I'll be at Stanford University in San Francisco tomorrow for Lawrence Lessig's last... [more]

I'll be at Stanford University in San Francisco tomorrow for Lawrence Lessig's last talk on free culture. It's at the Memorial Auditorium from 1 - 2 PM. If you're in the area at all, stop by, it promises to be a really fun event. I'll be there with my camera/laptop bag. It's going to be an interesting trip, because as of now I don't exactly have a place to sleep, since my flight is the following afternoon, but I'm going to play it by ear. Worst case scenario, I spend the night in the airport.w00t for geurilla filmmaking. [less]

The first videos created for the COPYCAT project are up on Vimeo. You can also now check out the COPYCAT... [more]

The first videos created for the COPYCAT project are up on Vimeo. You can also now check out the COPYCAT Extras channel for the project's "DVD extras."Here's the entire SPARC-ACRL forum: SPARC-ACRL Forum '08 from Matt Agnello on Vimeo.And here's a collection of humorous quotes from the event: SPARC Forum: The Flip Side from Matt Agnello on Vimeo. [less]

| [more]

| View | Upload your ownIf you've ever looked at my del.icio.us bookmark feed, you can probably tell that I read a lot of blogs on copyright law. I don't write about them too often here because I prefer to keep to the topic of filmmaking, but the two overlap very often, and occasionally it's worth mentioning that overlap. A fellow blogger at Copyrightings.com is coming out with a book entitled The Pirate's Dilemma that deals with "piracy" in a market context. The slide show above exemplifies a growing group of people who have more liberal views on intellectual property but look to the marketplace to solve the problem. Lawrence Lessig feels this way, as do many of the other major thinkers about IP and the free culture movement.What does this have to do with film? One fascinating story about IP and film was that of Thomas Edison, a controversial figure for those that know his history. When Edison created the phonograph, he was branded as a pirate, and the music industry of the time swore his invention would put them all out of business. But Edison also played for the other team on occasion. After the invention of the motion picture camera became more widespread, Edison formed the General Film Company to control its use. He required that those who wanted to make films obtain licenses from him to use his "Kinetograph" machine, and through this he attempted to wrest control over distribution from the producers. The result was a burst of illegal, underground filmmaking that started as a small rebellion and culminated in a huge migration of filmmakers out west to avoid his strong-arm General Film Company and the police he sent to enforce his patents. Los Angeles was born from that struggle.Still, what does this have to do with film today? It illustrates an important point about piracy in the marketplace that Kevin brings up in his slide show. Film production has always been a decentralized marketplace; every person is a node of resources, expertise, and connections. Each one of these is used to pull together the other two to create a final product: the film. Because of its decentralized nature, a "pirate" operating in this market is really no different from any other marketplace actor -- just another node. And that node can be harnessed and used or competed with. These are the only two options for the film industry, or any other content industry, and I think Kevin's Matt's book will have a lot of important stuff to say about that dilemma. [less]

As per Gavin's suggestion, my crew and I came in early to interview some "librarians on the street" to ask them about intellectual... [more]

As per Gavin's suggestion, my crew and I came in early to interview some "librarians on the street" to ask them about intellectual property issues. What I found surprised me: 1) librarians are particularly well spoken (although a library's not going to drop $240 to send an unintelligible person to a conference), and 2) librarians are very, very passionate about intellectual property issues.Opinions were pretty consistent: access should be open, information should be freer, but it has to stay balanced so people can get paid. No "information communists," as one person put it. Most felt that re-using work in such a way as to make a new work was really no different than satire and should be allowed, but that the wholesale stealing of works online was something that needed to stop. They also had a lot to say about putting books and research online and keeping that data archived in a robust way.I also found a surprising amount of respect for the younger generation. One lady told us we were sure to have jobs in the future, that every organization needed people with creative skills that could operate in the new business environment without having to read The Interwebs For Dummies. Her son, she said, had produced a mashup of the movie 300 and scenes from various Pokemon shows and movies, but the Japanese company that owns Pokemon had issued a takedown notice and YouTube pulled the video. That use, she said, hadn't really hurt anyone financially, and she felt that sort of use should be allowed.But by far the most exciting part of the trip was connecting with people I'd only ever read about -- either in e-mails or in the news. I got the chance to interview Nelson Pavlosky, now a graduate at George Mason and co-founder for Students for Free Culture (SFC). I've been reading articles with the name over and over again, and finally I got to connect the name to a person. Nelson is incredibly passionate about free culture, and where his peers might stutter or hesitate, he speaks his mind with a certainty (some might say bluntness) I found reassuring, even if he sometimes forgets the original question. I also got to joke around and talk with Gavin Baker, an alumnus of SFC, graduate student at University of Florida, and intern at SPARC. Both of these individuals were incredibly knowledgeable about intellectual property issues, and our conversations were incredibly inspiring. Most of that inspiration will end up on the wiki as a list of free culture documentaries to check out and a couple interesting sites Gavin mentioned. I also got to talk with Andre Brown of Biocurious and Karen Rustad, a member of the SFC board, both of whom answered my questions intelligently, willingly (minus the off-screen gun), and gave me some great footage.Everyone I interviewed had at least one sound-byte-quotable-brilliant-smack-in-the-face moment where someone could've transcribed their words and slapped them on a billboard or a fortune cookie or pamphlets dropped over cities from a helicopter. These are people who have yet to reach their potential but who will be informed and powerful when they do.Although perhaps I'm jumping the gun. As a documentary filmmaker, I should occasionally take a step back, look over the present, and give only sober, realistic, conservative predications about the future. But I know you can't take a measurement without altering the results; you can't make a documentary without influencing your subjects, or without having your subjects influence you. Hell, today my cameraman turned the camera on me when one of the panelists actually thanked me. (For what, I don't know, because I felt like all I gave her was paperwork to fill out.) The filmmaker is, unfortunately, always present.Overall, I was happy with today's results, and I was happy I could follow through with it. My subjects probably didn't notice, but I'm terrified of speaking to people I don't know. But that rollercoaster of fear is only just beginning. [less]

