Grants talk:IdeaLab/Making a Wikimedia-produced feature-length documentary film for theatrical release

Start small

There is still a lot of difficulty in getting short videos on Wikipedia. I would like more documentation to be produced, and with video being so in demand and yet so scarce, making a proposal with support from en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Makes Video might be a good precursor to a longer documentary.

How would anyone here feel about making a 2-3 minute documentary on some aspect of Wikipedia, getting community feedback on that, then going from there? Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:06, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

• We already have quite a few short documentaries on Wikimedia here, although I don't know if any of these were collaboratively made rather than professionally produced. If not, then collaboration is the next step. I would actually rather start with something unrelated to Wikipedia, though - maybe something as simple as a particular historical painting, a minor poet, a mundane species of lizard, or the like. BD2412 T 19:38, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

There is need for community coordination in video production. Some non-free videos about art are linked to Wikipedia articles at Wikipedia:GLAM/smarthistory. Anyone who can think of ways to revive Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Makes Video could probably be funded. In any case, projects get funded when they have some hope of bringing in new contributors or enhancing the experience of the community otherwise. Is this what you expect? Any ideas for doing this? Blue Rasberry (talk) 21:53, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

My hope, really, is to leverage the existing interests, talents, and resources of Wikimedians. BD2412 T 16:53, 18 September 2014 (UTC)

I think you know your way around the Wikimedia projects well enough to make a solid attempt at doing that if you wish to try. I wish you good luck - let me know if I can help. I would like to see you accomplish whatever seems reasonable and right. Blue Rasberry (talk) 19:52, 18 September 2014 (UTC)

Truth in Numbers?

See also en:Truth in Numbers?. Blue Rasberry (talk) 13:35, 23 June 2015 (UTC)

We could certainly make something like that - although I would like to make something about a topic other than Wikipedia (at least to start with). I want to leverage our ability to cover historical and natural history topics. BD2412 T 02:53, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

Checking in

Hey there, BD2412. I know it's been a little bit since you got this idea started, but I wanted to ask what your thinking has been on it recently. I think the idea of encouraging community-produced videos on, say, article subjects that you've mentioned above sounds pretty compelling, and is an opportunity to introduce some deep and rich content to articles and other pages. I think there are a lot of contributors who could have a lot to offer in this kind of content, but I recognize there are some skill sets that might be missing. I wanted to check-in with you to see what your thinking is right now on moving this idea forward, whether you are considering asking for funding, and how I might be able help you out. If you want, we can talk here or we can arrange a chat over IRC or Google Hangouts. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 18:14, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

I haven't used IRC or Google Hangouts, so I am not particularly familiar with how those work, but I'd be glad to try. My thinking on this is that, much like the whole of Wikipedia, it's something you just do and let the capability evolve by trial and error. In this day and age, we all have cameras, and we all have seen documentaries. All we need is the platform to put them together into collaborative pieces. BD2412 T 04:20, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

I have been tapped to present a program at Wikimania about Wikimedia going to the movies. I have thoroughly rethought my approach, and have come to realize that with the right platform, making a documentary can be very much like making a Wikipedia article. BD2412 T 04:00, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

BD2412 Hey, that's great to hear! Congrats. I think that myself and Marti will be there as well, and we have some informal and formal sessions in the works for folks looking for grant funding, so you'd be welcome to join us. In the meantime, do you have any interest in talking this week about getting a grant proposal started? You can feel free to reach me at cschillingwikimedia.org if you want to talk specifics about scheduling. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 06:03, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

I JethroBT (WMF), sorry for the delayed response - I am definitely looking forward to talking about this. It has occurred to me that, in the digital world, audiovisual media is basically a collection of ones and zeros, just like text. Everything can be made analogous to text. BD2412 T 05:05, 11 February 2016 (UTC)

Speech went well.

I got some positive and some negative feedback in Esino Lario - but the positive was much more positive! BD2412 T 03:39, 28 July 2016 (UTC)