Building a community through Remix

I've talked about these folks from Spain before and in a few of my presentations, and now Riot Cinema is up to more good shenanigans, partnering with The Auteur's Garage, for a pretty cool remix contest.

You can head over to the site, grab their content, remix it however you'd like and upload your new version of a teaser trailer for their upcoming film, The Cosmonaut. They've put up over 30 clips (including clips they've yet to use), CGI sound, voice-over files in Russian and English and just about everything else you need. There's a contest that promises to have lots of cool prizes and in case you doubt these kids are moving to Billyburg soon, they've even got a Cosmonaut branded Lomo camera as part of the mix.

These folks are doing some really cool stuff for their film. They're convinced that by opening up the entire process and letting their fans become participants, they can build an audience for their film before they've finished shooting it. They don't yet live in Brooklyn, but rather Spain, and trust me on this - not many people in the European film industry are rushing to embrace new models, so it's exciting to see them so enthusiastically trying new things. I hope it works for them, and it seems to be doing so already.

For my money, however, the coolest thing they are doing is their fundraising campaign in general. They're doing a whole crowd-funding thing with lots of great merchandise for sale. My favorite are their pencils. The website text describing them is classic, but since it's in flash or something, I can't copy it here (note to the cosmonauts, there is one tiny fix to be made), so you'll have to click through for the hilarious story of technological innovation through NASA spending that they've posted.

I have no idea whether this film will be good or not, but I can guarantee that the cosmon-auters will continue to provide the film world with some great experiments and good ideas for at leas the next several months. That at least gives them some better than average chances of success with their film. I'm a big fan already of their fundraising video, which takes a cue from both Bob Dylan, ok Pennebaker really, and Four Eyed Monsters in strategy. I'm even happier that they've now posted this short, making of video of their trailer. Another smart move. Check it:


Making of Rodaje video Premios INVI from Riot Cinema on Vimeo.