Is Collaborative Storytelling a Viable Technique? (Part IV)
Beyond the Still Pt.II: Job Security
From 113 entries for the first round in the “Beyond the Still” contest, the jury has chosen “Job Security” by Runner Runner as the story’s second chapter.
Some misunderstandings had to be ironed out and several things cleared up. Some I can understand, like the rules for stills and time limit, others are just fucked. Like, that only legal US Residents can participate because of a “variety of legal reasons” and “varying laws internationally related to privacy rights, publicity rights, and contests in general, among them.” Yeah, I bet.
At least, they’re clear about that all participants retain ownership of their submissions, while “Canon USA does own the copyright in the final, combined video comprised of Vincent’s chapter and all winning chapter.” They explain it like this:
[It is] similar to a newspaper—the publisher owns a copyright in each full edition, but the specific articles could be owned by a number of different parties[.]
Fair enough, I’d say. But that only legal U.S. residents are allowed enter the contest, that’s so not compatible with the idea of “collaborating.” Another striking fact is that there’s not one single female or non-caucasian contest judge on the jury. Need I say more.
Anyways. The first chapter I posted here, and here comes the official second chapter, and with it the third still:
In my next entry on this topic, I’m going to analyze the second chapter and how it relates, storytelling-wise, to the first. Discussion in the comments are welcome! Also, I plan to sift through all other submissions (112 times 4 minutes, that’s… wait, more than seven hours?!? Oh noes!) and check if I can find some nuggets there.
