The 1 Second Film

Last updated
The 1 Second Film
The1secondfilm-flier.jpg
The 1 Second Film flier
Directed by Nirvan Mullick
Produced byCollaboration Foundation [1]
Running time
61 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS$1 million (intended)

The 1 Second Film is an American non-profit collaborative art project which began as a student project by Nirvan Mullick in 2001. Receiving contributions from thousands of people around the world, including many celebrities, the project is currently dormant. [2]

Contents

The film is built around one second of animation (composed of 12 large collaborative paintings), and is followed by one hour of credits, listing everyone who signs up (regardless of whether a contribution is made or not). A feature-length "making of" documentary will play alongside the credits. [3]

The project allows people around the world to participate online, and lists everyone who joins the crew as "Special Thanks" in the film credits. [4] The production relies on crowd funding to raise the budget; everyone who donates or raises US$1 or more gets their name listed as a Producer in the film's credits. [5] [6] The production also gives a Publicist credit to crew members who refer at least one friend. [7] The film has over 56,000 crew members from 158 countries. [1]

The 1 Second Film is the flagship production of The Collaboration Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization formed to create global collaborative art projects that address various social issues. Once finished, any profits raised by The 1 Second Film will be donated to the Global Fund for Women, an independent charity.[ citation needed ] The online community being formed by The 1 Second Film project will be able to participate in future Collaboration Foundation projects.[ citation needed ]

In 2016, the director, Nirvan Mullick, posted an update on the project. He stated it had been dormant, being put on the "back burner" in 2012, but he planned to revive it shortly. As of 2024 this has yet to occur. [8] By January 2019, the project's website was offline entirely due to a database corruption. [9] [ better source needed ]

Production

Participants paint one frame of The 1 Second Film's animation during a party. Painting frame.jpg
Participants paint one frame of The 1 Second Film's animation during a party.

The title of The 1 Second Film derives from the fact that the animation at the core of the film project is just one second long (24 frames). The animation consists of 12 large frames (9 ft x 5 ft paintings). The frames were painted by hundreds of people during a multi-disciplinary event on March 8, 2001 (International Women's Day) at California Institute of the Arts.[ citation needed ] The event included live-performers and musicians; people attending the event were invited to help paint the frames of animation. Each frame had an art director that engaged the audience as participants;[ citation needed ] color design for the animation was selected by Jules Engel. Each of the 12 paintings is filmed twice (on 70 mm film) to create the 24 frames in one second of film.

The one second of animation will be immediately followed by an estimated one hour of end credits. Alongside the credits will be a feature-length documentary on the creation of the artwork. [10]

The film is being crowd-funded by public donations. [11] Donors receive a Producer credit in the film for a minimum of US$1.00 (with no maximum). Producers get listed in order of amount donated.

Project history

The 1 Second Film began as a student project by Nirvan Mullick in 2001 while at California Institute of the Arts. The director set out to create a collaborative art project that would bring his school together, and later expanded the project after the success of the initial event. [12] Seed funds for the animation painting event came from a US$1,500 CalArts Grant, an additional US$3,000 was raised by selling producer credits for donations of US$1 or more. In 2004, after graduating and finishing two other animated short films, the director began fundraising to expand The 1 Second Film project by selling US$1 producer credits on the streets of Los Angeles. After raising enough to buy a video camera, the director began to document the fundraising process to include as part of a documentary about the project. In 2005, after getting several celebrities to donate, the director launched a petition drive along with the help of Stephen Colbert to get the credits of The 1 Second Film listed on the Internet Movie Database. In March 2005, IMDb began listing the credits. [13] The IMDb listing helped the project to grow online. In May 2006, a video of several high-profile celebrities donating to The 1 Second Film was featured on the homepage of YouTube, helping the project raise over US$7,000 in four days. In 2007, the project's first automated website was built to give community profiles to all participants, allowing for the project to scale up. The film's failure to materialize to date has led to speculation of fraud.[ citation needed ]

