Stray Cinema Launches Open Source Film Project

Stray Cinema project Stray Cinema is an open source film project. It is a unique experiment in film construction. “The driving concept of this project is to marry film with the open-source ethos,” says project coordinator Michelle Hughes.

The raw footage from a film shot in London has been made available for the public to download from the Stray Cinema Web site. This is to provide people all over the world with the opportunity to create their own version of the film.

Woman in underground subway, London “We are also embracing the online community of independent musicians. We are contacting musicians and bands via social networking Web sites such as myspace.com, and asking them if they would like to make their music available for our participants to use in their film submission,” says Hughes.

“Traditionally films are created by a tight network working towards a singular vision, and the footage is only released when its owners can control how it is interpreted. We want to give everyone the opportunity to have a say over what story is told with this footage. We accept that other people may make a better cut of the film than we do,” she says.

To participate, people must edit a one-two minute version of the film they wish to make from the available footage. Participants are then invited to post this manipulated footage back onto the Stray Cinema Web site, to be judged by their online community.

The top five films will be screened alongside the original film cut, at the Stray Cinema screening in London. The screening will be held six months from the day there are 30 film submissions on the Web site.

“Not only are we are encouraging participants to remix one source of footage, but it is a complete journey. The process began when we released our footage online. Participants then modify the footage, submit their own version on our Web site, and finally the chosen five are navigated from the online digital world, into the ‘real world’ with our London screening,” she says.

“The London screening will also involve VJ's mixing raw footage from our film to live music. We aim to have interesting ways in which our online community can also be involved, such as footage from the event being web cast live onto straycinema.com, along with music, live chat and blogging.”

Stray Cinema will be an ongoing annual event. Each year the screening will be in the country the footage originates from.

“Stray Cinema is unique from anything that has been done before,” says Hughes. “We don't know where this idea will take us, and that's why we're excited about it.”

Stray Cinema www.straycinema.com