Do You want to make a film (Open Cinema Foundation)
“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.” – George Bernard Shaw.
Think Different.
“Do You want to sell sugared water for the rest of Your life or do You want a chance to change the world?” -Steve Jobs
We, who love cinema, people, for whom cinema is a passion, we clearly have two choices for the rest of our lives.
One, two see films and appreciate/criticize. And the other, try to be part of the making of a film. The second option is not taken by everyone because it involves taking risk. You have to leave the prospects of a settled life and all the materialistic and spiritual commodities which come with it, probably let your family and prospective family down. You might have to go through a period of bankruptcy, self doubt, societal alienation and confrontation, pessimism, everything.
“”
As we grow up, we often let go of our childhood dreams. We let go of our adolescent dreams. We let go of everything that made us dream in the first place. Poetry stops and commuting starts. We become cynic and we call ourselves mature. We call our lost love infatuation and we call our shunted dreams immaturity. We still love children because in them we see the innocence, the dreams we had, the purity of soul. It’s this soul that we stop communicating with, listening to, as we become “intelligent”.
In late 1970s, two Young college drop outs saw a dream. A dream to change this world. One sold of his father’s volkswagon for 500 USD and the other quit his high paying job and they together started their company out of their garrage. They were joined by the pirates of silicon valley. The lovers, the lunatics; The mavericks and the passionates and they changed this world. Apple computer is a technology folk lore.
The fact is, for people who have already chosen option one because they can’t chose option two, here is a second chance. You can still make a film. You can be part of making of a film. If You really want. Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds have already solved exactly the same scenario in computing and Free Software Foundation, Open source and GNU/Linux is the living proof of that.
They not only fought an industry more than 40 years old and with a market cap of trillion dollars, they also won against it. And in winning they took the industry forward. Increased the quality manifold and fed it back into the very industry that it still fights.
Open software movement is an idea which is universal in its soul and commerce.
We can apply it in film making as well. Let’s see what we need to make a film. We need script, screen play, actors, technicians, cinematography, sound, lyrics, music, direction, equipments and logistics, production, post production, marketing and distribution. I’m sure I missed many things. But the whole point is, we can have an open Cinema foundation.
How it works is, the individual contributers, the strugglers/volunteers/passionates/artists, they contribute their creative content which gets stored in an open repository accessible to the whole world. The content is submitted to the open repository with an Open Licensing. The clause of the licensing says, the content can be used for filmmaking by anyone and no money will be charged for it as long as the contributer’s name is acknowledged under the Open Cinema Licensing. The open repository is made accessible to every body in this world. Films would be made and content would be used for film making surely and certainly if there’s content with quality. The Open Cinema Foundation is going to be an unified platform for Film Makers, the Critics, the actors, writers, cinematographers, photographers, musicians, everyone. Both Professional and amateur.
Like there are lots of creative people with ideas which might never see the light of day, there are lots of people within the industry in search of creative content. The supply for such content would only increase the demand and vice versa.
A person whose contribution becomes part of a cinema not only gets the acknowledgment, but with much lesser risk proposition, he/she gets a chance to actually start doing the passion. There’d actually be no copyright issues and legal hassles and financial controversies since the Open Cinema licensing would be formulated and filed that way. The content contributer retains no financial rights over it as long as it gets used with public acknowledgment and credit to the creator under the Open Cinema Licensing.
In time, all the established houses and film makers will actually promote this model because it’s a proven business model which has been tried, tested and has achieved success in a much bigger volume market. The success of GPL is inarguable.
In PFC, we already have a platform where we can start this. PFC is a platform where filmmakers write, critics write, fans write and read, the audience’s feed back is reflected. It’s already a platform which has got an established interaction. We’ll have to take the next logical step and enhance it as a home for the Open Cinema Foundation.
I’ve not consulted the founders and the owners of PFC on this. This article is purely a personal article. It’s a public non-manifesto where I seek Your feedback. If You are ready to spend time and willing, together we can start something which can change cinema for ever, worldwide.
Love and life would cease to continue the day people stop making love, Let’s make films.
Tags: apple, bernard shaw, Cinema, GNU, GPL, Linux, Movies, pfc, Think Different
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
It is an interesting proposition. I don’t dare to call you an idealist, since I myself have refused to put down the pen in order to grab the steering wheel (so to speak) but the truth is, there’s only one thing that is keeping me from venturing to moviemaking, and that, in one word, is finance. Open source works very well when you have people to contribute resources as well as ideas. A computer program is a far different entity from a film, sadly.
