New COPA project

[Magda Hassan]

Does anyone have suggestions as to where else I might be able to publicise the project. By this I mean forums, internet news media, blogs, podcasts etc? I'm doing my best, but I'd appreciate some advice.

Thanks,

John

Well, of course all the various JFK forums will be good places. History and politics forums as well. As for other places it gets more tricky because of the anti-conspiracy theory mind set of many of the places at least the US one's. Alternet, Democratic Underground, Common Dreams, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Cryptogon, Aangrifan, Dangerous Creations, Information Clearing House, Alex Constantine. Dare I say Above Top Secret but that really is tin foil territory there at least in places.

You could ask some of the other published authors of similar territory to mention it on their sites like Russ Baker. He is currently looking for help publicising his book so may be a quid pro quo. And it would help you work out how to do it when you are ready. http://www.familyofsecrets.com/2009/06/22/help-wanted/

You Tube would be a great place and Google video.

I like Peter's suggestion to have your own webpage where you can updated information and have everything in one place. Try and link it to as many other places as you can. You can have a free web site. Use Word Press and they will host it as well for free. Easy to use.

As for Stone, If I knew how to contact him I'd gladly ask for some support. We're not asking for a whole lot.

There may well be some in the community who worked with him on JFK who have an email or number. Ask around and let it be known.

I'll also have to watch just about every documentary that I can get my hands on, specifically low budget ones.

I can't recall the guy's name, Burns, I think. He made several documentaries of US history. The Civil War was his first one and best remembered, Baseball was another and one on Jazz. Not much moving picture from the civil war days but lots of photos and letters recited. More action in the Jazz and Baseball docos but still done on the smell of an oily rag. Do a google on his name and film titles. You should be able to find them on You Tube etc. Check them out.

[Dawn Meredith]

[QUOTE=John Geraghty;8202I can't recall the guy's name, Burns, I think. He made several documentaries of US history. The Civil War was his first one and best remembered, Baseball was another and one on Jazz. Not much moving picture from the civil war days but lots of photos and letters recited. More action in the Jazz and Baseball docos but still done on the smell of an oily rag. Do a google on his name and film titles. You should be able to find them on You Tube etc. Check them out.

His name is Ken Burns.
Dawn

[Peter Lemkin]

Just put it up on a few GOOD JFK Assassination sites and ask them to also post it to other good places they know. As to style, you might look at Pilger's work - if you like righteous indignation as the 'voice'. Many decisions to be made...but I don't think they all need to be made at the beginning. Start with the interviews - they'll need editing anyway and they can be made to fit into most formats...but suggest you interview people outside and/or where things happened, when possible; not sitting in a chair in a room - unless they must. A lot of interviewees are dead or you won't get 'em, so you're going to have to do lots of negotiation with the rights holders to use them.

[Magda Hassan]

Get a friendly and free lawyer to make up a consent and release form for all your interview subjects to sign. Something standard along the lines that they are not being paid royalties or lump sum monies from documentary, that you can use their interview in the doco etc. I know I've used these in some of my research interviews (not JFK related).

[Peter Presland]

As to style, you might look at Pilger's work - if you like righteous indignation as the 'voice'.

'Righteous indignation' !! ?

Ouch !! - That doesn't chime with the John Pilger I know - and I've watched just about everything he's ever done. Still, I'm sure JG is pretty familiar with him anyway.

For my money Pilger's documentary style (and content) is about as good and honest as it gets when the format is one of single-presenter narrative complemented by interviews and archive footage.

When the connecting/continuity narrative is anonymous (a good option provided competence isn't sacrificed IMHO) The 911/peak oil video 'Oil Smoke and Mirrors' by Ephrim Pictures is an impressive model - again IMHO and FWIW.

Best of luck with the project.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Get a friendly and free lawyer to make up a consent and release form for all your interview subjects to sign. Something standard along the lines that they are not being paid royalties or lump sum monies from documentary, that you can use their interview in the doco etc. I know I've used these in some of my research interviews (not JFK related).

It's also important that the consent form clears for all territories in all media.

Otherwise the completed project will be unusable in certain formats and certain countries.

[John Geraghty]

Thanks a million for the advice so far guys. I'll reply back in more detail soon.

I will be discussing the project on Black op radio tonight, so tune in if you want to hear more specifics and general discussion.

All the best

[John Geraghty]

I'm looking for peoples input on a few things for the documentry.

Would you be able to summarise what events, motives and people surrounding the assassination that you feel to be most pertinent. Who are the most important witnesses, excluding those in Dealey Plaza.

I know this is difficult to do, but generally, what motives and themes do you feel should be covered?

I'm simply looking for suggestions like

-Abraham Bolden and the Chicago plot
-JFK and Vietnam
-Richard Case Nagell
etc

Many thanks,

John

[Magda Hassan]

All of the above. And..

