For a while now I have been concentrating on animation. The size of the files can be small enough to distribute online. Recently there are short films that are also available. Now it seems possible that full length movies will be possible.

So I have put a post "Modem Festival Continues" on the AnimX blog. Basically this is a link to Joost.

In Exeter i have tried this at LifeBytes on Sidwell Street. the bandwidth there is supposed to be 8 megs and often is. At home I get some proportion of 2 megs and Joost is a bit slow.

The Guardian reported that Raindance will show film online direct from the festival. Their website shows the TV version is through Joost. There seem to be a few films there already,

Later today there should be a guide to other blogs that I work on or at least a diagram as part of my learn9 website. This is about learning so one current idea is to make the blogs at least appear more coherent. I have tended to just start another one and then not continue.

Google News has found this as the top link for Billy Wilder x 100 years.

Seems like a good list of films and also links to several blogs.

When I was doing more to create PDF as part of the modem festival, Billy Wilder content was usually part of it. The best bit was when i phoned his office and got through to him directly. I was surprised by this but had started to invent some fiction around him so thought his office should know. The aim was to try to break down the idea of a 'European' cinema as different to a US cinema. I think Lost Weekend is arguably a German movie or close. My story was around an EU funded plan to kidnap a director born in Germany but working in the USA, then find out from him the most likely areas where German language film could be promoted. The areas for French and Spanish are well known. He did not mind the concept of being kidnapped but he closed the conversation down when I mentioned the need for help with the script. He had to get to the doctor. He had to get ready for his birthday. He was definitely not working on any more scripts. Maybe because I was so surprised to be talking to him, my main memory is how badly prepared I was. He definitely wanted to know what was being proposed even though through the civility he turned down the idea without taking too much time.

Animation will be featured again in Exeter next month.

It seems animation is growing as a sector of mainstream film. So I think it is a reasonable connection with the 1996 modem festival. More on this later.

Meanwhile I have started to update my homepage at http://www.willpollard.eurobell.co.uk/
This will expalin where the modfest fits with other sites, basically as an example of content that is valid anyway. May have to change that last sentence later. Obviously the technology is only there for the content.

Animation continues online but not always described as such.

A lot of streaming media cam,e about as part of Anyware. I discovered this through Psand. Most content seems to be a mix of graphics and sound, through Quicktime often. This could appear in an animation festival, maybe it needs to be edited a bit.

In Exeter, there will be more wi-fi access through Freespot. By Feb 2005 there should be some experience of how this works.

It seems to me that the 1996 modem festival is coming to an end.

The animation festival in Exeter can now be imagined as having an online aspect. This year there was not much actual use made of the web but there was a lot of discussion. www.scene.org has much to download. A brief sample was actually shown over lunchtime on the career day.

Very soon the winners will be announced for the three videos from 1996 since bought up cheap in sales. The awards will be for good use of PDF in support of a festival.

The videos are
Big Night
Jude
Looking for Richard

The 1996 modem festival will continue, but will include animation and online stuff as well as film in cinemas.

Animation will come up again in Exeter next February.

There is no cyber cafe as Hyperactive has ceased. There could be some real events at the Phoenix Arts Centre, or just some links online.

Probably there will be information at

http://www.acrobat-services.co.uk/animation