Open City

Went to the Open City conference last week. Interesting stuff.

I was officially there representing the University, where I act as digital copyright clearance advisor. But as a creator, was definitely interested in the dialogue about balancing the rights of content creators and those wishing to use and manipulate content.

Unfortunately, attendance was very low, but the presenters (Russell McOrmond, Liza Sabater, Diana Thorneycroft,Members of PLUG) were excellent, and we had a lot of good round-table discussions. And I got an introduction to Open Source and Linux - where have I been all these years?

Was definitely won over to the point of view that artists, educators and the general public need to definitely not swallow Bill-C60 as a good solution. Need to study its implications more, and will try to comment here. In the meantime, there's a site KillBillC60.com that presents some of the dangers.

But a little distracted by making my film this weekend... Trying to stay calm, but not easy. Lost a few crew members, but gained some crucial new ones this week, so overall, I think it will all go well... Just the little details that are making me nervous (Will power hold up or will we blow a fuse? Will the weather hold up for the outdoor scene? Will we have enough food for the crew? Will we get stuck in a 3-hour lighting change? Will the much-used film group camera develop a strange tic? Will we run out of film?) Definitely need a production manager next time around...

Did buy production insurance to ease some of my fretting, and the DoP and I are going to check out the equipment today, to make sure it's in working order. Don't think we have time to do a reg test on the camera, so we'll just have to have faith...