MAS.849 Special Topics in Multimedia Production :: Shareable Media

The motion picture medium (be the distribution mechanism the movie theater, cassette, tv, or most recently the internet) has evolved through the practice of making. Filmmakers learn by example of others constructing in and for the medium. Today, digital video tools for capture, editing and distribution are increasingly mobile, networked and available to a broad spectrum of amateurs. Access to these tools by self-forming communities can generate innovative approaches to video messaging and story construction. This course presents theoretical and practical issues related to production, distribution and community construction in shared video environments. Students will develop 2 projects - one documentary, one fiction - which are constructed for a networked environment.

Credits :: 9 Units
Time :: Friday 1-3PM
Prerequisites :: Java and some video production experience

Course Schedule

September 21 :: Overview of course
Historical perspective: discussion audience as social network - MTV, news, consumer video, BBC & WGBH programs directed at communities of special interest
Assignment: Write up 3 ideas for shared media documentary production. Discuss intended community of interest as well as production and presentation method.
Readings:
Douglas Engelbart, "Augmenting Human Intellect"
Morton Heilig, "Cinema of the Future"

September 28 :: Distributed Media Production
Multicamera Cinema Verite films; music production etc
Introduction to M-Views: Pengkai Pan
Assignment:
Write up 3 ideas for shared media production. Discuss intended community of interest as well as production and presentation method. How would you seed viewership
Readings:
Ricky Leacock, "Personal Prejudices and the Documentary"

October 12 :: Discussion of assignment
Discussion: Home movies as memorex and the rise of mobile video
M-Views: Pengkai Pan - Head of the Charles as a thought experiment
Optional: group shooting assignment
Readings:
Roy Ascott, "Behaviorist Art and the Cybernetic Vision"

October 19 :: Metadata Annotation
Discussion: how can we leverage what the machine knows about the footage; how can we leverage what the human knows; what is important about either?
Readings:
Mike Murtaugh, Contour
Glorianna Davenport, Michael Murtaugh :: "Automatist storyteller systems and the shifting sands of story"

October 26 :: Fiction and community interaction
Examples what is fun, what is difficult.
Techniques for seeding community of viewers

November 2 :: Ideas for final projects/paper
Readings:
Curtis Pavel, "Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities"
Pierre Levy, " The Art and Architecture of Cyberspace: Collective Intelligence"

November 9 :: Directing fiction
Janet Sonenberg

November 16 :: Continue discussions around final projects
Visiting faculty talk :: Andy Lippman or Michael Bove

November 30 :: Continue discussions around final projects
Visiting faculty talk :: Andy Lippman or Michael Bove

December 7 :: Final Projects
Report on outcomes of final project