Hello All,
Is this board dying? I've been around since the late 90's (the pre-hostboard days) and I'm starting to think that this place is dying. The majority of the posts seem to be about what camera to buy (or how to use it!) or people showing stills from their shorts/posting links.
Now I'm all for this (especially the links; there's some good stuff out there!) but does anyone miss the days when we would talk about film here? You know, more..well...artistic topics?
Don't misread me, I like the technical side of things as much as the next guy -- I've learned a lot from members over the years -- but all this board seems to be now is a place where people drop by to get a question answered. To be honest there's a thousand other places you can get this kind of info (like Google or a good book).
I'm not trying to put anyone off and I still encourage people to ask stuff to the experts who hang around, but I always saw this place as more of a coffe lounge or bar where we got together to talk ABOUT our low-budget films not just pimp them or find out how to make them.
It say's "the internet resource for low-budget film makers" on the banner but there's a lot more to resources than simply Q&A, otherwise why does anyone go to those talks at the ICA or NFT. I think that it is to hear people discuss their technique and share what they've learned. Is this something we're lacking here? It's not like there's a shortage of films getting made by members, we have them in abundance. But all the posts boil down to:
"Here's a link to my latest short: www.mylatestshort.co.uk
-let me know what you think."
And the replies are either:
" [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] "
or
" [img]graemlins/thumbs_down.gif[/img] "
Are we just not talking about filmmaking anymore?
Flames to the usual address if you're still reading.
jb.
-------------------------
The man with no sig.
I suppose that most people have either moved on, are actually making films or are (like me) too busy to actually thinking of posting anything meaningful and therefore elect not to post at all.
I am trying to get the Guns and Girls project off the ground proper yet haven't managed to get around watching the footage I shot in June last year...
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 12, 2007 01:11 PM: Message edited by: assyrix ]</font>
Post more discussion based topics...
If the only topics are about cameras then that is where the board will go.
Start the revolution Viva Exposure!!
Good LUck
Yeah, those N. Foster Tyler times were great! And that guy who turned up and thought he was Jesus with a videocamera, why don't freaks like that turn up any more? I guess they found a home and a believing audience at myspace.com - a bit like me (it's true what they say, myspace is full of old farts). Actually, I only have a myspace page because everybody else does and nobody seems to do anything except say "thanks for the add" and try and hit with the person with the best looking photo.
Oh, and you'll find the belovedmonster over at http://www.simplydv.co.uk/simplyBB/index.php where I also post on-and-off myself.
I guess this Web 2.0 thing is killing exposure :-(
I do want to know what the hell's happened to Mortus Illumina, but I think at this stage it's wishful thinking.
So jb, are you still a scientist, or whatever it was you do/did for a day job? Are you even the jb I remember working on Ad Astra??
Man, you've no idea how much it bites to make something feature-length only to realise that short films are getting really popular as bubblegum for the eyes on the interwebs. Why weren't shorts popular back when I could be arsed to make them? Hmmppff.
Time to go an play Boulderdash again on my Atari 800 emulator. (You know, the guy who wrote Boulderdash now works on Alias|Maya)
I tried to start something (with kigo) this time last year (link) ... attempting to 'merge' the forum back with the exposure site (which I'm sure Dale would have done if he was around a few years ago).
The reaction to this was quite clear - people either: a. Didn't wanna move the forum away from HostBoard; or b. Thought it was a good idea, but wasn't really arsed either way!
Maybe I wasn't right for trying to push everyone towards an idea of new "community site" ... but my intent was good.
The question is now ... What is this forum missing? Why has it deteriorated so much?
Maybe miker is right in saying "Web 2.0" is killing exposure... or maybe there are other things that helped it to it's slow death?
I could name a few:
</font><ul type="square">[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The InteliTXT adverts ... they annoy the crap outta me!</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nigel becoming the (exclusive) moderator - not that I have anything against Nigel (except for his hatred of digital filmmaking), but there was definitely a different "tone" to the forum now that we had a "moderator".</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Elitist attitudes... it scared off all those 16-year-old kids who wanted to learn more about low-budget filmmaking.</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The lack of follow-up on forum-related projects: i.e. Exposure Shorts 1, 2 & 3 (yes a lot of my own blood, sweat and tears are in those projects); and "Helpless".</font>[/list]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I was going to mention that HostBoard is like a yo-yo ... but when you find out that some guy was running it from his spare bedroom - it's hardly surprising!
