Cinema Reloaded is among the boldest experiments yet in filmmaking in a digital age. Rotterdam aims to launch two short films from exciting directors, funded by and in close collaboration with the festivalgoers and a global network of cinephiles. After a premiere in 2011, it will take the films out to find new audiences using the emerging digital platforms. The participating directors for this first year's edition are Alexis Dos Santos (Argentina) and Ho Yuhang (Malaysia).
Cinema Reloaded will be fascinating to follow and fun to watch develop but most of all it will be a chance for anyone to take an active role in filmmaking and hopefully to help shape the future of cinema itself. The new website –
www.cinemareloaded.com – explains how to get involved. But the immediate question is not ‘how?’ but ‘why?’.
Exploring potential
Those who follow the progress of the film industry may well have read fearful predictions about the impact of digital technologies on cinema – the pessimists point to the devastation of the music industry and have been urging us all to start building bunkers. But there is another way to look at all this change: music, for example, is undergoing something of a renaissance with seemingly half the world plugged into MP3 players and smartphones that were not even invented at the turn of the century. It is the industry that has struggled.
Cinema is likely to see the same effect with greater access to film and wider choice than at any time in history. The lower cost of production and free and easy access to the means of distribution and marketing of content has enormous potential. Most excitingly for those who love cinema, the internet and other digital tools offer a chance to remove the gap between filmmaker and audience. For filmmakers to be able to interact directly with those who love their work is an exciting prospect. And for audiences this is a chance to live out some of those dreams of being directly involved in the greatest form of entertainment ever invented.
The active audience
The word ‘audience’ has never really done justice to those who have supported Rotterdam and its film-makers over the years. Their opinions, ideas and choices have informed the festival since its inception. Cinema Reloaded takes the idea of the active audience at the heart of the future of film to a new level. The most literal involvement is in the financing process where audiences are invited to help finance ‘their’ film in a scheme called ‘crowd-sourcing.’ Buying virtual ‘coins’ will give anyone a stake in the film but also make them part of a community of supporters. This group will have a chance to interact with the film-maker and keep in touch with the progress of their film.
The filmmaker
Rotterdam has always worked with the world’s most exciting talents. The festival has championed those who have pushed the creative boundaries and this project offers an intellectual and creative challenge likely to appeal to them. The idea that the audience might also be financier and collaborator is an intriguing one. Where the opportunity to interact and communicate with audiences might lead will be one of the fascinating aspects of the project. How far this affects the creative decisions of the film will be for individual film-makers to decide but discussing the process with an excited and engaged audience is bound to have some kind of effect. At the very least, it is likely that the filmmaker will find a new level of committed supporters that may play an important role and the films are taken out to a wider audience.
The film-industry
Cinema Reloaded is an experiment that will be shared with the whole industry and it is recognition that digital change is no longer a futurist talking point but a call to arms. The project is founded on the belief that the digital era does not need to be the end of anything, other than some of the business models that have been creaking for some time now. Instead Cinema Reloaded, as its title suggests, can be a time for positive reinvention. Optimism in itself is not enough of course. Cinema Reloaded is a project rooted in the realities of filmmaking today.
While we have absolute faith in the continuing appeal of film, we recognise that the current independent film industry is facing unprecedented challenges. In Europe, we have growing levels of state-supported production but without the means to effectively distribute it; television and DVD revenues are falling; and the big hopes such as digital cinema have hit financial and broader economic barriers. Those believing in the future of cinema have no choice but to embrace change. And Cinema Reloaded was set up for exactly that purpose: to test the realities of the new digital world. Over the next year, we will follow the ups and downs of the projects, honestly and openly. At various stages of the project we will take stock of what has been discovered and learned and at the end of the process, we will write a full report on the project.
The Cinema Reloaded debates
The basis of the project is communication; the interaction between filmmaker and audience, between festival and industry. There are no right and wrong answers at this stage of digital development in film and this project is not about finding the definitive business model.
The most valuable lessons will come from the open and honest findings of those involved. At
www.cinemareloaded.com, you are able to follow the day-to-day developments.