where have the filmmakers gone?

I am planning on reorganizing some of the sub-forums "soon".

(initially) I was going to tweak the camera sections to be more reflective of where the traffic is. And, I am considering moving the filmmaking related stuff up the main page. I am also considering consolidating some of the production tools and filmmaking sub-forums... i.e. merging lighting and cinematography.

Consolidating (or at least cross-linking) various footage posts has been an idea... It is a bit of a logistical nightmare to think about, so it's on the back burner for now. The flip side, is I wouldn't want folks creative endeavors getting drowned out in a sub-forum full of camera tests.
 
Hey some of us are still hear. I took a break from filmmaking because I was having a hard time making a living with it so I went to photography but recently came back after finding some good crew members. We actually wont the Orlando 48 hour film festival a few months back (I'll have to share that film soon). Along with that I did fall victim to G.A.S. but finally bougth an F3 and said I wont buy any more gear till I make more films/documentaries which I am working on. just have to find the time as I also have a ton of photo work/personal projects I want to work on. Though I agree I would like to see more filmmaking here, but I would also like to see more discussion on film posts. There is a lack of that (and I know I have a bad habit of not always posting on them). I know I'm going to try and make it a goal to one day a month to just sit down and actually watch peoples films and actually write something about them if they are look for CC.
 
also, people here can be a bit (or a LOT) brutal with their criticism which may make folks gunshy about posting work. i get that everything shouldnt be "you're great! that was amazing!" unless it is, but theres a way to state the issues you have while not making the creator feel like crap. maybe some folks need that tough love and dont get the subtler approach, but i think most of us are intelligent enough to realize theres a problem without being told "garbage. why did you make this? go kill yourself. NOW." ok, people here really dont go THAT far, but ive seen it come a lot closer than I'd like to.
 
Jason Ramsey said:
I am planning on reorganizing some of the sub-forums "soon".

(initially) I was going to tweak the camera sections to be more reflective of where the traffic is. And, I am considering moving the filmmaking related stuff up the main page. I am also considering consolidating some of the production tools and filmmaking sub-forums... i.e. merging lighting and cinematography.

Consolidating (or at least cross-linking) various footage posts has been an idea... It is a bit of a logistical nightmare to think about, so it's on the back burner for now. The flip side, is I wouldn't want folks creative endeavors getting drowned out in a sub-forum full of camera tests.
Click to expand...


I think a simpler approach would be to move the Screening Room and Filmmaking forums up.

First things you see should see:

News & Announcements

Screening Room

Filmmaking

ScriptFest (Maybe merge into the Filmmaking forum)
Production Tools

Then the Camera specific forums

Other Cameras

Off-Topic

Marketplace (marketplace should always be last. Every forum has a high rate of members who only joined to sell stuff. Make sure they have to scroll through everything first to get there.


Whilst the camera forums are probably the busiest, everyone coming here looking for specific camera conversation will find those sub-forums, regardless. And most people will minimise the sub-forums for the cameras they don't use/care about anyway. I do. I'll venture into them occasionally, but only if I stumble upon a topic of interest via the "New Posts" link, and even then, it's usually only if someone has uploaded something they've filmed.

As ignorant as it sounds, the technical aspects and graphs and charts etc are of no real interest to newbies. Not that they shouldn't be, but it's over most peoples head (mine included). What will inspire someone to delve deeper is seeing what people have created. Show someone what can be made, then they'll want to know what it is made with, and how it was done. Then comes the specifics about which camera and why, and all the other variables.

The above is of course directed more to the newbies, but the pro's and technically minded will find where they want to be. It won't effect them at all.
 
Josh Bass said:
also, people here can be a bit (or a LOT) brutal with their criticism which may make folks gunshy about posting work. i get that everything shouldnt be "you're great! that was amazing!" unless it is, but theres a way to state the issues you have while not making the creator feel like crap. maybe some folks need that tough love and dont get the subtler approach, but i think most of us are intelligent enough to realize theres a problem without being told "garbage. why did you make this? go kill yourself. NOW." ok, people here really dont go THAT far, but ive seen it come a lot closer than I'd like to.
Click to expand...

