FAREWELL TO A FRIEND

[Roy]

Sadness, regret, sorrow and dismay none of these words accurately explain how I feel about the demise of "NORDFILM". To me it was like my local video club. In the dead of winter, I could enjoy an evening of viewing quality amateur videos without leaving my fireside. It had competitions ,for those who liked that kind of thing,with no entrance fee at all and quality prizes for the three top winners. Like YouTube you could upload your videos and have them placed in suitable categories. UNLIKE YOUTUBE. your videos would be seen by appreciative viewers who would give you intelligent comments which were never nasty or stupid, but were very constructive. I will always be grateful to a certain Danish member who pointed out some minor technical errors which I had missed when editing. I blame my old eyes. Whilst he pointed out these little mistakes, he did not allow the errors to spoil the enjoyment he got from viewing the video. There was a forum where questions could be answered by experienced people, unfortunately this was not used very much. The Library had over 180 amateur videos to view and make comments about, and the quality of the images was excellent.
All this was managed and operated by Leif Christiansen, a Danish Videographer, who was, and is, extremely kind and most helpful in uploading my videos and translating comments from Danish to English where necessary. Yes, it is a great loss to those serious amateurs who bothered to discover NORDFILM. Leif, during the last few months, had requested help in running the website, obviously none was forthcoming. I regret that my website technical knowledge is not sufficient to have helped him.
IN CONCLUSION I say to Leif, thankyou for all your help and pleasure NORDFILM afforded me . To those members closest to you who had the knowledge required, I say you should hang your heads in shame for allowing this international Video club to dis-appear. Roy

[leif]

Hi Roy.
Thankyou for your kind words.

I think, I made some wrong assumptions, when we started Nordfilm.net 2½ years ago.

Compared to UK or Denmartk, has Norway and Sweden very few videoclubs, So there must be many lone filmmakers. So the basic idea was to establish sort of virtual online video club, where members could participate when they had spare time. To achieve this target the main activitioes were a member cinema, with options to discuss the uploaded movies, an a discussion forum like this one to discuss other technical or cinematic issues with other amateur filmmakers.

Maybe the timing was completely wrong, or the just was no interest. The fact was, that we had few active members. Few from Denmark, very few from Norway and Sweden, so we didn't get thje expected base.

We knew, that many in the older generation have problems understanding the english language. Therefore we decided to run a multi-language site. Members could write in their own language, and we translated most of it to english or vice versa, so everybody could participate.
The reaction to this in Scandinavia was not very positive. Many found the mix of languages annoying, and gradually many fled away.

Competitions had a very positive effect on the participation, but I find it very timeconsuming to run a competiton - not least on the internet. So as it eventually turned out to be a one man job, I had to stop it.

For now I will try to be more active on this site.
I still feel a member cinema on the internet just for us, the addicted video enthusiast, is a good idea, sites like YouTube may give large number of views, but u don't get the feedback from peers that is so important to us.
If others would like to support this idea, maybe as an addition to the IAC-site, I will be happy to join.

[billyfromConsett]

Hi Leif,
Sorry to hear the story of your efforts turning into a massive amount of hard work.

Maybe there can be a section this forum for people to link their movies to, and others could review their work. Having said that, I'd be a bit nervous about putting my movies online here for others to rip to pieces!

[leif]

Hi Leif,
. . . Maybe there can be a section this forum for people to link their movies to, and others could review their work. Having said that, I'd be a bit nervous about putting my movies online here for others to rip to pieces!

Hi to Billy
Good suggestion. I would say: just let's do it.
Based on my experience there is little risk that somebody would rip your movies to pieces. Most members of this forum are true lovers of amateur moviemaking.
So what I would expect is some serious and very useful feedback.
You may during the process af making a movie reach a point, where you need a socond opinion to get on.
And I think in this forum you find experienced people witrh the right feelings for our business.

[Dave Watterson]

Hi Guys

I DO like the notion of a place where there can be some moderated comment on movies. Most of what I read on YouTube, Vimeo, Daily Motion and so on is trivial and useless. A comment like: "Yea, good one!" is encouraging if it is said to you at a show or in the pub afterwards, but not much practical use. As for the comments which consist of just swearing ...

BUT
As some of you know we get our web hosting free through the generosity of Richard Palmer, boss of Merula Limited. If we were to host videos directly on the IAC website that would mean a huge increase in the traffic to the site. (Not because millions would come by to watch our films, but because film files are very large!) Every bit of data that goes to and from the website costs Merula money. We want to keep that to a reasonable amount.

What we have done in recent years is to embed movies held on other web sites like YouTube, Vimeo etc. See for example the Bijou BIAFF section: http://www.theiac.org.uk/central/biaff2 ... biaff.html

There is also the question of copyright ... in practice mainly music copyright. YouTube has a deal with the major British music companies which means most of the music we use is allowed to stay on YouTube - at least in the UK if not for the rest of the world. But in the case of any infringement the first responsibility lies with the web host. (i.e. the lawyer's letter goes to YouTube rather than Chris Smith, FACI.) If we hosted films directly on the website the lawyer's letter would go to Richard Palmer, boss of Merula Limited. That's not the way we want to thank him for all the help he gives IAC.

So... what do you think about a system where non-commercial film makers who want their work treated with respect and who seek sensible comments would put those films onto one of the usual host sites and send us the "embed" link. We would make up pages like the Bijou BIAFF one with links to a special forum here ... but set up so that any comments have to be approved before they go up?

Dave

[Roy]

Dave. You have given a very good explanation why the notion is not practical. Anyway if it were put in operation . from past experience I think it would be only the same half a dozen people who would offer comments on people's videos. I think a lot of people who view this site are reluctant to make comments on anything. Just look at the viewing figures and then look at the replies to various subjects. Carry on the good work Dave, you do a great job. Roy