* Insider foreknowledge and the unusual share market trading in steel.
* Arrangement and planning of the Texas trip
* The Miami plot
* What JFK plans and legislation did not proceed because of his death and what happened instead.

And for the LHO aspect I would like to see covered

*Texas driving license
*Missing school reports from various schools
*Maybe a visual 'Harvey and Lee' time and place line.
*This so called loner's many friends and contacts in the intelligence field.

Just for starters tupido:

[Ed Jewett]

John, kudos to you and good luck. I will work to follow this in its development, support it, etc.

Mark, gather your facts and information and write it up for John and present it in depth and detail for him and others, and don't be too quick to prejudge the product in its early phases. It'd be like telling a two-year old that, based on his DNA, he'll be a stunted failure in life.

Ken Burns' approach is good, seems cheap, is certainly entertaining and informative, but I have some reservations as to whether that approach will fit this particular subject.

Script-writing is ALL in this case; everyone has 'seen the artwork', and your conceptualization and outline suggest that pictures and graphics are less important. I agree.

Narration then becomes a big factor, so hire a solid but unknown professional from out of a good, high-quality professional sound and recording studio, not the TV or radio biz. Will Lyman, featured in many PBS shows, is a good example but now is too well-known and too identified with PBS to be your man.

Ditto with Burns, and I doubt seriously he'd be interested, as the nature of his demand/work/audience may prevent him from risking his name on a controversial project like this. Then again, perhaps he's older and, having "made it", more willing to stick his neck out. He is good. But there are others. I will keep my eyes peeled. I'm not your guy, though I have a degree in the field and a modicum of experience, but I am anything but au courant in the technologies of this decade and century. But I'm certainly willing to test read and help draft a script. But you should have a squad of people for these functions.

Burns is with Florentine Films (http://www.florentinefilms.com/ ) in Walpole, NH and he has three associates and a large crew.

P.O. Box 613
Walpole, NH 03608
USA tel: (603) 756-3038
fax: (603) 756-4389
There is no e-mail.

Better bet is to look for and find a top near-graduation student and crew at a film/TV production school nearest where most of your filming and interviews will be done. If that is in the USA, it probably would be relatively easy to find them, contact them, contract with them, etc. They'd love the work for their portfolio, they'll work cheap, you won't have to pay union wages, and you'll find someone who'll be interested (I hope, or I will lose faith in our youth). I went to UMass Amherst only to realize far too late that Burns was just down the road at Hampshire College. I bet most of these top students could be found for free via Craigslist.

Contentwise, it'd be interesting to see a spider network map of people, contacts and connections as is done in the movie Who Killed John O'Neill? (about 9/11).

Mommadona, my colleague over at EPU, uses another similar mapping technology here: http://z7.invisionfree.com/E_Pluribus_Un...topic=7604

Or some form of concept mapping, as is found and explained here:

"One type of “advance organizer” is a concept map, another digital tool available for free to learning communities. As a “map”, it allows the individual learner or learning team to forecast where it is going, chart its progress, and forge an individualized learning path. It combines “… text, graphics, audio, video, links to Web pages, etc., that are associated with concepts.” It is “… essentially a meta-cogntive tool" and “… has significant utility to support just in time learning for performance support.”

“CmapTools is a software suite that is in ongoing development at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC), The University of West Florida. This tool was built as a distributed knowledge modeling system that enables learning and collaboration over the Internet. [It] has been used to acquire knowledge for expert systems, for institutional memory preservation, performance support, and potentially, as content for instruction in a course.” [For further information, see www.ihmc.us and http://cmap.ihmc.us/]

Another resource is a book which contains a CD: Architect for Learning: Utlizing The Internet as an Effective Educational Environment, Philip J. Palin and Kari Sandhaas, Saint Thomas Didymus Corporation, Ruckersville, VA (Teleologic Learning Company, www.teleologic.net).

Lastly, one of the things I'd like to see explored, if not put into the project, is some sense of how the assassination of Kennedy parallels or seems to utilize similar techniques in operations management, in cover-up, in the management of press and commission(s), and in other ways, with later "deep politics" events. This may be too much of an extension. The constant need will be to boil down the material to fit the audience based on some assessment of their interest and prior knowledge. The key question is to ask why an audience of today should watch or access your material when there is so much old stuff, when people may be tired of us 'conspiracy theorists', etc. The critical question seems obvious to me: How does this relate to us and how we live today in the global political socio-economic climate (pardon the pun)? How will watching this prepare me or my children for life in the next five years? Some of us might be able to answer those questions lucidly, but the question is how you are going to package and promote the project. Think backwards from the end, of how the event/product will be seen and received. Write the script of what the consumers of your product will say and do after they turn off the PC at the end, and then construct your product in reverse to meet that script without compromising yourself, the message, or the truth.