Went with Mark Berry to a BBC reception last night. The dinner at the Custard Factory was a thank you to the many amateur filmakers who had contributed their 90 second short films to BBC West Midlands. Mark has produced a two films from his town of Telford and is working on a third.
This is a pilot project for BBC Television but it could easily go national. I was surprised at the number of Christians at the dinner and the amount of films with a Christian message. Mark told me that BBC is often [unfairly] criticized for biased views on religious programing and giving the power of filmmaking to people in the community is a way to decentralize and empower religious programing from the community.
Idea: There is a market for your amateur 90 second videos if you dont mind not making any money [yeahhh gift economy – a good name is better than riches . . .]
Related: I blogged about Mark Berry recently when he was featured in the Guardian newspaper
That is a sweet scooter. But, on a more serious note, I think more amateurs should try to make videos especially with all of the technology that makes it so easy, like iMovie. I’ve been trying to make some videos, but my wife has taken control of our camera.
hi dad its me abigail
you should see my blog
bye dad
90 sec films? I guess our attention span is lower than I thought. The TV commercials in the US back in the 60’s were 90 seconds. I fear ‘Max Headroom’s’ blip-verts are around the corner.
90 secs was originally chosen to a)echo short news items from regional news b)provide a tapestry of stories to interest a wide cross section of the community and c)so as not to scare people off making a film. However you are right it is too short for many things and that has been the most significant response from film-makers. It is likely that when/if the pilot gets rolled out nationally next year that longer films will be possible (perhaps multiples of 90secs) For my part I think it works, resulting in short, sharp and snappy films rather than tedious rants etc. (Cake and eat it I guess)