WeVee brings archives into mashed-up digital age
WeVee, an online portal which allows users to interact with clips from a collection of archive film for the first time, has been launched by Clusta and Television Junction.
WeVee allows users to view and select archive clips, edit them to music and create mash-ups to share and exchange online.
As part of the government’s plan to give the public access to the country’s film and video archive, the two companies joined forces to win the Screen West Midlands DFAF-funded commission for a digital solution to accessing the region’s history.
The tool enables you to share your WeVees, not just on the WeVee gallery, but across social networking sites.
Cadbury’s have made some of its previously unseen archive available for the site. There is footage from as early as 1901 and as recent as just last year, so users can put quite different clips together, add a music track and effects. Other archive includes footage from the Staffordshire Film Archive collection accessing the heritage of the potteries, the Midlands Archive for Central England and Vivid which has a range of material from the region’s ethnic communities.
Although the archive clips are currently drawn from the West Midlands, WeVee’s wider appeal is that much of this footage has not been accessible online until now and none has been freely available to edit to music.
Katheryn Sutcliffe, director of client services at Clusta, commented: “WeVee combines the very latest digital technology with footage spanning back over a century, so for a agency like ourselves it was a great opportunity. WeVee will make history accessible to a younger generation in a way that is engaging and relevant – it's a brilliant initiative.”
Yvonne Davies, co-MD Television Junction added: "Screen West Midlands and the Digital Film Archive Fund has had the imagination to invest in an online tool which will now provide access to the region’s film and video archive for huge numbers of people. This is a really exciting day for us – the chance to bring film of the region’s history to as many people as can log on and WeVee."
The project is supported through Screen West Midlands’ Digital Film Archive Fund (with support from the National Lottery through the UK Film Council) and part- funded through AWM/ERDF.