I don't know. Anyone who would frame criticism as a personal attack disqualifies himself/herself on the face of it, not to mention it being against TOS. Exaggerating faults is as bad as exaggerating virtues - it's just bad feedback, and anyone subject to such bad feedback can obviously completely disregard it, rightfully so. Bad criticism is bad criticism, there's no need to pussyfoot around that. That said, I can't work up much optimism for someone who would be "gunshy about posting work" because they fear brutal criticism... when obviously there hasn't even been any criticism because the stuff hasn't been posted yet, duh. This is a tough business. You'll hear - and read - a lot worse than whatever "brutal" criticism you'll get on DVXuser (which has to stay in compliance with TOS anyhow). There are critics out there who specialize not in affording constructive criticism or analysis, but in generating cruel putdowns and displays of acid writing which is supposed to entertain the reader and really doesn't care about the truth or accuracy. That's an unfortunate fact of life, and if you want to work in this industry, and put your work out there for the public, you gotta develop a much, much thicker skin. If you shrink before the possible criticism on dvxuser, you need to be built of sterner stuff. Nobody likes being attacked, especially unfairly. Honestly, I can not recall anyone attacking an artist here on these boards - though I've seen the artist get so offended by their work being criticised that they lash out and attack the commenter!

When I write something, I like to get feedback from strangers. But it's hard to get a steady supply of such readers (nobody wants to read, especially for free!), so I turn to friends... and when I do, I always say "tell me what you think - and please, be ABSOLUTELY BRUTAL - I mean it. Don't overlook any flaw, I really need to know all the weaknesses". I say that, not because I think "brutality" is somehow a virtue in feedback, but simply because by employing that word, I can impress upon people to not hold back in the least ("well, he wants BRUTAL! so I guess here comes the truth").

Seeing diplomatic language and obvious techniques like "give some praise if you are going to give criticism" or "find something positive in addition to negative" - I find counterproductive. It means the critic is mentally taking into account the possible negative impact of his criticisms - and that very fact immediately lowers the quality of offered critique, because the mental energy is going to diplomacy instead of stark unadorned naked truth. It gets in the way. Personally, I simply try to be factual - this doesn't work, this, this and this is weak, this needs to be stronger, this effect is good but you need more of it etc. Sometimes I may not even include the "good" because I figure there is no need for me to waste time assuaging someone's ego, they asked for an opinion and want to get it straight... that's what I want when I submit my stuff - I have no need for anyone to blow sunshine up my behind, I can take it, thanks.

So, if you bother giving feedback, I think you have an ethical obligation not to swath anything in cotton candy, but to tell the truth, and let the chips fall where they may - or you might as well not bother, IMHO.
 
Could one reason be that with the availability of better & cheaper cameras/tech, the other flaws become so much more obvious? (costume, make-up, lighting, acting, the stuff that really matters). Things that were maybe a bit hidden when the cameras weren't as good. Combined with the plethora of good looking stuff (and bad) on YouTube etc, making low/no budget films maybe have become much more intimidating? That the availability of equipment leads to lessened creativity? Same way the Internet, which is the ultimate source of information ironically is just speeding up the dumbification of people...
 
Perception
Back when I first got interested in film in the early 90's we didn't have the internet. The world seemed smaller and easier to achieve success. It wasn't, but it seemd that way.

Today people who post short films to youtube probably get as many views as they've ever gotten before youtube. The difference today is that they can compare their hit counters to youtube videos with millions of hits and get discouraged as a result. Again, perception.

As for DVXuser. This is a technical forum. I used to frequent other filmmaking boards that were more about filmmaking and less about gear. I even ran one myself for a short period. I came here for gear info. Nuts and bolts stuff from knowledgable people.

DVXuser has been more successful than those other generic filmmaking boards, but that makes sense when you think about it. Gear is consumption. They may be tools used for production, but we talk about them as consumers. How much they cost, what they can do for us, how to operate them, etc. Not about what we are using them to produce. Which in essence makes this forum no different than a forum about smartphones or computers or cars. It's just a gadget forum about video cameras. As it's easier to consume than produce, websites dedicated to consumption subjects will always be more popular.

