The Purpose of this Blog

I'm a filmmaker who is interested in using media as a catalyst for social change. I've worked in commercial television and movies over the last five or six years. I've seen how successful the medium is when it is used to pursuade its audience through advertising. I've come to the conclusion that film and video are powerful tools. If they can guild Times Square or Hollywood in gold why can't the same techniques be used to help develop third world countries?

Recently video and editing equipment has become extraordinarily cheap. The Internet has taken off too and streaming videos on YouTube have become the norm. Filmmaking has moved out of the studio soundstages and into our neighborhoods. It is finally becoming accessible to the average man, woman, and child.

Before we had lavish, blockbuster spectacles that the audience could watch, but could not create. Now, we have home movies shot on camera phones that end up at the top of the news hour. Television and movies have become more than just entertainment and escapism they have become actively democratic. I'm using this blog to take notes on the emerging uses of media.

Filmmaking can break news, it can create cultural awareness, document a fading tradition, teach the audience a new craft, and it has begun to give the voiceless a voice. There is still a huge gap between the haves and have nots when it comes to getting access to equipment and how the finished product gets distributed. I want to use this blog to brainstorm on ways to bridge that divide.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated and, if you'd like, you can see some examples of my work here: www.myspace.com/doublethinkproductions