Ok so a while ago Jean-Paul Drecourt said to me that sometimes the Swarm project seems to perfect from the outside, and we need to acknowledge the imperfections more: the challenges as well as the opportunities. I’ve been trying to blog this more, although it isn’t as easy as one might think. Unlike Americans where emoting comes easy, the English are trained to keep up a facade which fosters more controlled communication. Yes, it’s a cliché, but a somehow true conclusion arrived at and starkly demonstrated in discussion with Arin of Four Eyed Monsters (where they took an amazingly emotional approach by vlogging and podcasting their experiences — one that still seems alien to many Europeans).
I think I’ve managed to Anglicize this approach to transparency, and make it more rational to an English sensibility through a conversation with Cory Doctorow at bTWEEN, who has been super helpful with advice since before day one of launching our experiment. I immediately made some notes on what we discussed (and lifted his session title at the conference for this post), as you can see in the picture above.
I going to boil them down as much as possible:
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ASOA, bTWEEN, collaboration, cory doctorow, event
This is our first Arch Angel posting.
JP Drecourt writes –
With Plotbot selected as our writing tool, and a good month of experimentation with the interface, the writing team is now focussing on giving The Ravages (ex-Glitch plot) its full complexity. To do so, we have decided to freeze the writing for a while and focus on the biography of the characters and the historical events that led to the story we are telling. A great thank you to all the writers who have contributed in this first phase. Their work have highlighted strengths and weaknesses in the plot and the character biographies, and made Plotbot a better tool to write collaboratively.
To our knowledge this is the most ambitious collaborative writing ever done, so I encourage everybody to contribute and suggest new creative ways of making the story progress.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: archangels, asoa community, theravages, writing
The activity on the forums has really ramped up in the last few weeks. A lot of active discussion around The Ravages script project and new Arch-Angel roles as the Swarm community expands — so, please have your say in helping us shape the direction of the Swarm and use your member vote.
The polls will close on Friday.
- Vote: Arch-Angel nominations
These roles will help us expand production, with each Arch Angel overseeing certain areas, including: script, user-generated content, community, and outreach. 
Vote:The Ravages webcomic or animated short/trailer?
The Ravages script is coming along nicely, now its time to create the first visual material for it. What would you like to see first? Webcomic or animated short?- Vote: Writing tools for The Ravages
The Ravages script is completely outlined with a scene breakdown. We are now filling in scene detail. If you are interested in getting more involved in the script process then please tell us which approach you prefer for collaborative writing.
You must have joined up as a full member to participate in this vote at The Nine Orders forums.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, digital film, participation, theravages, vote
Content is going to become even more open in 2008. But how open is open, when does traditional content masquerade as such? Clever marketing ideas like movie clip remix competitions where the remixer has no right to distribute or permission to use their own endeavours don’t really count as open content. So here’s a start at laying out a framework for what truly constitutes open content and open source media. I’m going to talk in terms of film/video, because that is the context for A Swarm of Angels, but it applies to other media like open music and open books too.
With the change in the media climate and distribution experiments such as Radiohead’s In Rainbows (in music), and Four Eyed Monsters (in film) which have open qualities (temporarily available to watch or listen/download for free, for example) but are not truly open content, it is getting harder to tell what you can and cannot officially do with your media.
These are three proposed states for open media, each building on the next:
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, bittorrent, copyleft, creative commons, digital distribution, open source
I’ve finished doing the ‘Remixing Cinema’ presentations about the process of the project which gathered pace during the Summer. As an appropriate addendum to that, Arin Crumley (co-director of Four Eyed Monsters) posted a video of that presentation on his blog. I’ve embedded it below, with the caveat that I was fighting a killer flu at the time, hence the copious drinking of fluids during the talk.
The player contains a thought-provoking panel on Adventures in Self-distribution, as well as the Remixing cinema presentation, and others. The series of talks, and particular this panel really threw up some issues over the development of these new pioneering projects. There’s definitely some disconnect for example between the time people expect a project to take on the Internet, as opposed to how long it actually takes in real life.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ASOA, crowdsourcing, digital distribution, event, festival, movie production, open source, panel, powertothepixel
Open source is happening on a cultural level, spreading roots past a genesis in software, and informing other areas. Jeff Howe’s Crowdsourcing blog has a great post discussing Eric Raymond’s seminal essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar which focussed on the contrasting approaches to building software — closed and open source. He translates the essay’s core points on open source methodology, and how they apply to the increasing trend for crowdsourcing. It raises some points which I can confirm from first-hand experience.
Creative crowdsourcing (and open source filmmaking) needs to borrow the ‘benevolent dictator’ idea from open source software — but it must use as much member input as possible, to maximise the benefit from this approach (guided yet collaborative - built on meritocratic contribution). The strongest or most appealing ideas for our community then rise to the surface.
