Take a bow

: An ever-changing short on the democratization of the medium film., Thursday 23 September

"Now, Take a Bow - a self-portrait of the audience."

Now Take a Bow, an ever-changing short on the democratization of the medium film.

Film directing over the web
Today Jonathan Puckey & Roel Wouters present: Now, Take a Bow - an ever-changing short film created in an online environment.

J&R: "We created a system that can distribute directing instructions over the web, then collect the results, review them and compile them automatically into a complete short film. Film directing over the web."

Have a go at: http://nowtakeabow.com

"Now, Take a Bow - a self-portrait of the audience."

About the film
Jonathan & Roel:
"While making the film we were asking ourselves questions such as: What kind of film can be made when all the viewers of our film are potential actors? What kind of directions can we give them? What do these people share and what is their strength when they start acting all together? We designed a wide range of instructions; some very strict, others rather loose."

How does it work?
First, go to http://nowtakeabow.com, click on the "Start Webcam" button and follow the instructions. After you are satisfied with your scene a small video file will be uploaded to our servers. After recording your scene, you are redirected to your own personal page such as http://nowtakeabow.com/122 which can be easily be shared on Facebook, Twitter etc. After roughly one hour your scene will have been reviewed and rendered into the movie and uploaded to Youtube. Your personal page will now include the Youtube film with your personal scene in it.

Context
Through the democratization of the web, film has undergone a transformation. Viewers and makers of short films come closer and closer together. Traditional high production value films compete directly with remakes made by their fans. The democratization of short film (The maximum length of a YouTube movie is 10 minutes.) has yielded a valuable new culture. A culture of versions, where the value lies not only in the original but with all versions together. Each new version changes the context a bit and the differences between the versions tell a larger story. As a living organism the collection of versions can grow and become part of our collective memory. Individual authors become less important, a collective authorship arises.

KORT!

The this film made to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of KORT!
KORT! is an initiative of NTR in collaboration with the The Netherlands Film Fund, the Dutch Cultural Media Fund, CoBoFonds for young screenwriters and filmmakers to make short films.

Crew:
Designed and Directed by
Jonathan Puckey & Roel Wouters

Producer
Vincent Lindeboom

Technical
Jonathan Puckey
Martijn Pannevis

Director of Photography
Sal Kroonenberg

Sound Recording
Jaap Hermans

Music
Rik Elstgeest
David Corel
Bo Koek

Voice-over
Roel Wouters

Instructors
Jonathan Puckey & Roel Wouters

Location
Wittenplaats.nl