Brett Gaylor

I’m old.

Unlike people born after the first Star Wars movie (the real one), I use desktop apps for things like managing my calendar and checking my email.

My hard drive recently crashed, and as someone who is terrible about backing up their computer, I was terrified - but then found that all my data actually existed in the cloud (since I use google apps for my mail), so I really hadn’t lost much.

But I realize that I still hold on to things like my calendar, address book and mail client much more than a lot of web users. And since more and more of our digital life is moving into the cloud, I’m going to try a week of only using web services to check my mail, look up my friends addresses, and arrange what I’m doing when.

I have to take the train tomorrow, which is when I usually catch up on my email backlog. I also haven’t properly set up my phone to sync with these services, so I’ll give that a go.

I know you are all waiting with baited breath for my findings. I’ll report back in a week.

In March I began a collaboration with Mozilla on Web Made Movies, an innovation lab bringing together software developers and filmmakers to innovate video on the web. (For folks who don’t know, Mozilla is a public benefit organization that promotes freedom and innovation on the Internet by building stuff like the Firefox web browser). Like anything worth doing, the Web Made Movies project shifted from its original conception, which was to create a documentary series about the open web using an open video platform. It became clear that the need for open video tools was too strong for only one content project to drive forward, and so the decision was made to focus on the creation of a lab where filmmakers and web developers could work collaboratively, and where storytelling and form were placed on an equal footing with technology. Since that decision, we teamed up with the Center for Development of Open Technology at Seneca College, and began our first project: Popcorn.js, a javascript library for merging video with semantic data. I have found the work challenging, rewarding, and affirming of my desire to innovate what video on the web can be. We’ve had some great early results - check out our demo of semantic video.

I’m particularly excited that Web Made Movies is part of Drumbeat, Mozilla’s initiative to involve a broad spectrum of society in its mission to build and protect the open Internet. I’ve believed for some time that in order for the internet to survive as an open platform, it can’t be only the geeks holding down the fort. Storytellers, educators, artists, journalists and activists need to get involved, feel welcome and have a stake in the internet remaining a global resource that everyone has a hand in shaping. I’m happy that Mozilla is moving in this direction – over 350 million people are touched every day by their work on Firefox, and having a public service organization in the browser space is a much needed check-and-balance system in an extremely competitive (and cutthroat) environment. Observing Mozilla over the last decade, I’ve been impressed by their pro-activism. They showed that a faster and safer internet experience was possible if they put the needs of the user before those of the board room – and they showed this was possible by BUILDING it, and continuing to improve it.

This is why I’ve made the decision to join Mozilla full time. Yup! I’ve accepted a full time position and I couldn’t be more thrilled. For the next several months I’ll be focusing on Web Made Movies – bringing in external projects, charting a course with developers, and collaborating with filmmakers to bring some storytelling innovation into open video on the web. In addition to Web Made Movies, I’ll be developing a series of documentary shorts that tell the story of Mozilla: our goal is to share the passion of the Mozilla community with the broader public – to let people know that there is a vibrant non-profit behind the browser. I want people to be as intrigued as I was to discover that Mozilla’s exists to Protect the Open Nature of the Internet - a Greenpeace for the online commons. Did you know we even have a Manifesto? We want to grow to a worldwide movement, made of millions of Internet users who act as stewards of the open web. We think storytelling is a means to this end.

Come the new year, I’ll be moving into my role as a project producer for Drumbeat. Along with an amazing team that includes my esteemed European colleague Henrik Moltke, Drumbeat ringleader Matt Thompson, Web Developer extraordinaire Paul Osman, Fundraising and outreach queen Chelsea Novak and of course our fearless leader - the Mozilla Foundation’s Executive Director Mark Surman,I will be actively seeking out promising projects that Drumbeat can help foster. Projects that invite participation from both software developers and people that aren’t normally involved in the development process: teachers, cartographers, musicians, chefs, you name it (ok, maybe no spammers). My job is to get more people involved in the cause of keeping the web open, and doing it the Mozilla way – by creating things. It’s pretty humbling to be in on the ground floor of such an important project.

Over the last several years, my wife Shelley and I have dreamed of moving to the BC coast where we come from. People often ask me “can’t you do your job from anywhere?”. The truth is, remote working is pretty tough in most situations. I’ve needed (and enjoyed) constant interaction with other filmmakers, funders, broadcasters, and a thriving urban culture to be able to survive as a working filmmaker. At Mozilla, though, working from home is a reality for a large part of the team, and the systems and tools they’ve developed over the years to facilitate the world’s largest open source project make it work (although it’s a learning curve to be sure). So we’re taking the plunge, and come this fall will be moving from the island of Montreal to Galiano Island where I grew up. It’s a fantastic place for kids, and our daughter Layla loves running around outside without her parents hovering over her 24/7. Next year come by when our garden is churning out the good stuff! (and if anyone knows how to set up a microwave mesh network between islands, give me a shout).