That said, I agree, create a single forum for user films and put it at the top. Don't divide up videos into subforums buried in camera forums, instead use tags or the thread prefix option to list all available popular cameras incuding generic DSLR, camcorder, as options. Since people seem to still be most interested in videos based on what it was shot on at this website. Give us one single forum to see all the videos people here are making and list it at the top.

A note about posting videos here:
A think being that is this a technical forum, a lot of people are afraid to show their work because they're afraid it's not up to the technical expectations of their peers. So they don't want to get labeled as amateurs or something.
But that kind of feedback is also important because filmmakers aren't just storytellers, we are craftsman. We're here to help each other.
 
Yeah I like the idea of a single Film Showcase section at the top of the forum. In fact the short film I want to share I don't even know the best place to post it since it was shot on the a7s so do I share it in the Sony Nex camera section? I was the cinematographer on the forum so should I share it in the cinematography section. Or do I put it in the screening room forum that gets a smaller amount of views since it seems everyone is more interested in the technical camera subforums.
 
Criticism even brutal criticism can be good I completely agree it hurts the pride but builds the creative process and makes for a far better process. I think Josh Bass might be referring to when a line is crossed between constructive criticism and just being mean. There are all levels of filmmaker on these forums and it's important that we encourage people. I think good criticism (even if it's brutal) leaves someone feeling like they can improve not that they are a failure. Those are just my thoughts.

Anyway as for myself I hadn't been on the forums for years until the other day. I served a two year mission for the LDS church from 2010-2012 and when I got back I never really came back here but for the past few months I've been doing lots of video work for my job so I was inspired to come back and dust off my account. I do notice that there seems to be a lot more emphasis on gear than film making which I miss but the site is called DVX User so I can't really fault a more gear based perspective.
 
I'm still here. Back in the day I think everyone else (other forums) kicked me out except here. I was a bit outspoken as they say.

Working on my first animated short. Picked up alot of info here over the years regarding camera directing, writing and everything else related to film making. All of it applies to 3D animation as well except it's all done digitally. The concepts are the same.

I have 2 stories written by dvxuers, one I'm working on now and sound design is covered by a dvxuser when I get that done.

Started with VFX here helping my brother with his dvx short and went on later to work with Mark Johnson doing some foresnic VFX for his legal company.

Not into things as heavily as I used to be. I wish there was more chat in the forums too. Still picking away at it. Still learning. Still watching what others here are doing.
 
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GREAT question. Thanks for asking! Here are my 2c for what they are worth as a guy who comes here now and again.

THE GOOD:
DVXuser is great to check at NAB and at camera announcement times. If someone somewhere has released a new piece of equipment, DVXuser's hive mind KNOWS - and it's usually the more expert filmmakers who post this stuff and hang around to talk in the threads - the quality of discourse really goes up around that time.

DVXuser is a great place to buy or sell used camera gear. First place I go. And with guys like Illya Friedman, Mitch Gross and the Sound Devices guys posting and responding, you get really great information about what to buy too.

The mods are generally good and the fact that they're reading this thread is awesome.

There have been some good films on DVXuser in the fests in the past, good discussions and good feedback.

DVXuser is a real community. Actually, I often chat with DVXusers who are actively making films - just in real life or via email! Tim Hyten, MacGregor, Matt Garrett, Zak Forsman, Luis Sinibaldi, Kholi Hicks, Hunter Hampton, Jack Daniel Stanley, Ruairi Robinson (OK, he hasn't been on here for a while...), etc. We all work on each others' stuff, lend each other gear, etc. It's a great network of supportive friends. AND those guys are shooting insanely good stuff.

THE BAD:
Few people bother to ask the above-mentioned folks questions about filmmaking, lighting setups, favorite films, etc. It's mostly gear gear gear, which is... odd. Does everyone else on DVXuser think that the only thing holding them back is simply not having the right gear?

AND when a guy like Mac does do gear stuff, it's a war-zone. Matt Uhry, Mac and I compared the GH4 to F35 when and found some color issues with the GH4. People were just so angry that the GH4 didn't wipe the floor with the F35. They made all of these rude comments about the fact that we filmed fruit, etc. Of course, 6 months later everyone found the same issues... but yeah, it made me not really want to come back to DVXuser.