So we used member input to synthesise four scenarios from member forum discussion for the Glitch screenplay (see Crowdsourced scenarios post) and we got a clear winner:
Pure artificial/Impure natural love (Dark love story)
Touchstones:
Egoyan (Exotica) / Haneke (Caché) / Lynch (Mulholland Dr.)A cheating housewife drops her affair when she finds a mobile phone that contains information describing a similar situation to hers. She decides to discover what happened to the previous owner.
A videogame artist isolates himself in a virtual world to recreate his memories. He hires a cablewoman to act out the part of his creation, an idoru of his childhood love. She falls in love with the artist but is rejected. Scorned, she retaliates by hacking and altering the idoru.
The phone belonged to a previous victim of the cablewoman. Through it, the housewife follows a trail which leads to the cablewoman, and she manages to stop her killing the artist just in time. Discovering that the idoru is modelled on herself, the housewife decides to play the artist’s fantasy game and take the role of her idealised self. While the idoru replicates through the net, the couple erase the artist’s original version.
There’s an extended outline in the original thread, but we now need to brainstorm ideas so we can begin to structure the screenplay and plotpoints. Please contribute, if you are a member you can post immediately here.
Tags: crowdsourcing, glitch, script, writing
The last vote was our first to test out, and demonstrate, how members of the Swarm help to shape both the narrative and visual development of actual film material. Because we are all part of the development process, utilizing the wisdom of our own select crowd, we should make a film that appeals most to our tastes rather than that of the amorphous multiplex cinemagoer.
A true user-generated film shouldn’t vaguely pick and choose ‘advice’ from it’s audience, but engage them integrally and directly in the process.
We’ve done this with the round’s poll on key visuals for developing The Unfold’s integral ‘dimensional’ effect. Fold won with 50% of the vote, runner-up in Shear lagging at 20%. The popularity of this image suggests a direction that is more non-naturalistic/otherworldly, and less photorealistic than we are used to seeing in Hollywood movies. That’s fine by me. As the winner was one of Palla’s older photos and earlier photographic experiments, he’s already working on applying the winning image and topic comments to his newer direction.
More voting results…
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, media, membership, vote
Got a few requests regarding the geographic make-up of our membership. We may not quite yet be the United Nations of Open Source Cinema but we are definitely a multi-national film force.
Current support by country based on a rough count of the Top Ten:
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Germany
- Australia
- Spain
- France
- Japan
- Ireland
- Italy
Other nations deserving honorary mentions include: Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Singapore, China, Denmark, Netherlands, South Africa, Taiwan, Belgium, Portugal. This isn’t a complete list but we’ll include all these in the next geo-update sometime in Phase 3.
You can help us monitor the global diversity of our membership by adding yourself to the Frappr map if you have joined the Swarm.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing
The further we get into the evolution of A Swarm of Angels, the more I think we’ve found a third way between ‘old media’ and ‘user generated content’. Think of it as participative media: a model where filmmaker and fan get closer together as part of a member-only entertainment community.
Unlike user-generated content the director drives the process and vision of the project, and members get to guide and input into the creative process along the way (eg. a collaborative script doesn’t mean everyone edits it with equal weight, but everyone has the option to submit material to it which then gets filtered and either rejected or accepted). Members of the Swarm already know this but since we’ve just been slashdotted, I thought it worth reiterating.
A case in point is the recent voting day. With over 50% of the vote, a deep blue version of the Film project poster won the day - and I’m getting some samples printed right now for the limited edition run for members (winning image below). The more marketing and spin-offs we can get chosen and endorsed by Angels the better. Expect more in the limited edition poster series as we progress.
We also had a vote on the project tagline: Remixing cinema won (37%) with People-powered cinema coming second (23%). The vote was more spread out on this one, I think mainly due to the number of project innovations suggesting lots of hooks. But the original tagline has enough support to stay for the current time.
Because A Swarm of Angels is based on Creative-Commons and open source principles it was really important to get a strong result in terms of how to direct any excess profits from the project: 43% of members wanted this rolled into the next bigger film project, with 22% liking the idea of an open movie foundation.
The most surprising and interesting result in many respects was the vote on how members should be rewarded for tasks completed as part of the project which aren’t directly crew-related. Overwhelmingly 76% voted that the more mysterious option of ‘rewards’ be the winner, sidelining the idea of the dry straight-up money options of bounty and bonus. This endorses the idea of an ‘entertainment model’ focussed on giving participants surprising rewards and entertaining spin-offs rather than shares of profits and financial incentives. This has fascinating implications for crowdsource models: Not everything is about the money.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, membership, vote
We’ve had an influx of members due to a Springwise article picking up on our Angelic crowdsourcing (You can digg that article here - and welcome to those new Angels!). So I thought it would be a great time to offer a post on the subject…
There is definitely an increasing level of online and offline conversation about collaborative online innovation networks (COINs), accelerated by the crowdsourcing meme.
