Hello and welcome to the first post from the FilmTiki team. A few of us will blog from now on – we hope to give you a behind-the-scenes view of FilmTiki. I’m Ruth, a FilmTiki-er from Wellington, New Zealand. I’ve got a varied background but recently finished a bit of postgraduate study, focussing on digital media and distribution, and a bit of philosophy of technology. What do I do for FilmTiki? I do a number of things, but at the moment I’m focusing on results. That is, I help to make sure our soon to be massive database of research can be transformed into useful results for filmmakers who use the FilmTiki tool.
I’ve been involved pretty much since the beginning of the project – Iris told me about her idea over a coffee on a windy Wellington day exactly a year ago. I remember being so excited about what something like FilmTiki could do for the film industry and as the team have brought her idea to life my excitement has grown. It’s a pretty awesome invention. I can’t wait until you get to use it and tell us what you think.
FilmTiki boasts quite a big international team, and we’re working super-hard these days to get the site ready to launch. It’s a fun process that at times has its difficulties – because we work virtually there’s no popping your head into someone’s office to ask what they’re doing, or to clarify a point. We share documents and our daily progress reports via an online platform and discussions take place either by Skype or email. The basic communication you take for granted when working in the same physical space involves a lot more planning, but in the end it works well for us all and the project. It means there’s some dedicated soul working on the project 24 hours a day, seven days a week. FilmTiki never sleeps…