Raghu, Open source lives because it has successfully generated tremendous ideas and resources both. If you look at how it exists today, it’s success is also due to the patronizing of the industry giants. Why would they patronize something which is against their own entity? It’s because it takes them forward. They get ideas and products that break paradigms, complexity boundaries which were not possible for them to attain. A computer program is the final imprint of all the ideas and resources that go into it. When you make an Operating System that lasts four decades and still act as the single largest reference point for all future developments, it proves something. It’s the same proof which an initative like Open Cinema Foundation will yield. It’s just a matter of time, and just a matter of who starts it where. There’s no question of whether it’d succeed or fail. It’s whether we are early entrants or late.
Well, the idea excites me… But I'm afraid, doesn't it look like to the underground/indie movement?
Yes, organizational efforts can make a difference.. It can lead and become a platform to facilitate like-minded people… But dear Subhasish, when people don't trust even '«established' directors for their stories, how could they trust unknown wannabes and let them screw their ideas?
Well, this fear could be reduced, if there was actually a platform where we could know each other and communicate more effectively.
I think PFC needs to redesign its website. (But see, even it is short of funds. ) By improving PFC interface and layout (to the standards of Web 2.O or 3.0), we will actually have an Open Cinema Foundation- if you like! I think PFC can generate more funds if it restructuring itself and expand its scope. There should be option to allow readers/users to contact other users/writers. Right now, there are few '«authors' and the rest are '«readers' who do post comments. But changing it into a film portal, using Amazon or other sites to enable selling/promoting films is another way to make some money to sustain the site.
I can't believe this Imagine, PFC acting like an Open Cinema Foundation and '«producing' a film by its members!!!! But we are all dreamers, aren't we?
But since you're from IT background, I think we can discuss with PFC editors a way to make the site self-sustainable (or even profitable for good reasons)'– We are ready to support, PFC editors/webmasters/founders, are you listening?
Salik, your concerns about the fate of the content is valid. GPL licensing (the post has wikipedia links) is an idea which we can emulate and it takes care of such things. Every creative content submitted will be associated with Open Cinema Licensing. If someone uses your content and you don’t get credited for it, someone plagiaries your idea, this licensing would act as a legal protection. In a world today where creative people are really insecure about their content, we really need this kind of a licensing. It is for safety. It doesn’t compromise safety. Open Source guys regularly sue companies which unlawfully use their stuff and they get acknowledged and also get huge money for the settlement. And this idea is not only over once the content is deposited. This kind of an initiative will actually start an interaction among like minded people. If I can read your content and You mine, gradually it’d start a creative chain. A common pool of resources can come up over a short period of time and adventure film making can have a kick start. Over a period of time, the model can mature and proper films can be made. As for PFC’s running expenses, I think when it starts acting as a very important place for all creative people, automatically everyone would want it to prosper. For their own good. PFC will never face any financial crunch. Every one will actively make it tick. Financially. This idea has worked in fields where the production of the final product takes much more people and effort than film making. I have total conviction it can revolutionize cinema.
The idea is great… there is no harm in trying it atleast…. if it does not work out then,we will know for sure that this idea does not work… otherwise every gains…
I feel as the idea grows and more and more people involve… it will become better.
some people can do nothing but copy…. why worry about them.. it is for people who want to do new things.. differently..
I am eager to be part of it. The prime obstacle in making film is either Finance or good team. Ideas are floating around.
Wah wah wah!! take a bow… U have combined the two most compelling interests of mine (and many more who aspire to become film makers, but at present is a techie)… nice and motivating .. thank you
Sudipto, I’m serious about it too, apart from just being motivating about it. If no one takes this initiative up, If it remains an orphan, I’ll take this up and may be will fail with it. But the point is, I’ll take this idea all along the way.
Either the idea is taken up by an already existing initiative, or I’ll go ahead, take up a domain, get storage, put apps together, contact hell lot of people and start it myself with funding and ads. It might take me some time before I put things in place. Ideally, I just want to be a small part in this initiative. I really hope Oz or others at PFC reads this post and think about the idea.
@subhasish: Yup am i am serious, actually just after reading your article I was motivated to write a script that was brewing in my head for long… Just that one day some one might see it and get as excited as I got thinking abt it and makes it into motion picture!! Any help from some enthu bangalorean film buff needed??