Many of these crowdsourcing entities are about getting an open membership to pool wisdom to generate solutions for disparate and ongoing projects within certain areas. It’s a scattershot approach which means it is not right for creative projects where it is just as important to create a balanced community, and informed level of debate, as it is to draw on masses of people for their expertise.
This is why I think an evolving swarming angels model for creative production needs and benefits from gated communities. Here are some additional thoughts relating to this following from initial commentary on the model.
- Increase the barriers to entry
Phased and paid membership positively affects the community by weeding out spammers, and ambivalent participants. Subscribing to a gated community adds a psychological barrier which is a protection to participants (once they have moved through the barrier and joined), and a guarantee of serious engagement. Members hold more weight and power than open online social networks. - Elevate the level of debate
Community discussion is transparent, but due to members (and not guests) having editorial input and posting capabilities, messages and topics appear more considered. They should be received with thoughtful engagement rather than offhand comments. Community health is not judged by quantity of postings but quality of topic response when needed on the project. - Gather diverse people for a balanced Swarm
It is worth taking time especially in the early stages of the community to grow it slowly, and monitor the balance in terms of engagement and expertise of new Angels. A swarming angels community relies on quality of membership, and their trusted voices, rather than any viral aspects, to propagate and be successful. - Target existing online communities and interests
Engage in an online conversation early to take on board and address comments on the project. Use existing open communities with interests and expertise complementary to the creative project to get your message across. Speak to people who will get the project, be interested in joining, and become engaged with it. - Don’t overpromote or overbuild
Gated community members can evangelise a project, but this needs to coincide with appropriate project phases. If you are in a ‘development’ phase rather than a recruitment phase there’s no reason for larger scale promotion: you are overpromoting a project that isn’t tangible enough for larger audiences. Targeted promotion to those who already share common values with the project is more effective and appropriate. By having an ‘incomplete’ project from the beginning, one that is not comprehensively packaged, the opportunity for the Swarm to feedback, suggest and improve on the initial concept and ideas becomes available.
Some of these thoughts above are a direct result of the Swarm affecting my thinking on building the project: A Swarm of Angels doesn’t rely on ’sneezers’ to propagate the project virally, but on an escalating echo of trusted voices, predominantly from Angels within the gated community. The ecology of the community is paramount to it’s vibrancy, and pace of growth has to be regulated to safeguard that.
This is all a way of saying it is quite a high wire act. But, particularly from recent Angels drawn to the project because of it’s crowdsourcing credentials, there is an exhortation not to rush sign ups and promotion, but to get the balance right.
The thoughts above still need some refining and editing, as the process progresses that will get easier, but I’d be interested to hear responses to the points so far.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, membership, movie production, writing
A Swarm of Angels is about inventing a radical digital film model. This week I’ll be asking members of The Swarm to contribute on blue sky thinking regarding the plot development, offering them input on my current script outlines for the two scripts that will be developed as part of this process (the final one to go into production is voted on by The Swarm after collaborative input). The earlier members join the more potential for input into shaping the final creative elements of ASOA is available. Join now and help invent the future of film…
As much as I’m a fan of Steven Soderbergh, his simultaneous release of Bubble on theatrical and DVD doesn’t really engage with ‘digital age’ thinking. Where’s the flexible copyright (see Creative Commons) or an engagement with digital downloading? Where’s the collaborative aspects?
I also got the same feeling with Nick Love of Vertigo Films‘ recent announcement this week of ‘pre-selling’ their film through DVD sales to fans. Both films tinker around with release and funding strategies, but no real radical shift or attempt to create a groundbreaking digital-age movie exists. The actual films themselves come from highly traditional models.
A Swarm of Angels is about using the Internet to enable an Open Loop - tapping into the expertise and enthusiasm of film fanatics and media enthusiasts on the web that want to create the future of entertainment. It offers a more active entertainment experience that fans can shape and contribute to rather than simply consume.
Tags: ASOA, creative commons, digital distribution, digital film
It’s great to get some international sign-ups to ASOA through viral email so early before any blog/web promotion hits, but I also like the idea of A Swarm of Angels working at leveraging local alongside global communities.
In that vein I’ve been speaking with a number of organizations to support the project in Brighton. Really like the idea of launching an innovative media project outside London too, promoting the concept of edge cities and the most interesting things happening in the margins. If they can do it in Austin, Texas we can do it here.
Nice to be getting some local support quotes:
“A Swarm of Angels is exactly the kind of film project we should be rallying behind in Brighton. It has a sense of moving British film forward. I hope we can arrange a special event at the next edition of the festival later in the year as the project develops.”
Tim Brown
Director CINECITY, The Brighton Film Festival
More soon.
Tags: ASOA, brighton, cinecity, feature film
Recent comments