Sadly, the time has come for FourDocs to draw to a close. Although we’re very proud of the things that FourDocs has achieved, we also feel that it’s time to find other new ways of identifying and championing new documentary talent.

FourDocs was set up in 2005 to provide a platform for new filmmakers to showcase their own short documentaries, receive feedback from leading industry experts and discuss them with each other. The site functioned as an online film school, with video guides covering everything from structure and lighting to editing choices. The archive timeline contextualised 30 or so definitive documentaries, such as Listen to Britain, The Lift and The Boy Who’s Skin Fell Off, and perhaps most inspirational were the interviews with award winning directors like Molly Dineen and Paul Watson.

We’ve had nearly 900 film submissions over the years, and seen 24 of them commissioned to be broadcast as 3 Minute Wonders. We also won a BAFTA for interactive innovation in 2007.

Four years is a long time online and things have changed dramatically. Video sharing enabled by sites like YouTube and Vimeo, and online community sites like Facebook and MySpace have changed what we do online. When Fourdocs launched there weren’t many ways of getting your video seen. There are now hundreds of ways filmmakers can upload, showcase, comment on and create communities around their work.

Although we will no longer be accepting video submissions on FourDocs, the site will stay up so you can still watch the guides, archive films and a curated choice of user films. On the blog roll I have also pointed you in the direction of some documentary blogs to keep you informed.

We’d like to thank everyone who’s participated in Fourdocs over the years, from its founding fathers Peter Dale, Anthony Lilley and Patrick Uden, and its Editors – before me, Charlie Phillips and Emily Renshaw-Smith. Most importantly we’d like to thank you, the people who watch, comment on and submit films. FourDocs would not have become such a fruitful entity without you.

FourDocs was a special project that raised the bar of what was acceptable as a piece of low-fi factual filmmaking. You don’t need loads of money, but you do need a plan and style that compliments the subject. I hope the filmmakers who got theirs reviewed and streamed feel like they gained something from the experience.

Normally I am very confident and able to talk/slip my way inside places, parties and performances that I’m not ticketed out for, and the bitingly cold air against my bare ears was further impetus. However, the whole topic of the documentary and night was people coming together via the internet to organise themselves, so it seemed crass to crash the system of entry. Whilst I waited I saw lots of people from active social activism activity, internet pioneers and documentary fans. Then I got in legitimately, and felt much more adult-like.

I did miss out on being included within the great intro, where the names and professions of the attendants who had registered where illustrated in tag clouds. Paul and Sarah were the most common names, and pictures of bloggers (social heroes!) in the audience appeared, making people turn to check out their neighbours, and transforming the cinema into a social space. (For more on this concept check out Lance Weiler). This was orchestrated by NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, who were hosting the night to launch their new Web Connect strand, to commission, produce and champion projects which show how the web is making an impact on business, society and culture.

Us Now is an optimistic documentary about how harnessing the power of the Internet for mass collaboration can potentially change society and power distribution. It examines forms of behaviour where people organise themselves – by voting how to distribute money within a local community, picking the players’ positions in a real football team, or lending money to particular people at low interest rates. The most commonly known example, and the one the film introduces us to the concepts through, is couchsurfing.com. Rather than a small company, with only seven employees, it’s actually a huge, self-policing organisation, which facilitates 1,500 people meeting and sleeping at each others’ houses, every night. This is a potent example to demonstrate the notion of trust as a way to protect yourself instead of hiding behind rules of entry, seeing as you literally let people into your living room.

The documentary weaves together lots of key thinkers on the power of the web, pushing the implication that people feel a sense of satisfaction when they are actually, rather than symbolically, involved in decision-making processes. (This insight was also quoted to me emphatically by Matt Hansen, who’s open source film project, A Swarm of Angels, works on the principle that paying to sign up and vote on scripting and casting matters actually brings such a sense of involvement that it should be seen as a form of entertainment, and therefore justifies the subscription fee.)

Many exciting new web innovations are adapted from the creations of coders and activists devising ways to allow better access of information in the public domain, to be used towards campaigning for change outside of the official systems created by hierarchical power structures. This often starts by building or adapting an online arena where knowledge can be logged and accessed in a collaborative way. A simple example is a forum, or a place to report problems in your borough, which must then be publicly seen to be investigated.

