When we think of the word amateur, we immediately associate it with; inexperienced, dull, inadequate, young, unprofessional and cheap. However an amateur is simply someone “who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons” (Dictionary.com: 2009) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/amateur A Fan Film is a short film most often created by an amateur and based on or inspired by a film, television program, comic book or similar source. “Fans” produce most Fan Films, however as the popularity of such a product has increased, there has been a rise in professionals joining forces to create a Fan Film. “A profession exists to solve a hard problem, one that requires some sort of specialization most professions exist because there is a scarce resource that requires ongoing management” (Artful Manager: 2009) http://www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/main/amateur-vs-professional.php

All fan films vary greatly in regards to quality, length and meaning. A prime example of a hugely popular Fan Film that has garnered the attention of professionals is that of the Star Wars series, Star Trek: New Voyages and StarTrek: In the Pirkinning and The Hunt for Gollum. It may sound as though the concept of Fan Films is relatively new, however “the first Fan Film ever made was Anderson “Our Gang” produced in 1926. Star Trek: In the Pirkinning was a Finnish feature-length spoof of star trek and Babylon 5, taking in a whopping 4 million downloads and was released on DVD making it possibly the most successful Finnish movie-production to date” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_films The popularity of Fan Films is largely based around endings because a lot of professionals fail to impress due to a bad ending. “Many have reached some of the established Internet gateways such as i-film, Atom Films and dozens of others. Fan Films are so popular that George Lucas and Atom Films teamed up to create an outlet for Star Wars parodies under the condition that no money can be made from it” (DeRuvo: 2002) http://www.videomaker.com/article/8947/

The line between professional creation of film and amateur creation has become blurred with the increased opportunity for amateur production and amateurs equipment becoming more professional. It is up to viewers to determine what they consider amateur and what it professional. This is not to say that there is no difference between a Hollywood made film and a Fan Film. Fan Films simply are becoming more prominent and professionals are joining forces. “Some user-generated content is being seen as professional, shifting the label of professionalism” (Slocum 2008) http://blogs.oreilly.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=40&tag=amateur&limit=20.

With professional quality media equipment such as Apple’s Final Cut Express Pro, Ulead and Adobe, readily available to all consumers. The quality of an amateurs work is becoming greater than ever. “After the rise of the professional in the 20th century we are now seeing this historic shift reversing in the Pro-Am revolution. Enthusiastic amateurs, pursuing activities to professional standards will have an increasingly important role in our society and economy” (Moore: 2008) http://smlxtralarge.com/2008/03/26/the-experts-vs-the-amateurs/
While the difference between a fan film and a Hollywood made motion picture is great, there are however many people who will find it difficult to distinguish between amateur and professional. We judge a film based on professional qualities seen in the cinema, from here we expect everything to live up to these standards of superior sound, dialogue, image, script, lighting, acting and more. Fan films are becoming more and more prominent and popular and hence the people who make them are becoming more professional despite their anonymity. As mentioned earlier, the software that was once only available to the top of the creative business world is now in the hands of the amateur making the process of defining and classing amateur Vs professional production, much more obscure.

Motion pictures have their advantages over fan films just as fan films have advantages over motion pictures. A motion picture usually has a high budget, which supplies not only production costs but also marketing of the film. Marketing to a worldwide audience through, cinema, TV, star appearances and merchandise. However for a motion picture to be on the Internet prior to or during its airing in cinemas is considered illegal. Despite the laws, people still manage to pirate these films and make them “secretly” available for online download. This means that the more people who are able to view a film prior to its cinematic release, then less people are inclined to go pay to see it at the cinema. A fan film is completely Internet-based and through public video sharing sites such as youtube.com is available everywhere to anyone legally. They are free, quick and easy to access requiring minimal effort. The Internet is providing viewers with millions of avenues of entertainment from online games, music and video. Youtube.com offers trailers for almost every movie you can think of, often they are uploaded by the production company or an amateur and are the only alternative for viewing trailers except for cinema. Gradually users have come to accept a general range of quality from amateur sources and don’t expect motion picture quality. While it may sound as though Fan Films and their creators don’t experience any challenges with the production and distribution of the films, there are underlying factors, which make the production of these otherwise amateur films difficult to be classed as professional in order to be noticed.