@Sudipto and @Vishal, Till the time independent initiatives are not strung together under an unifying umbrella, the divide between the amateur and the full timer will remain for ever. If you think about it, take India’s case, of the populace who could be filmmakers, could be part of filmmaking, not even 5% of them actually take the plunge. And of the people who do take the plunge, not even 5% succeed. More than 95% creative talent is untapped. Film makers and production houses today are happy with the quality and the quantity this 5% provide. But what about the rest 95%? If the creativity of that percentage can be tapped, then there’d be innundation of quality and variety. The entire industry would be revolutionised. We can’t let that 95% fade away with evanescent flashes. We’ll have to harness it.
Being motivated by this article to write that script won’t suffice. What’ll you do after you’ve written the script? That’s what my artilce is about.A sustainable reaction to this article would be when You replace the words in your scripts with actions in your own life. I’m not asking anybody to leave their jobs and give all the time to the movement. But take it up as your own movement. Give it your own colours, your own shape.
Without an organised framework, I’m sorry to say, no one from Bangalore would be there for all the Sudipto’s out there. It’s not just about You. It’s about all of us.
The domain name is lying free and is up for grabs. There’s such an impressionable and willing participation sitting dormant in the IITs and various other colleges. Thousands and thousands across the entire India. The effort of unification and alignment of all those contents and effort is a must.
If we can establish the framework, rest will follow. I envision a day soon from now, when there’d be a place in www, where there’d be separate sections where myriad video footages of aspiring actors, their profiles, music, lyrics, scripts every thing would find a place.
If we have the quality and hardwork, with the creation of a framework, we can pull it off.
My only grouse is, why still single digit responses? Are we that inactive and unwilling? Do we really want to prove the prototypes right? Are we passionforcinema or are we just passionforseeingcinema?
I am more than willing have been thinking about my shot movie myself… but i feel my script is not good and i have no idea about movie making…. i do want to learn and it would be great if we have a forum… I live in new york and would be great if there are few folks in New York who want to give some short movies a shot
If some one likes the idea mentioned in the article above I am in… (BTW… great post)
gauravbhargava@gmail.com
Do E mail me if anyone wants to talk further about it… Although i might have nothing to offer but my enthu
One of the most significant ideas to come out of PFC in a long long time ,this post should generate a minimum of 200 comments ,otherwise I would like to believe that PFC is just a place where people just come to bash SRK ,YRF and co and suck up to Anurag Kashyap.
Yes software and movie making are entirely two different concepts ,while I can write a good software sitting in my chair I can’t say the same about a movie.
But times are changing !!
The idea that is presented here is not that amateurs should start making movies but amateurs coming to one forum and presenting things like a good script ,a good screenplay ,a good song or a theme for a movie which established players can take a look at and decide for themselves as to whether they want it or not.
Movies used to be an exclusive domain just like photography which was inaccessible due to it’s prohibitive costs but the advent of the digital camera changed that.
Marketing your home made video clips used to be a stuff of dreams but youtube changed all that.
Web 2.0 and it’s use in politics used to be a running joke until Barack Obama came and changed that ,similarly today we have digi cams ,softwares like final cut pro and other things ,what else do we need to start the change?
It may not be an easy thing to do and there is no guarantee that the idea may fail but saala how will we know if we don’t try it.
Abe show some enthusiasm guys ,just 11 comments till now????
And a gaali from AK invites 200 comments……
@everyone… I am gung ho abt it… have had these shots in my head for quite a while and a steadily growing directory of plots… where do we start?
I think the excitement is slightly immature.
Filmmaking unlike Software/IT is not a product of a flash of brilliance, its a prolonged and often times painful experience. Ideas dont turn into movies, it takes alot more than that.
Is there really a dearth of creative thoughts, and lack of good scripts? I would beg to differ.
Its a really well written article, the author great command, but the idea is a bit far fetched? How many creative people can feel secure placing their ideas in public domain? IT and Film making poles apart. I dont know why the corporates thing they can take over art and apply the formula. Ridiculous.
Cliff, If you figure out what it took for people to start the things that you call corporate today, You’ll realize, nothing is just a product of a flash of brilliance. It takes lifetime of effort, sacrifices, commitment and belief to come up with something which lasts.
If You see what GNU/Linux has achieved and the scale involved, You’ll probably have a different opinion.