This is a Foucaldian take on the world [power-knowledge-discourse] that appeals to liberals who want to embrace the future and the untold possibilities of connecting with individuals of the world at large. Or, to recap for cynics, superficial meetings – like from dating sites – are only the start, and truly participatory governing methodologies are the future. It’s a very informative film, which manages to weave a lot of information and speakers together in a coherent, well-paced way, and is worth checking out if you still don’t quite get what the implications of social networking and information sharing may be.

Thank you

P.S. I saw an absolutely amazing short experimental art documentary yesterday called Severing the Soul.  Totally inspiring – will write more about it.

You can pitch ANY KIND OF DOCUMENTARY FILM, any style, any subject matter, set in any country. It must somehow be connected to the theme of ‘Beautifully Engineered’ though. Remember, you can creatively connect nearly any story in the world to this theme. If not through the topic, perhaps through the way you might structure the film?

It doesn’t matter if you have started filming already, or if it’s a gem of an idea that you know you could do justice to. The point is to express your intentions within a film format, rather than on a piece of paper, or a chat over tea. Make a clip, upload it and email over the link to fourdocs@channel4.com with ‘Beautifully Engineered’ in the title line. Entries need to be in by 6pm on 28th of November 2008. The winner will get £5000 to spend on a camera of their choice. I’d be choosing the Sony Z7 I think, how about you?

Bridging the Gap is a brilliant scheme which funds 10 minute cinematic documentaries from people with experience, but without a broadcast credit.
They shortlist 12 projects, which are then developed over several months with a series of masterclasses and experts, this year including Marc Isaacs and Nicolas Philibertand.

Then in December everyone must pitch their film to a panel, and seven are chosen. These people each get an £8k cash budget to make their film, and lots of other in kinds support too. It’s run by the Scottish Documentary Institute, who I really rate for their passion and commitment to the art of documentary.

The theme this year is FUTURE and you can find out how to apply here.

I saw most of last year’s films on the theme of HOME at Edinburgh Film Festival this summer. The one I found most endearing was Lindsay Goodall’s Irene, a portrait of her nan, who is feisty with a fast fading memory due to Alzheimer’s. It was filmed with humour and evidently benefited from story development, which often lacks in short docs. Her mentors helped craft the observational documentary into a structured piece about the leaving of her home-is-where-the-heart-is to move into a residential home. A few from this slate have been selected to play at this year’s Sheffield Doc Fest.

If you want to watch some now, several of the older Bridging the Gap films are streamed on the newly spruced Docscene website. I just watched Alice Nelson’s A Difficult Case, a strangely lovely story about internal voices and a brain tumour, which shows how different an ‘extraordinary’ medical story film can look from the conventional television approach. Alice Nelson is one of Scotland’s leading documentary talents, and was nominated for a BAFTA for her subsequent 3MW series Losing Myself.

As we’re drawing a close to our 3MW My Home Town competition, I’m sure you’re wondering what we’ve got up next for you. Well, we’ve teamed up with Passat, who sponsor documentaries across Channel 4, and sorted out a pretty amazing prize, and a new type of competition.

Instead of submitting a finished 3 minute film, we want you to pitch an idea for a longer documentary that you want to make, loosely based on the theme ‘beautifully engineered’. However, you need to make your pitch online! What we looking for is people who think filmically, so this is not the place to just talk us through your idea.

We want to see your style and flair, or meet your character, or understand a little of what the film might feel like. Rather than a taster tape, what we’ll be looking for is a visual mood board that will convince us that you’re a creative director with vision and a story, who needs to be let loose. Then, in November we’ll pick the best pitch, and give them £5 000 to spend on equipment to get the film made. How does that sound?

Luckily, living on the web we’re not hindered by the constraints of television formats, or traditional rules governing the production of high art forms or even topical subject matters. FourDocs instead celebrates factual filmmaking in all it’s diverse forms. We want to continue discovering and fostering filmmakers who want to re-imagine the creation of perfect short documentaries. And of course, perfect is totally subjective. Here at FourDocs we love raw, pulsating personal tales just as much as well structured stories shined up in the edit. Make a short doc your own way and send us your links please – we want to be surprised!