ImmInst Documentary Film Project

Anyway, my point is. I think the best way to distribute on the web is by linking to a download host from websites that have audience that might have an interest or just generally curious audiences. To find a file on p2p you have to actively search for it, so people has to know what it is named and that it actually exists in the first place. Also, I think the p2p availability will come eventually if the film is popular, since the people who download from the site(s) are free to distribute. ( It may be a good idea to make a free for distribution announcement in the film for clarity of copy rights )

BitTorrent would be the ideal p2p network to distribute the film. It gets pretty good bandwidth because it forces people to re-upload as they are downloading. You also do not need to worry about the whole raring the file because BT uses a CRC32 on each of the file pieces it transfers, and if you use AVI format you can not compress it very much more anyway. If people can download the movie in a format that they can play with no effort they will be more likely to watch it. If they have to reassemble all of the rar parts or mess with a rar.bz they might not view it.

Films on p2p networks do not have to be of such poor quality. The people who put the films up like to make them 700 meg so they will fit on a CD. We can put it on at any size.

The survey is a good idea also. I have seen AVIs that bring up a web page when they are played, I wonder if they can do it when they end also.

I think a full DVD quality ISO or mpeg file should be available for those who have the time to download it. It is true that DivX(AVI) is very common for 1 CD files, but I personally think the quality is to poor. There is of course differences between excessive action and sit-down interviews when compressing video streams and I agree that we can put it in any format we choose or even on multiple CD size files.

I know some people who has some encoding experience. They might want to help making a good small-size compression for fast internet distribution or direct streaming. But the software for doing so is becoming more and more common, so it might not be a problem.

Personally I think that DVD size files will become normal in the not so far future. Massive storage systems (1 Tera Discs) are on the 2 year horizon. So lets give people the opportunity to watch perfect quality if they can.

Having a number of different options for viewing (standard DVD, internet download via a number of dif options, etc) is a goal.

Thanks again, lightowl for your support. Your name has been added under "Funding": http://www.imminst.org/film

I am happy to help. I am always looking for good ways to explain our cause through easy accessible media, and this effort will be a great leap forward.

I was thinking about the editing part of the film. It is obvious that the full length of interviews can not be included in the film because of time constraints. I understand that you are planning on making 2 versions. One short and one long.

Anyway, I was wondering if it would be worth it to make every single interview available in full length for people who would like to get the unedited impression. It would make a great inclusion in the resources section of ImmInst.org. The option of downloading relatively small files of interviews with specific persons about specific subjects. Just like I think that speeches on the coming ImmInst physical conference should be stored for everyone or full members to enjoy.

Just some thoughts.

Yes, having available full versions on the web would be a helpful resource. I'll remember to ask our host how much space we have for such a project.

There are two factors to take in to consideration.

1. Space for files. ( Must have Gigabyte Space for films )
2. Traffic limit. ( Depends on the download demand )

I am working with a web hosting company that may be willing to host the files some time in the not so far future for free.

Excellent... thanks for such help, if needed.

Headed out today to CA Sept 15 - 30

BJ, I am going to send you some documentaries on death (as a taboo, different attitudes toward burial,etc) and people's relationship to their bodies. I've copied them from the Uncensored Channel and off of the Discover Channel, etc.

The pages have been loading very slowly on the site. I've only been able to get the first two and this last one. Took about ten minutes to load this last page. My friend who knows more about computers tells me he thinks the problem is with the server for Imminst rather than with my computer.

Hope, I am not repeating things said previously but I think "immortality" has to be weighed against the alternatives. One tape I copied from the Sundance Channel called "A Certain Kind of Death" follows the workings of the coroner's office in Los Angeles.

What is so disgusting is how quickly the human body decomposes after death. In another documentary, they point out that in America we "hide" the realities ofg death by embalming everyone, using make-up, etc. so everyone looks like they are just taking a nap.

Religion, of course, is deeply involved in all this. I thought one woman's thought that she would "not want cremation" because "we are supposed to be raised from the dead in our body" and she worried that with cremation, it might be very hard to regather all the elements that once constituted her.

"Immortality" shines brightly when contrasted against the ugliness, horror, emptiness and decay of death.

I agree!

Thanks Randy. I look forward to viewing and gaining inspiration from the videos.

I'm in LA now at David Kekich's home with Aubrey de Grey who few in from UK to have meeting on life extension with LA media experts. I'll stay with Michael Roy Ames and then Peter Voss this week. I'll meet Alcor CEO Joe Waynick on Sunday who will be attending the SoCal Life Extension Potluck at David Kekich's home.

PS: At times the server is running slow.

too bad I don't have a car these days but am willing to assist on the film if i can be of assistance in Cambridge, Ma.

I agree!

Thanks Randy.  I look forward to viewing and gaining inspiration from the videos. 

I'm in LA now at David Kekich's home with Aubrey de Grey who few in from UK to have meeting on life extension with LA media experts.  I'll stay with Michael Roy Ames and then Peter Voss this week.  I'll meet Alcor CEO Joe Waynick on Sunday who will be attending the SoCal Life Extension Potluck at David Kekich's home.

PS:  At times the server is running slow.