You are right when You say ideas don’t turn into movies. That’s why we are making this effort and coming up with a movement and a foundation.
You are right when you say there’s no dearth of creative thoughts, lack of good scripts. But they don’t reach the right places. There’s no unified, transparent,fair and effective process in place.
I think your idea is noble. But even if you filter it all out, there will be one big drawback.
Passion! People who work in films dont do things half hearted, if this platform that you propose does come to life, I am sorry to say this…but we will have a million half hearted scriptwriters. Yes the chances of finding brilliance increases manifold, but is that what we need? Is film making going to come down to that. The reason film making or any other art for that matter is unlike things that are structures is because of the sacrifices involved. Your idea to me seems more like a way for people who have taken the safe way and leading a comfirtable life within the normal structure to get off. Its the easy way out, and that to me is not something I would be in awe of. Creative people have a special place because of the sacrifices involved, because of the gift, you take that away and you take away the sweetness of experiencing genius.
I would hate to see that day.
To – Raghu, Vineet, GB, Vishal, Nidhi – I’ve just created two gmail ids. Luckily both were up for grabs. One is opencinemafoundation@gmail.com and the other is openfilmfoundation@gmail.com . In the first gmail id, I’ve created labels for every category of creative content. I’m yet to associate filtering rules with it. GB, I have your mail id as you sent it. Others please provide your email ids. I’ll send you guys the password. I’m taking legal advice on drafting the Open Cinema License. I will come up with a draft version of the license pretty soon. I’ll send it to you guys for review. To start with we can have our page on googlepages. We’ll buy the domain name soon. I’m also in talks with the CEO of a data analytics start up to frame the content storage and application integration model. I’m also interacting with GNU/Linux guys to understand the details of open/free software functional model. We’ll soon come up with a non-profit framework for this initiative.
We’ll have to put up the site. First in Google pages and then once we buy the domain name.
To those who want to join in, please contribute creatively in putting up the site.
My plan is to -
1. Have the site, Open licensing scheme, the email ids with functional filtering ready before next friday.
2. Let’s fixup an online discussion session sometime next weekend to take the agenda forward.
The forward agenda will include -
Our short term and long term agenda.
Plans for buying the domain.
How to penetrate web presence and reach out to colleges and other places.
Thanks guys for making this initiative. We are all equal stakeholders on this from today.Please send me mails and let’s put up the googlepage before next weekend.
GB, check your mail.
A unified, fair, tranparent and effective process takes away alot more than what it brings. Ever wondered why all Communist countries have failed? Democracy gives everyone equal opportunity, but it makes sure there is a fight. An open platform takes the fight away, take the struggle away, takes the joy away. You have to make a choice, the path less treaded is a tough one to take, but the end is ecstacy and the journey is trippy. You take it away and I dont see why the ART that comes out of it would be special. I just dont see why.
Cliff, I fully respect the passion and the sacrifices. That’s why I’m trying to reduce the sacrifices and the pain. It’s not only for people who don’t want to take the risk, it’s also for people who’ve already taken the risk but are not finding the way. Are stuck somewhere in between.
Not reaching the destination. Seeing such people succeed, People today who are taking the safe route and not finding the courage will also leave the safe route behind. It’s a platform that You can give shape to. Cinema is Open.
SC
The product of this platform will be a problem of plenty. We already make far too many films in my opinion. Cinema should be a club of exclusivity, you make it public and it loses its charm. I agree with you at one level, but not entirely. Give it a shot though. I pray it works for you guys, but dread if it does.
BTW I have no vested interest, I am passionate about watching movies, dont have the least interest about being part of the film making process (although I did have a short stint as an assistant cinematographer). I run an event management company in Dubai now, and trust me this was not the easy path to tread either. I just wanna continue seeing films or any form of art being made with love, with sacrifice, with pain…without these vital ingredients, a film just becomes another formula, another product off the conveyor belt.
Cliff, my only response to You is read about Free Software movement. There’s no lack of pain, sacrifice, passion. Only, there’s some definite direction where it all goes. Even they are a non profit NGO, their products are not assembly line outputs, they are products of labour of love.
With the participaion of more people, if at all, passion and attraction will only increase.
Software and Films are just not the same. I dont think the same theories apply. Sorry.
You are free to have Your opinion as free as I’m to have mine. Let’s not be Taliban and let’s offer each other the freedom of thought.
Totally…notice I did wish u luck.
