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Video activism | Screenings | Buy Videos | Download | Upload | NewsReal | UK Projects | Global

There is currently a vibrant culture of alternative and radical video activism in the UK - perhaps a result of the availibilty of affordable digital camcorders, cheap computers, video editing software and broadband Internet - or perhaps because people are increasingly frustrated with the crap on TV. This page aims to provide a starting point for those interested in either producing or screen ing alternative and radical video, as well as those who want to watch it.

Other sources of useful information includes the IMC Video Twiki pages.

To contact or join the IMC UK video subgroup, email the imc-uk-video list.

For a more global perspective and for details of other IMC video projects, you may also find it useful to checkout our global section.

 

Useful guides and resources for the video activist

The Video Activist Handbook

If you have any questions relating to video activism in general, which are not answered on this page, check out the VideoActivismFAQ.

If you are interested in making radical videos, these guides may be of some help.

And there are even some videos that provide guides to making video. Check out www.witness.org for the Introduction to Camera Work and Video for Change, plus the Cascadia Media Collective for the Guerrilla Video Primer.

Oh yeah, don't forget them old fashioned paper book things. The Video Activist Handbook is an essential read and can be bought from Undercurrents and various book shops etc.

If you know of other resources that we should list, please let us know.

 

Video Screenings

Reclaim the media!

The best way to see radical video is LIVE with REAL people. Instead of sitting by yourself in front of a box, check out the IMC UK Cinema Page to find out about indymedia video screenings. You might also find out about screenings on BeyondTV or your local social centres.

If there are no screenings happening in your area then perhaps you would like to organise your own. Screenings are extrememly powerful, they inform and inspire and help to bring new people into active participation in progressive struggles. Get together with a few friends, find a venue and put on a film screening. There are no shortage of videos available (see below) and with the European NewsReal coming out every month, you can be bang up-to-date.

There are a couple of online guides you might find useful if planning a screening;

 

Videos for Sale

There was a lot of video work at the 2005 G8 in scotland and many screening quality video were uploaded and put onto a daily DVD to video activists and screeners. These DVD's are now available from your local IMC.

Some UK Indymedia groups have videos for sale. UK Indymedia might still have one or two copies of Praha Rebel Colours from the Anti-IMF / World Bank S26 protests in Prague (2000) and Genoa Red Zone from the Anti-G8 protests in genoa Italy in 2001 . However, probably the best place to buy radical videos in the UK is CultureShop which was set up specifically to distribute activist video. and has a growing sellection which can be ordered online. If you have a video you would like distributed, have a chat with them.

While not wanting to promote a commercial company, Journeyman Films produce and distribute factual films and documentaries so if you have made such a film they might be able to distribute it for you. Amoung the videos available from them are 'McLibel', 'Drowned Out' and Undercurrents.

Most of the organised video activist collectives also distribute and sell their own videos. Undercurrents for example have a back catalogue of their video magazines (issue 11 out now), as well as some more recent features such as Globalisation and the Media. Real2Reel can also supply compilations of their activist news shorts on VCD. Check out the websites of other video groups listed below to see if they have videos to sell

 

Online radical video archives

Check out the IMC newswires for the latest videos.

If you have trouble playing a downloaded or streaming video, check out this VideoFAQ.

Indymedia UK rescricts the size of multimedia uploads to 20MB (not true for FTP uploads) so if you are seeking higher quality versions for screening or wanting somewhere to place your own high bandwidth video, you will need to look elsewhere. Check out the following online video archives which host radical video...

Have you been making videos? Find out how to publish your own videos.

 

European Indymedia NewsReal

European Newsreal

The European NewsReal is a project dedicated to establishing a European network to distribute and screen grassroots videos covering issues ignored or distorted by the corporate media. Based on the Global Indymedia Newsreal model it aims to distribute on CD a monthly half-hour video compilation.

If you produce videos you might want to think about joinng and contributing to this existing european wide distribution network (join the mailing list). And if you want to see what happening around Europe, just order the Newsreal. Some of the videos from recent issues have been placed on BeyondTV who also do the UK distribution.

Indymedia documentation for the project http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/EuropeanNewsReal.

 

UK Video Groups / Individuals

Here is a short list of some of the video groups / individuals and projects based in the UK (to request a link, email details to imc-uk-video@lists.indymedia.org). If there isn't a group near you (which is almost certainly the case) then perhaps you could start one - check out this possible manifesto for video activist collectives.

 

Global Video Projects

This is beyond the scope of the IMC UK Video page but we provide some pointers. Check out the old global IMC video projects page (very out of date) and the new improved global pages for video projects and the indymedia video channel (both unmaintained at time of writting).

Provided below are links to just some of the active video collectives around the world. You will find a much bigger list of more diverse groups, organisation and projects on the Indymedia documentation GlobalVideoProject TWIKI (which is editable so you can add or correct details). There is also a good list provided by VAN Media links.

 

So you have filmed something you want to publish?

There have been several times when people have suggested writing a nice friendly step by step guide to capturing, editing and encoding your video, plus how and where to upload your finished video. For now we can simply recommend that you avoid proprietary formats such as .ASF, WMV, .RM,

  1. Create a modem friendly version of your video using a common cross platform codec and file format such as XVID or MP4. Keep it small (around 5mb for 5 minutes), use 12.5 or 15 frames per second and perhaps a resolution of 160 x 120 or 176 x 144. Keep audio quality low (11khz perhaps) and ensure it is mono. Upload it to indymedia UK using the indymedia UK publish form or the new FTP system.
  2. If you think people will want to screen your video and you have access to broadband, create a high quality version of your video. This should be at a resolution of 320 x 240 or 352 x 288 at 24 or 25 frames per second. Audio should still be mono if possible and 22khz should be fine but use 44khz if it is music rich. Some form of MPEG4 is a good codec to choose, either native .mp4 or xxvid which is free and open source.Upload to video.indymedia.org and perhaps other archives such as V2V (in VP3 format 360x288 25fps) and/or New Global Vision (in MPEG1 352 x 288 25fps).
  3. After uploading your video, add a link to approbriate article on IMC-UK and also to video directories such as DemandMedia and BeyondTV with links to the actual video.

Tips for creating mpg files. It's a good idea to use mpeg1 in PAL format. 253 x 288 resolution with 25 frames per second. Use VCD complient settings. A good program to use is TMPEGenc on a pc or FFMPEG on a mac. These files can be used to burn VCD cdroms that can play on most DVD players and computer systems.

Tips on uploading to v2v. Use your FTP client to connect to coyote1.kein.org. You need a password to upload video to the v2v ftp site, you can get this by emailing v2v@mail.kein.org. Go to the incoming directory and create a new directory with the same name as your video.After uploading your video you need to enter details into the v2v upload form. Now save and rename the resulting .info file and upload it via FTP to the same directory as your video. See also the help page on v2v.

Tips on uploading to ngvision. Use your ftp client to connect to upload.ngvision.org. You don't need a password, use anonymousas the user ID and your email as the password. Upload your video and fill in the upload form. You need to calculate and enter an md5sum checksum for the file you uploaded (sounds complicated but it's not really).

 

And finally, what about your audio?

When you edit you are naturally going to throw away the vast majority of what you filmed. How about seperate off those long interviews or speeches etc as plain audio files and upload them as a resource for others to hear or use. There are a number of collabrative radio projects that could make use of such audio so why not create a mono mp3 of each speach or interview in full and upload it to radio.indymedia.org

ben, 30.09.2005 15:58

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