#n.i.m.f.

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The landscape of independent film distribution is evolving and we are doing our best to keep up with it. As we do, we offer this collection of videos from wh...

Here's a playlist full of Independent Film Distribution. I've watched them all, and have found that it's going to be very had to come to just one conclusion for my research!!!

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Article 4 #: What is the essence of social media anyway?

That's the very first question that must be answered before engaging into a research about distribution through social media. What is the main purpose? Why is it popular today? Now this is purely my own perspective on the subject. I might come back on things after having done more research on the subject. Or if you, the reader, have a different point of view.

Well, before looking at the medium of social media. Let's first look at the source and user, that's us. Humans. People. And we need connections. Not in a professional aspect, but on the emotional aspect. It is said that when we have positive social interactions, we are happier in life. More content, positive and sometimes even healthier. And many of us have that feeling and need to want to become happy. The happier you are, the more people want to know you.

But then we have to look back in history where we already had 'social groups'. Higher and lower classes defined by money, status and types of interactions. The upper classes and lower classes of the past were then the considered term 'social groups'. The social 'society' you walked amongst was very important and uselessly permanent. The higher your status, let's say King, the more people would follow you into battle! But Kings, Queens, Barons and Dukes were born in those societies and it was much harder to climb the 'social ladder'. It's still amongst our current lifestyle today, the difference between the rich and the poor. However, the coming of industry has led to a major swift in social ladders and brought prosperity. The rich can become easily poor and the poor can become easily rich. But on the interaction level, subjects have come together. When you could be rich and stupid in the past. It is was later less accepted in the day. It all had become more focused around intellect. Status alone wasn't enough anymore. Not even money. You need to have something to say. And the knowledge that has been shared openly throwout our century, (libraries, internet, cough* wikipedia) has enriched many peoples lives. Rich or poor. King or Pauper. The smarter you are, the more you have to say that makes sense, the more change you bring, the more people would like to follow you. At least, that's what history showed us.

And then we have the urge to communicate and share our thoughts. We have always sought for connections by reaching out to other people. And when it took in 1714 almost at least 3 days or even weeks to send and receive a love letter from a long distance. Now in 2014, a love text is send within seconds! A 10 pages long email within seconds. Or just a phone call away when the reception is good. But the essentials are the same. Whether it be 1714 or 2014. The desire to connect and the urge to share. Where Ink, paper and the pen were tools of the past. The smart-phone, laptop and social media has become the tools of the present. Where we first put posters an a brick wall, we now post pictures on a digital wall.

And that is the essence of social media. It is a platform, a tool, an empty piece of paper, that we can fill with our personal thoughts, share our experiences and our likes and dislikes. It was based on our urge and desire to communicate and interact with other people, and that's why it has become such a success. Not only an success, cause it has become integrated with our everyday life-style. Cause ask yourself this, can you go without social media for a day? A week? Even a year?

But has the essence stayed the same I wonder? With all the small businesses, big businesses, sponsors and commercial companies making use of it these days as well. Is it still just about interaction between people? Or has it become these days more a platform to try and become famous? Another climb up the social ladder? And as an animator, do I want to be part of it? Or won't I have a choice?

If you have your own opinion on the essence of social media, do tell me! Interact with me. Communicate with me. Share with me. Because it's essential, isn't it?

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First Vlog

VLOG 1# - Introduction

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Article 2#: The general idea behind the research in “distribution of animated shorts through social media”

In combination of my animation project, I was not only thinking on what subject I wanted to tackle, but also on how to bring the project to the world. I really wanted to share the full making process of my animation short. Then it came to thought, how does anyone share anything? Well, these days through social media of course. But how does that come about? Where do you begin? And why don't many other people, in this case 'animators', share every detail about their project anyway?

Well, these days we already share information about our lives randomly, for example on facebook, instagram and twitter. Not much me personally compared to others, but I see and hear about it everywhere. I find the blogs, videos, forums and images from certain artists and animators I admire on-line. But what I find is that not everyone focuses on a specific audience? They just put it out there and see what happens. But what most annoyed me was that most animators of animated shorts didn't make their animation more appealing outside of their short or give extra background information (I personally am a real sucker for making off's and audio commentaries.) And this frustration also came about with the work of my classmates, whose beautiful sketches, brilliant concept art, interesting storyboards and skilled pipelines, would never see the light of day after they put their shorts into the world (My classmates will think I give them too much credit, but they are sweethearts like that). And with that, an idea steered for a research project and the questions came. “Why are some creative artists (in this case focusing on animators) so reluctant on sharing their work, while not minding to share a picture of their food, dog or strange mole they found on their ass?” - “And with the change that social media brought concerning the distribution of animated shorts, does success now lie in how many 'likes' you receive?” - “Can social media give people the chance to purely express creativity, therefore bringing people together? Or will corporate companies take over like they always do?(spoken like a hippie)”

Many more questions steered up in me. And so, a research plan was formed. But a research is nothing without a conclusion or a deliverable in the end. Well, I will give you both!

By writing these articles, I hope to slowly come to a conclusion about “distributing through social media” and as a deliverable I want to make a step by step “social media marketing strategy plan for the beginning animator”. Now, I know there is already a wide range of sources full of social media strategies to be found to help people promote or sell their products and so build up their social network. But not specially for the independent animator, which will be my complete focus.

I hereby will also ask you, the reader, to help me a little bit. Share your knowledge and opinions on social media with me. Good or bad. Because I believe in the good sides and bad sides of things, and that we need to be aware of both in order to achieve a certain goal.

Suze Gil

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Article 1#: Introduction of the projects to come

Considering I began this blog with a random post about the name and gave no more insight than that. I thought it was better to give a little more information about this blog and myself.

This blog has been set up in order to share the work process of my animation project and to share my research project about 'distribution through social media'. I am an animation student at the School of Arts Utrecht, located in the Netherlands and these are my two school assignments. To make an animation and have a research project of my own choice. So I decided to with a nice combination of the two which started with a question 'how can I share my process to the world? Through social media...... But how does one do that?' And this became the focus of my research. What my animation is going to be about is quite officious at this point. The name of the blog is a big give-a-way. A summary will come later.

Though I am Dutch and living in the Netherlands, I choose to communicate in English in order to share my work process in a bigger scope then just the Netherlands. Cause face it, how many of you knows how to read Dutch? And we don't want to Google translate everything every single time. Dat zou zo vervelend zijn!

In the future you will read more articles like this one, where I shall share my findings on my research project and of course show the process of my animation short. Also I will have articles where I've interviewed animators, distributors and many more on the subjects of animation work process and their opinions on social media.

Suze Gil

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We all need to start somewhere

Hello everybody,

This is my new blog N.I.M.F. On this blog I will post the upcoming process of my new animation short film, working title 'Daughters of the water', centered around the origin of the mythical creature NYMPHS. 

N.I.M.F. is the dutch translation for the English word Nymphs. For me, it stands short for Nervus.Insomnium.Motus.Fabula., which is Latin for Nerve.Vision.Motion.Story. A perfect combination of goals I will try to achieve as starting animator for my new upcoming short.