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About Blogumentary
We live in an age where everyone is a mediamaker.
Blogs empower us to tell our story, spout and debate our politics,
and share ourselves with the rest of the world – or at least
the 5 people who read our blog. What compels us to blog? How does
it affect us, each other, our work, the mediascape, the world? Do
bloggers have anything in common? Does the blogosphere have a life
of it's own, like the emergent behavior of an ant colony excited
by the discovery of food?
These are just some of the questions I want to address
with this documentary. Do you have thoughts on these questions,
or more ideas? I would
love to hear them. Much like a blog, I want this film to express
my own voice and yet grow from throwing ideas around with you folks.
Simply put, all of you collectively know more about the blog phenomenon
than I do. This is a conversation and a collaboration - We
Media.
Themes
Personal expression and transformation. Democratic
non-corporate media in action. Tension between revelation and anonymity.
Blog personality vs. real-life personality (e.g. shyness). Relationship
dynamics: romantic, family, friends, work. Connectedness. Blogosphere
as a living organism. Humanity.
What's at stake? Why am I making this?
Being a blogger has made me more observant and more
informed. More than that, I feel connected and as though I'm tapped
into something. I peer directly into others personal lives, sometimes
seeing myself reflected and resonating with that connection. Or,
I see what it's like to live in another's shoes: a homeless guy
in Nashville, a college girl in Canada, a Peace Corps recruit or...
Wil Wheaton. I begin to post something and stop myself - is this
too personal? Who's going to see this? I learn what's going on in
the world and argue with people - we are renegade microjournalists
improvising and jousting, and sometimes creating a clamour the world
can't ignore. (See: Trent Lott.)
I am an evangelist about encouraging everyone to
be a mediamaker. When you make your own media, (1) You bypass the
filters of the corporate-owned mainstream media machine. (2) You
become more aware, more observant, more opinionated. You realize
what your interests are, you think harder, you delve deeper.
To me, blogs are the next stage of... something.
The digital video revolution is making everyone into a filmmaker
and documentarian, and blogs are making everyone into a journalist,
pundit or memoirist. Video blogs are the exciting mixture of the
two. Our culture is capturing itself at an unprecedented level.
How is this changing me, how is this changing us? Is it too much
- should we stop capturing, and just be? I want to know,
and I hope you do, too.
Umm, did you know PBS already did a documentary about
blogs?
Yep, it's called Media
Matters: Welcome to the Blogosphere. I've seen the clip on the
web site and am working on getting a tape. I think it's great that
this is out there. It looks like an excellent survey of the blogosphere
with A-list bloggers. It's very slick and well-produced. What I'm
doing is different, I think. Deeper, more personal and less flashy.
More real, maybe? There could be a thousand documentaries on blogs
and I'd probably still make this. It's in my blood right now and
I need to do it.
Who is this Chuck Olsen fellow?
How rude of me not to talk about myself earlier.
Usually I talk about myself all the time. Why else would I have
a blog? I live in Minneapolis and work at a public television station
as Senior Web Producer. The rest of the time, when I'm not tilling
the soil on this here blog or reading yours, I make goofy movies
with my friends and ocassionally make an arty short film or documentary.
I've had work screened at the Walker Art Center, 5 Minutes of Fame
webcast, DV-Cinema (screenings and DVD), the Fringe Film Fest and
my mom's living room.
I went to the University of Minnesota and, after
fumbling around in computer science and information systems, ended
up really pissed at the Gulf War and became a political science
major. I was particularly interested in the media's relationship
with politics and other systems of power. I've been into film, video,
and design for awhile now, taking classes at Minneapolis Community
and Technical College, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, IFP,
and the School of Visual Arts. Not to mention a bit of acting and
improv through Brave New Institute.
I also enjoy photography, pop music, kittens, breaking
glass, doll parts, cute furry Japanese things, Adult Swim, Jameson,
my friend Mitch's basement, Dave Eggers, mod furniture, my Danelectro
bass, Bryant-Lake Bowl, confused teenagers, moustaches, Wes Anderson,
Amoeba Records, hot sex and snow. Someday I'll finish my portfolio
site, chuckolsen.com.
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