I thought you wanted a discussion on this. I’m just stating what I think. You should counter argue rather than get defensive. How are you gonna get ppl to believe in this?
I’ve provided hyper links in my post to all the references. And I’ve also given my arguments in favor. Why I think counter argument is not my cup of tea is because I believe for a person to align himself to a cause, the decision has to come from within. I can only give some arguments and give some information sources. But the inference I draw is directly proportional to the time I spend on them. I’m sorry but there’s no short cut in decision making. I have already said what I had to. Every source of information is in the public domain. It’s a free world. People will have to make their own free choices. I won’t motivate or push any one. Changes come from within. Changes induced by external factors are not sustainable.
I wanted to reach out to people, present my side of the argument, It’s an open world, People would voluntarily take things up, that’s the whole philosophy.
I see no harm in trying. And to tell you the truth, i feel even if idea fails all of us stand to gain only. New experience and whole new leaning process.
Thanks Subhasish, for the idea.
When you code, there are rules for efficient coding. Any good programmer can identify spaghetti code versus good code. It is based in fact.
Creativity is based on… feeling. On emotion, on attraction, on what touches you. How will you decide if A’s input into the script makes it better or worse? It is all a point of view.
Will be interesting to see how you make judgments in a world where every opinion is as valid as the next. Please share as you figure it out… am curious how you’ll solve that.
Shripriya, I’ll not make judgments. I’m just creating an unified framework for every body’s work. People who are not programmers, people who are film makers, people who want to be film makers, people who are in film making, they’ll make judgments.
I’ll give visibility, accessibility and storage for content for the entire body of creative populace.
The film makers would just use the framework I’m talking about to access those content, judge it with feelings as you’ve mentioned and keep approaching film making the same way they always approached it.
It’s just that, now they’ll get a huge collection of content and creative people to chose from and a lot more can now happen beyond the initiatives which are totally system driven right now.
Film making is being freed. It’s not being techno hijacked. We are using technology to preserve 95% of the creative people’s subjective contents.
I just feel there should be more protection, if no one is answerable and the creator himself is hands off, how is this transparant? Seems like an open invitation to being ripped off. How do u intend to protect the ideas shared?
On the contrary, it’s the strongest form of protection Cliff. The licensing would take care of that. The fact is that when You submit a content with the Open Cinema licensing, You reserve the right to sue anyone who uses your content without acknowledging your contribution under the lincense.
The fact that your content is tightly coupled with the license, You can using the legal powers that the licensing bestows upon you. You can drag the offenders in the court of law.
Copying is such a rampant thing today. If I was vying for creative writing in the industry, I’d be really scared sending it to lots of people thinking what if they just rewrite their whole script seeing mine and I’m just thrown off?
It’s where this open licensing protects You. Your work is open to being ripped off now. That’s where Open licensing will majorly safeguard you.
So many independent film makers would get the content they want, the actors they want, the logistics they need, everything.
It’ll revolutionize the way Film industry works. All over.
Nice one. Though I’m still skeptical about how this will shape, I see at least some movement.
My question is- even if do manage to successfully create a vibrate open community of scripts, story boards, tips, techniques even opensource editing, animation, sync tools etc, what about the hardware part? What about camera, sets, travel, props, production, distribution, etc etc? How do you plan to make such things ‘open’? Or are you satisfied with people making nice 3 minutes movies on their mobiles and uploading it on YouTube so to say? Otherwise, I don’t see how your plans can turn into a noticeable indie movement.
I’m not saying that there is no way to tackle this, I’m just saying that even GNU model, however great might that be, is not exactly a blueprint to follow. We need a *radically* novel approach to it.
All this is not to say that I’m cynical about the initiative itself. I myself am an Electrical Engg currently doing Applied Math Masters here in Europe; but I have planned, much to the disappointment of my family, to move to Mumbai this fall for a foray into films ;-)
Satya Vrat, great to know your decision. Even I’ll eventually do something similar. I’ve shot an open movie earlier, about 70%. And I’m currently writing an open process scheduler for next generation. My eventual plan is a novel OS as far as my technological aspirations are concerned.
But I completely want to move into world of cinema in about another 3-5 years.
Open source and GNU for Open cinema foundation is a reference point. We definitely need to have a novel solution here because the scenario has lots of differences. But the GNU model of licensing and content integration and project completion is a reference model on which I’m heavily drawing my ideas from.
