Close up

Akbar Simonse as Pictureman.
Camera: Ronnie Griens.

When I look at this clip, I don’t miss text, nor music. Would it be possible to make Media Me a silent movie?

Act as if you’re not there

Akbar Simonse, Matthijs Treurniet.

At this moment Matthijs is at Akbars place. Filming.
It’s his last day on the project. He worked one month on Media Me.
This was the deal.
Lots of material he shot is still waiting in the editroom.
“When you’re at Akbars place, film everything he does”, I wrote to him. “But act as if you’re not there.”

They are in The Hague, I’m in Amsterdam.
I sent them YouTube movies and links to explore.
Now Akbar sends me pictures while playing with his webcam.
The search for Media Me material continues and Akbar is Pictureman, the narrator of the story about The Digital Revolution.
How it affects us, what it means.
Next week Ronnie Griens and René Willenborg will take over again with their videocamera’s.
(Very curious for todays material. Still working without a script.)

Akbar Simonse as Pictureman in Media Me.

Route #1

Camera and edit: Matthijs Treurniet.

Sound, music and text will be added later. Silent images first.

Woman with mobile #2

Camera: Matthijs Treurniet.

Streetportraits #2 (with extras)

Streetportraits #2. Featuring: Akbar Simonse as Pictureman, Maurits Burgers, Mariëlle Ernst, Bas Bogers, Roel Wijnants, Pieter Musterd and others.
Camera and edit: Matthijs Treurniet.

Woman with mobile #1

fragment Streetportraits #2.
Camera: Matthijs Treurniet.

Version one/part one

Pictureman: Akbar Simonse.
Camera Matthijs Treurniet (train) and Ronnie Griens.
Edit: Matthijs.

Version one/ part one of Pictureman visiting the Media Park in Hilversum Noord. Here are all big  and small broadcastorganisations of The Netherlands located. In part two of this scene Pictureman ends up in some big, empty TV studio. Voice-overs and music will be added in a later stadium.

Recordings last week

From left to right: Ronnie Griens, Bert Kommerij, Matthijs Treurniet, Akbar Simonse (photo).

After the visit to the Mediapark last week, and the Spuiplein in The Hague, all material is waiting in the editroom right now and will be put online asap.
At the Mediapark securitypeople tried to stop us filming, for it was forbidden. Didn’t know that. They probably saw us on their security cams. One photographer and a cameracrew. (Would love to see that material too!) The edit will show Pictureman traveling by train, wondering around old Media areas, taking pictures and finally ending up in hugh, empty TV studio’s. (Symbolism.)

At the Spuiplein last wednesday fact and fiction got mixed up. It looked like a kind of mini-mash-up. Akbar was in the middle of the arena.  Cameraman/editor Matthijs Treurniet recorded everything from a distance.
All photographers involved have put their pictures, taken during this session, online. Thank you!! I’ve faved them here. They can be used in the final edit. (Credits will be mentioned, only CC.)

Dramatising The Digital Revolution in a poetic, reflective and above all, in a personal way, seems possible, as long as I stick to my narrator Pictureman, played by the streetphotographer Akbar Simonse. I use him as a model and guide, putting him in different Media settings and surroundings. Collect material. Medialise him.
(Text and music will be added in a final stadium.)

For Akbar is not an actor, but a very real person with interesting stories and a hugh social-life on Flickr, the documentary-factor of this project is growing. Narrator becomes main character? Proces and product are getting an equal status? What’s real, what’s being manipulated? There are a lot of theories on The Digital Revolution and about working online, but bringing all these theories into practice, you discover many more layers in… everything!
Josephinaphoto81 suggested Pictureman should have a new deskchair, after looking at one particular photo. We are considering this as a new storyline…

Upcoming recordings:

– First nightscenes at home including additional interviews.
– Streettour The Hague.

The making of Pictureman – the extras

Vodpod videos no longer available.

video made bij Maurits Burgers, participant.

Extras

Media Me extras get-together before the recordings today on the Spuiplein in The Hague started.
It worked very well. Everybody did his/her Media Me thing on the square, passing by, while Akbar stood still and took pictures.
No one noticed. That’s good. Very realistic.
Thank you, Pieter, Bas, Roel, Mariëlle and Maurits. And Akbar.
More links and pictures/movies coming up soon.

Studio 22

Todays recordings, the making of.
This is Studio 22, the biggest studio in Europe.
Idols, Linda de Mol, etc.

We visited Beeld en Geluid, Bar Boon and the area around the Media Academie as well.
Visited many studio’s and hallways with old props from old TV shows.
Pictureman in Old Media Land. Lots of empty spaces.

Akbar Simonse sitting in the middle.
Cams: Ronnie Griens, Matthijs Treurniet (tripod), Bert Kommerij.

