Friday, October 10, 2008

Welcome CityStory Participants!

Welcome to the CityStory blog. Our first test project kicks off on October 11, 2008, and will run for 14 days. During this time, you'll be gathering video from your city by responding to daily SMS messages we'll send to your phone using Twitter. Once you've gathered all your video, you can upload it to our FTP server, or deliver it to us in person, depending on what works best for you.

The messages we'll be using for this phase of the project are drawn from Italo Calvino's excellent novel, Invisible Cities. We've selected fourteen passages from the novel that will hopefully provoke you into capturing compelling, imaginative video clips about the urban spaces you inhabit.

Participating in CityStory is easy. Here's how:
  • Follow “citystory” on Twitter [account deactivated, 12/09]. If you don't have a Twitter account, set one up here.
  • Add Twitter alerts to your mobile phone (once you've logged into Twitter, go to Settings -> Devices to activate updates, then make sure that Device Updates are ON for CityStory by visiting the CityStory Twitter page).
  • Every day for 14 days, beginning on October 11, 2008, a new provocation will be posted on Twitter (and will arrive on your phone, if you've activated Device Updates).
  • For each provocation, respond by shooting a continuous (ie, uncut, single shot) video clip less than 30 seconds in length. Use your imagination. Try to find something in the part of the city where you live, work or play that relates to the ideas and imagery contained in the provocation. You can see how we did it with some simple provocations by viewing the sample video.
  • You can shoot more than one response to each provocation; just make sure that each response is an uncut single shot less than 30 seconds in length.
  • All video must be shot in 640x480 resolution. This is the native resolution of the Flip cameras that some of you have been provided with. For those using cell phones or other cameras, make sure your video is set to 640x480. Please don't shoot at any other resolution -- we won't be able to incorporate other sizes into the final project.
  • Save and keep track of your video files. We're going to need to know which provocations your files are responding to when you submit them to us. Once you transfer your videos off your camera or phone onto a computer, label them with the corresponding number of the provocation they are responding to -- e.g. 1_stein.mp4, 2_stein.mp4, etc. This number will appear in the provocations that are sent out via Twitter.
  • All videos must be received by 10:00 AM PST on Monday, October 27, 2008. We will update you here and via Twitter on your options for submitting. Those of you at USC and Keio may want to simply deliver your videos to us in person; anyone working at a more remote location will be provided FTP access in order to upload your work via the Internet.
  • The full set of submissions will be part of a CineGrid Workshop presentation in December 2008. You will receive a credit as part of a crowd-sourced filmmaking experiment, and we'll make sure to keep you updated about future phases of the project!

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