Lucky man! Of all road trips to go on, this one sounds like quite the adventure.

Also, am I the only one who thinks BJK looks cool in that photograph? He always looks so serious.

Film Update

BJK! Those photos are awesome!

Could you possibly write an short explanation or description about them? I am eager to hear how your trip is going.

Best,
Kip

Yep.. will write up something soon.

Thanks,
BJK

added pics and descriptions here:
http://www.imminst.org/film.php#Far

added pics and descriptions here:
http://www.imminst.org/film.php#Far

BJK,

I cannot tell you how impressed I am. You are making a huge effort here. Film is a fantastic medium though which to spread the Immortalist meme--just look at the success of documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11. I almost wish I could join you on this fantastic journey around the country. It makes me proud to be associated with ImmInst.

Thanks, Kip.

Encouragement like yours is what keeps me going.

BJK

I've put together a 10 minute video preview of the Exploring Life Extension, ImmInst Film Project including interview participants:

-David Kekich
-Aubrey de Grey
-Michael MichaelChik
-Justin Corwin
-James Dale
-Peter Voss

Video Download:
http://www.imminst.o...m/exploring.wmv = 22 Megs

ImmInst Film Project:
http://www.imminst.org/film

If you have any problems with viewing/downloading the film file, please post below for help... thanks!

Bruce;

The film downloaded and played fine for me.

It is quite impressive and professional looking.

Great job.

Just one minor thing. Spell Check on "Boredom".

I can't download the film

odd,

You do the " right click, then click 'Save Target As...'" bit?

Good stuff BJK, you can count me on getting that vid. Chances are I will get multiples for others who are interested.

The video looks nice. Keep up the good work.

I've put together a 10 minute video preview of the Exploring Life Extension, ImmInst Film Project including interview participants:

-David Kekich
-Aubrey de Grey
-Michael MichaelChik
-Justin Corwin
-James Dale
-Peter Voss

Video Download:
http://www.imminst.o...m/exploring.wmv = 22 Megs

ImmInst Film Project:
http://www.imminst.org/film

Bruce Klein posted on cryonet the url containing a preview of a cryonics/life extension/immortalist video documentary. Here it is: http://www.imminst.o...m/exploring.wmv

The preview video file is about 21 Megs. I downloaded it and took a look at it.

I think this is a very important and useful project, and I commend Bruce for his efforts in this area.

The quality of the video and the lighting was good. I note that you have a panasonic dvx100a, which is apparently a rather expensive camera. The quality of that camera really paid off.

Jonathan has already made some comments about the documentary prototype which he posted on cryonet. I agree with Jon about his comments, especially the audio. Bruce is going to have to remix the audio, which I am sure he knows he has to do. However, it looks like the master audio from the first segment is pretty bad and may not be usable. Also, the video part of that first segment would not seem to be something useful at all. I do not see any use for that first segment with Kekich at all. It just doesn't seem like it would fit in with what you want to do.

Most of the other interviews look OK, in that they are of the right composition for this sort of thing, etc. The lighting was fine in almost all of them, although the audio seemed poor in maybe one or two of the interviews.

Perhaps the best part of the preview was the voiceover parts where the video was panned over a still image. Those segments allowed us to consider the central questions of the preview. Very professional panning. THe video of the stained glass window was interesting, and that sort of thing could be very useful for introducing some of the fundamental questions.

However, I guess my main criticism has to do with
the content of the interviews themselves. I did not see anything in any of them that I found compelling, attractive, intriguing etc. Part of it may be the subjects, and part of it may be the material, the particular quotes used. YOu might find it hard to get a believeable interview if they are scripted, but I still think that some sort of scripting might be needed to make the interviews more compelling. Perhaps more directed in terms of questioning the interviewees, pushing them by asking pointed questions, a dialogue. Perhaps you already have that sort of stuff, and it was just not in the preview...

Also, how can I say this? For one, the interviewees seemed to be-- in general--overly intellectual; in a way, they came across as somewhat stuffy, or maybe you could even say that they resorted to dogma, quoting phrases straight from the "Bible of Life Extensionism." Maybe it was just me. But having a documentary consisting of 130+ IQ life extension enthusiasts quoting the dogma, using the kind of complex sentence structure that we cryo/transhumanust types are wont to use, that may not be that most desirable content. That kind of sentence structure is great for written stuff, but it may be problematic in interviews.

In your future interviews you want to get some sort of footage of your interviewees interacting in their normal, everyday lives. Maybe you could get some footage of them at their jobs, or in their homes, interacting with family, pets, cooking, riding a bike, walking in the park, etc. Humanize them, etc.

Also, you might want to somehow work in some images or interviews of other types of people, like women, or like kids. Children can be very powerful on this sort of documentary, and their concepts and ideas of death, life etc are not set in concrete like adults. A couple of simple statements from them regarding some of the fundamental questions concerning this documentary-- that could work pretty well.

I liked it when you panned over the still images. And as a possible way to introduce some of the fundamental questions and concepts, I think that voiceover-while-panning-over-still-images, that has a lot of potential.

