On Desire

Time for a list of lists, a preliminary inventory. With 19 days left, we’ve got to design the optimal sequence of actions. To avoid the carbon cost of airplane flight, new gear needs to be shipped ground which means ordering within the week. Gear requests should be started first so we’ve got to decide what we want and who we are going to ask by Monday.

One of the prerequisites for asking is an effective introduction to the project. This is where the mini-movie fits in and it’s several days behind schedule. We are just going to have to make requests based on written materials with references to the long running video excerpts. There are five components to our collaboration proposal – a good idea (√), a coherent and workable plan (√), established distribution channels eg Ondesire.com, Facebook and Twitter (√), a documented mob (growing) and an articulate introduction (pending). Having a non profit umbrella would also be helpful so that contributions would be tax deductible. Since I missed my NP liaison last month, I doubt I could set this up before June 1, so I may just have to skip that. Perhaps it’s worth a phone call.

Monica Evans asked about making cash donations to the project. The trip itself is not all that expensive because it’s designed to be replicable/low budget/low impact, but post-production after the trip could cost $30k for labor and services. Asking for money doesn’t have to happen before launch, but it wouldn’t hurt to identify prospects now. I could then schedule several days during the trip to make these requests.

The origins, an overview. I’ve written deeply about the inspiration and origins of the project. Along with completing and posting the mini-movie, linking to the most articulate of these posts is vital. Methinks it might be a good idea to link first (today) and the sort out the mini-movie immediately after.

We’ve can instantly develop a starting inventory by linking to last September’s checklists, and then replace them with updates. They will also be helpful in identifying gear collaborators.

Posting our itinerary will not only trigger suggestions from the tribe about where to go and who to see, but other potential collaborators.

Finally, Hello World needs glass and rigging repair. There’s about a week worth of labor plus curing time after each patch, so this has got to begin no later than day 14 on the countdown.

So – here’s the  order of operations draft…

19 days

• inventory/checklist rebuild 4/18

• introduction with links to inspiration and origins 4/18

• inventory revised with potential collaborators identified 4/18

• mini-movie 4/18+

18 – 16 days

• asks initiated 4/19 – 4/21 + mini-movie

• itinerary posted

17 -15 days

• ordering 4/22 – 4/23 + mini-movie

14 days

• Hello World repair 4/24+

12 – 10 days

• ordering and ask follow up 4/26-4/28

9 – 8 days

• provisions 4/29-4/30

• hulls complete and float test

7 days

• preliminary pack 5/1

• trailer and transport arranged

6 – 5 days

• final orders and provisions 5/2-5/3

4 – 2 days

• complete Hello World repairs and adjustments 5/4-5/6

1 days

• final pack 5/7

0 days

• trailer to E beach, launch party, overnight 5/8

ALM 1

• launch 5/9

Here are the general questions which helped me to develop this post.

Who can help, what companies are already involved?

What companies could be involved?

What’s the itinerary so far?

What does Hello World need to be water ready?

What provisions and consumables are needed?

Either by…

http://twitter.com/OnDesire

or

http://twitter.com/FutureArtifacts

Thanks for taking the time to check us out.

My name is Dan Kelly and I am working on the documentary movie. From May – August of 2010, I’ll be sailing a 16 ft catamaran all the way around Lake Michigan – solo. That’s about 1000 miles.  Along the way I’ll visit people and places related to sustainability. With a high quality mobile production kit,  I’ll record my discoveries and post them here.

I want to establish local connections before I go, that’s why I followed you. You might have great ideas about where to stop or who to visit. Perhaps you’d like to meet me yourself and talk about the future over tea or a beer.

Feel free to wander around this site and learn more. If you are intrigued with the project, email me directly wild@artisthouse.com or  follow me for updates on Twitter – http://twitter.com/OnDesire.

Thanks for your time!

Dan
Hello World
and the On Desire team

Bounce rate has dropped from 40% to 10%, whoo! Congratulations team, landing page analysis and revisions are a success.

We’re generating a trickle of new visitors by selective follows on Twitter every day. From analytics it was pretty clear that the landing page didn’t engage, almost half of new visitors saw it and left. During the meeting we discussed how the landing page could be simplified and focused.

