Call for Soundtracks "RIP: A Remixer's Manifesto"

Attention remixers: Creative Commons and OpenSourceCinema are co-hosting a Call for Soundtracks for the movie “RIP: A Remixer’s Manifesto” a movie about the struggles to keep content free and open.

Remixers everywhere are invited to download the movie clips linked to on this page and create music using Creative Commons licensed samples. The movie producers will select the best of those for use in the final version of the movie.

About the Sponsors

This call for soundtrack is sponsored by Creative Commons and the makers of RIP: A Remixer’s Manifesto a co-production between Montreal-based production house EyeSteelFilm and the National Film Board of Canada. The film has been produced collaboratively through submissions and remixes at Open Source Cinema, a platform for documentary filmmakers to involve audiences in the creation of their films.

Video and Audio Sources

To download these sources right-click (Mac: control-click) and select ‘Save Target As…’

Scene 1:
An examination of the United States policies on copyright, and their effect on average citizens

Link to Quicktime Movies with original music - without music
Link to AVI movies with original music - without music
Link to original music mp3
Link to stems to original music ZIP (BIG)

Scene 2:
Girl Talk aka Gregg Gillis discusses the similarities in his job as a bio-medical engineer and his music - the patenting of life - former Undersecretary of Commerce Bruce Lehman describes the thinking behind copyright policies of the 1990s - Cory Doctorow injects some historical perspective

Link to Quicktime Movies with original music - without music
Link to AVI movies with original music - without music
Link to original music mp3
Link to stems to original music ZIP (BIG)

Scene 3:
Bruce Lehman re-considers US copyright policy of 1990s

Link to Quicktime Movies with original music - without music
Link to AVI movies with original music - without music
Link to original music mp3
Link to stems to original music ZIP (BIG)

Scene 4:
Times Square - a physical example of permission culture

Link to Quicktime Movies with original music - without music
Link to AVI movies with original music - without music
Link to original music mp3
Link to stems to original music ZIP (BIG)

About the Film

RIP: A Remxier’s Manifesto looks at the war waged between those who want to share ideas versus those who want to sell them. The film starts with pop star and biomedical engineer Gregg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk, as he mashes his way to fame and infamy at the frontiers of today’s music scene. Gillis creates elaborate mashups, combining elements of hundreds of existing songs to create new songs. It’s the latest spin on an old tradition – artists building on each others – and it’s reshaping the musical world by challenging everything we know about copyright. The battle spills over to all aspects of intellectual property: art, technology, biomedical science and beyond – the future is shaping up to be about the ownership of ideas. But what does this mean for the increasing amount of people (and nations) who are labelled “pirates” for sharing ideas?

A mashup in its own right, RIP tackles the issue of Fair Use ─ broadly defined as the limited use of copyrighted material without requiring the permission of the rights holders ─ on its own uncertain ground. Pulling footage from a range of sources, filmmaker Brett Gaylor looks at cultural appropriation throughout history, from Muddy Waters to the Rolling Stones to the king of the remix, Walt Disney. With legal advice from Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, Brett expertly negotiates the tricky world of fair-use filmmaking while trying valiantly to stay out of jail. Through the process, he creates an incredible first-hand examination of one of this generation’s most engaging social issues, travelling across the United States, Canada, China, the United Kingdom and Brazil.

An ambitious and ground-breaking Open Source documentary, all of the footage for the film is released under a Creative Commons license and can be re-mixed at OpenSourceCinema. Hundreds of collaborators have submitted material through the website over a 4 year period to produce a truly global film, one that harnesses the power of social media and collaboration.