GitHub Cofounder Tom Preston-Werner on Founder.ly

https://github.com/blog/859-github-cofounder-tom-preston-werner-on-founder-ly

by al3xbio • 15 years ago

33 11 15 years ago

mrchess2• 15 years ago

Not a fan of this interviewing format. To me it seems terribly awkward when the person asking questions isn't even on the same screen.

tableslice4• 15 years ago

Thank you for the candid feedback. We appreciate it.

I cannot argue with your sense of aesthetics or taste, but I will attempt to explain why we film in this manner.

We film documentary style, in a manner pioneered by legendary documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, where the interviewer is behind the camera and the subject is in front of the camera telling his story.

The reason we chose to film founder stories documentary style is that we want to focus solely on the founder, not on the interviewer.

We recognize that most interviews have an interviewer in the film, but we think this can distract from the story.

FounderLY is an open source media project. Our mission is to showcase authentic founders with no distractions. We are creating an online library of founder stories freely available to anyone.

You could think of us as a cultural repository of founder stories. Thus we want our interviews to be timeless and not associated with anyone but the founder.

Prior to launching FounderLY, we had never filmed anyone in our lives. We had to hack our way through the process and hack social networks to get access to founders.

Resource and time constraints forced us to think hard about what we were trying to capture on film. With only a $200 camera and no filming experience, we determined that filming documentary style yields the best picture and sound quality.

We hope our method of storytelling contributes a new perspective of showcasing the individuals forging this renaissance in entrepreneurship.

I hope this explains our approach to filmmaking.

We appreciate you taking the time to watch our stories.

mrchess2• 15 years ago

"With only a $200 camera and no filming experience, we determined that filming documentary style yields the best picture and sound quality."

Not trying to pick a fight here but if you don't have any filming experience at all who are you to argue that this style is the best? But anyway, I hear you, and you're right, to each his own :).

One last suggestion is you switch to youtube. It's unfortunate you can't skip directly to a sections of video due to the limitations of the vimeo player.

coffeejunk2• 15 years ago

I think it's ok that the person asking the questions is not visible, however the video feels a bit awkward because of the angle. It feels like you are looking down to him. I guess it would be less awkward if the camera and the head of the person interviewed where at the same level.

tableslice4• 15 years ago

That's a great point you make.

We're working on ways to improve the filming process so the final product is the highest quality.

Thanks for your suggestion. We appreciate it : )

GitHub Cofounder Tom Preston-Werner on Founder.ly

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