I was just amazed at how rude AND uninformed folks both were. I can tolerate one or the other. Both at the same time sucks.

At the same time as tolerating a pretty rude level of discourse from folks who don't know s*%t, DVXuser doesn't let me use the word "s*%t". And DVXuser seems to keep banning informed people whose posts I enjoyed reading. Andrew Reid, Ed David, etc. And David Saraceno shuts down even level-headed discussions of FCP X.

All of this just encourages me to go and chat elsewhere. I work at a big movie trailer company. After David told me to calm down on the FCP X chat, I just wandered down the hall and chatted to my co-worker who has cut the trailer for The Avengers, Evil Dead, Age of Ultron, Twilight, etc. We had a passionate and fruitful discussion about Avid vs FCP X... that David would banhammer into oblivion of course.

I do think that DVXuser is pretty draconian against experienced folks with opinions but on the other hand super tolerant of clueless opinionated newbies drowning you out / shutting you down.

DVXuser is a place where people get shut down a lot. Even Barry Green shut me down on that AF100 successor thread for daring to suggest genlock or some way of syncing shutters, plus RAW, plus 4/3rds sensor because he thought that 2/3rds sensor was best for 3D or some kind of strange justification. Well, hey now it's 2015 and guess what? We have VR rigs with synced camera rigs, we're doing 4/3rds RAW cams on drones... it's the future!

People who make good films are creative people and DVXuser is often sooo negative. Even when new a camera gets announced, people attack it and the folks defending it get swamped. When the C300 was announced, there were pages of morons saying that it sucked, except for cowpunk sticking it out there saying "hey, this thing will be good for my uses"... it was hilarious because of course it went on to be a super-successful camera. Oh yeah, and Kholi noticed the chroma aliasing issues early on. So you have some very informed opinions drowned out by screeds of mouthy drivel.

Finally, REDuser, DVXuser and BMCuser are a lot to keep up with - the fragmentation doesn't help. I have a choice what to spend my very limited free time doing - and often I'd rather just read the often very well-written (or at least moderately well-written) articles on ProVideoCoalition, NoFilmSchool, EOSHD, CreativeCow, NewsShooter, ProLost, RedShark, Philip Bloom's site, etc... and then for film discussion there's everything from Reddit to Slashfilm to Variety to Hollywood Reporter to io9... and a ton of good YouTube videos.

Basically, the "competition" has stepped it up as a fun place for knowledgeable folks to spend time. Why spend time on DVXuser being bashed?

SUGGESTIONS:
1. Be more welcoming of experts who (gasp) have opinions. Either reconsider the ban policy (and get rid of those lifetime bans), or if DVXuser wants to keep up the heavy-handed moderating, then at least moderate the hell out of the hordes of aggressive morons too. I know it's a lot of work, so I recommend just easing back on the banning. Try to cultivate a positive atmosphere.

2. Highlight the filmmaking sections - put them at the top. Figure out how to make thumbnails (or -gasp- animated .GIFs) show up for the films when browsing threads to attract people to the visuals. Have some thumbnails for the 3 most-recently-watched films and the 3 most-watched-this-week films on the homepage.

3. Do some AMAs with experienced filmmakers in order to encourage them to visit the site more. Also, maybe then people will listen to them more and not shout them down if there is a pinned AMA thread. Offer something up in exchange - like they get to promote their Kickstarters or whatever.

4. Few of the fests appeal to me because the deadlines were short and the topics often meant that if I made something for DVXUSER, I would have something I couldn't enter in any other festival. It would be awesome if we had a competition on DVXUSER every 6 months where people could simply put their best short films up. Imagine if some crazy person worked two years on a short... and then dropped it on DVXUSER?

5. Yes, this bulletin board software seems architecturally unsuited to dealing with floods of people posting uninformed stuff. A newer system with tags and some sort of rating system and thumbnails would be good. Something like Reddit is a little better at dealing with the load of stupid.

6. Everyone grab a beer / wine / chocolate / fun thing of their choice.

Bruce Allen
www.twitter.com/bruce_allen
 
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Thank you, Mr. Bruce Allen. I agree with your assessment of the quality of comments on DVXUser. But it's not just DVXUser. It's the Internet, the world.
 
