Crowdsourced Cinema is a public art project of Northampton Community Television (NCTV), started in 2015, in which the surrounding community collaboratively remakes a famous film by dividing the film into about 40 different scenes, and then giving each participating team one of those scenes to recreate however they like. They then stitch all the scenes together to create a full-length film. Their first film was Raiders of the Lost Ark, followed by The Princess Bride. This year, they are creating Back to the Future.

What is the difference between Crowdsourced Cinema and Crowdsourced Boston?
Community media centers in the Boston area think this is a great idea and, with the encouragement from the original Crowdsourced Cinema, they are teaming up to recruit people in the Boston area to create our very own Boston area-based remake of a famous film this summer! We’re calling this partner project Crowdsourced Boston.

Each team signs up for a scene from the film to interpret creatively – it could be filmed with live action, animation, stop motion, remix, puppetry, and other visual styles. The only rules are to follow the same action, dialogue, and total running time of a short scene without using copyrighted images or audio.
We also invite musicians, composers, and producers to participate in creating an original score to a randomly assigned section of the movie.
All these scenes will be stitched together to create a full-length film, broadcast on each participating community media center’s cable channels, and distributed on the web.

Questions?
Please email Erin Kinney at erin@brooklineinteractive.org if you have any questions or would like more information.

A team can be an individual or a group of people in the greater Boston area, open to all ages and abilities. (This means anywhere inside the boundaries of I-495!) You have until July 10th, 2017 to sign up to participate in Crowdsourced Boston’s 2017 project: Back to the Future.
You do not have to live in the Boston area to participate, but Team Leaders are encouraged to sign up for a membership at their local media center so they can have access to film equipment and editing software! For a list of participating centers, click here. (add a list and links to all of the participating centers here)

SCENES
Teams will be randomly assigned short scenes (1-4 minutes) via email by July 7th. We’ll send you the script and clips from the scene you are assigned for reference. If you’re a musician, you’ll get a musical score from the film.
Please stick to the total running time of the scene you are assigned. Going over or under a few seconds is fine, but keep in mind your scene is a small part of a long movie. Make sure the beginning and end of your scene matches up closely to the original so it will transition nicely with the other scenes.

BE ORIGINAL
Go ahead and get creative! We ask that you follow the script in terms of dialogue and action, but your scene will be more entertaining the more creative you get. You can shoot live action, use puppets, stop-motion, animation, whatever you think will be entertaining and fun!
Don’t have access to a DeLorean? Try a toy car. We recommend checking out the past two Crowdsourced Cinema movies to get ideas.
No copyrighted images, logos, or music please. This includes the original soundtrack or dialogue from the movie, please make sure you use your own audio.
If you are looking for music or sound effects, check out FreeMusicArchive.org or FreeSound.org or of course, make your own!

IMPORTANT DATES
Sign up by July 10th
Teams receive scene by July 11th
Scenes due September 5th
Soundtrack due September 12th

TECH SPECS
We’d prefer everyone to shoot Full HD 1920×1080 with a framerate of 24 frames per second. Shoot, Edit, and Export in the highest quality possible.
Most file types can be accepted, but we’d prefer an H.264 (.mp4) file in 24 frames per second. If you need any guidance with camera or export settings, please get in touch.

Questions?
Please email Erin Kinney at erin@brooklineinteractive.org if you have any questions or would like more information.

Is your media center or access station interested in becoming a partner of Crowdsourced Boston? We’d love for you to join us.

For each participating center, we ask that you promote this project, and recruit at least three filmmaking teams in your community to participate by recreating a scene. Please direct them to this site and have them fill out the form to sign up (we’ll take care of emailing them their scene). You are also welcome to sign up to create a scene!

To sign on, please email Erin at erin@brooklineinteractive.org

Still not convinced? Read the reasons why participating can help your center:

• ~This is a fun and creative production to be part of as a team (enjoyable for your members, staff, interns, board, etc.)
• ~The final projects will be screened at multiple film festivals in Massachusetts, including the Northampton Film Festival this fall
• ~It’s an empowering way to activate people’s interests in the many facets of production and have it be an educational activity
• ~You can leverage this as both member engagement and community outreach by hosting your own screening of the final project

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