Would you like to collaborate on a creative project but you're not sure how and with whom? One interesting option is to participate in hitRECord, the collaboration website and project run by actor and artist Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I wrote a post about it quite a while ago and thought it was time to see what they've been up to.
Here's how Gordon-Levitt describes it:
“In a nutshell: we create and develop art and media collaboratively here on our site; we use my position in the traditional entertainment industry to turn that creativity into money-making productions; and then we share any profits with the contributing artists. In a nutter shell, we just have fun making things together. Videos, writing, photography, music, anything…”
One such collaboration is a book called The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories. There were 8000 submissions, and eventually 65 were used--text combined with artwork. They are putting together another one next year as part of a three book deal with an imprint of Harper Collins. The stories really are tiny--about 25 words each and the book really is tiny--88 pages, about 6 inches by 4 inches.
They've also produced another book, RECollections, with contributions from almost 500 people and a DVD comprised of short films, animation, music videos and more--some of them starring Gordon-Levitt.
Anything you submit to the site is available for others to remix and is available for his company to use to create products for sale.
Whether or not you decide to take part, have a look at www.hitrecord.org. It might also inspire you to take part in, or even organise, a smaller collaboration locally or online, where you know that your contribution will be used.
PS: I think Gordon-Levitt is also an excellent actor--I saw his most recent film, 50/50, recently and thought it was excellent. Don't let the topic--a young man dealing with cancer--scare you away.
