Matt Hanson is trying to adapt the concept of open source creativity, a la Firefox, to film-making. His A Swarm of Angels idea is to shun big money financiers and have multiple people pay £25 each, which gives them a say in the creative process, as well as little perks like access to exclusive content or even being part of the crew. The goal is to raise a budget of £1 million in this way.
It’s a noble enough idea, though it seems unrealistic to guarantee such a huge number of people a creative say. For me at least, the really interesting part comes afterwards. The finished product will be released under a Creative Commons license, meaning it can be shared freely and tinkered with by anyone who chooses to do so.
Maybe Hollywood could adopt this process and moviegoers can edit films they see. If it were up to me for example, I’d have the credits roll on Artificial Intelligence after Haley Joel Osment settles on the bottom of the ocean, and long before E.T. arrives. I’d also remove all Ewok dancing scenes from Return of the Jedi and Michael Bay’s entire oeuvre.
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Matt said
March 24 2007 @ 5:42 am
Thanks for posting on the project. I just wanted to follow up: I’m building a new kind of participation for a film fan, and I don’t think it’s unrealistic to offer some kind of creative input – of course there are degrees in this. And there’s lots of misunderstanding about how I can do it without losing creative credibility – but we have a plan!
The earlier someone joins the more likely they are to influence project direction, or be promoted into a ‘creative position’: for example we are having a key vote on a script scenario right now, and have had such on posters etc.
In our current phase and the low 1000s people have a real opportunity to feed into the script, and visual development.
But even at the 25,000 member mark everyone can vote in greenlighting which of two scripts goes into production. And later have input and contribute to posters/trailers/edit decisions.
Some people want to participate more than others. We’ve built that into the process. It’s thrilling making a new kind of cinema and with each new member we build up more momentum… so I hope you’ll keep tabs on the project.
Thanks, Matt