The World's Biggest Shortest Film - The 1 Second Film

The 1 Second Film, a non-profit collaborative film that anyone can be part of! Simply donate $1 or more to add Your Name to the epic celebrity filled credits of the World's Biggest Shortest Film! It's all for a great cause; support the arts and share a moment with the world!

The 1 Second Film brings together thousands of people from around the world to raise money for the Global Fund for Women. We spoke to its mastermind, Nirvan Mullick.

What’s the 1 Second Film all about?
NM: The 1 Second Film is about bringing people together in lots of small ways to make a film that makes a difference. We’re using the internet as a virtual studio to enable people around the world to micro-collaborate. All profits raised by our finished film will be donated to charity.

The film will have one second of animation followed by about 90 minutes of credits. The animation consists of 12 giant paintings that were made by hundreds of people during a big party. Each painting will be filmed twice on 70mm to create the 24 frames in one second of film. The reason the credits will be so long is because anyone can produce the film by donating $1 or more. Our producers get listed in order of amount donated. The credits will also include a feature-length “making of” documentary that our producers can contribute to. Each of our producers receives a unique profile on our site that enables them to collaborate and contribute content. Our goal is to raise a million dollars to make the film and to have as many people participate as possible, building a foundation for non-profit sequels.



What are you going to cover in just one second?
NM: The film will attempt to show how much can happen in one second when large amounts of people work together. Each frame of the animation has its own story. The documentary will also cover the grassroots growth of the project, which started with no money, and has grown one person and $1 at a time.

How did you come up with the idea?
NM: The idea grew organically over time. The seed took root 10 years ago while I was studying philosophy. I came across an idea of “perfect moments” in a book, and decided to try to make one. This led me to start making stop-motion animated short films. Stop-motion is an insane amount of work. You can literally spend hundreds of hours making a few seconds of film. Somewhere during this time, I began brainstorming ways to compress as much as possible into one second of film.

In 2000, I was studying experimental animation at CalArts, an art school built around multi-disciplinary collaboration. This influenced the project, which developed into an attempt to bring all the art departments at my school together for one second – dance, painting, animation, music, etc. We threw a big party and painted the 12 frames of animation. It was a ton of fun, and I began to develop ideas for sequels to expand the concept. Then September 11th happened. Shortly after, an idea for a sequel began to take shape that would attempt to address what happened. That led to a five-phase plan to bring people around the world together using the concept of micro-collaboration to address various social issues.

I then began fundraising with a little flier, pitching the idea to people I met on the streets, and raising our budget dollar by dollar. The idea for the documentary took shape because of the absurd adventures that began to happen along the way. Then, as the project moved online, more and more people started to participate and contribute content, so we developed our own online collaborative network to see the project through.

The project sounds like a mixture of the Million Dollar Homepage and A Swarm of Angels. Is this a coincidence?
NM: Yeah, that’s a coincidence. There seem to be a lot of projects that are finding creative ways to use the internet. Our project actually started without any online presence. The open source CMS and social networking tools we’re now using didn’t exist seven years ago when this started. Our project has gradually merged with technology as the concept evolved and the tools to make it happen became accessible.

Our project is also non-profit, dedicated to using media and collaborative art to create social change. We formed The 1 Second Foundation in 2006, and put together an experienced board of directors to provide oversight and accountability for the project and the various sequels. For more information about our foundation, visit the1secondfoundation.org

How’s the response been so far?
NM: Unbelievable. We have over 7,200 producers from 43 different countries, and have raised more than $155,000 in donations and in-kind services. This project didn’t even have a video camera when it started – just a flier I made at Kinkos. I had no idea if people outside of my school would support it. I was amazed when people I met on the streets started donating a buck, five bucks, 10 bucks. As more people got involved, the donations began to grow. A lady I met in the mall donated $125; a guy who works at the DMV in Georgia sent us $500 in the mail; someone from South Korea sent us $543.21 using PayPal; and of course, Kiefer Sutherland chipped in $600.23 at a restaurant. The list goes on and on. Producers have also sent in thousands of letters, as well as photos and videos of themselves supporting our film around the world. Young kids in Florida had a lemonade stand to raise money for their producer credits, and college students have set up presentations at their universities and have brought us out to share the project. Several sponsors have started getting involved. FotoKem.com will be donating our 70mm film services, while pair.com has been donating free hosting and dedicated servers to keep our site going. The level of support is what has enabled this project to grow.

How did you get onto the IMDb?
NM: Stephen Colbert. Craig and I met him at a Sundance party we snuck into back in 2005. Stephen really liked our project and donated $11 to become our producer. He then recorded some funny video saying, “IMDb should put this credit in. It’s as valid as most of my credits.” We sent this video clip to IMDb, who had previously rejected our title. After seeing Colbert’s clip, IMDb finally started listing our producer credits.

