Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Having an RSS feed was never something I really thought about until I was told to get one. I set up using TheOldReader, considering Google Reader (which I would’ve preferred) is closing down soon, and subscribed to some blogs I already followed and some which I thought looked interesting.

One of the new (to me) blogs I followed was “Fish n Clips”, which beyond having a great name, shares online video content like the video below.

WARNING: THE VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS IMAGES OF DOMESTIC ABUSE THAT MAY BE CONFRONTING TO SOME VIEWERS


The technique of taking one photo a day and compositing them into a video isn’t a new one but this video, showing the effects of domestic violence, is one of the most powerful videos I have ever seen. Actually seeing someone’s face bruised and beaten repeatedly is such a strong way of getting the message and awareness of domestic violence out to the public, and having the courage to upload it to YouTube, makes this woman so very, very brave. If you, or anyone you know have been the victim of domestic violence, please seek help. In Australia, you can contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) 24 hours a day, for a counselling service.

To step back from the message being presented, the use of online video to promote this issue is demonstrating the way online presence has changed the way people view things. No longer does anyone with access to the internet have to say silent. Any one voice can be heard and you are not alone. (Of course this raises lots of issues with the billions of people without access to the internet, and also how to make yourself heard amongst a sea of people shouting for attention, but those points can be discussed later)

The second post I was drawn to was from “TV Tastic”, a blog delivering a news feed of information regarding television shows (most particularly American shows on cable channels). This post was regarding the Kickstarter campaign for the long since cancelled TV show ‘Veronica Mars’. This article made mention of the fact that the campaign met their goal of 2 million dollars within 6 hours of starting the Kickstarter. Considering that Kickstarter runs these campaigns for 30 days, this means they made their goal in 1/120th of the time allocated. Since reaching the goal donating has slowed, but as of today when the campaign ended here is how it stood.

    • $5,702,153 backed.
    • 91,585 individual backers.

And it broke some records on the way:

    • Fastest campaign to 1 million dollars
    • Fastest campaign to 2 million dollars
    • All time highest-funded project in the Film catagory
    • Third highest funded project in Kickstarter history
    • Most project backers of any project in kickstarter history.

I am a huge fan of Veronica Mars, and am proud to have contributed to get a movie made, but what interests me the most about this process is the rise of crowd sourced projects. In the last month I have contributed to 2 different Kickstarter projects (this and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries DVD), both which have been wildly successful. However I have heard of many ones which I haven’t donated to and that haven’t reached their funding goal. (With Kickstarter, and most other crowd sourcing options, if the project doesn’t reach it agreed upon ‘funded’ goal, then you don’t get charged.) One thing I particularly like about kickstarter campaigns is that you are not donating outright. This isn’t charity (and I can’t claim it as a tax ride off), but with $150 I’ve donated to projects recently, I’m getting:

  1. DVDs
  2. a digital movie copy
  3. a t shirt
  4. a signed poster
  5. a copy of the script
  6. stickers
  7. buttons

Which is expensive, but not insanely and I get the content I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

There are obviously still many flaws with crowd sourced projects, you do have to have a certain clout in order to convince people to believe in your project enough to give you their money, and some people have certain (valid) issues that the consumer should not be charged to create a project and then again to receive it. (This was particularly common issue raised when the Veronica Mars campaign was launched as Veronica Mars is still owned by Warner Brothers).

Crowd sourcing has become a new and popular way to get your project funded and I am interested to see how this platform grows.

Given my high interest in online video content and in crowd sourcing for my own professional endeavors, both of these articles are very helpful in expanding my knowledge base on both of these platforms.

Also, I got all this information from my RSS Feed, so I guess it turned out to be pretty useful too.

Talk Soon

-Lauren.

(Image Source X)