Bruce, first and foremost, thank you for the great deal of thought you've put into your post and the time you've taken to lay it all out. I personally agree with many of your sentiments.

Moderating is not an easy task on a forum this size and simply, moderators can't be everywhere. For the most part we put out fires as they arise and sometimes that involves some of those points you made. There are members that come by from time with a wealth of knowledge that offer advice and pointers or post pieces here - granted not as many lately and for some of the reasons you've noted. There are however times when members, with or without knowledge take it upon themselves to come into the forum with a not so pleasant attitude, sometimes denigrating to name calling etc, where we are required to take action. Generally we'll discuss it with the member in question through PM. Often the responses are argumentative or downright abusive (members don't see that side of it) and then there's others that try to play nice. Getting a ban here has never been an easy thing to achieve and generally occurs when all methods of discussion have broken down. Usually, these things are discussed by the moderators before such a drastic action occurs.

I think you'll find for the most part any of the moderators are ready and willing to listen to feedback on how they're going about things here. I'm not posting this to detract from your point on it, just to show a little of the other side.


bruceallen said:
GREAT question. Thanks for asking! Here are my 2c for what they are worth as a guy who comes here now and again.

THE GOOD:
DVXuser is great to check at NAB and at camera announcement times. If someone somewhere has released a new piece of equipment, DVXuser's hive mind KNOWS - and it's usually the more expert filmmakers who post this stuff and hang around to talk in the threads - the quality of discourse really goes up around that time.

DVXuser is a great place to buy or sell used camera gear. First place I go. And with guys like Illya Friedman, Mitch Gross and the Sound Devices guys posting and responding, you get really great information about what to buy too.

The mods are generally good and the fact that they're reading this thread is awesome.

There have been some good films on DVXuser in the fests in the past, good discussions and good feedback.

DVXuser is a real community. Actually, I often chat with DVXusers who are actively making films - just in real life or via email! Tim Hyten, MacGregor, Matt Garrett, Zak Forsman, Luis Sinibaldi, Kholi Hicks, Hunter Hampton, Jack Daniel Stanley, Ruairi Robinson (OK, he hasn't been on here for a while...), etc. We all work on each others' stuff, lend each other gear, etc. It's a great network of supportive friends. AND those guys are shooting insanely good stuff.

THE BAD:
Few people bother to ask the above-mentioned folks questions about filmmaking, lighting setups, favorite films, etc. It's mostly gear gear gear, which is... odd. Does everyone else on DVXuser think that the only thing holding them back is simply not having the right gear?

AND when a guy like Mac does do gear stuff, it's a war-zone. Matt Uhry, Mac and I compared the GH4 to F35 when and found some color issues with the GH4. People were just so angry that the GH4 didn't wipe the floor with the F35. They made all of these rude comments about the fact that we filmed fruit, etc. Of course, 6 months later everyone found the same issues... but yeah, it made me not really want to come back to DVXuser.

I was just amazed at how rude AND uninformed folks both were. I can tolerate one or the other. Both at the same time sucks.

At the same time as tolerating a pretty rude level of discourse from folks who don't know s*%t, DVXuser doesn't let me use the word "s*%t". And DVXuser seems to keep banning informed people whose posts I enjoyed reading. Andrew Reid, Ed David, etc. And David Saraceno shuts down even level-headed discussions of FCP X.

All of this just encourages me to go and chat elsewhere. I work at a big movie trailer company. After David told me to calm down on the FCP X chat, I just wandered down the hall and chatted to my co-worker who has cut the trailer for The Avengers, Evil Dead, Age of Ultron, Twilight, etc. We had a passionate and fruitful discussion about Avid vs FCP X... that David would banhammer into oblivion of course.

I do think that DVXuser is pretty draconian against experienced folks with opinions but on the other hand super tolerant of clueless opinionated newbies drowning you out / shutting you down.

DVXuser is a place where people get shut down a lot. Even Barry Green shut me down on that AF100 successor thread for daring to suggest genlock or some way of syncing shutters, plus RAW, plus 4/3rds sensor because he thought that 2/3rds sensor was best for 3D or some kind of strange justification. Well, hey now it's 2015 and guess what? We have VR rigs with synced camera rigs, we're doing 4/3rds RAW cams on drones... it's the future!