What happened next was amazing. People started stumbling across The 1 Second Film on IMDb while looking up Kevin Bacon, Pierce Brosnan, Stephen Colbert, or any of our high-profile producers. Our little film was wedged between multi-million dollar blockbusters such as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. People around the world began finding our film and donating online to become our producers. IMDb kept listing all of our producers. Not just the celebrities, but also the students, grandmothers, farmers, teachers and entire families that were getting involved. Most were first-time filmmakers who suddenly found themselves producers credited alongside many of their favorite filmmakers for as little as $1.

IMDb recently had a change of heart and removed all of our producer credits without warning, including Colbert. IMDb issued a statement that our credits had become “too long and time-consuming to list.” We offered to give them automated bulk updates, and requested they at least continue to list the 3,000 producers they had already taken the time to enter, but as of now, IMDb no longer lists any of our producers.

How did you get celebrities like Kiefer Sutherland and Spike Jonze onboard?
NM: I started running into celebrities while pitching the film on the streets of Los Angeles. I noticed that having celebrity names attached helped market the film to a wider audience, so my friend Craig Trudeau and I started going to film festivals, sneaking into parties, and getting as many high-profile producers involved as we could. I met Spike Jonze at a special Charlie Kaufman retrospective. After the Q&A, I gave my 1 second pitch to Spike and showed him some pictures of the artwork. I was nervous, as it’s always awkward going up to someone you admire and asking them for a buck, but Spike was really cool. He liked the concept and donated $12 cash. Then he wrote his name on our little sign-up sheet along with the word “producer”. Charlie Kaufman joined up a few minutes later and wrote his name under Spike’s. Soon, everyone in the lobby asked about our film and ended up donating. We probably raised $70 at the time, but since then, dozens of Spike’s fans have donated $12.01 online just to be listed next to him.

Kiefer Sutherland was a totally different story. A friend and I were at an otherwise empty restaurant when Kiefer walked in with three friends. I’ve gotten into the habit of carrying a bag with me everywhere I go that has The 1 Second Film gear, just in case of situations like this. So on our way out, we said hello and asked if they had heard of The 1 Second Film. By chance, one of Kiefer’s friends said yes. Not only had he heard of it, but he was already our associate producer! Not sure what the odds of that happening are, but it’s one of the benefits of having thousands of producers spread around the world. This really broke the ice. Kiefer checked out some of the animation art and we talked about indie filmmaking for a while. He really loved our project. He happened to have his checkbook with him and donated $600.23 on the spot. I had my digital still camera with me and was able to get a little video of Kiefer, which will be in our documentary. The story of each celebrity producer can be found on our site in their producer profiles: www.the1secondfilm.com/producers/celebrities

How much profit are you hoping to make and what will you do with it?
NM: We hope to raise as much profit as possible. We plan to pre-market the film heavily, and then sell DVDs, collector prints of the art, 70mm film strips, calendars, clothing, etc. The original 12 paintings will be auctioned off after our premiere, and could end up selling for quite a bit. All profits raised will be donated to the Global Fund for Women, a nonprofit grant-making organisation that supports women’s human rights around the world.

When will the film be released and will you also make it available online?
NM: It’s hard to say when the film will be released. It’s basically an open source documentary. We have a few more goals remaining before we wrap and start postproduction. Eventually, the film will have a 70mm premiere, perhaps followed by a limited theatrical release and an international DVD release. We may make it available online as well.

What’s planned next, and what’s still to do before the film is released?
NM: Now that our site is automated, our goal is to create a tipping point so that everyone who might like to participate has a chance. To that end, we’re planning a cross-country bio-diesel road trip that our producers can help set up. We’ll be visiting universities and house parties giving presentations of The 1 Second Film and our five-phase plan. The road trip will end in Chicago, where we’re hoping to get Oprah to become our producer. After the road trip, we plan to wrap up our documentary, finish postproduction and prepare for our 70mm world premiere and art opening.

What are the other phases planned by the 1 Second Foundation?
NM: Our five-phase plan is to create global collaboration on a scale that inspires the imagination. Each phase will expand the project, creating larger and longer collaborative films that will address various social issues. Phase 2 will be The 2nd Second Film, which will be two seconds long and will attempt to address September 11th. The animation will be made during two simultaneous collaborative events in different parts of the world (New York and Afghanistan). Participants at each event will paint 24 murals, while international artists and musicians perform. The 48 finished paintings will then be combined to create the two seconds of animation. All proceeds raised by this project will benefit civilian casualties in NY and Afghanistan.

Phase 3 will be The 3D Second Film, made during three simultaneous events around the world, and addressing Global Warming. Phase 4 will be The 111 Second Film Festival, featuring 111 one-second events around the world, each addressing a local issue. And Phase 5 will be The 11,111 Second Film, an animated feature film, where we organise thousands of events around the world, with each event painting one second of the animation. Phase 5 will addresses global poverty, and has the potential to involve millions of people.

The entire plan is on the edge of what’s possible and will depend on the success of The 1 Second Film.

What’s the 1 Second Foundation’s ultimate goal?
NM: The ultimate goal is to bring the world together, one second at a time. Along the way, we hope to make collaborative art in a fun and interesting way to provide platforms for creative dialogue, and to make the most of the time we have together.