Note to self – remember to snap screen shots before making changes to key pages!? Since I didn’t make http://ondesire.com available to search engines until recently (doh!)  Waybackmachine doesn’t have an archive, so there’s no before shot. If I’m lucky I’ll find an archival screenshot on our local drives. For now, the best I can do is show the after and describe the before, bah.  Anyway, here’s the landing page circa 10-03-12 at 11:12.

http://ondesire.com landing page 10-03-12 11:12

Header

The title was been changed from “On Desire” to “Desire”.

The subtitle was changed from “Big World Small Footprint” to “The crux of human experience, our collective destiny” – Melonie, Dan

Page

The page title was changed from “You are Here” to “Our Collective Destiny, Desire” – Melonie, Dan

The body text was simplified to explain the On Desire concept and emphasize the only active project, Around Lake Michigan – Steve, Dan

Two active movie links were added, tho the picture is not obviously a video link yet – Patrick

Sidebar

Archive was changed to BLOG – Julie

A twitter icon was added

Launch date was added – Julie

PAGES was removed. Around Lake Michigan pages were brought to the top of the list and On Desire to the bottom.

Added An Around Lake Michigan premise page which will become a 15 second “watch this first” video link. The page starts with character development and then presents the character’s premise, addressing Jonathan’s doom feedback – Melonie, Jonathan, Dan

Other

I’m fleshing out the links on the collaborators page and making a point of linking to resources like WBAI and SOMA (great music). Not only do I want to share the resources that inspire the project, these links increase the interconnectivity of ondesire to the rest of the www.

Have I written about this yet, or have I just thought about writing about it? I admit I’ve been inventing open source filmmaking in a vacuum, I am only slightly aware of what other filmmakers are doing on this front. I’ll eventually plug into all the social networking juice associated with open source film projects, but for now I remain blissfully ignorant, aside from the original inspiration of Robert Greenwald’s Rethinking Afghanistan. Actually, another important early influence was the Rebel’s Guide forum, where production strategies are shared.

What is Dan Kelly’s vision of open source filmmaking? So far three facets – chronicle, outreach, and get naked.

Chronicle

It’s about chronicling the process on this blog and connected channels – Twitter and Linked in for example. Even if nobody reads my ramblings, taking the time to communicate what’s going on helps me to focus and clarify my vision. As I take on more ambitious outcomes, I begin to walk the less traveled path. If there are other artists out there with related outcomes, perhaps they’ll improve their chances of success by learning about my exploits. If those folks and I connect and communicate, that’s nirvana. I am one neuron and the blog variations are my synapses, snaking out towards other neurons. You can make a brain by networking lots of neurons. Essentially, open source film making is one way to become part of something bigger, to amplify and extend myself.

Outreach

That snaking pseudopodia part is important. As I mentioned above, it’s great to be a closet scribbler, that’s how Stephen King got his start after all. Eventually King had to slither out of his closet, he must have shared his work with friends and eventually editors. Without slithering, where would Stephen King be? One must learn to slither and ooze… what ho! Here’s the internet.

Oozing is a great word I think, because the internet is a universe of jagged dross. Spam and old school marketing schemes have inflexible edges meant to slice and tear, to force action. On the world wide web, incessant avalanches of edgy memes whirl and flash. Cognitive armor seems essential for extended surfing. Had enough metaphors? Bear with me… in RL surfing implies water. Water can’t be cut with a knife – it just gets out of the way.

Savvy neurons fluidly slide past sharp edges while expanding connections with oozed out extensions. These extensions are not hooks or bait, they are the neuron itself, awareness. Neurons flow into their surround, questing softly like spilled water on a level table. If water meets water, little puddles become bigger puddles, and the ocean of intelligence grows. Need some practical applications of how oozing works? On an online forum, only humans can enter. Having a persistent and relevant presence is the only way to network with the other humans there. That’s oozing… a sparkling puddle gently spreading. Oozing puddles are only good for making bigger puddles, so there’s no point in attempting a call to action or trying to motivate them.

I am sure this seems like a wild half baked digression, but outreach is not code for marketing. Making the distinction is important because we can’t afford to have ineffective outreach, the stakes are very high. Marketing harks back to the days of manipulating behavior and that’s the root of our problems on Planet Earth. Rather than manipulated behavior, let’s build a foundation on expanded consciousness. whoa.

Get Naked

Admit it, you skipped down to this part. Ok, maybe you started to read about the neural network, but that was boooring! So here we are, about to get naked.

Am I all about quality? Sure. Do I care about details and subtlety? I like to think so. Am I crafting a sublime aesthetic? You betcha! Well, screw all that – we are going open source!