People who make good films are creative people and DVXuser is often sooo negative. Even when new a camera gets announced, people attack it and the folks defending it get swamped. When the C300 was announced, there were pages of morons saying that it sucked, except for cowpunk sticking it out there saying "hey, this thing will be good for my uses"... it was hilarious because of course it went on to be a super-successful camera. Oh yeah, and Kholi noticed the chroma aliasing issues early on. So you have some very informed opinions drowned out by screeds of mouthy drivel.

Finally, REDuser, DVXuser and BMCuser are a lot to keep up with - the fragmentation doesn't help. I have a choice what to spend my very limited free time doing - and often I'd rather just read the often very well-written (or at least moderately well-written) articles on ProVideoCoalition, NoFilmSchool, EOSHD, CreativeCow, NewsShooter, ProLost, RedShark, Philip Bloom's site, etc... and then for film discussion there's everything from Reddit to Slashfilm to Variety to Hollywood Reporter to io9... and a ton of good YouTube videos.

Basically, the "competition" has stepped it up as a fun place for knowledgeable folks to spend time. Why spend time on DVXuser being bashed?

SUGGESTIONS:
1. Be more welcoming of experts who (gasp) have opinions. Either reconsider the ban policy (and get rid of those lifetime bans), or if DVXuser wants to keep up the heavy-handed moderating, then at least moderate the hell out of the hordes of aggressive morons too. I know it's a lot of work, so I recommend just easing back on the banning. Try to cultivate a positive atmosphere.

2. Highlight the filmmaking sections - put them at the top. Figure out how to make thumbnails (or -gasp- animated .GIFs) show up for the films when browsing threads to attract people to the visuals. Have some thumbnails for the 3 most-recently-watched films and the 3 most-watched-this-week films on the homepage.

3. Do some AMAs with experienced filmmakers in order to encourage them to visit the site more. Also, maybe then people will listen to them more and not shout them down if there is a pinned AMA thread. Offer something up in exchange - like they get to promote their Kickstarters or whatever.

4. Few of the fests appeal to me because the deadlines were short and the topics often meant that if I made something for DVXUSER, I would have something I couldn't enter in any other festival. It would be awesome if we had a competition on DVXUSER every 6 months where people could simply put their best short films up. Imagine if some crazy person worked two years on a short... and then dropped it on DVXUSER?

5. Yes, this bulletin board software seems architecturally unsuited to dealing with floods of people posting uninformed stuff. A newer system with tags and some sort of rating system and thumbnails would be good. Something like Reddit is a little better at dealing with the load of stupid.

6. Everyone grab a beer / wine / chocolate / fun thing of their choice.

Bruce Allen
www.twitter.com/bruce_allen
Click to expand...
 
I was with DVXUser since very early days - it was a great resource but in mean time it became less and less relevant. Some of us simply moved on. We developed a careers in film (thus are busy working on other's and our own projects) and as the community has changed, we decided the board is not what helps us anymore.

Part of the problem is illustrated in the answers above. You have a number of well thought out complex responses and a bunch of blah, blahs... Because with "democratization" of film came also democratization of the voice - everyone has an equal say even though not everyone should. There are people who are just starting out and people who've been doing it for decades and so you have groups of people talking but they can't hear one another because due to their experience they speak different language. In the past i was part of a few complex conversations about meaning of image or story but quite frankly it got tiring as the more banal of the voices started drowning out the few complex ones. It's painfully apparent when someone is talking from wisdom and as the internet allows everyone to dip their interests in any hobby they desire, it's only natural that a board like this will start to attract more and more non-pros thus diluting the voice. (And it doesn't happen to this board only but rather is a current trend. Even New York Times is diluting its brand by trying to appease the masses.) As a guy who's been around the block a few times it's just not that fulfilling to talk to a whole group of people where everyone's has an equal voice because quite frankly i believe i have way more to say about certain issues then someone who just picked up the camera the other day.

