Crowdsourcing

…

I'm a little blown away by what I've just seen and read…ok I'm in awe.

Connected is officially on my cue of films I need to watch.

An entirely new era of filmmaking is ahead of us. As a firm believer in the power of the people over the individual, a trend NAY a movement such as this is a truly incredible innovation to the world of filmmaking. The Let It Ripple article stated, "What was so powerful for us was that we were no longer divided simply as filmmaker and audience, or creators and receivers. With Cloud Filmmaking, we were collaborating on the film as one." I read that and a little voice in my head screamed, "YES!" It seems as though somebody here is finally getting the point. Building off of Jimmy Wales' ideal when when he founded Wikipedia, "Empowering people everywhere to have the information they need…" this movement empowers the world to tell their story and contribute to a global connection of experiences and ideas. This brings up a film that I remember hearing about last year called Life in a Day, where Ridley Scott executed his own crowdsourcing efforts by asking people around the world to film themselves for one day, and took the submitted footage and turned it into a feature.

I was actually a part of a team at UNCW that tried to re-create this, not enough participation unfortunately. But it really opens your eyes doesn't it? The power of creating a film with no crew, no set, no equipment, no budget, just people. People and their stories. 

Now obviously, as the Problem with Crowdsourcing article suggests, "For tech companies and anybody involved in trying to mediate the crowd (for example, websites that solicit user submissions or reviews) the trick is figuring out a careful balance." Everything is moderation, the middle ground, is the key to any endeavor such as this. But that's a learning process that we as filmmakers and individuals must experience along the way. Wikipedia wasn't built in a day!!! But as we step forward into the future, innovations in these sorts of projects will continue to be made until a balance is found. LetItRipple seems to me to be leading a movement that will soon impact the filmmaking community in a huge way. I am all for the interdependence that they portray, and would find so much satisfaction in working on a project like that. 

Hmmmmmmm, maybe I will. Jimmy Wales said, "The real struggle is not between the right and the left. It’s between the party of the thoughtful and the party of the jerks, and no side of the political spectrum has a monopoly on either of those qualities.” That's damn right. 

Until next time, noble followers

ConBreezy