by Eric Kohn
Bringing on the Future with Open Source Cinema
Around 2003, Montreal filmmaker Brett Gaylor realized there wasn't a term to describe the experimental technique he wanted to use for his latest project, so he decided to invent a new one. In the process of developing a documentary about piracy, Gaylor wanted to take a revolutionary step by involving his future audience in the production. He called the concept "open source cinema," and the name stuck. "At that point, there were few concrete ways they could do this," Gaylor recalled in a recent interview. "The barrier to participation was quite high."
Five years later, the director is nearing the finish line with his cut of the film, called Basement Tapes -- but, on one level, he intends the project to be eternally incomplete.
That's because the website for the film allows visitors to remix the footage and offer their own versions of various scenes. Furthermore, Gaylor has opened his entire process to the public, posting his script and chapters from the film online so the audience can critique it and offer suggestions along the way. "It takes forever," he admitted. "You have to make some hard choices about things you might want to include but don't fit within a narrative structure, and vice versa. Some things you want to shortcut for narrative reasons, you can't, because you'd be offending this new relationship with your subject and your audience."
A rotoscoped version of "Bounce That" by Girl Talk. Gaylor posted raw footage from the performance on his site, where it was changed into the version above by students at Concordia University.
His strategy emerged from the content of the film, which opens with the protest scene outside the MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. in 2006, when the Supreme Court ruled that peer-to-peer file sharing sites could be sued for copyright infringement. Troubled by the court's decision, Gaylor wrote up a manifesto for his project, including in it the following declarations: "Copyright Is Theft," "Music Wants to Be Free," "Film is Fascism," "Film is Pollution" and, finally, "Open Source Cinema!"
To rectify the last three conclusions, Gaylor aimed to implement more than one perspective into the production. To a great extent, the approach has had a positive result. "I think it's ideal for documentaries," he said. "There are three groups involved in creating a doc: subject, creator and audience. Digital technology lets all three interact with each other to produce the content -- and I believe that films are better off for this." Although he's currently immersed in the editing process, he's glad that so many people have expressed interest in providing their own cuts. "Audiences can respond and get involved in the creation of the content, breaking through the fourth wall and providing feedback, criticism, and content," he said.
Gaylor hopes Basement Tapes offers a sharp rebuttal to conventional notions of copyright law. "Piracy is obviously a loaded word," he said. "I think that indie filmmakers find themselves in the same position as indie musicians: They like the increased exposure that file sharing gives their work, but want a system in which they are fairly compensated. It looks like they will probably build this themselves."
Meanwhile, he's planning to finish editing the film in two weeks and premiere it in the fall, at which point he'll take it to festivals. Then, in 2009, the National Film Board of Canada will distribute it in theaters and on television. That doesn't mean audiences won't be able to keep tooling around with their own version of Basement Tapes -- he hopes to unveil Basement Tapes 2.0 next year on the basis of these contributions -- but, he said, "I have to finish my version."