Macedonia Timeless
On December 24, 2008, there was a presentation of a promotional video for Macedonia – “Macedonia Timeless.”
The video is written and directed by Milcho Manchevski (an Academy Award nominee in 1995), and its purpose is to promote Macedonia as a tourist destination. The video will be aired on CNN, and a dozen countries in eight different languages. There is a special website www.macedonia-timeless.com, designed to support the campaign.
The video was published under a Creative Commons license Attribution – No derivative works 2.5 Macedonia, and the license will allow users to download and republish the video on other sites. Macedonia is one of the few countries to integrate a Creative Commons license in the internet promotion, although many countries use satellite TV to promote themselves.
The video quickly became the news of the day, and many of the bloggers posted it on their blogs and commented on the promotion and the website [mkd]. Although the comments on YouTube are positive, most of the bloggers had negative impression of the video, especially when they found out the amount of money spent on its production (190,000 Euros)
When the video was suggested [mkd] on the Kajmak.ot, many users commented on it. Some of them wrote:
Pero:
The video is fine from an artistic point of view, but not from an essential point of view […]
Zlochko:
I didn’t like the video also. If I may criticize a person with a resume like Manchevski, I will say that I didn’t see anything touristic in the video. Where is the village tourism, where are the smiling hosts for the tourists, where is the extreme tourism, where are the beaches…?
But, the book was a good moment. That was the most interesting thing for me.
The Arheoblog published [mkd] a post on the situation with the incoming tourism in Macedonia, inspired by the video:
[…] This is a video that needs to attract foreigners to come and visit Macedonia. I’m not bothered with the fact that there are too many motives from Ohrid, and also from the artifacts found near this city. I’m not bothered that the Muslim art and architecture from Macedonia is not represented enough. I’m not bothered with the fact that a man who doesn’t know the religion phenomenons in Macedonia will get a wrong picture that in the country frescoes and crosses are dominating. I’m not even bothered that too many things are not included, because for a country with such a rich tradition it’s very difficult to put everything in a one minute video. […]
I’m bothered with the fact that in Macedonia there is no stable infrastructure for incoming tourism […].
Razvigor commented [mkd] on the video from another angle:
For me the most important thing is that the promotional video for Macedonia is published under a Creative Commons license.
I think (correct me if I’m wrong) this is the first time in the world for a government to publish something on the internet in this way. Also, it’s probably the first time one director from this level, with an Academy Award nomination, to give one of his works in this way.
The campaign of the government has just begun and we'll see if the reaction of the citizens is wrong and if the video succeeds in achieving its goal.
8 comments
Interesting post Elena – enjoyed reading it!
I like the video, but find the timing completely wrong. Why is it released now and not during spring/summer, where it will have much more effect, I would assume? The success of the video also depends very much on in which media it will be aired. Also how the whole set-up is planned ie. whether Macedonia has been promoted with the local travel agencies in the various countries around the world, and whether this is coordinated with the Macedonian Embassies, and our Macedonian museums and sites… can we deliver the product we sell? Anyway it takes more coordination to attract tourists than airing a video, and the Macedonian Embassies around the world play a vital part in promoting Macedonia… They need to go to work now to “sell” Macedonia it is not all politics…
From my point of view the video is done very nicely and it does include part of the Muslim culture , that is the Arabic writing that appears in the video and its in Isak bays mosque, its shows the traditional Macedonia also the historical findings in this beautiful country , to be quite honest i am glad that Ohrid was not in this video because whats the point of advertising a lake which max temp goes up to 24c. where people can go on the seas around the world and enjoy warmer temperatures ,of course lake Ohrid is one of the oldest lakes in the world and its beautiful!! but Macedonia should concentrate on the other tourism side like the archeological and historical place cause there are many of them filled with rich history but not advertised properly , this is one nice video for the History of Macedonia. this is just my toughs and i hope i am not insulting anyone
From the old history till today we are calculate all possibility’s and do all the best possible to show the world who we are. We are fighters for our rights, we are the Macedonians, we are Macedonia. It’s one excellent way thru this video to expose the country and culture to the the rest of the world.
Come and visit the Republic of Macedonia.
In god we trust, god bless you all.
Macedonia timeless, land of the bible.
All the videos we very good and professional. The problem is however, that nobody has seen them in any foreign country ?
What was the point of filming anyway ???
For your information,the clip was shown on CNN on numerous occasions.I have seen it and it is butifull.I also have seen the second one,and that is butifull.
There are three more videos. Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7nAxq3PEKQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUTa9Kx-17Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lHupyDn7hc