Principle photography occurred for COPYCAT today, marking the official start of the production. The project as a whole has... [more]

Principle photography occurred for COPYCAT today, marking the official start of the production. The project as a whole has gone through an enormous growth spurt in the last couple weeks, going from an idea attached to a stack of research to a production group employing volunteers wielding cameras and release forms. Our first day was a bit of a roller coaster, but we all luckily escaped unscathed by the librarians.Yes, librarians.The ALA midwinter conference is an annual conference the brings librarians together from all over the country. We were there to shoot the SPARC-ACRL forum on "Working with the Facebook generation" to engage students about open access, research blogs, and putting academic work online. While setting up to shoot, we were greeted by one such librarian who swore the state of Ohio was the best in the country, as far as libraries are concerned. "Library land," she called it. They had an online catalog, daily courier service between the libraries, and an incredible amount of enthusiasm -- if all librarians in Ohio are proud as she was.The Ohio lady was the first line of defense, and we ducked past her without incident. Unfortunately, the day had a bit more to throw at us. Before I showed up at all, one of my cameramen got thrown out. He'd come a bit early, so he was pacing around in the lobby for a while until some security guards told him to leave. They didn't give a reason, but they seemed a little uneasy about his black beard and less-than-pearly white skin. (He's Indian.)As an aside, let me say that I've never met so many people who were completely friendly to a person making a documentary. The media liaison was incredibly polite, the people running the panel came up to me multiple times to make sure everything was going well, the sound guy placed and checked our mic for us, and even when the union threats started coming in, all of them stood behind us.Oh yeah, forgot about the union threats.I had given Macey, the media liaison for ALA, a location release form to sign to make sure I had written permission to shoot on the premises. She wasn't sure who to give it to, so while we were setting up for the panel, she started to call around. At some point, she had a run in with the local videographer's union, and she called to let me know that a union rep might be coming down to shadow me or shut me down because I wasn't paying my volunteers union wages. Or something like that.For the entire presentation, I was looking over my shoulder just waiting for someone to descend on the cameras and rip the tapes out and magically pick us up by our shirts and toss us into a puddle that had been placed there just for the occasion.But they didn't come. The presentation went beautifully, and I got production-quality sound from the wireless lav at the podium. I was also giddy with enthusiasm as the panelists talked about student activism, keeping scholarly research open, publishing works in progress, asking bloggers to co-author academic papers, science blogs popping up with humorous titles like "biocurious," citing online blogs as a credible source of research, students coming to talk about open access from three thirty to seven at night without an ounce of food offered as a bribe -- incredibly encouraging things, and coming from well-spoken, intelligent individuals.Afterwards, I spoke to some of the panelists and had a long discussion with Gavin Baker, the person organizing the panel for SPARC and a highly published scholar on free culture. It was probably the first I'd had with anyone knowledgeable about the subject -- up until now it's been kitchen conversations with family and friends and vague nods of interest. Gavin was obviously excited about the project and had a lot to offer, even an interesting mash-up idea of Lawrence Lessig interviews (which I might just end up doing).Tomorrow is the actual interview with the panelists, and I'm very excited. I'm excited to learn all this good news about the free culture movement, and I'm excited that I can actually take the first steps into creating something tangible from an idea.A very special thanks to Gavin Baker, Jennifer McLennan, Kara Malenfant, and Macey Morales for being so helpful and supportive of the project while in its infancy. I owe every frame to you. [less]

You can't get away with doing a free culture documentary without either making it free (as in speech) or letting a whole... [more]

