The Cosmonaut in 5 steps from Riot Cinema on Vimeo.

The Cosmonaut is a feature film project by Riot Cinema Collective from Madrid, Spain, that uses Internet to find funding and distribution, in a collaborative way and under free Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike licences. The Cosmonaut is a movie about memories, and as its website says: “Even those memories which never existed”:

What if you got back home… and there was nobody there?

In 1973, the first Russian cosmonaut on the Moon is unable to make his way back and is declared missing in Space. However, through ghostly radio messages, he claims to have come back to Earth and found it empty, not a living soul. His unreal presence and voice will little by little destroy the world of his loved ones.

You can read more on the movie website where you can find the script, a dossier about the movie and other informations about locations and costumes. The project is really well documented, you can even find the timeline of the project and the list of all the people working on the movie. And the movie has even the support of Richard Stallman!

And aside of the movie itself, what is realy interesting for us is the business model they developed:

• Crowdfunding. From 2 euros, anyone can become a producer in this film. In exchange, this person will receive presents and other benefits.
• Capitalization.The people and companies involved in the team are also investors. They contribute, the equivalent to their salaries or resources and, in exchange, they receive in exchange a proportional percentage based on the total budget.
• Advertising and sponsorship. We are looking for companies which want to join their name and brand to our project as sponsors; with a careful presence through the different stages of the film. Always from a non-invasive, non-annoying approach.
• Investors.Instead of getting gifts and special offers, you can invest in a percentage of the film. From €1000 and with a joint venture agreement, they can receive part of the benefits the project may produce. (Ask how at [email protected]).

This is the source code that will be open and freely available online:

• The film in HD.
• All the footage.
• Music and original audiomix.
• Graphics and designs used in the website and dossier.
• Original texts and derived ones.
• Works from artists who have transferred them for their use: poems inspired on the film, alternative soundtracks, sounds, graphics…

We will promote derived creation through several contests to look for the official poster, alternative editing, the perfect soundtrack… Something you create may even end up in the film.

It is important to follow this project in order to see if the business model works and if we can try to adopt it in other projects. We should also note that, at the moment, the movie itself will be created in a closed team, and it will be shared only once it’s completed. It’s a common trait of Open Movies so far: examples are Rip! Remix Manifesto, A Swarm of Angels and the Open Movies produced with the open source 3D software Blender: Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny (and the current one Project Durian).
I think that we can push such Open projects forward, with a real open and collaborative design process, but right now the tools, processes and systems we need are not completely ready yet. Such projects as The Cosmonaut are important because they are building and sharing with us such tools, processes and systems.