Here's a snip from an essay at videoblogging.info:
Lumiere video arises from the tradition of the French Lumiere brothers. Credited with some of the first footage captured, in 1895, the Lumieres are also recognized for holding the first public film screening, showing ten shorts that lasted only twenty minutes total. At the time, Louis Lumiere stated, “The cinema is an invention without a future,” believing that everyday photography and video was ultimately nonsensical. Yet, we stand firm that Lumiere principles are essential to our existence as artists, media producers, visual creatures, and world citizens.
From a documentary perspective, and because Auguste and Louis Lumiere are thought to have produced the rudimentary firsts in this now well-known genre, founders of the field are essential to how we view our work today on a continuum. Lumieres emerge from the belief in filmmakers' distinct points of view; appropriately, lumiere literally means “light” in English. Online video has now for years allowed the advancement of personal narratives and showcased the world through the eyes of other video producers. At best, we display an edited view of our worlds. At worst, we destroy important viewpoints through unnecessary editing.
Link (Link and hed snagged from Warren Ellis)
UPDATE: oooh, there's a competing videoblogging manifesto from snottydouche.info:
The Luxidogmeimerde Manifesto
(For fuller context, you should read the wussified Lumiere Manifesto first. But then come back and read this one, because seriously our manifesto is way way better.) (…)
We followed the Dogme95 conventions until we realized that Dogme film #188 was Big Booty Hoes, which kind of fucked up that for us. We have attempted to find videos usingthe Lumiere Manifesto, which at first thought was good but now we hate. We looked for films that were longer than 60 seconds, no camera movement, no audio, and no editing. Sadly, most of the videos we found that matched those criteria were dudes beating off. After watching several hundred of those videos, we decided that we needed to draft our own set of rules.
* No script or scenes or actors or dialog or locations
* No artifical lights or real lights or black lights
* To maintain a total sense of reality, NO credits are allowed either before or after the film.
* Or during the film, either.
* In order to maintain the artistic integrity in shots involving visual effects for explosions, if you use an Explosion element, it must be ONLY from the ArtBeats Reel Explosions Volume One library in the Zero-G folder and can only be composited into the scene using either Shake or Fusion (NOT After Effects) and you may only use Add or Screen modes and more no than three rotoscoped mattes, including the scene's general garbage matte, per shot. Also, no more than seven (7) nodes per shot, including the background plate AND any color correction, either done pre-comp or post.
* No costumes
* No soundtrack, audio, music, sound effects except for a high pitched whine
* Trailer may not use Don Lafontaine for voiceover
* Camera may not be put on a tripod or other artifical camera putting on thing.
* Lens Cap On
* No Battery Or Other Power To Camera
* Camera In Bag
* First Camera Bag Put In Another Bag Made Of Dark Heavy Canvas
* Doubled Bagged Non Powered Camera Buried At Depth Of Six Feet
* No fattiesThe following are not rules for filmmaking or film makers but represent a complete philosophy of life.
Only films that follow all of these rules will get props from us on MySpace.
Linkidogmeimerde (actually written by Lee Stranahan)
