Five Questions: Act V

Thanks for holding on fellow readers! For our fifth installment, we present The One Second Film. This project, the brainchild of Nirvan Mullick, allows anyone to participate in the production of an actual film. The film is still in production and will consist of a one second of footage followed by 90 minutes of credits that will show the names of all contributors and footage of the making of the project. Any net proceeds will be donated to charity. (For full disclosure, Five Questions has donated $2.25 to the cause and is listed as an associate producer.) There are many celebrities involved with the project like Stephen Colbert, Secret Agent 007, and Ryan from The Office. For just three dollars you can even get above our favorite interrupter on the list. We were intrigued and wanted to find out more so without further ado:


1. What would you say is the origin of the 1 Second Film concept?
I was at CalArts studying Experimental Animation when I started this project. I wanted to see how much could happen in one-second of animation if everyone in my school worked together in lots of little ways. That idea for micro-collaboration has grown since I graduated, and new online tools have allowed the idea to keep growing. Going even further back, the underlying concept is an idea of small, 'perfect moments' - an idea I stumbled onto 15 years ago while reading Sartre's 'Nausea'. This is the idea that got me to start thinking about the power of small moments, and experimenting with animation. As I continued doing animation, I kept thinking about that idea, and started looking for ways to compress a lot into a little. That's when I started to think about making a one-second film.

2. What has been, in your opinion, the biggest surprise so far during
the project?
I'm just surprised that so many people have supported this weird idea. There are over 13,000 people participating in 84 countries, including some of my favorite filmmakers, from Spike Jonze to Michel Gondry.

3. Judging by the website, the plan for the project seems ambitious.
With the five phase plan, how do you plan on deciding which future
organizations to support?
It will be a combination of feedback from our community of participants, as well as feedback from the Board of Directors. The basic idea is to create large-scale art projects that bring people together in a creative way, and to use these projects as platforms for discussing various social issues. The organizations that get supported will be related to the themes of the various projects.
4. Are there other projects that The Collaboration Foundation, the
overseeing organization for The 1 Second Film, planned for community
education and outreach?
Yes. We have a lot of plans for outreach, but still need to build capacity to carry them out. The 1 Second Film is providing the vehicle for starting to bring people together while building the website that will empower our community to participate in the future projects.

5. In addition to donations, what are some other ways that producers
can contribute to the project?
There are lots of ways people can help, aside from donating. Everyone who joins becomes a crew member, and gets a Special Thanks in the movie. Each crew member then gets a Profile and a Studio Page with tools to participate more. Crew Members can invite friends and get a Publicist credit if a friend joins. They can also upload promo videos and photos to appear in our making of documentary, and join groups to help is various ways. The site gives members participation points for helping, and has deep reporting, so you can really see the impact each member is having. We're still experimenting with collaborative tools as we go.

As for becoming a producer, crew members can now pool together, and invite folks to donate toward a common credit. If you chip in to move another producer up, you become that producer's 'benefactor', which is kind of cool. For instance, several of our crew members have chipped in to become Michael Cera's benefactor.