A few months ago I entered the StockStock film festival. It sounds a good idea – they choose a bunch of video from the Internet Archive and anyone who stumps up $20 gets a copy of their chosen material on tape. The entrant then gets a few weeks to edit it in to something interesting before posting back a completed entry.
So why am I disappointed? Because it seems that despite their novel use of archive footage they seem locked in a weird time warp when it comes to communication and sharing.
- They provide email addresses, yet have never once replied to any of my emailed questions.
- They don’t even acknowledge receipt of submissions, let alone provide feedback to entrants.
- They listed the names of the entrants whose work was selected for screening, but nothing at all about the videos.
- They have not provided any way of contacting other entrants.
- They have not even mentioned how many entrants they had.
- Worst of all, they have not provided any way for interested viewers to see or discuss the entries other than attending a one-off screening in Seattle last September.
This is crazy. I understand that my entry was probably not good enough to make the screening, but how can I get any better with neither feedback nor the ability to see the work of other entrants?
By diligent web searching, I have managed to find a very small number of other entrants who have made their entries from this year’s competition available on-line:
- “An introduction to videoblogging” by Frank Carver
- “Meuchelmörder” by Matt Longest
- “Granny Anime” by Nithin Shenoy
- “3” by Alan McAnulty and Rik Tweed
- “Success” by Aeryk Pearson
While searching, I also found a few entries from last year, too, but still no official page, or links.
- “Aperture” by Ethan Anderson
- “n00b” by Nithin Shenoy
- “Attack of the Galact-O Cybernaut Mutants” by Alan McAnulty and Rik Tweed
A few others have mentioned their entries, but not (yet) made them available:
If any readers know of any others, please let me know and I’ll add to this list.
And to the stockstock folks, if you read this:
You have a fantastic opportunity to connect a thriving community of movie editors, please don’t waste it by being a black hole and thinking that one screening (to what, a few hundred people?) is the end of the road. Share the love.