Success!
Yesterday, I received an email from Hunnia Films that I can use the documentary for my project, as long as I tell them which clips I want to use, how long they will be, don’t use them for commercial purposes, and put a line on the site in reference to Hunnia Films. Once I have given them the info about the clips, I will sign some paperwork, and I am ready to go. The upshot of this is that my project is going ahead.
The big, next step, therefore, is to choose the clips, which would be easier if I was just putting together an informal class project. With a contract, however, I need to be absolutely sure about the clips. Maybe I could renegotiate them later, but I would rather not worry about that. What I will do is go ahead with the class project as a first step. I am going to use two or three clips, depending on their size, to show the class the film and how I am going to present it. As I put the final together for this class, I will narrow down exactly what I want to use. I need everyone’s help for this, of course. I will post a few clip lists with the subject matter of each clip on the blog and get opinions. This morning, I started my own list of clips, which I am going to put into an excel spreadsheet. This Friday or early next week, I am going into the STAR lab in the Johnson Center and digitize the whole film, so I can be ready to split off clips.
When I watched the film today, I realized it is going to be difficult to limit the number of clips in the way I wanted. I noticed two new themes. One is small town people resisting the economic system the communist government forced on them. Many interviewees expressed anger over government officials taking their possessions. The other theme is the influence of psychology on political choices. One of the interviewees, who became an enthusiastic member of the communist party, talks about rich people laughing at him when he was young. Later, he became the “muscle” of the local party and used violence to threaten people into giving up their possessions. I would like to investigate these themes in the site, but that may be difficult if go by my original plan of only two clips per interviewee. I need to think about the project much more.
Congrats on being granted use of the documentary for your project. That’s pretty exciting. I look forward to watching the clips when you post them on your blog.
jcassara
November 24, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I’m so excited about this. The film is great, and it’s hard to limit what I want to show. For example, there’s one clip towards the beginning, with the ex-mayor of the town describing the fake, “gypsy village” he put together to satisfy his communist higher-ups, so that he wouldn’t have to confiscate land and other stuff from his neighbors. There’s much more. I’ll try to choose a clip or two to present to the class that are short and interesting.
laszlojt
November 25, 2009 at 10:52 am
mazel tov!
hbarthold
November 24, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Congratulations! That’s HUGE! Is there a time limit on the length of the clips? And will you be able to add more clips later on if you expand your site? I’m looking forward to seeing some of the film.
zayna
zaynawoman
November 24, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I was thinking about that. Hungarian copyright law says something about either three minutes or 10% of the entire source. That would mean with a 2 hour film I could use 12 minutes at most. Then again, the Hunnia Films email only asked me how much I wanted to use, so I assume there is no limit, as long as I tell them what I’ll use. We’ll see.
To be honest, I like the idea of clip limits, because I could actually finish a basic site on the film in a few months with plenty of analysis. Maybe I could spark peoples’ interest online to checking out the film. Also, trying to break down and analyze two hours of film would take a long time, I imagine. Maybe I’ll change my mind after my narrative and the mock up for this class.
laszlojt
November 25, 2009 at 10:48 am
wow, that’s fantastic news. congrats, I was worried they would shoot you down.
colamaria
November 25, 2009 at 12:58 am