IMDb controversy

The director of The 1 Second Film submitted the celebrity producer credits of The 1 Second Film to the Internet Movie Database. After being rejected, the director sent a link to a video of Stephen Colbert requesting his US$11 producer credit be listed on IMDb. IMDb then began to list all of The 1 Second Film's credits, [14] including unknowns who donated US$1 or more to the project online. Thousands of people began to discover the film title under the production credits of the various celebrities involved. The project spread online, attracting donations from around the world[ citation needed ]. Several celebrities also donated online, including Jonah Hill and Ryan Reynolds. The IMDb listing reached over 3,000 producers. However, due to the high volume of submissions, IMDb replaced all of the film's individual producer credits with a single credit for "Producers of The 1 Second Film." [15] [16] The entire project was later removed from IMDb. Jon Reeves, head of data acquisition at IMDb, released a statement calling the project a "performance art project (rather) than an actual film". [17]

Celebrity producers

A variety of celebrities have donated to become producers of the project. Producers include:[ citation needed ]

Contributors also include former YouTube CEO Chad Hurley, YouTube stars including iJustine and Brookers, as well as Kyle MacDonald from One red paperclip.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animator</span> Person who makes animated sequences out of still images

An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animation is closely related to filmmaking and like filmmaking is extremely labor-intensive, which means that most significant works require the collaboration of several animators. The methods of creating the images or frames for an animation piece depend on the animators' artistic styles and their field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Williams (animator)</span> Canadian-British animator (1933–2019)

Richard Edmund Williams was a Canadian-British animator, voice actor, and painter. A three-time Academy Award winner, he is best known as the animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) -- for which he won two Academy Awards -- and as the director of his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler (1993). His work on the short film A Christmas Carol (1971) earned him his first Academy Award. He was also a film title sequence designer and animator. Other works in this field include the title sequences for What's New Pussycat? (1965) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and title and linking sequences in The Charge of the Light Brigade and the intros of the eponymous cartoon feline for two of the later Pink Panther films. In 2002 he published The Animator's Survival Kit, an authoritative manual of animation methods and techniques, which has since been turned into a 16-DVD box set as well as an iOS app. From 2008 he worked as artist in residence at Aardman Animations in Bristol, and in 2015 he received both Oscar and BAFTA nominations in the best animated short category for his short film Prologue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claymation</span> Stop-motion animation made using malleable clay models

Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey Katzenberg</span> American film producer and media proprietor (born 1950)

Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American media proprietor. He was the chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994, a position in which he oversaw production and business operations for the company's feature films. After departing Disney, he co-founded DreamWorks Animation in 1994, where he served as the company's CEO and producer of its animated franchises including Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon until stepping down from the title in 2016. He has since founded the venture capital firm WndrCo in 2017, which invests in digital media projects, and launched Quibi in 2020, a defunct short-form mobile video platform which lost US$1.35 billion in seven months.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casting (performing arts)</span> Pre-production process for selecting actors, dancers, singers, or extras for roles or parts

In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra for a particular role or part in a script, screenplay, or teleplay. This process may be used for a motion picture, television program, documentary film, music video, play, or advertisement, intended for an audience.

Derek Drymon is an American animator, writer, storyboard artist, director, comedian, and producer. He has worked on numerous animated cartoon productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billing (performing arts)</span> Performing arts term

Billing is a performing arts term used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television, or other creative works. Information given in billing usually consists of the companies, actors, directors, producers, and other crew members.

James Danforth is an American stop-motion animator, known for model-animation, matte painting, and for his work on When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), a theme-sequel to Ray Harryhausen's One Million Years B.C. (1967). He later went on to work with Ray Harryhausen on the film Clash of the Titans (1981) to mainly do the animation of the winged horse Pegasus.

A storyboard artist creates storyboards for advertising agencies and film productions.

Eric Fogel is an American director, writer, animator, producer, and voice actor who is best known as the creator of Celebrity Deathmatch. He also created cult shows The Head, Starveillance and Glenn Martin, DDS. Fogel also directed several episodes of Daria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harley Cross</span> American actor

Harley Cross is an American entrepreneur, film/television actor and producer.

Nirvan Mullick is a Los Angeles–based filmmaker, writer, speaker, stop motion animator and founder of the Imagination Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Burton (filmmaker)</span> British filmmaker

Mark Burton is a British television writer, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Film</span> Visual art consisting of moving images

A film – also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick – is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and the art form that is the result of it. Films can vary in genre, style, length and format, and they are typically produced for entertainment, education, cultural expression, or commercialpurposes. They are usually shown in theaters, on television, or via streaming platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signe Baumane</span> Latvian animator and illustrator

Signe Baumane is a Latvian animator, fine artist, illustrator and writer, currently living and working in New York City. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, she was a 2005 Fellow in Film of the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is also a teacher, having taught animation at the Pratt Institute from 2000 to 2002.

