Is the Future of Filmmaking Amateur Creation, Collaboration and Sharing?

What will 21st Century filmmaking look like?

Up until the end of the 19th Century, entertainment and storytelling were things most often created by "amateurs" - family and friends enjoying the process of creation and sharing. Then motion pictures and recorded music were invented - and participatory culture all but disappeared in the 20th Century.

In the networked world of the 21st Century, the process of amateur creation and sharing has been reborn (often with amateurs performing and sharing their versions of standards - similar to the way that amateurs gathered to sing popular songs prior to the invention of the phonograph):



What does the explosion of amateur music online mean for filmmakers?

The evolution of music online may be telling filmmakers that the next great platform for filmmaking may be amateurs collaborating and sharing online...

Consider the process of making and sharing music with an iPhone Ocarina or the Glee Karaoke app: Both allow a player to collaborate with other players all over the world just by tapping a globe icon.

Who will create the filmmaking app that provides a similar platform - smoothing out the rough edges and allowing amateur creators to collaborate and share their filmmaking online?

What sort of films will be made using new apps by collaborators linked via the social network?

Already we are seeing the power of amateur video posted to social networks as a tool for social change.

What other sorts of stories and messages might be delivered online if there were better online tools to support amateur filmmaking?

One example of the power of the new online tools came in March 2011 in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, when a single Glee Karaoke user organized a group version of Lean on Me - inviting other users to add their voices... Soon thousands of voices from all around the world joined to create a form of expression that never could have existed before:



It's clear that new iPhone apps are unlocking musical expression and sharing. What about filmmaking?



Will new apps be created to empower the millions of cellphone cameras that are already connected to the Internet to open up new creative and social possibilities?

Will new apps, digital cameras and sharing via social networks lead to a 21st Century revolution in filmmaking?