I recently had the opportunity to speak to the co-chairs of the UAE chapter of Women in Film and Television.

It constantly amazes me that there is still such a glass ceiling in place when it comes to women and cultural industries.

Well Michelle Nickelson and Dedra Stevenson both have great stories to tell.

And I love the fact that TEDxAbuDhabiU also had a place in the development of their own relationship.

WIFT is all about collaborative relationships and as I listened to these 2 women talk about what they are doing, why and how I was inspired.

Here is the podcast of that interview I hope you are inspired as much as I was.

The Arab spring has not only ushered in political change in the middle east but also media change.

Technology has without a debate changed the communication process!

With built-in video cameras now the norm for mobile phones, anyone can be a film-maker – a fact proven by the role social content played in TV news coverage of the recent uprisings in the Middle East. As the dust settles, however, social media is influencing documentary-makers, too.

Anyone can now be a storyteller via video!

Out smart and not-so-smart phones can shot video and with Vimeo or YouTube even facebook anyone can easily get their recordings to a mass audience.

Are we teachers keeping up?

Are we communication professors embracing and teaching cross-platform storytelling?

Speaking for myself the answer is no.

I am trying to keep up but it is sure easy to fall back on what I learned in grad school or what I became comfortable with last year.

The problem with getting comfortable in a new media environment is you become outdated and stagnent.

Social media has changed the playing field as was reported in the Guardian.

Social media also enables a different approach to story-telling. “The internet has allowed a new form of documentary to emerge – a form involving multiple narratives and array of different types of content spread across different platforms,” says Alamouti. “Rather than allowing the audience to sit back and listen it can enable them to lean forward to navigate their own way around a particular subject.”

All is new!

The Barnaby Street Jail Youth Hostel in Ottawa Ontario Canada.

Star Wars is a movie that, for better or for worse, defined my generation!

I am not sure if it was the special effects, the story, the characters, space but when I think about Star Wars I am transported back to Ottawa and that theatre.

Not so long I had a chance to wear a Storm Trooper Helmet!

Very Cool!

Maybe I look like a Storm Trooper on vacation?

I was just in Sri Lanka and wondered when the last time the kids in the village I visited got to go to the BIG SCREEN and watch a film with BIG SOUND?

Once again there are so many things we take for granted.

But I still love the Storm Trooper Helmet.

So what does the UAE film industry need?

UAE, Emirati talent!

It is great that we have many film festivals cropping up, and my favorite is the student led project at Zayed University, but festivals are not enough!

We, expats in the UAE and Emiratis alike, need to start looking at the core of the UAE industry.

What do we have today?

What is missing?

And how do we start.

First and foremost WE NO NOT NEED MORE EXPAT CONSULTANTS TO COME TO THE UAE TO FIX THINGS!

There are more than enough highly educated film, culture and public policy experts on the house to help shape/create/jump start the UAE industry.

And we also have the talent right here right now to create the public policy vehicles and measure the success of those vehicles in promoting the UAE film industry.

Maybe someone will listen.

It was interesting to speak to Saro and Ahmed about the UAE film industry as they came to the table from another corner of the conversation.

So, lets not just talk but start doing.

I put my expertise in the ring to look at the public policy issues.

Are we ready to start the change?

You might be saying, “what another film festival?”

But this is film festival with a twist.

ZUMEFF started last year as a student graduation project.

What usually happens to student graduation projects after the students graduate, nothing.

But this project took on a life of its own and was adopted by a class at ZU and they put on the festival again.

Have a listen to what it is all about.

I think this is really cool. Students not some big corporate entity with a professional organizing team and deep pockets putting on a film festival but a school and a group of 15 students!

And the whole thing was pulled together is a a micro window of just over 10 weeks!

So, what is the lesson here?

1. want something done well give it to a group of busy women
2. Zayed University is the leading University in the UAE for creative talent and community engagement
3. students can do the amazing things if we create the opportunity

WOW is all I have to say!

The question I am left asking is who is to blame when our career choices and our passion do not meet?

There are no shortage of excuses and finger pointing but the only person you can blame is yourself.

What we need to keep in mind is that the the path of marrying your career and passion is certainly not linear.

Given enough time passion and career are certain to come together.

Narain Jashanmal is in the publishing industry BUT his passion is film.

