IndieFlix and supporting documentary filmmaking

The hardest part of documentary photography is getting your work seen.

I’ve written before about how some of the world’s documentary photographers struggle to get their award-winning published. There simply aren’t enough news-focused magazines to support the medium, financially or otherwise.

For those who have not gained a foothold at the picture desks of the British supplement magazines or the American and German markets, the challenge of getting their work scene is even more of a personal Everest.

Those who turn to the internet find shrinking hope. While online platforms are able to display images beautifully, the reality is that a personal website generates only passing glances.

The images we consume online these days are increasingly social media-led – either images from friends (Facebook and Instagram) or through apps, a kind of curated best of which often only considers work made available through agencies. The independent artist has been slowly squeezed out of the picture.

But perhaps there is a glimmer of hope.

For documentary filmmakers, who for so long like stills photographers are underpaid, underexposed and undervalued, there is an organisation created in 2005 called IndieFlix.

IndieFlix says about itself: “For far too long, filmmakers have been forced to either sell out or starve. Thousands of brilliant, creative minds submit their works to festivals, hoping to catch a meaningful audience. Fewer than one per cent actually break through. As if finding the financing and making the movie wasn’t hard enough in the first place. We’re here to level the playing field.

“Founded by filmmakers, IndieFlix is part champion, part curator. We’re so inspired by independent filmmakers and the work they produce, we’ve created a stellar platform for you to discover the best and quirkiest around.”

NOTE: IndieFlix asked me to review their service in May 2013

Novel Use = Nominal Payment. Alamy's low fee system

It was six years ago when I signed up with Alamy, the stock photography website.

I remember not too long afterwards it passed the 10million figure for images available to buy. If you're reading this anytime after April 2013 Alamy will have passed the 40million mark).

Shortly after signing up I sold a photo, of a black pug to be used on the cover of a 1,000 print-run calendar in Japan, for just over $600 USD.

One of the most recent images I have sold - shown here - was sold under the Novel Use scheme. For $1 USD.

Alamy markets itself on its great rates for photographers - it used to be 60per cent royalty rate in the photographers favour but is now 50per cent. But some hidden charges (such as Alamy Distribution Commission*) mean you never see the payment you're expecting after they take their cut.

So what is Novel Use?

Alamy themselves explain it like this:


We use the Novel Use collection when we are entering into deals that require a high degree of flexibility and are usually a departure from our core business. However, sometimes we may also work with familiar customers but in new and different ways as their businesses evolve.
If this all sounds very vague, I'm afraid that is intentional because the entire scope for Novel Use sales is impossible to define. New revenue opportunities present themselves as emerging businesses find a need for imagery and as technology continues to develop.
Our previous communications on Novel Use include the line below; your reaction to which should be the key driver behind your decision to sign up or not.
If you sign up to the Novel Use scheme you are giving Alamy permission to sell your images at any price and by any method we feel is appropriate.


Some of Alamy's contributors have discussed Novel Use on its own forums:

Frankfitz said in April 2012
'I recently withdrew from the Novel use scheme as it is simply not worth it. I had a 0.50 cents sale for an image which does not even cover the cost of charging a camera battery. Neither did it make any contribution to the other costs associated with getting to a location. That sort of very low fee is insulting to the professionalism of both photographers and Alamy and neither party can make any reasonable reuturn. Is it not time to scrap the Novel use scheme as the only people who benefit are buyers? Moreover, the amount of information supplied for a Novel use sale is derisory so photographers cannot be assured that their images are not being used by organisations which they may have ethical or moral objections.' 

Pkphotos said in reply:

'if you want to operate as a charity by all means opt in to novel use. Otherwise it has no place as a sales option on alamy.'

For my own $1 image, I would love to know how it was used. So if anyone sees it on a billboard, postcard or sticker, let me know.

*Alamy Distribution Commission is a further 15-20per cent charge. As far as I can tell, it does not apply to Novel Use.
** Signing up for Novel Use is optional for all contributors. Withdrawal can be done every April. Don't ask me why.

A very quick guide on how to move a website name from one blog to another

WWW.COM.CO.UK.NET

Quick guide this.

It's because Posterous is closing that some of you may have to move your lovely domain name from there to a new blog. Possible new destinations are Wordpress (best found by searching for 'wordpress blog') or Blogger.

This is how to switch your .com or .co.uk etc domains from Posterous to Wordpress (other switches should be similar):

In Wordpress go to Dashboard > Store > domains 

Click on: Add a domain (which you already own). This costs 13 dollars.

Then log on to the website where you registered your domain (this will be 123reg, GoDaddy etc).

