Local Public Access Media Centers Partnering on Collaborative Arts Project: Crowdsourced Boston

Boston, MA, June 20, 2017 (Newswire.com) - ​​​​​​Imagine filming a no-budget film that requires a Delorean, a clock tower, a skateboarding teenager, and a mad scientist. With 40+ directors, producers, actors, and editors each directing their own scene. Sounds insane, but that is exactly what Crowdsourced Boston, a collaborative community arts project, will do this summer when it takes on recreating Back to the Future as a crowdsourcing project.

Crowdsourced Boston is an offshoot of Crowdsourced Cinema, a public art project created by Northampton Community Television (NCTV), a sister organization to local Brookline Interactive Group (BIG), a community media arts center in Brookline, in 2015. Each year, Crowdsourced Cinema recruits filmmaking teams in their community to collaboratively remake a famous film. Their inaugural remake was of the classic "Raiders of the Lost Ark," followed by “The Princess Bride” in 2016. BIG proudly participated in both of these projects by recreating scenes for each film. With Northampton’s encouragement, this year BIG, with help from Somerville’s community media center, SCATV,  is enlisting local public access media centers and teams from the greater Boston area to create a separate, full-length crowdsourced film by each creating their own one-to-four minute scene of Back to the Future. This project is called “Crowdsourced Boston.” Crowdsourced Boston is open to teams of all abilities and ages in the greater Boston area.

"It's a fun way to engage our entire community in Brookline, but this year we wanted to harness the power of the hyperlocal by collaborating with community media centers and public access television stations throughout the metro Boston area. There's so much talent and energy. I can't wait to see what people do creatively with Back to the Future."

Kathy Bisbee, Executive Director, Brookline Interactive Group

Each team who signs up for this project is assigned a scene from the film to interpret creatively in their own manner - last year teams used live action, animation, remix, puppetry, silent film, and other visual styles. The only rules are that teams must follow the same action, dialogue, and total running time of a short scene without using copyrighted images or audio. Musicians are also invited to participate in creating an original score to a randomly-assigned section of the movie. A team could be made up of a family, co-workers, actors, friends, classmates, or any group who wants to create a one-to-four minute scene of this year’s project, the cult classic, Back to the Future. The final film is then stitched together by BIG and will premier at the Northampton Film Festival in late September, have multiple screenings throughout the Boston area, and be distributed on the web.

Teams can sign up to participate any time before July 10th, and will receive their scene assignment on July 11th. The re-created scenes must contain the same dialogue and action and be the same length as the original. Completed scenes are due on September 5th.

Participating organizations so far include Brookline Interactive Group (BIG), Somerville Community Access Television (SCATV), Belmont Media Center, LexMedia of Lexington, and PACTV which serves Pembroke, Duxbury, Plymouth, and Kingston, with several more preparing to join the effort. Each center is actively recruiting filmmaking teams in their communities to participate, and will even submit their own scenes produced by staff, interns and volunteers.

“The project is multi-layered in its approach. It has broad appeal and recognizes that we are all artists, though many people find themselves hesitant to identify as such,” said NCTV Director Al Williams. “It values the link between storytelling and community. It brings people together, to celebrate as they create, on a piece that is accessible and engaging. People need more successes around exercising their voices together. That is how community is built, by being encouraged to create own our narratives. Through play. Alongside the story of the film as a piece of art are the stories of the hundreds of participants.”

“It’s so inspiring to see filmmakers, actors, seniors, youth, and families create together, and try new things, including folks who had never made a short film before” said Kathy Bisbee, BIG’s executive director. “It’s a fun way to engage our entire community in Brookline, but this year we wanted to harness the power of the hyperlocal by collaborating with community media centers and public access television stations throughout the metro Boston area. There’s so much talent and energy. I can’t wait to see what people do creatively with Back to the Future.”

Crowdsourced Boston invites the Boston regional community to form teams and to recreate a scene from this classic film by signing up at:  www.crowdsourcedboston.com

Contact: Erin Kinney
Brookline Interactive Group
617-731-8566
[email protected]

Source: Brookline Interactive Group, Somerville Community Access Television