Assistant Has World Wide Audience

Assistant editor-turning-editor Alan Bell may be off our Board of Directors but he's keeping busy. He's the developer of LogMill, the film logging system for Avid and Lightworks. And he's directing a movie - or is it a TV show? It's disseminated over the WorldWide Web.

Alan is one of six aspiring directors who make the short episodes together. Fellow Editors Guild member Donald Likovich is another. The director's spot rotates, while the rest of the members do the camerawork and other jobs. The director of each episode remains anonymous.

"Many people make shorts or even features out of their own pockets, sometimes even putting their homes up for mortgage," says Alan. Many of those directors never make their money back, let alone make it big. The episodes on 'Director Unknown', by contrast, each run from three to seven minutes and have working budgets of just $150. They provide a creative outlet as well as a learning experience for the group.

The site has developed a small group of fans who have found the show through surfing or word of mouth. There's only one episode per month so it has to be very engaging to keep people coming back. Alan estimates that around a hundred people visit the site a day and has been surprised by the popularity of 'Director Unknown' in such distant places as the United Arab Emirates.

See an episode for yourself at www.director.unknown.com.