<i>The Thief and the Cobbler</i> Unfinished film by Richard Williams

The Thief and the Cobbler is an unfinished animated fantasy film co-written and directed by Richard Williams. Originally devised in the 1960s, the film was in and out of production for nearly three decades due to independent funding and ambitiously complex animation. It was finally placed into full production in 1989 when Warner Bros. agreed to finance and distribute the film. When production went over budget and behind schedule, it was heavily cut and hastily re-edited by producer Fred Calvert without Williams's involvement. It was eventually released by Allied Filmmakers in 1993 with the title The Princess and the Cobbler. Two years later, Miramax Films, which was owned by Disney at the time, released another re-edit titled Arabian Knight. Both versions of the film performed poorly at the box office and received mixed reviews.

Caine's Arcade is an 11-minute short documentary film by Nirvan Mullick released on April 9, 2012. The film features a cardboard arcade created by Caine Monroy who was 9-years-old at that moment. Caine Monroy ran his arcade from his father's auto parts store in East Los Angeles around mid-2011. Nirvan was inspired to make the documentary after unexpectedly coming across the arcade while getting a door handle for his car. Nirvan became Caine's first customer, purchasing a $2 Fun Pass, and decided to make a film about Caine's Arcade after witnessing the level of commitment, work, and thought Caine had put into the arcade. After learning he had been Caine's first and only customer, Nirvan used social media to arrange a surprise flash mob of customers to come to play Caine's Arcade, which was included in the film.

The Imagination Foundation is a non-profit organization that focuses on "creativity and entrepreneurship in children".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Trevorrow</span> American filmmaker

Colin Trevorrow is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He made his feature directorial debut with the science fiction comedy Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) to critical and commercial success. Trevorrow achieved mainstream recognition for his work on the Jurassic World entries of the Jurassic Park franchise, which began when he co-wrote and directed the eponymous first installment in 2015. After the film grossed over $1 billion, Trevorrow co-wrote the 2018 sequel Fallen Kingdom and co-wrote and directed the third installment Dominion (2022). He was also the co-writer and director of Star Wars: Duel of the Fates until his departure in 2017, although he retained story credit when the project was re-envisioned as The Rise of Skywalker (2019). On many of his projects, Trevorrow collaborates with fellow screenwriter Derek Connolly.

<i>The Dam Keeper</i> 2014 film

The Dam Keeper is a 2014 American animated short film directed by Robert Kondo and Daisuke Tsutsumi. It tells the story of Pig, an introverted youth who lives in a windmill and keeps a dark fog from engulfing his town. Although socially rejected by his peers, he is befriended by the artistic Fox.

References

  1. 1 2 The 1 Second Film official website
  2. Celebrities. The 1 Second Film. Retrieved on 2013-10-03.
  3. No byline (2004-11-22). "Mini-moguls Get One Second of Fame", Brandweek 45 (42): 34.
  4. Special Thanks (free). The 1 Second Film. Retrieved on 2013-10-03.
  5. Schaefer, Glen. "Big deal about a really short film; L.A. animator's one-second film gets big backers for only $1", The Province , 2007-07-12, p. B4.
  6. "One-second movie offers cheap fame to 'producers'", Windsor Star , 2007-07-13, p. C8.
  7. Publicists. The 1 Second Film. Retrieved on 2014-11-09.
  8. 1 second film on Facebook
  9. Reply to Facebook comment retrieved on 2019-03-27
  10. Bridges, C. A. "Me and Christina Ricci, we got this project together". Daytona Beach News-Journal Online. Archived from the original on 2006-11-14. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
  11. Monsalve, Frederico. "Industry", The Sunday Star-Times , 2005-06-19, p. E5.
  12. Aldrich, Victoria. "1 Second Film taking months to make", The Daytona Beach News-Journal , 2006-11-17, p. S3.
  13. "The 1 Second Film: The Production" . Retrieved 2006-11-04.
  14. "Re: THE 1 SECOND FILM should be listed". IMDb Boards: Contributors Help. 2005-02-03. Retrieved 2008-09-03.
  15. Producers of the 1 Second Film at IMDb
  16. "Why did IMDb remove thousands of our producers?". The 1 Second Blog. 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2007-02-07.
  17. "Re: 1 Second Film – still eligible?". IMDb Boards: Contributors Help. 2008-01-08. Retrieved 2008-05-24.