As it stands, Fan Film creators do not have many production costs and distribution is most often free. Though as they become more popular and expectations are higher, improvements will need to be made to keep up with technology, new films, demand and public expectations of online material. More money will need to be pumped into the production of fan films if they are to be successful on an online basis and for possible mainstream success. It is still inevitable that motion pictures are the most popular mode of entertainment for film enthusiasts; hence producers of Fan Films need to establish whether or not people will opt for a fan film online over a real film. “Fan films in their early stages make little or no money and the chance at advertising occurring around the viewing of the films is slim as companies must be careful as to where they advertise and what product or service they advertise around”(Wharton 2008) http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1921

As technology advances and opportunities for online creativity expand the marketplace of amateurs within motion pictures and Fan Films, we will see a continued blurring of the line between amateur production and professional. We will still consider Fan Films as amateur and motion pictures as professional. However it is undeniable that Fan Films and their creators are starting to be considered professionals in their area of expertise. Once upon a time amateurs created their content as a creative outlet for their own entertainment. As technology improves and becomes cheaper, the amount of internet users increases and video sharing becomes even more popular, we can expect the good quality Fan Films to be noticed by professionals and take on a whole new role in options of entertainment. The fan film is a creative force to be reckoned with and motion pictures will need to address this and make decisions on its future…today.

References:

Moore, 2008, The Experts vs. the Amateurs viewed 15 October 2009, <http://smlxtralarge.com/2008/03/26/the-experts-vs-the-amateurs/>

Dictionary.com 2009, Searched: ‘Amateur’, viewed 23 October 2009, <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/amateur>

Dokoupil, T 2008, Revenge of the Experts: The individual user has been king on the Internet, but the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward edited information vetted by professionals, viewed 15 October 2009, <http://www.newsweek.com/id/119091/page/1>

Taylor, A 2009, Amateur vs. Professional, viewed October 10 2009, <http://www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/main/amateur-vs-professional.php>

Wharton, 2008, The Experts vs. the Amateurs: A Tug of War over the Future of Media viewed 15 October 2009, <http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1921>

DeRuvo, J 2002, Fan Films on the web, viewed 4 October 2009, <http://www.videomaker.com/article/8947/>

Keen, A 2007, The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy, viewed on 4 October 2009, < http://nms.sagepub.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/cgi/reprint/10/4/674>

Slocum, M 2008, Entries tagged with “amateur” from Tools of Change for Publishing, Tools of Change for Publishing, viewed on 17 October 2009, < http://blogs.oreilly.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=40&tag=amateur &limit=20>

Andrew Keen is attempting to display the thought that having amateurs being able to control the internet through facebook, you tube, wikipedia or blogging. He is saying that the middle ground of creativity between the professional web maker and the amatuer has become blurred. From what i have seen, keen tends to overreact on numerous levels. I dont agree that the internet is killing our culture….i think it is creating a culture.

Amateur vs. professional

This web article states that a professional can be defined by the following, yet as i read it, an amateur can be defined by these just as easily.

Professional photographers are defined by:

* Their full-time focus on the craft, rather than part-time avocation;
* their entrepreneurial spirit, and focus on the business elements of advancing their careers;
* their continuing quest for improvement and excellence;
* their study of other photographers toward the goal above;
* their individual and unique aesthetic style;
* their technical capacity to achieve excellence with fluidity and speed;
* their passion for the art form — shown in both a compulsion to create without being paid, and the ability to extract a significant fee for their work.

The reason why the gap between amateur and professionals int the digital media industry has become so small is because of the internet and because the amateurs are able to get closer to the professionals material and learn from it.

Revenge of the Experts

The individual user has been king on the Internet, but the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward edited information vetted by professionals.

From first glance,this article states that the professional is retaking its top position of power over amateurs contributions to the internet through sites such as you tube and wikipedia. They say there is always a big new thing but there old big new thing always hangs around. It’s said that there is a public desire for more online indepth knowledge to be available, instead of lots of amateur information and entertainment.

