A Swarm of Angels: P2P Powered Film Model
A Swarm of Angels is a project that aims to create the first community driven film. The Film will be written, funded and distributed over the Internet. The plan is to gather a group of 50.000 people who each contribute £25 ($47.5) to join the project. The initiator Matt Hanson is an award-winning filmmaker and [...]
A Swarm of Angels is a project that aims to create the first community driven film. The Film will be written, funded and distributed over the Internet. The plan is to gather a group of 50.000 people who each contribute £25 ($47.5) to join the project.
The initiator Matt Hanson is an award-winning filmmaker and accomplished writer who wants to break free from the traditional movie business model. Hanson was inspired by the power of social networks on the Internet. Together with his innovative ideas about the future of filmmaking taken from his book “The End of Celluloid“, this resulted in a unique project.
The film will be released under a Creative Commons license, and people are free to share, remix, and, distribute the film anyway they like.
The genre will be thriller based with some soft sci-fi elements. The community is currently developing two scripts, The Unfold and Glitch. Based on member input these scripts will be put into initial drafts written by Matt Hanson.
Wiki’s are used to refine, develop, and improve the final script. A vote will be taken by all members to decide which script is chosen for production. Member of “the Swarm” will be involved in MAJOR creative decisions.
We asked Matt Hanson why he thinks people should join the project. He told TorrentFreak:
“We are pioneering a new type of P2P/BitTorrent friendly film model, using member subscriptions to build a community around making a DRM-free film that everyone can download, share, and remix.
The success of this project would undoubtedly create a landmark example of how media can be created and made available for free. It would encourage an alternative entertainment model to Hollywood, which doesn’t crack down on filesharers, but encourages and accommodates them, and their enthusiasm.
I think the future of film is about bringing audiences and filmmakers closer together in entertainment communities where both can interact and get more out of the experience.
Each subscriber to A Swarm of Angels gets us closer to creating an entertainment revolution. It’s a great way to participate in something so exciting.”
This project truly is a great initiative. It is nice way to show Hollywood that there are alternatives to suing people, and implementing DRM.
The project currently has over 700+ members, deliberately being gathered through word of mouth, and blogs. They are going to freeze membership temporarily at 1000, so early members can take early creative decisions and do more development.
I encourage everyone to join the project, and if you own a blog or website: Spread the word!