Sharing the process goes beyond writing, it means providing access to a good portion of the raw footage. Sure some editing and assembling to illustrate the main ideas, but don’t get too precious, don’t fret about perfection. That’s what it means to get naked – to expose your bare essence to the scrutiny of the world. No polish or preening, no flowing mumu to hide my fat butt, no makeup or mousse. Just the raw sinewy meat, wrapped in glowing skin. Me, me… beautiful me!

This means that the work can be immediately available if activists or educators need it. It means I rough out ideas rapidly. It means others can give feedback and enhance the work. It’s an access point for collaborators to contribute. It’s gives the project a presence and buzz before the release. It’s a little more like what science is supposed to be, while retaining all the power of art. I keep finding things I like about this approach, now that I’ve gotten over being stark naked 24/7.

Drawbacks? Being stark naked is a little scary, but it helps that I am fit and svelte. I’ve got a nice body and by analogy my project is fun and engaging. So why not? Another problem is all that ownership crap, rights etc. In theory, Creative Commons protects the project from exploitaton by commercial entities. Another issue might be my eligibility for film festivals that dig the whole world premier schtick. My only defense there is that I am not posting my final edit, only sketches. If that doesn’t fly, then c’est live. Festivals serve the mission, not the other way around.

That’s my latest spiel on open source film making and why I am doing it. I think I may be repeating myself a little but that’s a habit I had even before I started turning into an old coot.

Yesterday was momentous. Thanks to advice from Christin Shacat I researched the Division 1 and 2 Transpac skippers. I also blasted Apple execs with an inspiring email, strategized with Kai for an hour and implemented Twitter. What’s it all about? Collaboration.

Why collaboration is good…

Certainly our current resources are adequate to make ‘On Desire’. We are blessed with two intelligent, attractive and articulate visionaries – an experienced solo sailer and an almost acclaimed filmmaker. We’ve got a sturdy boat soon to be equipped and supplied for the long haul, a mobile HD production and post-production kit and a modest but adequate operating budget. We’ve also blessed with a vibrant network of excellent friends and family. If all we did was document our discussions and discoveries for a month or two in the 8 seas we’d have a pretty compelling project.

Based on lessons learned from posting DOG, doing it alone is not ideal. To really amp up the fun, we’ve got to add holes! Holes are where the collaborators go.

For example, because Jeff Gibbs has infected me with his no jetting meme, I’ve got to find a boat to Hawaii. That’s not a problem, that’s a hole. Holes create space for collaborators. Finding collaborators for the boat hole has expanded On Desire’s scope. What sorts of boats travel to Hawaii? Container ships and racing sail boats.

Container ships are integral to global trade. What would sustainable global trade look like? Do shipping companies like Matson or Horizon Lines have a vision for sustainable operations? Matson’s parent company, Alexander and Baldwin, Inc. advocates sustainable practice when describing it’s agribusiness, power generation and real estate operations in Hawaii. Reaching out to these companies has become much more than finding a ride, they could become key collaborators in the project.

The Transpac 2009 is starting at the end of June. A fleet of racing yachts will sail from California to Oahu over the course of a couple of weeks. Many of these boats integrate sophisticated design and exotic synthetic materials. They are often skippered by uber successful entrepreneurs in science and business. Since this community is so savvy about harvesting solar power (wind), it’s easy to imagine them contributing mightily to a sustainable future.

Of course, even sailboats make a significant footprint in their construction. I’ll be speaking with the Transpac Commodore later today. I wonder if the racing community recognizes boats that integrate lower energy and less toxic construction techniques and materials? Could boats with dacron sails get a starting advantage over those with mylar sails?

There’s plenty of other holes besides how I get to Hawaii. As a recovering consumer, I choose products that lean toward sustainability. Computers and cameras are a nessisary evil if one wants to make movies, chock full of petroleum, heavy metals and rare earths as they are. Apple products are well designed and built to last, so I’ve invited Steve Jobs and Apple execs to loan On Desire an additional Macbook Pro. There are plenty of other companies I’d enjoy reaching out to for loaners or corporate support, eg Tiffen for a Merlin Steadicam, Vibram for a wrap around pair of Five Fingers, Lectrosonics for watertight radio mics, Canon for a B camera Vixia. I think this differs from traditional product placement because these are products we are already using to meet On Desire’s objectives.

If a collaborator is in alignment with On Desire’s objectives and they are confident we can meet them, they’ll likely sign on. Everywhere I look I see holes, glorious holes!