Look for the DNS link, click on it and change the nameserevers boxers (there will probably be two of them) to: NS1.WORDPRESS.COM and NS2.WORDPRESS.COM 

And you should be done (apart from maybe having to do a save in Wordpress).

Bye and apologies for being so dull.

The madness of Disneyland Paris

Images taken March 2013.

How to twin the Holy Land with Scotland or Dundee = Nablus

Nablus and Dundee, two cities you would never ordinarily mention in the same sentence.

That’s because the two places, one in the West Bank of Palestine - the Holy Land – and the other looking out across the North Sea in Scotland, could not be less alike.

Nablus, a village inhabited by the Samaritan people before the birth of Christ, has a long and historically important history.

Situated between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it houses Biblical sites such as Joseph’s Tomb and Jacob’s Well, the Roman’s built the city from 72 AD an it was captured by Crusaders a thousand years later.

And then you’ve got Dundee, a Scottish coastal city which famous for Dundee cake, two football clubs and Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue.

Not the most likely town to be twinned with an ancient city in the Holy Land.

This bizarre twinning came about in 1980, with controversial on-off British MP George Galloway leading the link-up.

Galloway, along with now retired Ernie Ross MP and then Dundee Councillor Colin Rennie.

The trio met up with Nablus mayor Bassam Shaka’a in London after he came to London to receive prosthetic legs following a bomb attack in Palestine.

It’s fair to say that issues in Palestine and the Middle East, possibly first addressed by Galloway around this time, have shaped his career.

The twinning was so successful that when Shaka’a needed a second pair of limbs, he came to Dundee Limb Fitting Centre. Naturally.

In 1996 an official twinning document was signed by the Dundee-Nablus Twinning Association. 

Strangely, I have been to Nablus but not Dundee – though I am a big fan of Scotland.

NOTE: In the photograph (above) is Nablus’ current Guvernor Jibrin Al-Bakri, who was the subject of an assassination attempt by Hamas - the Palestinian political party which governs Gaza - two years ago. 
The book Palestiniana is coming soon.

Dundee is also twinned with Orleans in France and German city Wurzburg.

Nablus is twinned with Lille, (France), Nazareth, (Israel), Dublin (Ireland), Como (Italy), Florence (Italy), Naples (Italy), Toscana (Italy), Poznan (Poland), Rabat (Morocco), Stavanger (Norway), Khasavyurt (Russia) and, of course, Dundee.

Facts from the DNTA website:

General Information

Nablus is about 66 km north of Jerusalem, 42km east of the Mediterranean.

Summer is hot and dry, winter moderate and rainy. The temperature ranges from 8° to 26° Centigrade.

One of Palestine’s largest cities, Nablus has a population of 326,752 in 2003, about half in the old city and half in surrounding suburbs and refugee camps.

The City of Dundee is situated beside the River Tay, at sea level. It is at the end of a rift valley, and is overlooked by The Law: a ‘pipe’ or small volcano. It is about 60 km north of Edinburgh.

Summer is cool but sunny, winter is cold. The temperature ranges from about 0° to 20° Centigrade. It is Scotland’s fourth largest city, with a population of about 140,000.(in 2004)

Trade and Industry

Nablus is famous for its soap industry. Also for marble and building materials, pharmaceuticals, goldsmiths, and the making of delicious sweets, the local variety being called ‘knafeh’.

Dundee’s chief business today is in biotechnology, electronics and education. Also computer games, comics, tyres, and call centres.

Both cities have been important trading centres. Dundee's harbours are no longer as busy as they used to be, though it has enjoyed something of a revival with oil business and cruise ship visits. Nablus is at the junction of two ancient commercial roads running north/south and east/west. But in recent years Israeli road blocks have severely hampered imports and exports.

Education

In Nablus there are 66 public schools and 21 private. In the refugee camps and the villages round about there are another 104, with camp schools run by the United Nations.

There are two universities; An Najah University, largest of the universities in Palestine, with 19,000 students, and Al-Rawda National School. Nearly all the students live in the old city because it is impossible to travel daily from the villages through the checkpoints.

Dundee has 52 schools; 10 secondary, 41 primary and one special. There are two universities, Dundee and Abertay, plus Dundee College, with 33,000 students between them.

ADVERT: Palestine is normal

Do an image search for the world Palestine and almost every result contains the national flag. Of those results that are photographs, most show Palestinian protesters. In some there is the added ingredient of an Israeli Defence Force soldier to add contrast.

It is not so easy to find images of the country of Palestine, its landscape and its normality.