You will be recorded

Wednesday July 22: Streetportraits #2 in The Hague. We’re looking for extras with laptops, cams and mobiles on the Spuiplein around 14.00!

A Media Me extra is someone who is very busy with his/her mobile, camera or laptop, while crossing the Spui-square in The Hague. Act as natural as possible. You will be recorded.

Akbar will be on the square as well. He will stand still like a statue, most of the time. Looking, observing, thinking, taking pictures.
All extras can take pictures of Akbar as well, and upload them to Flickr (Tag: mediame).
In that case you participate in the movie.
Akbar will model between 14.00 and 15.00.

Look at Streetportraits #1 here.

Victor Kossakovsky’s advice for beginners

Here’s a summary of Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky’s 10 Rules that he follows for documentary filmmaking:

1. Don’t film if you can live without filming.
2. Don’t film if you want to say something – just say it or write it.
Film only if you want to show something, or you want people to see something. This concerns both the film as a whole and every single shot within the film.
3. Don’t film, if you already knew your message before filming – just become a teacher.  Don’t try to save the world. Don’t try to change the world.  Better if your film will change you. Discover both the world and yourself whilst filming.
4. Don’t film something you just hate. Don’t film something you just love. Film when you aren’t sure if you hate it or love it. Doubts are crucial for making art. Film when you hate and love at the same time.
5. You need your brain both before and after filming, but don’t use your brain during filming. Just film using your instinct and intuition.
6. Try to not force people to repeat an action or words. Life is unrepeatable and unpredictable. Wait, look, feel and be ready to film using your own way of filming. Remember that the very best films are unrepeatable. Remember that the very best films were based on unrepeatable shots. Remember that the very best shots capture unrepeatable moments of life with an unrepeatable way of filming.
7. Shots are the basis of cinema. Remember that cinema was invented as one single shot – documentary, by the way – without any story. Or story was just inside that shot. Shots must first and foremost provide the viewers with new impressions that they never had before.
8. Story is important for documentary, but perception is even more important. Think, first, what the viewers will feel while seeing your shots. Then, form a dramatic structure of your film using the changes to their feelings.
9. Documentary is the only art, where every esthetical element almost always has ethical aspects and every ethical aspect can be used esthetically. Try to remain human, especially whilst editing your films. Maybe, nice people should not make documentaries.
10. Don’t follow my rules. Find your own rules. There is always something that only you can film and nobody else.

Tip van Oeke Hoogendijk.

Update: Watch Media Me, you’re in my story by Bert Kommerij (NTR) online on Vimeo.
Thanks to the 606 members of the flickrpool Media Me.

We’re looking for extras!

camera and edit: Ronnie Griens.

Announcement!

This weeks upcoming recordings:

Tuesday July 21: Akbar Simonse will visit The Mediapark in Hilversum. We will record his tour through studio’s and old fashioned broadcastenvironments. Studio 22 is the biggest Studio in Europe.

Wednesday July 22: Streetportraits #2 in The Hague. We’re looking for participants with laptops, cams and mobiles on the Spuiplein around 14.00! More info later…

Interview #1 Akbar Simonse

Camera and edit: Ronnie Griens. Compilation: Matthijs Treurniet.

Note: Translation will be added later. Check Akbars photostream on Flickr.

Media Me Streetportraits #1

made by Matthijs Treurniet.

Images first

Akbar Simonse as Pictureman in Media Me.

Yesterdays recordings went very well. Akbar Simonse is a man with many faces. He can look like a professor in literature or like a member of the Hells Angels. A very open minded, tolerant, sensitive and intelligent person. Photographer, smoker.

Akbar means Big. He’s got a great passion for art and poetry. He tried to publish his own poems at the age of 18, but after he received compliments from the Dutch conservative newspaper De Telegraaf, he burnt all his work and never wrote poetry again. Work approved by De Telegraaf meant it had to be worthless, he decided.

Ronnie Griens and I did a little interview with Akbar Simonse about the nine themes of Media Me, and about online loneliness…

All material will be pubished online soon.

So the proces of dramatising and visualising the impact of the Digital Revolution on our lives, through the eyes of and old streetphotograher, the narrator of the story, has started.
Media Me, you’re in my story.
Open source.
100 % CC.
Phase 5.
Images first.

BBC

What a great surprise!! The BBC is working on an online, open source documentary on The Digital Revolution, for the Web is becoming twenty years!

Check this.

They’re still looking for a title… I think I should contact them.

I’m off to The Hague now for some new recordings with Ronnie Griens and Akbar Simonse (Pictureman).

Matthijs Treurniet recorded several Media Me images in The Hague yesterday. Soon online here!

Making of #2

video made by Matthijs Treurniet.

An update about the recordings so far. Starting with silent images of the narrator Pictureman, played by Akbar Simonse, streetphotographer in The Hague.

For more information read the about page.

by René Willenborg and Matthijs Treurniet.