You must be aware that when Linux first came up, they didn’t have testing, benchmarking, even development labs and hardware. But if you look the facilities they’ve got now, it seems unbelievable. How did they do it?
They eventually got patronage from the industry biggies themselves for their own initiatives because of the obvious results the mainline industry is getting from them.
My idea is not only to host a storage pool for every body’s work. It’s to also reach out to film makers, involve them in it. Get them to seriously consider this content pool and utilise the people and their products for film making.
Also, in time, as creative people see each other’s work, they can interact and team up and go to the extent of making movies with very less funding.
This movement will succeed if it meaningfully contributes in main line film making. It has to show the value to the main line. The rest will automatically follow.
That’s why I chose to publish it here. PFC already has a lot of film makers and industry people involved. If they can be involved in this initiative, this movement will help them as well as help every creative individual.
Currently I’m just busy with the licensing legal details.
@Cliff
You won’t know the potential of an idea until you start implementing an idea ,I don’t know the film world as much as you do and you don’t know the software world as much as I or any IT guy knows.
What we both know is that both of them are where ideas rule ,the concept is the king here ,maybe this idea will fail and maybe it would be the next big thing ,we won’t know until we try ,and even if it fails it will teach us innumerable lessons ,so look at the thing optimistically.
Subhasish, this is an interesting idea but I have some basic questions. I am merely being a critic to add to the think tank and not undermine your idea. I am deeply appreciative of your thinking. Lets say there is a pool which comprises of someone’s script, someone’s music, someone’s lyrics etc. Some random newb trying his hands on direction gets to see all of this ( lets say you monetize “seeing” this content)and he just rehashes the whole thing and calls it a “film” which could have similar script,music and lyrics from the pool. How can you differentiate which is original and which is not? A software program works exactly as it is intended to and you protect it by a patent, which makes it seamless. I am just wondering how do we do that with film content. How do you stop inspirations.
Another thing is that script, music, lyrics, etc should be aligned to the soul of the director’s vision. How can disjoint content pieces ( script, music, lyrics, marketing etc) add to one common vision? Wont most films bomb because the audience can decipher that many elements of the film are disassociated. Its not an assembly line. I think the problem this model will face is that film making is very human skill intensive in nature than Opens source, which is based on logic and technology( albeit serving human needs)
i agree with shri priya…what is a film? i mean its just a point of view…i might feel x and a majority might feel wrong…just because of majority i am not wrong…if i am then pll like tarantino’s wouldnt have been sucessful ( just an eg:))…so how will it be decided whose contribution is valid or invalid…who will be the final decision maker?
@Neeraj
Yes Film making is not an assembly line and no one is trying to make it one ,the foundation would just be a pool of ideas ,anyone taking anything from it would have to give credit to it ,even if he/she takes just one song.
and why are you scared about originality ,you should read more about open source ,it only encourages originality ,when common folks contribute there are bound to be more ideas and more choices ,I don’t think barring a few people anyone gets the whole idea here.
just to give you an example hasn’t the script of Devdas been used innumerable times to make a movie ,has it affected originality in any sense.
Just to get the idea consider a pool of all the best-selling novels till date in the form of a pool bereft of copyright ,now multiply that pool by a factor of ten ,any film maker can browse through the pool and get a script and present it ,I hope you get the idea now.
The power to accept or reject a movie lies with the audience ,if the audience feels that some movie is a rehash of something they have all the power in the world to reject it ,who are we to decide whether people should like something or not, the film maker’s job is to present not to judge.
To add to Vineet’s point, the work which would be in the visible pool might just server as a reference point and indicative work showing what an artist is like and capable of. It’s like a director listening to an aspiring music director’s sample work. If the director likes it enough, he wants the guy to compose for him, he knows whom to contact. If the aspiring music director is willing he contributes his original score which he composes for the director on later interaction with him.
That deliverable doesn’t even have to be within the Universal pool. This framework is not to curb you. The framework doesn’t have any intent of itself at all. It’s for You.It’s to showcase your capability to the people who matter to start with.
Most of the time, the work which you have in the pool is a starting point. the director would almost always want to adapt it to his own school of film making. It’ll always remain original.
The individual always has the option of still continuing with the Open licensing. If he wants.
It’s independence for cinema and cinematic content. It really excites me to think of the day when the first Open Film would be released.
Neeraj, May we all witness that day. It’d force mainline cinema to become much more competent. majority of the creative populace who now can just dream of movies will actually touch their dreams.