You can't get away with doing a free culture documentary without either making it free (as in speech) or letting a whole bunch of people contribute to it. So I decided to do both.After being inspired by Lawrence Lessig's open research on corruption in government, I've decided to open up my own notebook on Copycat. You can now view, edit, and add to my notes in wiki form.I've set up several outlets, all using freely available online services, to allow people to follow along with and contribute to the documentary's development. You can track my online research from my del.icio.us page, and you can tag your own links with for:hungryfilmmaker if you want me to see them. Occasionally I'll be posting updates related to this project to my Twitter microblog, which is currently displayed on the sidebar, but expect to find a lot of unrelated stuff there as well. For more refined prose, I will make longer format updates to this page and tag all posts related to the project with "copycat.". You can also look at my notes, criticize and discuss my ideas, and add some notes of your own to the wiki pages dedicated to the project. And when the episodes are finished and released under a BY-SA license, you can remix and re-edit the footage for accuracy or entertainment.What's the point of having all this out there? There are a couple reasons. The first is convenience: it's a lot easier to keep an organized record of my research using a social bookmarking service like del.icio.us and a wiki, and I can access them anywhere. It also keeps the filmmaking process open, so others who might want to do something similar know at least one way it has been done. An open process also encourages criticism, counter-points, and all the good controversy that makes the genre interesting. Plus the Creative Commons license allows anyone to watch and re-work the footage, keeping the content fresh and accessible.I want to embrace film as a two-way street, and a documentary that touches on the subject seems like a good place to start.Now, how to keep fed...To start contributing content to Copycat, go here.Special thanks to Luca Cremonini for the Web 2.0 picture (licensed CC-BY-SA 2.5). [less]

I just created an account with the social bookmarking site del.icio.us, and I've started... [more]

I just created an account with the social bookmarking site del.icio.us, and I've started publishing my bookmarks to my page there. I've also linked it to my blog, so you'll see a running feed of my del.icio.us bookmarks right next to the latest post.The majority of the research I've done for Copycat has come from the web, especially news sites. Right now I store most of my research in a program called Scrivener, an amazing OSX program for organizing and writing creative projects. The problem is, I don't have access to my laptop everywhere I go, and if something happened to it, I would lose a lot of that data. So I've decided to use del.icio.us as a backup.But luckily I can do more than just create an online backup of my research. The bookmark list is entirely public and it will act as a counterpart to the Copycat project. It will be my bibliography. Viewers and readers can check my sources, make comments, and suggest changes based on what they find. They'll also be able to track my creative process and the path I've followed across the net to arrive at my conclusions. Or, if you're just a news junkie like me, you can find a couple more neat articles to read.And if you happen to know of a good source, share it with me in a comment or send me an e-mail! I'm always looking for different angles and new sources on the free culture movement, copyright, and the way our lives are affected by this big, nebulous list of links called the Internet.Further updates: I'm planning on going to the SPARC-ALA forum on engaging the "Facebook generation" of students and using the Internet's collaborative tools to do better research. I'll be there to interview the panelists. If you're in the Philly area, please come and show your support. Most of them may be librarians, but they're (hopefully) very hip librarians. [less]

I'm working on making a series of short videos outlining the way the Internet has affected our culture. Specifically, I'm... [more]

I'm working on making a series of short videos outlining the way the Internet has affected our culture. Specifically, I'm going to focus on social networking, virtual worlds, independent film and music, open collaboration, open source software, and copyright issues. Since this is basically a documentary, I've been saturating myself with research -- reading news articles, court opinions, legislation, books, watching documentaries, interviewing people. I even went so far as sending letters to my congressmen about the issues.This is unlike anything I've ever done before. There are very few things that I'm truly passionate about, but these issues have been bugging me since my first days at college when the RIAA really started cracking down on people, when I first heard about Facebook, when Amazon was still fringe, and when YouTube.com hadn't even been registered yet. I come to this kind of activism (if you want to call it that) reluctantly. I hate the kinds of people who have one issue and only one issue, and they never shut up about it, but I can't get this out of my brain. This technology has had a huge impact in the short time I've been alive. I feel it's important enough to devote a big chunk of my brain to. I want to find out more about this stuff.A fellow blogger, William Patsy, has a really good blog on copyright issues. It's kind of thick legal jargon at times (he's former legal council to the House of Reps and the Judiciary Committee), but it's extremely informative. The folks at Students For Free Culture are incredibly active and vocal about these issues, and their mailing list is one of the most interesting back and forth discussions I've had the pleasure to read. The varied opinions only increase my understanding of the state of our country's laws. Federal 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski has written some nice stuff about copyright as well. The Unofficial Judge Alex Kozinski Site has a catalog of most of his writings. Google News, Wired, Ars Technica, and Digg to a lesser extent are also big sources of news articles. But, never read any of these too much or you'll just get depressed.For those who are worried these videos might turn out preachy and alienated from the average person, don't worry. I'm not a Michael Moore fan. Goal #1 is to be informative. Goal #2 is to entertain. Goal #3, which I'm hoping will follow naturally from the first two, is to change people's opinions -- not to match my own, but to rethink what they "know" is true about their culture. As Lawrence Lessig writes in Free Culture, "There is no switch that will insulate us from the Internet's effects." (The book is available for free online at FreeCulture.cc.)This stuff is very thick at times and quite often very disheartening, if you're the strange kind of individual that gets upset about legal developments. To give myself a break from all this, I've borrowed Battle Royale (2000) from a friend. I plan to have a review of this beautifully bloody movie up in the next couple days. [less]