As our careers grow things start getting busy and between all the projects you are involved in it's just hard to go back to a board more interested with tech talk (very normal quality when you are starting out as it gives you certain tangible things to talk about but of zero consequences later on in your career). And lets get real, large part of that career development came thanks to this board! I wouldn't be where i am now without it. In the process many things have changed and part of it is how film over all is perceived. Films started to act like poems (very expensive poems!) that gets to be experienced in smaller and smaller circles. Just like a poem, it does affect people in tremendous way but the group of people that it can affect at a time diminishes. This is the kind of reality that many filmmakers don't want to face. Many jumped into this field expecting "fame and fortune" while the changing medium hit them hard with the realization that neither is easy to come by. For me personally, this shift is fantastic. I love the fact that once again we get to be pioneers exploring new ways to tell "stories." The fact that those are very expensive stories makes it even more exciting as it brings us, the filmmakers, closer to some of the explorers of uncharted territories of the past.

How would I revitalize this board? Less categories. Clear distinction between old timers and fresh faces (count of posts is NOT a good indicator): it shoudl be something like "i'm a pro because...".
 
I'm still in the editing process of two short films, one that I started writing back in 2012, started shooting it back in early 2014 and now, 1 year later, still in process of editing. Running out of time with a full-time job in security, and a part time job in the video/film domain.
That being said, as soon as I can, I try to put some work into it, but time is the main factor in the slowly process, for me though.
 
Patryk_Rebisz said:
I was with DVXUser since very early days - it was a great resource but in mean time it became less and less relevant. Some of us simply moved on. We developed a careers in film (thus are busy working on other's and our own projects) and as the community has changed, we decided the board is not what helps us anymore.

Part of the problem is illustrated in the answers above. You have a number of well thought out complex responses and a bunch of blah, blahs... Because with "democratization" of film came also democratization of the voice - everyone has an equal say even though not everyone should. There are people who are just starting out and people who've been doing it for decades and so you have groups of people talking but they can't hear one another because due to their experience they speak different language. In the past i was part of a few complex conversations about meaning of image or story but quite frankly it got tiring as the more banal of the voices started drowning out the few complex ones. It's painfully apparent when someone is talking from wisdom and as the internet allows everyone to dip their interests in any hobby they desire, it's only natural that a board like this will start to attract more and more non-pros thus diluting the voice. (And it doesn't happen to this board only but rather is a current trend. Even New York Times is diluting its brand by trying to appease the masses.) As a guy who's been around the block a few times it's just not that fulfilling to talk to a whole group of people where everyone's has an equal voice because quite frankly i believe i have way more to say about certain issues then someone who just picked up the camera the other day.

As our careers grow things start getting busy and between all the projects you are involved in it's just hard to go back to a board more interested with tech talk (very normal quality when you are starting out as it gives you certain tangible things to talk about but of zero consequences later on in your career). And lets get real, large part of that career development came thanks to this board! I wouldn't be where i am now without it. In the process many things have changed and part of it is how film over all is perceived. Films started to act like poems (very expensive poems!) that gets to be experienced in smaller and smaller circles. Just like a poem, it does affect people in tremendous way but the group of people that it can affect at a time diminishes. This is the kind of reality that many filmmakers don't want to face. Many jumped into this field expecting "fame and fortune" while the changing medium hit them hard with the realization that neither is easy to come by. For me personally, this shift is fantastic. I love the fact that once again we get to be pioneers exploring new ways to tell "stories." The fact that those are very expensive stories makes it even more exciting as it brings us, the filmmakers, closer to some of the explorers of uncharted territories of the past.

How would I revitalize this board? Less categories. Clear distinction between old timers and fresh faces (count of posts is NOT a good indicator): it shoudl be something like "i'm a pro because...".
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How ironic that with 7.3 billion people on the planet we have a shortage of viewers for our films. Even more ironic when you realize a lot of stories with real meaning are not being told by the mainstream. But maybe Indy filmmakers expect too much too soon. Indy bands realistically know the odds are against them, and some of them are happy to have a small following and play modest gigs for years and years, without making a lot of money. If they get discovered, or land a recording contract, that's a bonus. Maybe Indy filmmakers can expect something along those lines.
 
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