The computer mediated movie producer

摘要

Today, some independent film makers use methods for distance collaboration over the Internet to gather expertise and collaborators from all over the world, putting together virtual film crews whose participants might never meet in real life. In some cases, most pre-production and post-production work is carried out in these virtual teams, using online communities. These virtual film crews, as well as the more conventional face-to-face communities of film productions, are very reliant on a productive social climate and a good collaborative culture. The primary community leaders are the movie producer and/or director.What characterize a productive virtual film crew? What lessons can be learnt on how the leadership influence and control the online community? How can a climate for successful creative discussions and decisions be nurtured?A number of recent independent film productions have used simple virtual team rooms and mail lists as primary collaboration and communication tools. The authors havehad the opportunity to make full and continuous observations of two of these productions and their interactions online.These observations as well as a questionnaire and retrospective focus groups clearly shows that a enthusiastic, open-minded and socially competent leadership is an important success factor. The results also indicate that the driving forces governing participation in these online communities included personal career development and engaging assignments.