Occupy Wall Street: Can filmmaking website unify the movement?
| Los Angeles
Amid the rumbling backdrop of incessant drumming in the 450-tent strong encampment here, Lisa Clapier is demonstrating the newest, high-tech tool that some in the聽Occupy Wall Street聽movement say may finally help them unify their message worldwide.
On her humming laptop in the media tent, Ms. Clapier navigates to StudioOccupy.org where activists have placed 17 pages (so far) of stamp-sized, clickable links, each taking the user to videos, images, or audio uploaded by participants. Some are of live demonstrations in聽New York聽or聽Los Angeles, others are personalized messages of solidarity by random supporters (or celebrities such as Deepak Chopra), others are merely photographs of protesters having fun.
Think YouTube, but better, say its fans.
鈥淭his is amazing,鈥� says Clapier, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Occupiers. 鈥淣ow every single person can become their own storyteller with their own cell phone or webcam. They can upload and edit their own content and have it be shared with all the other occupiers around the planet.鈥�
By placing all their own content on a 鈥渃loud鈥� server 鈥� with unlimited storage space that all can access 鈥� various encampments can create a universal video, image, and audio database that all can use to create individual messages, using other鈥檚 footage as well as their own. Users can create 鈥渃all outs鈥� 鈥� wish lists of footage needed with specific content and specific dates 鈥� and will eventually be able to find the return submissions by typing in key words such as 鈥減epper spray,鈥� 鈥渃hanting,鈥� or 鈥減olice on horseback.鈥�
After three months of beta-testing, the new platform was unveiled Tuesday.聽Soon to come are complete editing banks and tutorials that teach users how to edit, splice, and mix images and sound.
鈥淭his is such an advance over the old way, it鈥檚 hard to explain,鈥� says Lee Jon Taylor, considered one of Occupy L.A.鈥檚 best editors. 鈥淚 used to have to call people and ask if they had any footage of this and that, and then get permission from them to access their hard drives. Some of them didn鈥檛 want to do that, and the process was so cumbersome.鈥�
Mr. Taylor and聽Clapier say the advantages are a quantum leap over such current sites such as YouTube, because the clips can be longer, can be labeled and cross referenced more easily, and the individual shooter retains copyrights.聽
鈥淭his is the first, truly free media,鈥� says聽Taylor.
The new platform has been donated by Citizen Global, a Venice, Calif.-based firm that creates ways for businesses to communicate with their customers.
鈥淸Citizen Global CEO] Steven Starr is betting his reputation on this as a true gift because he supports the movement politically, ideologically, and spiritually, 鈥� says Occupy L.A. project coordinator, Jeff Vander Clute.
One of Citizen Global's existing applications has long been used by聽Hollywood聽film studios to put out pleas for various kinds of content footage, such as home movies and old photographs for use in major motion pictures.
鈥淲e are looking to be of service and for the demonstration of co-creativity,鈥� says Mr. Starr, who has worked with musician activists such as Bob Marley and produced the film 鈥淔low鈥� about water rights.聽
Some sociologists and media analysts say the idea may have as much promise as the Occupy leadership hope.
鈥淪tudioOccupy has the potential of being a 鈥榞ame changer鈥� for the Occupy movement as a whole, by going beyond the neatly circumscribed political and media-driven categories prevalent in civic life," says Professor Catherine Wilson, who聽studies social movements at聽Villanova聽University. "This platform allows Occupy to engage American political culture on their own terms and in their own way. Occupy has prided itself on being an alternative movement 鈥� now they have an alternative media platform 鈥� that allows the movement to bypass a variety of intermediaries and take their message directly to the American people.鈥�
Fordham聽University聽communications professor, Paul Levinson, author of 鈥淣ew New Media,鈥� says the new platform gives the Occupy movement a boost at a key moment in its development that could be crucial to its future.
鈥淭he difference between today and protests of the past is that just about everyone with a cell phone can take a video, so little can be kept secret about demonstrations and the response of authorities. But what is still needed is a central place, where all of the videos and manifestos can be easily accessed. OccupyStudio looks an important development in this direction.鈥�
Other academics worry that the new idea could diffuse some of the live energy of the groups, generated by on-the-street protests, encampments, and marches by diverting attention to essentially passive, online viewing.
"StudioOccupy is proof positive that the Occupy Wall Street movement is on the verge of becoming a harmless pastime, as people post their 'narratives' on a web site that supposedly reflects and initiates social change,鈥� says聽Dr. Ben Agger, director of the聽Center for Theory聽at the聽University of Texas, Arlington's Sociology department, in an email聽. 鈥淭his Facebook-ification of OWS will be easily absorbed, no longer possessing a transgressive and progressive potential.聽聽Instead, social change will become merely self-expression.聽聽The revolution cannot be blogged."
But his comment doesn鈥檛 fly with many here at the聽Los Angeles聽encampment at City Hall.
鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 sound like a very informed statement,鈥� says Alissa Kokkins, a screenwriter who has been with Occupy L.A. since it began here October 1. 鈥淔acebook is one of the keys to putting together activism, sharing information, and problem solving. Just the fact that we all come together online in addition to being out in the communities, doesn鈥檛 halt or slow the revolution.鈥�
