Idea evolving

When I first wrote about the main idea of this project, I wasn’t really sure how this is going to be, but since days are passing by and I do more research, everything seems to be much more clear in my mind. Because now I know exactly what I want to do.

10 people, five women aged 20 – 50 and five men aged 20 – 50, coming from different parts of the world, having different background and education will participate in this survey, which main goal is to arouse people’s interest about ecological problems through artistic media, and specifically cinema. 22 environmental movies are on the list, movies that talk about different subjects each, and have totally divergent content and way of presenting their topic. For example some of them are drama and some others comedy, some are like a fairy tale and some like thriller movies. Each and every one of them is unique and fascinating and I am sure that people from the group, just because they are so different, they will find which movies suits their interests best.

To this team, there will be given a period of one week to watch on their own the movies they will have select. Because many of them asked me, I will give them the movies in flashdisks or through links by e – mail, they don’t have to do it on their own. After that I will gather all of them in one place, so that the interviews can start. Everyone must be present and of course the date will be discussed earlier, so that anyone can come. The interviews are going to be in video, and the main questions will depend on every movie’s theme. The basic questions will contain how they were influenced, how much, if not why, was it worth it, if they will start to be more active concerning the environment and many more about each movie, but also various questions that will come up through the conversation.

Then these interview will be edited and uploaded on the website, so that the audience can comment on them and say their opinion. Either about the movies that my group watched and how THEY were influenced or about the interviews. The whole project will be promoted by social media and especially facebook and twitter (even though in twitter there will be only one link at a time) and my personal blogs, so that as many people as possible will be able to watch it and have the opportunity to participate in their own way.

The first concept of the design

When I first came up with the idea of an online documentary that has to do with environment and how artistic media, and specific cinema, can influence the audience, my first thought of how its design is gonna be was something green. And I guess many would thought about as well. The truth is I want it to be different from the established environmental projects, but the green color is the one that relaxes you the most, and so is the blue one, the colors that exist in nature in a few words. So probably my intention on doing something different will not be accomplished, because I will choose these colors to decorate my site.

I intend to have a really wonderful background picture, which either I will take it myself, either on the web. The picture will be of something in the nature combined – with Photoshop - with a cinema reel, given the impression that its one picture, with good graphics and colors (green and black of the reel).

Concerning the interface design, I haven’t made up my mind yet. These days I am learning how to use Adobe and all its programs, and later I will have a more concrete idea about the whole site design and the interface.

The interactivity will play major role in this particular site, because I really would like to see people’s reactions in the whole project. They will have the chance to express their opinion freely with comments below every video, interview, photo, text and perhaps through this interactivity the project will have the opportunity to evolve somehow. Maybe with new feedback or news. Or perhaps it will affect and inspire other creators for better online documentaries concerning this subject.

The video with the interviews are going to be short, 1 minute each. And this because I do not want the audience to get tired or bored, and of course they will be able to manage the video content, which means they can pause it and play it whenever they want.

I want the whole site of this project to be accessible and easy to anyone that wishes to see it. I surely do not want to make people wondering about the design and the interface, if it is too hard or complicated.

The first idea …

My basic idea is a standalone project, totally dedicated to environmental cinema and movies and its influence to the general audience. The basic information that will be included will be at first the history of this cinema, when did it started, why did it started, its evolution until now, how it grew and of course its results so far, not only on people, but in the cinema business too.

But this won’t be the main project. I will have 10 people co-operating with me, people with different background, age, occupation, nationality and education. These people will be chosen randomly, I guess this will be the major difficulty, to find the right persons needed. I will have on my site a big list of various environmental movies, categorized, this depends on great research too, because I want to have the most representative movies I could get, others for water, energy, global warming, animals. air pollution, consumerism etc.

These people will be given the list, and THEY will decide which movies to watch. I haven’t decided about the number yet, maybe one or maybe more. After that I will interview each one of them, in video or sound on how this movies influenced them. Did they changed their perspective about the environment after watching these movies? If yes how? If no, why? My main goal is to see how environmental cinema raise awareness of the general public of ecological problems, through artistic media do people change their environmental behavior? And if they do, how do they do it?