Ok, so this is an idea where basically, a movie is created by the internet at large. The reasoning behind this is that there are many people who are skilled at some part of movie making, but not others. How many times have you seen an amateur video with great special effects, but lousy sound? Or great dialogue, ruined by poor acting? The Open-Source film project would help this. For example, lets say you and a friend just finished choreographing an amazing lightsaber battle, but lack the software or skills to add the special effects. The raw video would be uploaded to the site, freely available to the public. Anyone who feels so inclined can download your footage, add the effects, and upload their edited version. If several videos are added, a voting feature could help make it easy to tell which were the best.

In extreme cases, entire films could be created this way. One person could start by suggesting a plot, then gradually a screenplay would be written, wiki-style, with each change voted on. The portions with the most votes would be incorporated into the final version. Individual acting groups (drama clubs, film students, performing arts groups, or just a bunches of friends) would each film their version, and once again, the highest ranking is the final version. This continues as soundtracks, dubbing, effects, and finally editing result in a finished film, to be released into the public domain. With a dedicated group, some extremely high-quality projects could come of this.

Addendum: For feature length films, this would undoubtedly be better suited for 3-D or animated movies, with the models each available for download. The community at large could help render the project, with their computers spare processing power, similar to Seti@home.

Any suggestions for refinements are, of course, welcome.
-- Lord Kyler, Jul 25 2009

Seti@home http://seticlassic....seti_at_home_1.html
How the Seti@home project (and rendering in the example) works [Lord Kyler, Jul 25 2009]

Wikipedia: Open Source Film http://en.wikipedia...ki/Open_source_film
Whole bunch, although with varying definitions of Open Source. [jutta, Jul 26 2009]

e.g., valkaama http://www.valkaama.com/
From the Wikipedia entry list. Now in postproduction. [jutta, Jul 26 2009]

MySpace Movie Mash-up http://www.myspace.com/faintheartthemovie
MySpace ran a competition in 2007 to create a user-generated feature film, which incorporated a short-film competition to decide on a director, a script that was chosen by MySpace users and edited according to their suggestions, as well as (as far as I know) choosing the cast and technical staff. Pretty close to what you suggest. I entered my own short film but with no budget I was vastly outdone by high-production values (some of the entries even had famous actors in them, which I thought was a bit off.) [theleopard, Jul 27 2009]

YouTube lets you put up your own videos, any way you want, and they cannot be downloaded without a third-party service. This idea is for is working toward a finished product using unfinished material.
-- Lord Kyler, Jul 26 2009


The problem with this is that you're going to end up in someone else's porn.
-- phoenix, Jul 26 2009


Or, worse, their amazing lightsaber battle.

Have you looked at the existing stuff that calls itself "Open Source Films"? There are some that are just people publishing their ingredients, but there are a few genuinely collaborative projects that more closely match your description.
-- jutta, Jul 26 2009


About people uploading junk, I think the community voting or a "flag as junk/spam" feature would keep this at a minimum.
-- Lord Kyler, Jul 26 2009



random, halfbakery