The thing is, you need some sort of good footage of ordinary people interacting in a way that is conducive to bringing up the fundamental questions. Those "fundamental questions" were more or less addressed in a way in the preview, but not particularly well.

What would be great would be some footage (or even panning over still images) of some sort of funeral rites or something like that. Now, there are stills and even video in the Wayback Machine/Internet Archives (archive.org) that is free to download and perhaps not copyrighted, but whether it could be used for this documentary, I do not know. But I would not be surprised if they had something related to funerals, or other cultural rites that may be related to death. A brief historical look at the intersection of human society and death may be a productive approach. Perhaps panning over historical/anthropological photos of funeral rites, religious ceremonies, etc, could be workable.

Also, once you have introduced the concepts/questions related to death, you may want to get some footage or stills related to our attempts to stave off death, i.e., medicine/healthcare etc. Again, archive.org may be a source.

The problem with getting new footage is the whole legal thing--you have to have subject approval, I think. But then there is the whole public question. Can you use footage taken in public places? I think so, but you need to research that....And then there are even copyright questions when it comes to using footage of public structures, buildings etc.

So what would be a workable structure or progression of ideas for the documentary? How do you introduce and progress into and develop the fundamental ideas and questions? How do you create the script?

Here are some fundamental blocks/units that might be considered as a sequence for the documentary:

A. Death and our relationship to it
--historical, cultural, rationalization, taboos, religion, etc. New ideas. Science Fiction. Pop culture examples (use of pop culture, Hollywood examples would entail dealing with copyright issues).

B. Medicine
--historical, scientific advances, cultural acceptance of new breakthroughs (organ transplant acceptance). What steps have we taken in the past to beat death? Why have we tried to beat death at all?

C. Transhumans
--what are their motivations. What are they like? How are they different, alike from the rest of society?

D. How do they justify their exotic ideas?
--interviews, scientific concepts, etc. Again, public domain images from archive.org could be useful here.

E. The Near Future, what does it hold for immortalism/transhumanism, Cryonics? This could be where you have Alcor/CI footage, etc. What are the principal entities/actors in this new movement?

Interview clips of transhumanists/cryonicists addressing any of the issues in A-E above could be used as well. A good tactic may be to introduce a general idea or question using a series of public domain still images, panned over, then use a short clip of one or more transhumanist interview subject speaking to this idea/question.

Anyway, these are just some of the ideas that I have come up with tonight.
No offense to anyone at all, BTW. Just trying to help. And thanks to Bruce for working on this project.

Edited by cryofan, 25 October 2004 - 07:17 AM.

I agree with Cryofan's suggestions, audio needs polishing etc. But I actually liked Kekich at beginning, that "homemovie"-style was very warm and human. This is just my artistic vision, but maybe you could use short segment of Kekich to start the documentary and after that style changes to "pro", or you could use short homemovie-inserts between interviews Voiceover parts with stills and pans and out-of-focus crossfades look nice, but final film needs more than close-ups: funerals, retirement homes, playing kids, mountains, cities, men walking on Moon, big pictures. Music is ok, but if you mix it with interviews, it should be more quiet at the background, otherwise it just disturbs (especially if english is not your native language).

Keep up the good work!

Also, Bruce, I think you need to consider using a standard sequence of shots for your interview subjects. What I mean is that you might want need more than one type of shot, more than one distance from the camera to the interviewee. For example, as an introduction to an interview with a subject, e.g,. David Kekich, you might show a short clip of Kekich from that opening sequence of Kekich talking at a podium while you do an introductory voiceover for kekich, "David Kekich is a ....who wants to.... etc" Then show the subject sitting down using medium distance "establishing shot". Then you can zoom in a little bit on the suject's face. Further closeups can be used for dramatic effect. You can go back to medium length distance shot as a short of transition to different subject matter topics or for a changeup or for a beginning to an end of the interview.

Of course all this changing of shot distance is a big hassle, and one thing you might want to consider is using the crop and pan video feature of your software to let you zoom in and out from medium distance to closeup and back to medium.
I have not yet tried doing that on my software at home, but I have heard it can be done for just a small zoom (I mean not zooming in too much, as that creates a noticeable blurring).

BTW, we talked previously about using Adobe Premiere editing software, which you say you were working with. Well, I gave up on using Premiere, as it was too damn complicated, and began using Vegas Video 5, which is a highly thought of package. Although it is not yet more popular than Premiere, many pros rank it above Premiere and rank it at the top with Final Cut and Avid Express. It is much more intuitive than Premiere. Let me know if you want to borrow my copy.

Thanks for the input Cryofan. I think most of your ideas are already in the stages of being implemented. I have also suggested to Bruce about getting shots of people in their day-to-day environments, and interviewing "common-folk" immortalists, not just the scientists and big name philosophers.

One thing I did like is the beginning series with Kekich. I liked his presentation of the squares in reference to life-extension. I think it is a great opener. It should be polished up a bit...of course...but this 10 minute video is just a teaser.

Excellent suggestions, all.

I'm in Laughlin, NV on the 26th floor of Don Laughlin's Riverside Casino. I'll film Don tommorow and will catchup on email and forum discussion today.

I'll reply with more soon!