Wouldn’t you know it he has returned to his passion after a long break.

Listen to this story and then look at yourself in the mirror.

I had never heard of Spy Films, the company, but now I cannot stop talking about them.

The film/ad I was treated to is just very cool.

Spy Films and directing duo Alex & Steffen, roll out the latest spot for communications company, Batelco.

“At over three minutes long, the film plunges the viewer into an Inception-style environment and delves into the minds of its protagonists as they re-imagine the world around them. And since the film was launched on its dedicated Facebook fanpage earlier this week it’s been gaining international momentum.” – Shots Magazine

I love the fact that this is all happening in the main character’s mind.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It is this kind of work that makes me say, “wow”, and hope my children go into the creative industry to make their dreams come to life.

To be honest sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.

One of the greatest challenges with many of the assignments is to convince the students that the project is a viable way of presenting ideas and thus messages to a wider, maybe mass audience.

And then there is the challenge of faculty who sometimes look at my assignments a bastardizing radio/film/tv/print as a communication medium.

I actually take the disdainful looks of fellow faculty to my class assignments as a compliment.

What about a 10 second movie?

Can you tell a complete story in 10 seconds of video?

What if you did it on a Smartphone?

Thanks to BoingBoing.net for pointing me towards this great little project by Ross Harris.

This is the story of where Ross Harris lives!

The story of an environment.

I dare you to only watch it once.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I like to work from the perspective that if you can tell a complete and compelling story in 10 seconds imagine what you could do with 90 minutes!

I feel 10 second convergent newscasts coming to Zayed University’s ZML course in February, watch this space for more news.

Sure there are many people who are not riding the smartphone wave.

But the sad truth is in the very near future the smart phone is going to not only be the primary resource for storing and communicating information but it will also be the primary tool for not only the watching but creation of entertainment!

How we think about film, tv and radio is undergoing a rapid transformation that many old school MFA’s, journalists and PR types want to wish away.

Sorry, it is not going to happen.

What once took a studio now takes a device that fits in a pocket.

Listen to my podcasts and tell me which part was recorded on a smartphone.

I recorded the intro on my iPhone4, yea it was a bit rough but it was also in an auditorium while the rest was recorded in a professional radio studio. Amazing really.

And now we have Park Chan-wook, one of South Korea’s best-known directors for movies like “Oldboy” and “Mother,” shooting a 30-minute fantasy-horror film “Paranmanjang” (Korean for “Ups and Downs”) on his iPhone 4.

So, the playing field has been totally moved!

Sure we need the old skills and the old tools for some things but we now have new tools that with a small old skill retrofit are changing our media ecology .

Check out the making of the video. Old skills and tools retrofit!

We are in the midst of a complete shift in the ownership, creation and dissemination of content.

Today it is not who has the most money and the best equipment it is who has the best ideas and ability to adapt.

Bring on the smartphone revolution.

Will our current crop of academics adapt with the change or climb higher into the ivory tower, the latter without a doubt.

And what stopped you?

Technology, cost, ability are the usual call to arms.

I have been telling my students, and anyone who will listen, that you can do anything in media you want if you are clever and use what you have to its maximum potential!

Well a Russian amateur film maker has just raised the bar for the big boys!

2 hours of filming and one month of editing and we have a Transformers clip that is WOW!

Click here to view the embedded video.

So the lesson here is that anything is still possible, and tell me this little video isn’t a great CV!

BoingBoing is where I found this little piece.

Here is the scoop.

Shot by Russia’s Alexander Semenov on Canon’s 550D and Nikon D5000 HD cameras (both usually retailing for under $1,000) and using software such as 3DS Max 8, After Effects CS4 and Vegas 7, the clip took only two hours to shoot and one month to edit. Aside from the great visuals, Semenov actually manages to give us a peek into a Transformers world much cooler than Bay’s–one in which dudes meet on deserted roads for violent, impromptu bot-fights.

The phones used in the clip are from Nokia and Sony Ericsson, so if this isn’t simply a clever viral video secretly produced by one of the mobile phone makers (the logos are featured a bit too prominently), they would do well to track this guy down and purchase the rights. No word on how much the entire project cost, but (if this is truly an amateur work) this is the clearest indication that, thanks to the newly lowered technology bar, low-budget films are about to get a lot more interesting.

Via TheDailyWhat