Of course, it is going to be tough to leave our friends in Montreal, particularly my crew at EyeSteelFilm. Since graduating University, and even before, I’ve worked with my colleagues on an amazing batch of films – assistant editing on Squeegee Punks in Traffic, and then shooting and editing on Roach’s follow up, RoachTrip. I went to the Arctic as a co-creator of Inuuvunga: I am Inuk, I Am Alive, took a tour of duty in the editing suite on Chairman George, learned drupal and humility on homelessnation.org, and for six plus years was given sage advice, tough love and incredible teamwork in the creation of Rip! A Remix Manifesto. There are so many great people working at what has become the undisputed coolest documentary production company in Canada, if not the planet earth. I wish the entire crew the brightest of futures, not that they need this nerd’s wishing to get them anywhere. The new slate of projects and new crop of never-say-die indy filmmakers will continue to slay pitching competitions, film festivals and television screens the world over.

I moved to this city in 1997 – the world wide web was in its infancy. Back then, Apple was an underdog, Google was running on pentiums at Stanford, and Netscape was kicking serious ass. The web continues to surprise us, and not a day goes by that I don’t marvel to be living in such interesting times. As I start a new chapter, with a new team and and a new family, I can’t wait to see what happens next. Won’t you join me?

Crew car parked outside my house - are they making a movie of what I think they are?

In April I was invited to present to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Heritage.  For the record - these people just stare at their blackberries during committee work.  Its kind of scandalous. Here is my testimony.

Yay! Took forever to see this at my local video store. And in good company :)

Girls Not Unix

As you can see we’ve evolved the design as well as the proposed functionality - videos will show feeds from those in the video, as well as feeds from related semantic content.

Any feedback is as usual appreciated as we continue to iterate!

We’ve been working with the ultra-talented Gopal Raju to design some wireframes for the demo we’ll be launching at the end of the month.  Feedback appreciated!

Version 1

Version 2

Web Made Movies was originally conceived as a frankenstein mashup of content and software - the idea being to create a documentary about the idea of the Open Web using the Open Web.  You can see from our original roadmap that it was meant to be an episodic documentary series.

The more I began to think about this, though, I realized it was still a very old-school way to make a documentary.  It was top down - come up with an idea, execute it, deliver it.  It wasn’t very web-like - there wasn’t a lot of room for an agile thought process that could change, accept input from anyone, and be infinitely changeable, linkable, and remixable.  I think the reason why it was conceived this way is because online video has not evolved.

In the 15 or so years that the web has been a mainstream part of our lives, video has been held back.  Consider how much the web has changed in that time - no one could have anticipated WikiPedia, social networking, twitter, ebay, craigslist - and the degree to which these things have changed our lives.  Yet video is still stuck in the same crummy box - we use language like “embedded” to describe the way we shoe-horn video into a web page with conversions and plugins.  Video on the web is unaware of, and uninterested in, all of the other data and information on a page.  Its video on the web, not video of the web.

We need to make video a first class citizen of the web, that behaves like the rest of the web: remixable, hackable, linkable, searchable. We need video that integrates Twitter feeds, Google maps, Wikipedia articles. We need a video environment where tomorrow’s filmmakers can “view source”. We need to let video catch up to the rest of the web and deliver on the potential of an interactive medium that celebrates participation over consumption. And the way towards this is to encourage an open practice of filmmaking that is as open, participatory and generative as the rest of the web.

That’s why Web Made Movies is focusing on the development of an innovation lab bringing together filmakers and software developers to explore how openness can have a fundamental impact on our definition of video. Can interacting with the semantic data provide a new experience? Can online video provide a leap in filmmaking on a comparable scale to Vertov experimenting with montage, or the freedom that 16mm cameras gave to the pioneers of Cinema Verité?

We’ve got practical ideas of how to get there, and they’re summed up in our new roadmap for the project.  But on a broad level, here’s what we want to do:

-work with students at Seneca College’s Center for Development of Open Technology to develop popcorn.js, a javascript library for HTML5 video

-Bring together filmmakers and software developers at 4  meeting points around the world in content and software “sprints” to hack collaboratively

-Show via practical, narrative based examples why open video matters

With this new change in directions are new ways to get involved.  You can visit our Drumbeat page for details on how to work with us on IRC, attend a local event, join the mailing list, or propose a project.

This is not to say that the project is no longer focused on content - quite the contrary.  What I hope will be our success is showing why openness can evolve the narrative of video - and to that end, we want to work closely with filmmakers of all kinds.  If you have a film project that would make sense within this lab, please contact us and join our community.  Sky’s the limit!

Hope you’ll join us!

Too much pressure? -en route to Rip presentation in Nashville

Roz just uploaded this great video from the Toronto Drumbeat event.

Rip has been a thrilling, if not at times overwhelming, journey. It’s deeply humbling that even as I move on to other projects, its still out in the world - playing at one of the best theatres in London, the Alamo Drafthouse in Texas, national Japanese TV in April, and has now been nominated for the Genie Awards. The Genie’s are handed out by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television - so they’re our Oscars. Its a huge honor and Shelley and I are excited for an excuse to dress up for the event in Toronto. Fingerz crossed!

Mark Surman recently returned from Brazil and the first ever local Drumbeat event - he’s blogged about it here. While I wish I had been able to go, Pedro from the digital culture house represented Web Made Movies well and he and Mark were out gathering stories. I’m excited to see Drumbeat begin to roll out of people’s brains and into the real world. Some info about Drumbeat is here, and the Web Made Movies project that I’m helping with is here

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