(Haven’t finished i know, i’m yet to look at book in the library sorry)

I signed it because i dont drink and am constantly the designated driver among my friends. I am morally opposed to the DUI and felt i should lend my vote to the cause. DUI kills far too many people of all ages, some i have known.

BLOG

Does Twitter make me a TWIT?

Yes, it does. Twitter is merely a social celebrity tool. It has not taken off in the general population (my friends etc…) I have an account but dont use it anymore as not enough people i know use it. it is just full of famous people…in particular disney artists….telling us how amazing their lives are and how great their milkshake was.

“Are Twitter users simply narcissists with a perverse urge to broadcast every detail of their pathetically inane lives to an uncaring world? “

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/blog.aspx?blogentryid=370350&showcomments=true

I found out what Barack Obama is doing today:

What’s Barack Obama doing today?

9:30 am President Obama and Vice President Biden get the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office.

10:00 am President Obama gives a speech at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building about his plan to reform a broken system of contracting to cut back on wasteful spending, and save the American people tens of billions of dollars.

10:45 am President Obama and Vice President Biden get the Economic Daily Briefing.

11:15 am President Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.

11:30 am Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano join Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in a press briefing to discuss their efforts to cut costs, root out waste, and make government more efficient and effective.

7:30 pm President Obama and Michelle Obama host a dinner with the Congressional Committee Chairs in the East Room of the White House, with President Obama giving a speech

http://www.americans-away-from-home.com/node/582

I live in Indooroopilly and out local member is Scott Emerson of the LNP
Our state representative is our Premier Hon Anna Bligh
Our PM is Kevin Rudd
Governor General is Quentin Bryce
The QLD Governor is Ms Penelope Wensley

My local member Scott Emerson Indooroopilly. He was last in state parliament on Wednesday, 2 September 2009
“I have spoken previously about the Bligh government’s $26.5 million upgrade of the Indooroopilly Railway Station being a monument to poor planning. The failure to provide park and ride facilities at the station is a slap in the face to commuters who cannot walk to the station…” S. Emerson

The Governements planned implementation of a Clean Feed on the internet….is stupid to be honest. One it will cost us taxpayers millions of dollars, it will slow the average internet speed by 30%, stop adults from viewing what every they want and have the right to view and plenty more. The clean feed for children will be opt-out but a secondary filter will be mandatory for all internet users. I agree with it for children to keep illicit things away from them, but that should be it, there is no need to block inappropriate and illegal and legal material from adults. For children, parents should have the right to control their childrens internet viewing…..by becoming involved with their children more….especially when on the computer.

The lecture didnt really teach me much, though i dont think it was meant to, it showed me around the internet and helped me discover new things that i will use. It made me think that there is SO much more on the internet that I have no idea about!

This consists of phots from trip to europe…..a selection of photos from, ireland, london, france and italy.

I have always used Google because it’s basically all i’ve ever known, im familiar with its setup and dont need to use anythign else as it finds everything i need. The word Google is also very easy to type quickly. I have tried searching for information without any access to google and found it impossible. I don’t think there should be a market for search engines.

I think if this mode of online communication were to take off it would lead to a worsening of peoples social ability due to constant interactions through 3D environments.

1.) What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park?
– a gas mask-

2.) On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they?

3.) What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software
-Bill Gates was born on the 28th of October 1955.-
– Was 17 when he sold his first software-

4.) Where was the World Wide Web invented? – In europe in 1989 at the european organization for nuclear research CERN-

5.) How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?

6.) What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?

7.) When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales
– June 6th 1859-

8.) What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?
– A cyclone on the Gold Coast –

9.) Why is is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice? – While staying in Venice Byron proudly claimed he had different woman on 200 consecutive evenings. Byron started to support the Italian insurrectionist Carbonari movement against Austrian rule-
There is a castle in Montreux, Switzerland on lake Geneva called the castle of chillon of which i took a guided tour through and touched poetic engravings made by lord byron on the stone walls…he was held captive here i believe-

10.) What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name?
– The Black Assasins, a brisbane band. Sirhan Chapman’s real name is STEVEN STOCKWELL! our course convenor! ahaha

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