I had been meaning to write something about this weekend’s trip to see David Icke in all his mad glory. Instead, I’ve been sidetracked by a post I read about a cinematic project called A Swarm of Angels. The idea is fairly simple, to make a one million pound film funded by a swarm of contributors, each paying 25 pounds. The 50,000 contributors get to take part in the different aspects of the film’s production, voting on decisions, giving their input and even applying for jobs involved in the production itself. The final movie will be released under a Creative Commons license so the rest of the world can take it, edit it, remix it, bash it about and make something else.
This is a superb and insanely ambitious idea. I absolutely hope it works; with some good names already on the list of advisors: Cory Doctorow from boingboing, Warren Ellis the author and illustrator of Transmetropolitan and Tommy Pallotta, the producer of the movie adaptation of A Scanner Darkly. The project has clearly made a good impact on those who’ve heard about it so far.
To hit the 50,000 subscribers mark and actually capitalise on the wave of interest will be a great challenge. I’ve subscribed with my few quid and there’s a nascent community there building up. There’s a subscriber cut-off at 1000 to allow the bedding in of the first group as a “development hothouse”. There are other benefits to being in early, too. If you fancy it, it is probably the best time to join in. At the very least you get to act all snobby when it becomes a massive success. :)
Tags: aswarmofangels, asoa, creativecommons, film, movie
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