Instructions
click here for publishing instructions
Identify someone that you find engaging and compelling, a person that you would like to get to know, or know better, someone who does something interesting with their life but who is not well known--at least not outside of their own community. Make a documentary about that person and the activities that they do that you find worthy of letting other people know about. The documentary can take any form or combination of forms that are presentable on the web--video, sound, image, text, etc. You could shoot a fairly traditional documentary video about the person you selected, you could record sounds and collect snapshots from the person's life, you could make drawings based on a day in the life of your person, just make sure the focus is on documenting your selected person and their life (as opposed to making an interpretation or homage) so that the public can see why you find that person's life worthy of being documented.
You must be able to get permission to document the person you select. They must be alive and you must be in communication with them, the idea is to use the activity of documenting them as a way to form or enlarge on a relationship with them. Keep the project simple, it is much more important that you make a clearly understandable documentary about your selected person, than an obscure piece of art that is really just about you. Anyone can participate who wants to as long as you are working within the guidelines. You can do documentaries about multiple people if you want to. The documentary can be very brief or exhaustive. Take the project seriously and make something really good. The documentary can be funny, but should not be making fun of the person you document. Make sure that the person you work with sees what you have done and approves of it before you post it on line for the public.
You can work with someone that you have known for your whole life like a parent or sibling, or with a person that you have come across in your daily life like an auto mechanic or baker, or you can look someone up based on an interest you have like a geologist, or someone who volunteers at hospitals. But don't just select your best friend because he or she is your best friend, or select someone totally at random either. Work with someone who you really think other people should know about, not to make them into a celebrity, but instead to show what it is about them that is amazing and interesting, even if only in small, everyday sorts of ways.
- Harrell Fletcher
Publishing Instructions
Thank you for participating in Some People. Hopefully we've created a site that's simple and easy for you to introduce your person to the world.
1. In order to get started you need to create an account. Do this by clicking on the "Register" button at the top of the page. Once you have registered we will email you an activation message. Click on the link in the email and your account will be activated.
2. Go to this instructions page and read everything carefully. There is information here that will ensure that your work gets published successfully.
3. Log into the site to access your administrative area where you can publish and edit your account settings.
4. Click on "Publish > People" to make an entry. Please write about one person, not two or a group of people. Fill in the form fields. You will be able to edit your posting at any time from this administrative area. You must first create your story before you can add images.
5. Click on "Publish > People Assets" to add photos for your person. You need to make a new entry for every photo or video. Do not add more than one asset (photo/video) to an entry. We are not able to host videos on our server but you can add YouTube videos by entering in the url, just follow those instructions on the page. If you'd like to have sound files you will also need to link to them from elsewhere.
6. There are designated spaces in the page's layout for your images/videos/etc. There is one space at the top, immediately under the person's bio, that is bigger than the rest. This is called Spot #1. This is where you want to put your main image. Underneath of this are two columns where the rest of your images go (Spots #'s 2 - ?). All images have captions which you fill out when you add "People Assets." These captions show up in the right-hand column and when you rollover each image. Please note: Although your images need to be a certain size within the page people can still view them at fullsize by clicking on them.
Make sure you know what order you want your images/video to be in before uploading them. You cannot reorder them later. Make sure you know which image/video you want to be in the first spot (the biggest). If you want to reorder them you will have to first delete everything and start over.
If you have problems publishing please email Yuri Ono at: yuri-at-myono-dot-com.