[spectre] STORY STREAMS: Real-time Cinema©

[fran ilich]

Story Streams:
http://www.thebitscreen.com/home.htm

Story Streams is a networked digital film, created in real-time by
collaborating filmmakers around the world. Story Streams weaves digital
networked technologies with the ancient tradition of oral storytelling to
create a new cinematic genre: real-time cinema. Working from a common
narrative, each filmmaker created his or her own version of the story and
then uploaded the files to a centralized artist who mixed the streams of the
story together in real-time to create yet another version of the narrative.

Story Streams was first presented at the Streaming Cinema media festival in
Philadelphia in February, 2003. The narrative we used was based on the
classic hero¹s journey: Our hero/heroine sets off on a short errand in the
city. There he encounters 2 or 3 perils or challenges. With the help of an
enchanted person, the hero/heroine reaches deep within himself and finds the
strength and resourcefulness to face down the perils. You could also say
that what he learns about his inner self helps him conquer the perils.
Having faced down the challenges the hero/heroine leaves the enchanted area
and finds him/herself back on the original road he was traveling on ----
only much further along the path. A few steps more, and he reaches the end
of his journey. This is a classical mythological frame such as the one
employed in Ulysses. The narrative was chosen because we wanted it to be
easily recognizable to the audience.


Credits: 
Nora Barry, creator of Story Streams and Executive Producer
Carlos Gomez De Llarena, Mixer in Philadelphia
Jeannette Lambert, Filmmaker in Montreal
Pierre Wayser, Filmmaker in Paris
Fran Ilich, Filmmaker in Mexico City
Mike Adams, Producer and Webcast Host
Andy Houriet, Technical Director
Will Luff, Engineer
Mitch Goldberg, Engineer