I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Great Film overall

Excellent but underrated film

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Press Pause Play is an enlightened documentary film featuring the musician Moby, as well as many other current artists, who comment on the technological advances that have enabled artists to create more freely; as well as get their art out in the public zeitgeist more quickly and easily. The film discusses whether or not the changing landscape for artists and the new technologies available to both create and promote their art will lead to artists retaining more creative power and access; or whether it will create a brave new zeitgeist of mainly "noise". However, the general theme of the film is optimistic about a renaissance of new fresh art and access for so many of the talented young artists who have a message today. The world is becoming an artistic democracy, where the public is enabled to vote with their computer or smart phone. So, it is apparent that even though many more people with varying degrees of talent are given a voice; the cream will still rise to the top as it always has.

I saw this film as part of the Ghent filmfestival 2011. It is a study on modern techniques to create and distribute a work of art, music, film or literature. "New" means that you don't need an "official" studio, radio channel or other monopolistic intermediary, inevitable in the past to deliver your creative products to the general public. You had to know people who knew other people to get your production across. Chances were small that you got past all those stumbling blocks. And even after that were you hopelessly depended on marketing channels offered by your distributor. They could convince DJ's to "plug" your record, they could arrange interviews by magazines, they could pave ways to get you into the top-xx charts, and many other means to let you become publicly recognized.The scope of this study goes far beyond the process of uploading a home movie to YouTube. But the easiness of the latter immediately shows the pitfalls of this media revolution: mediocrity lurks ahead due to lack of filtering and quality control. The average consumer, on the lookout for something interesting, will be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of everything produced and published via Internet. Hence you all by yourself, on the director and producer side, has to become your own marketeer, as is best illustrated by numerous recipes "How to become famous on YouTube".This film is a documentary, which I normally hate due to the usually obtrusive voice-over and his inevitable opinion forced upon us. That is not the case here. A broad range of people from the "field" offer their opinion, just to highlight many different aspects of the issues at hand. As a bonus we get an impressive sound track, assembled from all music categories. The music underlines the talking heads some of the time. At other times there is no music at all, just the talking. Not obtrusive, just very supportive.Some statements were very catchy, like the term "global masturbation", emphasizing that average quality tends to go down. This negative tendency cannot be helped. The volume of "amateur" productions is orders of magnitude above what "professionals" can ever deliver via their more bureaucratic channels. Which does not say that amateurs cannot make a high quality product, however.Other observations referred to the phenomena that technology always comes first, and that its usage follows later in forms not always foreseen. Once everyone had a small hand-held camera in a mobile phone, routinely carried along throughout the day, this fact of life turned us all into a would be camera man and director in the same person. And as far as editing is concerned, a similar mechanism is in effect: Affordable hardware and software gives us the ability to edit films and music at will, and does not require expensive equipment anymore. The documentary showed several examples of what becomes possible when everyone can obtain this kind of technology and use it in their own home.All in all, I was pleasantly surprised with this documentary, primarily due to the fact that the author does not take you by the hand, and certainly does not impose his views upon you. It is rather a showcase of views from several well informed people. You are allowed to draw your own conclusions, which can scatter in any direction, all depending on what you deem important and relevant.

I watched this documentary after stumbling upon it on Techcrunch. While it deals with pertinent issues and has a few important points to make, the presentation leaves more to be desired. The documentary keeps skimming through various people without actually giving enough time to a particular artist (with the exception of a particular Icelandic artist). What I was expecting was insight into particular phenomena through somewhat detailed case studies. Instead, what the movie offers is recurring commentary by people in the industry, journalists etc., which doesn't add significantly to what we already know. And there is something about the general flow which makes it come across as somewhat one sided and closed in. There isn't a narrator who is outlining the flow; there isn't an interviewer who would challenge some of the views; there isn't really any data or public opinion. The movie just keeps flitting from one person's view to another. The views themselves vary from being sometimes speciously authoritative to being completely clueless. And there are these montages of live musical performances thrown in, which again don't cover a particular act, but are just collages of scenes with some music playing in the background. The movie falls prey to some of the very pitfalls that it warns about; in an attention deficit world reliant heavily on technology, mediocrity in art is a very real danger.

As a producer of A Design Film Festival, it has been a privilege to preview the films that we screen for the festival. Today, I sat down to PressPausePlay and for the first time, found the need to put into words what this film has done for me.This is possibly the most relevant and important film made in our time about our time.PressPausePlay has beautifully connected the dots of how subconsciously yet drastically, technology has changed the way we do things.Anybody can play an instrument, anybody can operate a camera and anyone can use a software. It is no longer simply about the craft. It is about the idea, the process and the final experience which we deliver. How do we continue to do what a million other people around the world can do and not get lost in the noise? That is the true challenge of our time.There has been no better and more exciting or worst and terrifying a time to be a maker, do-er or creator.