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 "As filmmakers we believe that no film can be too personal. The image
speaks. Sound amplifies and comments. Size is irrelevant. Perfection is
not an aim. An attitude means a style. A style means an attitude.”
Lorenza Mazzetti, Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reiz, Tony Richardson - The Free Film Movement
"For
every entry in the encyclopedia, there is now a Web site. For any idea
you can imagine — and some you can't — there are thousands of articles
and images electronically swirling around the globe. But that's not the
real story. That's not the big news. The word that's going around, the
word that's finally getting out, is something much larger, far more
fundamental. The word that's passing like a spark from keyboard to
screen, from heart to mind, is the permission we're giving ourselves
and each other: to be human and to speak as humans."
Chris Locke, The Cluetrain Manifesto (Chapter 1)
Looking
again at James MacGregor's guide to the Free Film Movement this morning, I was struck by how similar its founding
statement is to some of the central ideas of Cluetrain.
For those who haven't heard of it
(which until a few months back included me), The Cluetrain Manifesto
is
an essay published by Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searls, David
Weinberger in 1999
looking at
how business and communication was evolving on the Internet. Unlike the
typical corporate sponsored report of that period, Cluetrain recognised
a
massive sea change in nature of business transactions, shifting from
heavy top down systems (we will tell you what to buy) to
loose non-heirarchical structures like eBay, and tranposing this
shift to communication and the media saw a revolution brewing. At
its heart is the idea that only by becoming more personal - as personal
as is humanly possible - would an organisation or individual be able to
stand out on the web where there are billions of pages and products
competing for attention.
What's remarkable about the essay is
that, with the explosion of blogs, vlogs, and sites like Flickr,
MySpace, Digg, DeviantArt and Del.icio.us is how true this has proven
to be, especially in the creative world. Like
Hakim Bay's Pirate Utopias and the Temporary Autonomous Zone, it has been
one of those defining texts that in retrospect look almost prophetic.
"From
another perspective, the news is not good at all. Everybody's
miserable. Everybody's had about enough. People are sick to death of
being valued only as potential buyers, as monetary grist for some
modern-day satanic mill. They're sick of working for organizations that
treat them as if they didn't exist, then attempt to sell them the very
stuff they themselves produced. Why is a medium that holds such promise
— to connect, to inspire, to awaken, to enlist, to change — being used
by companies as a conduit for the kind of tired lies that have
characterized fifty years of television? Business has made a
ventriloquist's trick of the humanity we take for granted. The sham is
ludicrous. The corporation pretends to speak, but its voice is that of
a third-rate actor in a fourth-rate play, uttering lines no one
believes in a manner no one respects.
Oh well. That's OK. We'll get by. We've got each other.
I have to laugh as I write that. The Internet audience is a strange
crew, to be sure. But we're not talking about some Woodstock lovefest
here. We don't all need to drop acid and get naked. We don't need to
pledge our undying troth to each other, or to the Revolution, or to the
bloody Cluetrain Manifesto for that matter. And neither does business.
All we need to do is what most of us who've discovered this medium are
already doing: using it to connect with each other, not as
representatives of corporations or market segments, but simply as who
we are... Tell us some good stories and capture our interest. Don't
talk to us as if you've forgotten how to speak. Don't make us feel
small. Remind us to be larger. Get a little of that human touch. "
The Cluetrain Manifesto (Chapter 1)
But how does this apply to filmmaking in the web age? One of the most
common criticisms of indie British cinema in the last decade is how how
derrivative and similar much of it is - somewhere between a Working
Title rom-com, a low grade horror and a gangster flic. These aren't the
films you see leading on YouTube's most popular page.
There you see - most often - human beings doing something (creating,
dancing, scoring a goal, juggling, falling over, singing, playing the
trumpet, impersonating, rapping) which is unique. The technical quality
seems irrelevent. The interest seems to be something personal, uniquely
and unapologetically human.
Admittedly much of YouTube's most popular stuff is glorified party
tricks aimed at short attention span teenagers - the real treats are
layers deeper in the dozens of millions of films hosted there. But the
same patterns seem else where, after watching dozens of video blogs,
it's the tender sensitivity of something like 29fragiledays that stands
out. In the inventive 7 Maps project, which has been running this week, Vlogger Daniel at PouringDown.TV has challenged his viewers to challenge him by setting instructions of
where to travel to and what to film each day for a seven day period
complete with technical restrictions and a Wiki to collaboratively
decide what his mission should be. [He also managed to raise over $2000
in funding for the project from small donations from his viewers via
group fundraising site fundable.org].
But amidst these seven
films, (of which I have only seen the first six) it was the one that
focussed on something quite human and personal, as opposed to those
which were clever or even the most attractive to look at that best
caught my attention - and judging by the comments I wasn't alone.
It
makes sense. There are potentially billions of
filmmakers now with digi cameras, camcorders and mobile phones who can
make films which mimic on some level that which we've already seen in a
cinema or on TV, and the web provides a free global platform for all of
them. But coming back round, via the ideas of ClueTrain, to the British
Free Film
Movement - the no-budget 16mm British movement that predated Dogme and
Cinema
Verite, there is some hope for those of us who will never see a big
budget and want to express something beyond that which commercial TV
and cinema currently offers. For amidst the countless pages of the web,
what is left then to stand out, but our own story, our experience and
perception of the world?
“With
a 16mm camera, and minimal resources, and no payment for your
technicians, you cannot achieve very much in commercial film terms. You
cannot make a feature film and your possibilities of experimenting are
extremely limited. But you can use your eyes and your ears. You can
give indications. You can make poetry.”
Lorenza Mazzetti, Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reiz, Tony Richardson - The Free Film Movement
read - the Cluetrain Manifesto
James MacGregor's Groundbreakers, The Free Film Movement in British Cinema
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since i met the manifesto ... 
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