Stray Cinema

Stray Cinema is an open source film. It is an exploration of the possibilities of the information-sharing age. We aim to become a continuing community that uses the potential of modern info-sharing technologies and paradigms to create movies that are then screened and distributed in the real world. We are part experiment in the creative potential of the global hive mind; part educational outreach aiming to demonstrate the benefits of the open source paradigm to people unfamiliar to the concepts; part venture aimed at harnessing the skills and talent abundant in the Internet community, to create product that can be consumed by the world at large.
“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.” says Michelle.

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 website, to be judged by their online community.

In October 2005, Michelle Hughes directed a short film in London. Michelle had no formal training or previous experience in film making. She gathered a team of six people to help her shoot the film, none of whom had formal training in the film industry, just related experience. A handheld digital camera was used to shoot this film, which allowed greater freedom with the location and content of the footage they were able to capture. The main point of interest at this stage in the film project was the accessibility of digital film, allowing different people to tell their story via film, placing filmmaking into new hands. Originally the footage shot in London was to be used for only one cut of the film – their own. When Michelle moved to Wellington in early 2006, she worked in collaboration with a small team to develop the concept of Stray Cinema – an open source film project.

Stray Cinema is a independently funded, non-for-profit project. The reason for this, is that we are asking our online community (the general public) for their feedback and ideas to help grow and develop the project. At this early stage we are seeking contributions from people who genuinely want to better the project for non-commercial reasons. Eventually we would consider taking on sponsorship or partnering with another company that aligned with our vision. Then we could embrace our sponsors, bring them into, and make them a contributing part of our community.

To help with promoting Stray Cinema, we have developed a form of ‘user generated advertising’. For every film that is submitted into the Stray Cinema competition, we ask the person who is submitting their film where they heard about the project. If you told them about Stray Cinema then www.yourwebsiteaddress.com appears on their film page.
This is a great way to encourage people to spread the word.

This has been particularly successful with film schools so far, as it allows them the opportunity to showcase the talent of their students. It also means we can support the people who are truly supporting us. Participants are also able to enter their own website address on their application page, this will help them promote their own endeavours.

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