Crowdsourced Cinema
Together, We Make Movie Magic
Crowdsourced Cinema invites you and your community to recreate a beloved film, scene by scene. From live action to puppetry to animation, every style is welcome—and every voice gets a role in the spotlight.
Northampton Open Media Executive Director, Al Williams, and staff produce a scene of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ in the NOM studio at Northampton High School (2015).
From One Scene to a Movement
It started in 2015 with a simple, ambitious idea: What if an entire community came together to remake a classic film?
Northampton Open Media posed that question to their neighbors in Western Massachusetts, and the answer was overwhelming. Teams of all ages and skill levels signed up to take on scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Some filmed in backyards. Others built sets from recycled materials. A few experimented with stop-motion animation. When all the scenes were stitched together, something magical emerged: a completely original remake, bursting with personality, creativity, and local flavor.
Today, Crowdsourced Cinema has grown into a coast-to-coast collaboration. Brookline Interactive Group, access stations across Vermont, and CMAC Fresno came on board, bringing coast-to-coast creativity into the mix. What began as a local experiment is now a national celebration of community storytelling.
From Western Mass to the West Coast
Today, Crowdsourced Cinema is a collaborative project spanning multiple states and community media centers.
How It Works
Brookline Interactive Group works on the 2016 remake of "The Princess Bride.”
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We choose a beloved movie that everyone knows and loves—something with scenes that spark imagination and invite creative interpretation.
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Sign up with a team (or on your own) and you’ll be assigned a scene to recreate. Families, friend groups, schools, artists, organizations, and first-time filmmakers are all welcome.
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This is where the magic happens. Your only rules:
Follow the same action and dialogue as the original scene
Match the total running time of the short scene
No copyrighted images or audio—everything must be your own creation
Beyond that? The sky's the limit. Your scene could be:
Live action filmed in your living room or neighborhood
Stop-motion animation with clay figures or paper cutouts
Puppetry with handmade characters
A creative remix blending styles and techniques
Drawn animation, CGI, or something we've never seen before
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Once every scene is submitted, we weave them into a single, seamless film. The result is a completely unique version of a classic—one that could only have been made by your community, in this moment, with all your collective imagination.
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We screen the finished film at the Academy of Music for everyone: participants, families, friends, and the general public. It's a celebration of creativity, collaboration, and the joy of making something together.
Past Crowdsourced Films
From dinosaurs to droids, from childhood classics to heroic adventures—here's what our community has brought to life so far:
Ready to Join the Fun?
The next chapter of Crowdsourced Cinema is waiting to be written—and you're part of the story.
Crowdsourced Cinema is a public art project of Northampton Open Media, a community media arts center dedicated to amplifying local voices through media creation, education, and collaboration.