Palestine is a dry, hard, mountainous region. Its roads are dusty and, outside of the major cities, are free flowing.

Sometimes it takes a little bit longer to get from, say, Ramallah to Bethlehem, because somebody built a bloody big wall across the road which you now have to 20 miles round.

In the West Bank there are a lot of bloody big walls. But there are also a lot of roads, a lot of cars and lot of advertising.

The huge advertising hoardings are proof that, even in a country of military occupation whose people continually suffer in the struggle for freedom, anyone can still be persuaded to buy crap.

Folk off dancing

 

Surely there is no better way to celebrate a day accidental activism, antagonising Israeli soldiers and visiting the birthplace of Jesus Christ. A night of traditional folk dancing.

If there is any form of dancing guaranteed to have you off the edge of your seat, half asleep and mind-numbingly bored, it’s folk dancing.

Anywhere in the world, this ritualistic jive is the reserve of the organised trip, where an unwitting captive audience is forced to witness unnatural body movements coinciding with music that no sane person would actually want to own.

And here we have folk dancing Palestinian style, where the smiles of the dancers hide the hours of pain spent perfecting a dance nobody wants to watch.

I attended this event after a day-long tour of Bethlehem and Hebron in the West Bank.

In Bethlehem I visited the Holy Church of the Nativity, built on the site of Jesus’ Birth 2,000 years ago. In Hebron I went into the old town H2 district, controlled by the Israeli Defence Force and inhabited by Israeli settlers.

 
H2 is not the best place for a group of 50 international activists to start singing ‘Free Palestine’ songs. Especially when they are already surrounded by IDF soldiers.

We got out of Hebron safely. Our local guide faired less well. Later that evening Israeli soldiers came to his home and arrested the Palestinian. He has been in an Israeli prison ever since.

While he was beginning his detention stint, we enjoyed the dancers. Just another day in the West Bank.

NOTE: Photographed at the Ramallah Cultural Palace on November 12, 2012.

Palestiniana, the book about my visit to the West Bank, is out soon on Amazon and for Kindle.

Nablus, West Bank, Palestine

Squeezed between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim in the West Bank 40 miles north of Jerusalem, the city of Nablus is the cultural centre of Palestine.

Its pristine An-Najah national University university is the rated fifth in the Arab world. The university was closed by Israel during the First Intifada between 1988 and 1991.

Nablus is noted for its hot cheesy Kanafeh sweet and olive oil soap.

From my notes: Walk round the old town. We saw area of an old soap factory bombed by Israeli jet planes. On wall is a large poster of the family and people who died.

Took photo of young man outside shop (shop sold detergents etc) also photographed with owner. Ate deep-fried cheese sweets.

Yasser Arafat's final day of resting in peace (with visitors) - November 11, 2012

It was a surreal day anyway. Two hours sleep with an Italian/Canadian couple in the wrong hotel, then realising I was on an anarchist's bus tour through Palestine when they started spraying slogans on an Israeli settlement wall. And it was raining heavily. Not your usual day in Palestine.

And so, as the biggest thunderstorm to hit this region in decades descended, we were dropped off at Yasser Arafat's tomb in Ramallah. He had died, aged 75, eight years earlier to the day.

Arafat, former leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was one of the most recognisable political leaders of the last 100 years.

The very next day this mausoleum was closed to the public as plans were put in place to exhume his body in order to certify whether he had been poisoned to death with polonium-210.

The soaking walkway to his tomb building is easily the most treacherous stretch of marble I have ever navigated. The red carpet had already turned into the world's longest sponge.

This is Palestine

This was not the trip I was expecting. Experience Palestine during National Youth Week, the email said.

So, after less than two hours sleep, after losing several journalists at airport immigration, after being taken to the wrong hotel where I am now staying in an apartment with a married Italian and Canadian couple and after killing a dog on the two-hour coach journey to Ramallah, how come I have ended up standing in front of reels of barbed wire watching international activists spray-paint a huge concrete wall which separates this desolate part of Palestine from the Israeli settlement beyond it?

Our Palestinian guide on this magical mystery tour, who has just been shouting at us to spray ‘Free Palestine’ in as many different languages as are present in our entourage, is now slightly more alarmist as he bellows: “Ten minutes, ten minutes. You must be quick. We can’t be here for more than ten minutes, the Israeli army is watching us. They will be here in ten minutes.”

This is the start of my five days in Palestine, which coincided with – some say sparked – the November 2012 conflict between Israel and Gaza.

A story of tears and tear gas across a nation where there are no youths in National Youth Week.

Palestiniana will be released on Kindle soon.