and our interests:
interview with tech geeks and green geeks, cool happenings, and more.
People can even "suggest a story".

You want to be locally famous? Post videos about other people. You know how excited people get when they are on the local news? (which usually only includes them when something bad happens)
You can do the same on a videoblog. Start documenting the people who are doing cool things. It makes people feel appreciated and important. You also begin to create an archive, a memory, of where you live which will be gold to the future.

So keep your own personal videoblog, but make one for your city. What balls you’ll have. Maybe you’ll even collaborate with others. Maybe you’ll even get ocal advertising? But, in the end, don’t stress about schedules and deadlines. Just record and post videos as they happen. Unlike ephemeral TV shows, these videoblogs are here to stay.

My friend, Shawn Van Every, pointed me to a videoblog project one of his students is doing.
Check it out:

This iranian-american life

Paris Marashi says "This blog is for an experimental documentary that I am working on this
year, where I will be shooting video of my experiences in Iran and
creating shorts, interactive installations, and/or videoblogs using the
footage from my experiences and the experiences of others."

Her videblog is a dream for me. Since I began videoblogging in 2004, I hungered for people to start connecting us with underrepresented places. We need people like Paris who "bridge" two communties together which are separated only by geographic and cultural boundaries.

There is absolutely no reason why we can’t talk with Iranians. But why dont we? Anyone of us could email someone in Iran right now. But how do you meet someone in a culture that is demonized or marginalized in our own media? My belief is that video is what brings people alive on the web. Time, of course, will tell.

We have posted a new project on HaveMoneyWillVlog. Check it out.
It’s called Seven Maps…and is the brainchild of Daniel Liss of Pouringdown.tv.
Here’s the skinny: you not only pledge money to Daniel’s project, you actually DECIDE what the project will be.
It’s a real life choose-your-own-adventure.
We, the community, tell him where to go and the general assignment…and Daniel will shoot 7 videos in his own style.
The only limits are the money we raise and our own imagination.

Watch the intro video:

Here’s why I think its so exciting. I will see a story on the TV or some media outlet and think:
"why didn’t they approach the story this way? why didn’t they ask these questions? why didn’t they talk to those people?" Unfortunately, I’ve had to just accept that I have no control over most of the media around me. But why? Daniel’s project shows that we can fund what we want to see…and help decide what it is. We can send one of our own to make video that the world could watch.

Now I personally am more interested in seeing Daniel cover some new-sy/documentary stuff. Someone else might want some art thing, or a funny Jack-Ass situation. It all depends on what we decide together. This is also an experimentation to see if a whole community can be the assignment staff which usually is small and elite. God knows how this will work out. It’ll be fun to watch.

The great thing about Daniel is that he’s super talented. He profession is working as a DP on commerical video. When he discovered videoblogging, he enthusiastically understood the freedom that it afforded him. So I know the videos he’ll make will be ambitious. Wherever we choose to send him, he’ll do it in his own unique style. We’re lucky to get him.

Just go to the Seven Maps wiki to add your idea. Work with others to figure out this project.To avoid the obvious chaos of hundreds of people telling one man what to do, we’ve chosen 5 Filters to be the link between Daniel and us to make sure we all get quality.

So we got till the end of July to raise money and choose what will happen. August is when Daniel will do the work. We need 2000$ to pay for travel and expenses. Really a very small amount to pay for our own journalism. Now I know why the Mainstream Media is so beholden to advertisers. Dollar bills, yo. But we got it covered.

Donate here.
Add your ideas for his project here.
Seven Maps blog is here.
Brought to you by HMWV.