The GNU Idea is the idea, it’s implementation will not be specifically the exact thing which we will do. We’ll perfectly adapt it the way a subjective entity like Cinema needs.
A noble thought indeed, though must say it is a bit idealist. So I’ve just read the article and a handful of comments, not all of them. And here are a few questions/concerns that come to mind:
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Where would the financing come from? To make a film you need, aside from passionate and creatively talented people, a lot of expensive equipment, locations & manpower. And for all Sure your Cinematographer may work for free, but why would your gaffers and your PA’s? Your leads and even character actors will work for free, but what about all the extras? And for all those people you need food. Doesn’t sound like much, but I’ve been on quite a few independent film sets. If your cast and crew, on a daily basis, adds up to 20 people, and you shoot for an average of 10 hours a day for 20 days, well that’s 1200 meals. At a conservative $5/meal, your still looking at $6000.00 in craft services. And that my friends is perhaps the least of your worries.
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We’ve shot films on rented and borrowed equipment and spent countless hours of our time, volunteered or paid for our costs but never for big money (that’s where drive and passion can help compensate).
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So we’ve made our films. Ok, now what? Who’s going to watch them? If low-budget independent films with KNOWN actors/technicians working on them, for example “Barah Aana” & “Straight” (only to name the two most recent examples, there’s obviously a long list here) don’t attract an audience and ultimately face the disheartening prospect of LOSING money (among other things) on the deal, then what exactly is gained? Please don’t say recognition and all that. Where do you think a talented actor like Arjun Mathur, or a talented Director like Raja Menon will be in five years? Yes, we all hope to see them on the marquee and in the spotlight getting their DUE, but realistically they’ve still got an uphill battle to fight. This, very unfortunately, is not the end of their struggles.
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And these guys are still much, much better off than MILLIONS of us worldwide who have worked in the industry and have made films and still feel we’ve accomplished very little. I’m not trying to be pessimistic, but that is the reality of it.
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For arguments sake though, lets say we choose not to think about all that and we just want to shoot films. So we don’t have a sophisticated camera or lighting or any other fancy equipment. Lets say we have access to a Sony DSR250 or a PD150, which will still get you a good digital picture, and we have standard tripods and even a wheel dolly. We get some actors together, take our great script, and head out to the free locations provided by our friends/family and, well, our general surroundings without bothering about permits and all that nonsense. Ok, so we shoot our film. Then we use software like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro to edit our film. Great. We get some free music off the net or better yet, we contact an up and coming unknown band and we do a cross promotion with them and get their music in our film providing due credit. Ok, awesome. And then, after hours upon hours of fine detailing in post-production we finally burn our finished product to DVD.
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Ok, now what. Now we hand out these DVDs to our friends and family and co-workers. We get video showing parties together and show our films to our circles and maybe even their circles. We get told, almost unanimously that our film was “pretty good” and a “solid effort”. And we tell the stories of our struggles to make the film to anyone within earshot.
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Some are even lucky enough to have their films to festivals and viewed by our contemporaries and the more experienced indie-film makers. Which is great and all, but is that our final destination? Or is there still farther to go?
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I ask this because as the weeks and months go by, everyone moves on and we sit and, occasionally throw on the film and reminisce and even revel in the glory of actually making something and getting out there. But for some reason we still aren’t as satisfied or fulfilled as we thought we would be. And we still have bills to pay and lives to run, so what else to do but go back to our 9-5 lives, if we ever managed to leave them in the first place. And then itch comes right back and we try and try to better the outcome. We dream some more and we try to find new ways of moving up the ladder, to get to a higher level. The only thing that holds us back from getting to those next levels is money, finance, funding. And so begins that process all over again…
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Forgive me if I’ve gone on a tangent. I was initially responding to this great post and somehow have basically written out the various cycles of the past 12 years of my life. Hopefully for the uninitiated this at least shed some light on the process and the pains that go with it. For those of us who’ve been through similar experiences, I’m sure you’ll be able to relate.
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Its not that its tough to MAKE films, or even make good films. Its just very tough to find the success we dream about making these films. I’m still optimistic that we’ll “make it”, and find the success that has thus far alluded us, and I hope the same for everyone who has the same dreams and desires. But we should not make it seem as though the fix was always this simple and no one was able to put it all together till now. This is a complex, painstaking process man, and it does involve a tonn of sacrifice, commitment and investment (financial, emotional, physical, and of course a whole lot of time). This is why we have such a great deal of respect for those who do make it and root so passionately for those who are on the cusp of making it. Because we know how tough it really is to get that far and, we must all admit, we wish we were there too.
