WHAT IS A RE-MIXABLE FILM?
A ‘remixable film’ is a film YOU can meddle with. Its form is influenced by game design, online media and mash-up culture. It pre-empts a future for film distribution that is more coordinated with broadband entertainment, based on reuseable and syndicateable film assets. Online, a film becomes a stage. Backstage, the remixable film exposes more information about the content then ever before, to facilitate reprogramming of the experience.What you do with a remixable film is up to you – that is the point – but this is what we are planning …
A NEW GAME?
Let’s play a game called ‘MOD the movies’. Anyone can play – film people, game people, music people, acting people, hecklers, anyone. Anyone who wants to interact or perform. In this game your film DVD becomes the stage. How long can you keep people entertained, onstage and offstage?A ‘MOD’ is computer game jargon for a modified version of a game, usually one that has been created by a small team of regular players. MOD software tools are distributed free of charge by many game companies (e.g. level editors) in the knowledge that whoever tinkers with the game is extending its shelf-life.
However, MOD tools often appear spontaneously for the most popular games, even without official support. Gamers love control. In 2003 the most popular online game in the world was Counter-Strike. Its author, Minh Le, modified the first-person-shooter Half-Life (Valve Software, 1998) and created his own MOD with new art and code. In 2004 Half-Life 2 was released, bundled with Counter-Strike. No longer just a free internet download, Counter-Strike is also a shrink-wrapped PC and Xbox game that has since sold millions of copies. The MOD is now a product in its own right and its creator is a star.
MODs are a great example of internet culture in action. Fan behaviour has evolved somewhat since Beatlemania. These days, fans of games like Half-Life, Quake and Unreal can spend weeks and months creating and distributing their MODs, completely transforming the look and sound of the games they admire, often purely for comic effect.
‘MOD the movies’ is about transforming a film in similar fashion. The film-maker relinquishes control to encourage remixing as a playful artform. People like control. New creative business opportunities will emerge to support the urge.
And it will happen, just watch.
What does that mean? Well lots of things, challenges to copyright, distribution, ownership, shared revenues, a more extended lifetime of the film via the constant modding of the film? And a ton more things too - its representative of the age of engagement
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