UpStage- online performance, theatre and storytelling.
I recently came upon upstage.org.nz, and was taken for a ‘walkthrough’ the website by one of the team members - Vicki. Its basically an online stage, where you can perform, meet and interact with other creative’s. This made for a very interesting night...and left my flatmates a little worried about the robotic voices emerging from my room.
Anyway, they are going to have an ‘online festival’, and they are looking for people to create and perform a piece using their cyber stage.
“070707: UpStage Festival - call for participation
a festival of live online performances to celebrate the launch of UpStage 2
You are warmly invited to create your own original cyberformance and perform it to a global audience, using UpStage - [url=http://www.upstage.or]www.upstage.org.nz.
Purpose-built for live interactive performance events, UpStage is easy and fun to use. It works via a web browser so you don't need to download or install anything to create or attend a performance. The UpStage team can help you to learn how to use the software and give advice on devising work in UpStage and creating graphics.”
more info here if you are keen
The Stray Cinema film festival cut
By michelle, 4 years, 11 months ago - No Comments
Ok I want to update you on some changes we are thinking of making to the Stray Cinema film festival cut.
We still plan to make a film which includes some of the Stray Cinema film submissions, and send this out to festivals around the world. Changes we want to make are as follows:
On reflection, I believe a 60 minute film (containing 30 two minute submissions) as per our original plan, is too long for festival submission. So I would like to cut this film back to 12 minutes…or less if possible.
Instead of just stitching together 30 film submissions, I would like to make this film more of a documentary - about what are we doing, and why. This will include interviews with myself (project director) and some of the other participants from around the world who have submitted a film into our competition.
This film will still include snippets of some film submissions from the stray cinema website. If your submission is used in this cut, then you will get an ‘editors credit’ at the end of the film.
I’m keen to hear your thoughts or feedback on this idea before I make these changes definite. Thanks.
We need your help
By michelle, 4 years, 11 months ago - No Comments
You choose which five films are shown at our screening event in London. Please watch some of the submissions, and vote on them. Feedback (in the way of a comment below the film submission) is usually much appreciated by filmmakers too.
Thank-you :)
we have 30 films!!!
By michelle, 4 years, 11 months ago - No Comments
that's right, we have just received our 30th film submission. here is the press release that i am just about to send out:
-----------Press Release----------
21/02/07
For Immediate Release
International open source film, [url=http://www.straycinema.co]www.straycinema.com, announces date for London screening event.
DATE: 21st AUGUST 2007
CITY: LONDON
TIME & LOCATION: TBC
The international open source film project Stray Cinema is proud to announce the date for their screening event – showcasing the top five film submissions, as selected by the online community. This event is the world premiere screening of the top submissions, and also the director’s original cut of the footage.
“Our goal was to have people from all over the world edit their version of raw footage from a film we shot in London, to tell their own story with it” says project director Michelle Hughes. “We acknowledge that your cut of the footage might be more interesting than ours.”
“We received our 30th film submission today” says Michelle. “Therefore, we can confirm that the screening event will be held on the 21st of August 2007 – exactly six months from the date that 30 film submissions were received onto [url=http://www.straycinema.co]www.straycinema.com.”
As part of the celebration, the event will also involve VJ's mixing raw video footage from the film to live music. It will engage the online community, by webcasting live footage from the event onto [url=http://www.straycinema.co]www.straycinema.com, along with live interactive web-chat, vodcasting and blogging.
Stray Cinema is an open source film. Open source is more than simply a method of information sharing – it is a philosophy that is increasingly adhered to by creative people around the world.
To participate, people from around the world have been constructing the version of the film that they wish to make from the available footage. This manipulated footage is uploaded back onto [url=http://www.straycinema.co]www.straycinema.com, to be voted on by the online community.
“You decide which five films will be screened. We want to encourage the public to visit our website, to vote and comment on their favourite film submissions.” Michelle says.
While there is a strong online component to Stray Cinema, bringing the films to a ‘real world’ screening event is extremely important.
“With Stray Cinema, we re-integrate the edited submissions into a community based screening event. This event is designed to maximize impact for both an on-site and an online audience simultaneously. We want to acknowledge that important things still happen in the real world. We believe that many film-makers ultimately want their work to reach and engage a live audience” says Michelle.
“We have let our community determine when the screening event will be, by waiting until we receive 30 submissions before setting a date” she says.
Stray Cinema will be an ongoing annual event, this process will be repeated with raw footage filmed in a different city each year, by a different director. Each screening event will take place in the city where the raw footage originated.
“We want our online community to participate and contribute to our project in as many ways possible” says Michelle. “We would like to invite our community to provide new footage for Stray Cinema 2008. If you plan to shoot a short film over the next 4-5 months, and would like to make the raw footage available for the Stray Cinema community to remix, then we would love to hear from you.“
The new footage available for remix in 2008 will be announced and released at the time of the 2007 screening event.
About Stray Cinema
In October 2005, a team of six people shot a film in London, none of whom had formal training in the film industry, only related experience.
A handheld digital camera was used to shoot this film, which allowed greater freedom with the location and content of the footage they were able to capture. The main point of interest at this stage in the film project was the accessibility of digital film, allowing different people to tell their story via film, placing filmmaking into new hands.
In October 2006, the raw footage from this film was made available for free download from [url=http://www.straycinema.co]www.straycinema.com.
Stray Cinema also embraces an online community of independent musicians. Musicians and bands have been contacted via social networking websites such as myspace.com, and have been invited to make their music available for participants to use in the film submissions. There are currently 45 bands from around the world contributing music to the project.
Free editing software, and a tutorial for first time editors, are available at [url=http://www.straycinema.co]www.straycinema.com/links.
Film submissions to Stray Cinema do not close until four months from today (submissions close 21/06/07).
Spokesperson: Michelle Hughes, Stray Cinema Director and Co-founder
Phone: 0064 21 022 95 017
Email: info@straycinema.com
Photos attached
Ends
Only one more film submission to go
By michelle, 4 years, 11 months ago - No Comments
We now have 29 submissions. Hopefully our 30th submission comes in this week, and can set a date for the Screening event. I will blog with these details as soon as we reach the magic number.
When we first launched the website last October, the uptake was quite slow, and I wondered if 30 submissions was a bit unrealistic. Its amazing how fast word can spread though, and I almost can’t believe that just five months later we are so close to reaching this goal.
I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to Stray Cinema so far, and roll on submission number 30...! I wonder who it will be.
By michelle, 4 years, 11 months ago - No Comments