Collaborative Online Video :: November 17-23, 2008 :: Brussels.

The workshop consists on the one hand of a series of hands on exercises in open source encoding, sharing (P2P) video, distributed editing and Content Management Systems for video sharing and archiving, and on the other hand of a series of evening presentations focusing on inventive practices of video-sharing by Brussels and international audio visual makers. The workshop explores the possibilities of open source codecs, non linear video browsing, collaborative working methods and collective approaches. Together this offers an intensive introduction to the possibilities of systems, practices and work ethics of collaborative video work.

Objectives: The workshop offers practical modules in which participants gain practice and insight in how to work with video online, using open standards and open source tools. The goal of the workshop is not to be a purely technical course, the workshop also investigates why using open content licenses, open protocols and free software are important, by looking at the practices of the teachers who are themselves artists, programmers, activists, specialised in free tools and methods of sharing video.

Contents: The internet connects computers, people and places, it crosses boundaries and is direct; through the web, remote makers can work at the same project. We organise this workshop because we are enthusiastic about the possibilities the web offers for video collectives, artistic, journalistic and cultural organisations working together in remote locations using vlogs, internet tv, videofeeds, video-archives to give new impulses to their collaborative practices.

Remixes, re-using imagery, recycling visuals and reworking the same source material is an exciting artistic field which gained momentum with the rise of the internet. Audio visual material that is free of author rights, films, clips and rushes published under open content licenses, offer the possibility of creating different types of audio visual productions, video databases, live streaming events, internet tv channels and collective documentaries.

The internet offers an attractive platform for artists, audio visual makers and video activists to publish their works. Using new technologies create new avenues for setting up independent distribution channels according to specifications of cultural makers, making it possible to bypass mainstream media-conglomerates.

When video production takes place in a web environment, this has effect on the whole process of production which leads to new ways of working. Think about video makers sharing authorship by exchanging rushes and clips using peer 2 peer systems, enabling of distributed editing through the usage of online edit tools; exchanging edit decision lists using proxy editing. Makers re-think financial structures, and at which point in the production process money should be made to finance the work. The public can become co-producer by financially joining a project and by doing that become co responsible for the course of the script development. The fact that distribution takes place on line, and not through screening venues cinema’s and film houses means the benefits and mass character of the web can be exploited.

The artistic, cultural and activist videomakers for whom this workshop is primarily mean, are motivated to work with Open Source tools. For them it is important to match content of their work with the ethics of work methods and tools, which is not always a straight forward and easy task. The workshop attempts to give models of open source workflows; how video can be shared through the internet, contributing to a healthy ecology of knowledge exchange.

Participant profile: Central to the workshop are issues surrounding using collaborative web-platforms, working remotely on video, and using open source and non proprietary tools for ethical reasons. This makes the workshop suitable for audio-visual makers, film makers, artists and (video)-activists who are curious for, and motivated to work with Open Source software and collaborative systems to include webvideo in their creative practices. A special welcome goes out to makers at the intersection of audiovisual production and activism.

Technical know how: Participants should themselves work with digital video and be familiar with the basic principles of digital video on the web. The workshops reckon with a participant group of mixed levels of expertise.

The modules are collective ‘cooking demonstration’- style work moments, the teacher prepares a trajectory that can be followed by participants.

Organisation: This workshop is organised by Constant vzw, a Brussels based association for Arts and Media. The workgroup Open Source Video, a loose collective interested in video and Open Source, consisting of Christina Clarr, Loic Vanderstichelen, Denis Devos, Philippe Branckaert, Kobe Mathys, Peter Westenberg prepared and compiled the program.