The About page presented Film Initiative as a link between aspiring and professional filmmakers. It put considerable faith in community, apprenticeship, and the internet as a useful place to exchange practical knowledge. The ambitions were larger than the site. This was fairly normal in 2003.
Recovered text
Film Initiative is the first step in an ongoing process that, once taken will fulfill the goal of bridging the gap between aspiring and professional filmmakers. It’s all about dedication: dedication towards supporting the free flow of information and exchange of ideas, dedication to providing the most up to date and exclusive content available, and most importantly, dedication to you, the independent filmmaker.
Mission statement
Film Initiative began as a fermentation of ideas following the so called “indie film explosion,” when the internet was being hyped as the next evolution in filmmaking. For a select few, it delivered, for most however, it stagnated as yet another marketing ploy gone awry.
Despite these failures, many avenues have been left open, and the internet has provided an unprecedented resource for the exchange of ideas and information. With this in mind we are treading a new path, where the community is the foundation, rather than an after thought.
Apprenticeship may have died out in the strictest sense of the word, but the principle still holds true, learning from those that have been to the edge and back. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish with this website; we’re building a link between those who have and those who will.
We’ll keep all of this in check by never forgetting why we’re here: to have fun, to share, and to provide the most accurate and informative content possible, as it applies to you, the filmmaker.
The page also offered separate RSS 0.91, 0.92, 1.0, and 2.0 feeds for news, articles, and interviews. Twelve feeds for a small film site. Standards mattered, and apparently there was no reason to choose only one.