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Subhasish: Read through the comments and realize now that my last comment was perhaps not in line with the spirit and intention of this concept. To my understanding, the idea is to:
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“… not only to host a storage pool for every body's work. It's to also reach out to film makers, involve them in it. Get them to seriously consider this content pool and utilise the people and their products for film making…”
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Which I think is a fantastic idea. The only thing is that its based on the assumption that many filmmakers, independent producers, studios and corporates don’t already have hundreds or even thousands of aspiring actors, writers, directors, musicians, singers and technicians already banging down their doors or trying to get their ideas across. The notion that these guys have the money and want to make films, but somehow can’t seem to find the right content and talent to do so, is quite naive. The resources, the creative content and the vast pool of talent is right there in front of them. Do you know how many people are struggling to get their chance in Mumbai right now?
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Don’t get me wrong, if an idea like this succeeds that would he HUGE. Tons of people would benefit and creatively our film industry would get a huge boost. But, on a practical level, this assumes an equally enthusiastic response from Producers and Financiers. And of course, it assumes that they will honor the copyrights and not steal ideas and tunes, tweak them, and pass them off as originals leaving the strugglers with even less than what they started off with.
subhasish, loved ur article…im al game for it…i wana contribute and move forward…
wats ur email i.d??? …i wana send u smthng regarding th same concept!
To cool hai ji, send a mail to opencinemafoundation@gmail.com or openfilmfoundation@gmail.com .We have already shared the passwords and details among the willing participants. If you want, please join us. I’ll at some point in time today or tomorrow publish our immediate short term goal over here.
@Tony Mera Naam
Yes it’s difficult and 99% quit ,it’s the 1% who make the difference ,I know it sounds like philosophical bullshit but let’s hope this is that 1%.
Vineet, let’s hope your right, we’d all love to see that happen man. I’m just saying that philosophy and practicality are 2 completely different arenas..
You are right “Tony Mera Naam”. But similar initiatives in inherently more resistive fields have succeeded earlier and our initiative in this field will also remain as a reference one for others to try and fuse practicality with a philosophy.
@Vineet
Film making is very unlike IT, sure in both fields ideas rule, but film making is not just about ideas…execution is key. And if you ever step into Mumbai and go to a producers office, you will see that there isn’t a lack of ideas., but very few will take it forward and make a movie out of it.
Creative people at worst case scenario have atleast their ideas as a source of joy, you take that away from them, put it on an Open Source Platform and you ROB the joy of OWNING and idea too! You have to be absolutely naive to think that people who make films dont have access to ideas. IT works within a framework, an idea that takes it forward WILL take it forward. Films on the other hand dont have a framework, creativity never has.
The same theories and concepts just dont apply. Does the Open Source Platform work for dogbreeding? Just cause there is a horny dog ready with fresh semen, doesn’t mean the bitch is in heat. There are plenty of ideas in the industry and on its fringes, the industry is market sensitive, what sells is made.
I am trying really hard to be optimistic about this. But the only outcome I see is that people with normal 9-5 jobs are gonna use it as a vent. Lets say it is a success and someone does make a film (that doesn’t work) using resources from this platform, doesn’t that take away from the people who sacrifice their lives to make it in the industry but have not put their ideas on this platform? It just sounds like a very communist idea to me, I would hate to see it succeed.
hi Swami,
this is the first article by you which I really liked :-). I think its because it showed a glimmer of hope to our dying dreams. Please do let me know if I can be a part of this in anyway.
Guys, thanks to all who joined our initiative.
The good news is, we’ve got the domain, we’ve set up an infrastructure team working on the IT part, we’ve set up a team working on the licensing and NGO issues. The entire open cinema foundation team is really happy with the accelerated progress we’ve made in last few days. We’ve now presence in US-east/west coast, Canada, UK, India- Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Calcutta, Delhi, Chennai. We’ve got Cinema professionals, Cinema students, Technology professionals, technology and general students(colleges and Universities) involved in this initiative now. Within the next few days, we’re going public legally. Thanks Guys once again.
Really…! That is a great news Subhasish. As I mentioned earlier I am willing to be a part of it.
NiDHi MoDH