A common oversight in our creative field is the curation of GOOD or STIMULATING content. Social media platforms like Vimeo give us all megaphones that can sometimes create more white noise in our arena; this can hinder the validity of an emerging new wave of indie filmmaking because there is such a high flux of content coming and going. The bottom line is that most online content (video, film) is quite bad. And not bad in an intentionally volatile or spiteful way. It's just that everyone is putting everything online. So where do you go? How do you compete with the dancing cat videos when your content is a 7-minute silent film?
The key is going to be in the "micro"-curation among the independents. It's going to involve some meticulous cross-promotion of engaging or interesting works by our peers. This is harder than it sounds. The reason is that much of our time is already dedicated to actually creating content and then promoting ourselves as branded entities online (via social media, viral ads, etc.). Adding this other layer of promoting other people's work may sound overbearing but it's a good problem to have. I feel that from this rigorous curation of GOOD content we can recreate an engaging and inspiring conversation about our content as a whole.
At the end of the day, any artist of value is only creating palpable work because he or she is inspired on some level. So go ahead: Log in to your Facebook, Cinefile, Digg and Twitter accounts and start promoting your fellow filmmaker.
The key is going to be in the "micro"-curation among the independents. It's going to involve some meticulous cross-promotion of engaging or interesting works by our peers. This is harder than it sounds. The reason is that much of our time is already dedicated to actually creating content and then promoting ourselves as branded entities online (via social media, viral ads, etc.). Adding this other layer of promoting other people's work may sound overbearing but it's a good problem to have. I feel that from this rigorous curation of GOOD content we can recreate an engaging and inspiring conversation about our content as a whole.
You might inspire someone.
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I'll get the ball rolling. Here goes some content that moved me.