Crowdsourcing in Entertainment

     First I would like to define Crowdsourcing.  Crowdsourcing is defined as "the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers".  It is all about collaboration with viewers or fans. Crowdsourcing has both a good and bad impact within the entertainment industry.

     In the movie making world, a filmmakers community has become a very good resource. Films today are now using crowdsourcing to fund the making of their projects.  The film making process can now be collaborative between filmmaker and the fans.  One example of this is the Veronica Mars movie.  The creator, Rob Thomas, along with the cast, which includes Kristen Bell, started a crowd funding project on the website, kickstarter.com.  This project included a pledge from fans of $2m to help fund the movie.  "The kickstarter project page promises fans that the higher the funds raised, the bolder the movie will be."  Including the fans in the making of the film is a positive aspect of crowdsourcing and an easy way of making sure the filmmakers are giving the public what they want out of the project.

     Another example of crowdsourcing in the movie business comes from James Franco and how he used crowdsourcing to help young filmmakers raise money ($500,000) to adapt "Palo Alto", a collection of stories that focuses on teenagers from California that have troubled backgrounds.  

     Crowdsourcing is something that helps form what we want to view within our entertainment. Strike.tv, an internet television website that was created during the strike in 2007 and 2008 is helpful to filmmakers looking for assistance in distribution.  It is useful to people in the entertainment industry (directors, writers, actors) to keep producing work through the time of the strike.

     One problem that comes with crowdsourcing and the entertainment business is that with the final product, those that are contributing may not be representative of the viewers. "A lot of money goes into setting up an environment that is reactive enough to incorporate suggestions from the public and that data is further skewed by the fact that those providing the suggestions may not be representative of the viewing population as a whole."

     Crowdsourcing makes it possible for those who wish to produce a film and financially need help funding the project.  Greenlightcrowdfunding.com, a site for creative arts projects makes this a possibility.  Anyone can help make a creative project fundable.  Crowdsourcing has just recently begun and is something that can make someones dreams of starting a film career a possibility!

http://www.kpmg.com/UK/en/services/Advisory/management-consulting/Pages/crowd-connection-crowdsourcing-movies.aspx

http://blog.hootsuite.com/crowdsourcing-film-industry/

http://cultureandcommunication.org/f09/tdm/tag/crowdsourcing-and-entertainment/

http://www.strike.tv/home/

http://www.greenlightcrowdfunding.com