As we all know, what this forum needs is better content, more direction and a willingness to share knowledge.
</rant>
- Lee
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">- I totally agree, but I also understand that Hosboard might wanna generate some revenue for itself.The InteliTXT adverts ... they annoy the crap outta me!
As to the rest of it, none of it bugs me that much. I think it's a pity the eXposure DVDs never got much traction, but then people just upload their stuff to gootube nowadays and have a potential audience of billions rather than us and our mates supported by a press release ignored by the media :-/
When I realised that making a film was "pretty easy" in relation to getting anyone to give a damn about it, I started to read up on marketing technique in the hope that with this knowledge I could design my next project to be more marketable. We also did get some good press on Crooked Features (eg Screen International) but we didn't really capitalise on it - because, by that time, "we" was just me. That's right, when you're not paying people they have no incentive to help you push your baby out to the world. Damn!
The basis of marketing in an oversaturated world (and this goes back 30 years) is to have a narrow focus and a differentiating idea.
In 1999 "the internet resource for low-budget film-makers" caught my eye because it was, well, different to any other website I'd seen and it had this vibrant hostboard behind it (or whoever hosted it at the time). At a time when the "film industry" was the gentleman's club, here was this guerilla site and everyone was invited.
Okay, it's 2007 now. Things have changed. A lot. It's easier than ever before to share content due to broadband, and google makes it easy to find out what a gobo is. Things like shootingpeople have gathered an immense amount of traction (and arseholes) and have become the rebels knocking on the door of the gentleman's club politely asking how much it is for membership rather than smashing a window.
Being a guerilla filmmaker is no longer a differentiating idea when any kid with a camcorder and ilife can come up with something good enough to upload to gootube and be considered a 'guerilla'.
So what is eXposure's differentiating idea? The key to marketing is to dramatise the differentiating idea. Until we have the idea, we have no drama. With no drama we have little to no new blood.
Ideas, anyone?
Hola,
Kinda agree that at this moment in time the board appears to be dying. Gone seem the days in the late 90s that I'd visit daily and see 20odd new posts going on. Now I pop back every few days to barely 2 topics.
I imagine Dale's Exposure site was the main provider for people visiting the board, but as exposure.co.uk no longer updates, I presume few people visit.
To be honest I havent been arsed to look around for alternative boards but reckon that shooting people now as a forum for it's new international look.
Rant Rant.
Me
Well to show my ugly face,
All a question of time, strange world this film thing. Im getting quite regular work making props and providing bangs et all, but alas not for film but for companies that do private training security and the MOD. still it pays the bills.
Would love to do some actual filming again, but odds are stact against it, for the while.
re Mortus Illumina, it is stuck at the moment. One major obstacle is getting the sound cleaned up and all the foley work, plus my own time (theres that word again) especially the last six months , havent had much of a chance to sit down in the edit suite, and thats unlikely to change in the near future, to busy making RPG's and exploding arabs.
however, some people who have seen a complete rough cut of the film gave it this review
http://www.nunsploitation.net/movies...illumina2.html
Also, starting up a new company tentavily entitled StuntProps.com , the clues to what it is in the name! we have some excellent stunt glass! barbed wire and more! thats if the recent winds havent totally destroyed my workshop by then.
Apart from that have several unfinished flash animations , which im hoping to finish soon. have a killer 2500 frame one at 12fps which is by far the best i have done so far. but at the moment thats sitting on a harddrive , which is currently sitting in a fridge. (WORK YOU BUGGER!!!!)
Like miker, on myspace which is great as young girls send pictures of themselves in their underwear - the future has totally arrived.
Whatever happened to that guy who thought he had made it by meeting Robert Rodriguez? I miss him [img]tongue.gif[/img]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh man, I remember him. He was comedy GOLD.Originally posted by miker:
And that guy who turned up and thought he was Jesus with a videocamera, why don't freaks like that turn up any more?
Great post, miker. It does seem now that the indie filmmaking arena is woefully oversaturated now, in the wake of YouTube and the like. That's kinda depressing.
Personally, I've found a home on the View Askew messageboard, and I find it hard to keep up with more than one messageboard. I think I've joined another 4 in the last year, each with around 20 posts, while my VA account has over 7000.
I've just ordered a HD camera, so I'm finally gonna get my feature underway this year. Hopefully it'll be in the can by late summer.
And Chance... that stuntprops.com address isn't working. Which is intriguing, 'cos I'm sure you've linked it before and it was working...
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