NOW!, a collaborative film project is seeking contributions of footage to evaluate for inclusion in their VJ-inflected feature project. It marks another step in the growth of ‘open source movies’, with the potential to be the most high profile of these projects so far.
By following the long evolving and well-honed VJ approaches of Coldcut and Hexstatic (see the excellent Zen TV DVD Video Retrospective for further examples), NOW! may well produce a highly individualistic and fresh approach to feature-length audiovisual collage. But the project needs to be especially sensitive to cohesion between multiple sources, both visually and in subject focus, otherwise it will fall short of previous prime examples of the genre (such as 1998s Lucky People Center International) into being a confused and glorified montage. With a pedigree for producing Timber and Natural Rhythm though, an activist equivalent to a Baraka or a Bodysong beckons. A potential Koyaanisqatsi for the remix generation.
The site encourages footage submissions within the following themes:
- CELEBRATION, the positive side of life on earth
- CAUTION, “all is not right with the world”
- ACTION, demonstrating solutions and answers
From the website:
NOW! takes its inspiration from cinema classics like Man with a Movie Camera, The Qatsi Trilogy and Baraka. But NOW! will use the latest visual technologies and techniques. The film will be woven together with a soundtrack specially composed by Coldcut.
The audio-visual editing and sampling techniques pioneered by Coldcut and Hexstatic, where sound components on film are linked to their video sources, will be used to draw out key parts of the overall film message.”
