Open Source Cinema (OSC) is a web application dedicated to the expression of film remixing. A novel and emerging art form, the film remix was in need of a site that facilitated its execution. Drawing on remix culture’s free sharing of samples, the site enables users to upload content (images, film or sound) like their own films, YouTube videos, or Flickr images, and have their content remixed or mashed up by others. Users can also remix the work that their peers have previously uploaded to the site.

The idea for the site came from Brett Gaylor’s Rip: A Remix Manifesto, a film that discusses the relevancy of copyright laws in today’s technologically advanced and digital society. RiP is the first project that has been uploaded and is available for people to play with on the OSC site. You can remix it here.

Brett, a long time friend of Raincity Studios approached the Studios to create an open source site that would enable users to express themselves and to help the film remix community move forward. Created on Drupal and with some help from Kaltura (an open source platform for video creation, management and collaboration) providing the video editing tools, the site is on the cutting edge of Web.2.0 innovation

Not only does Open Source Cinema create an environment for the creation of such art, but it also serves as an online community where users can discuss the issues surrounding remix culture and copyright law, connect through friend lists, regroup around projects to create project teams, or even come together for live events posted on the site. A social networking site at heart, OSC opens the doors to the future of film mashup and the endless possibilities of creating, mashing, mixing, remixing and remixing mashed up creations.

Website features

Open Source Cinema is one of the first large projects built by Raincity Studios using the 6th version of Drupal. OSC benefits from all the improvements of this latest version, as well as the innovative new modules available for Drupal 6, like Views 2.

Raincity Studios worked on the site from its inception, from the information architecture and design, to the custom Drupal development. The simplicity of the user interface is one of the main aspects of this site, as OSC is very much akin to a web application. Users must easily be able to remix videos, upload their media, re-use existing projects, or connect and communicate with each other while using a minimal interface.

The biggest challenge in the development of site was the integration of the Kaltura video editor to the Drupal system. The pre-existing Kaltura module had to be improved and adapted to OSC needs and functions, adapted to work with other modules like Organic Groups, and customized for the site’s theming needs.

Thanks to the awesome Drupal community contributions, there were almost no other custom modules to be developed for OSC, as most of the features of the site have been built using contributed modules. However, heavy theming work had to be done to integrate all these modules to the OSC design.

Not only on the development side, but also on the design side, Raincity Studios has been trying to use the latest technology available. Ajax, and Jquery have been beautified by a smart use of some CSS3 techniques. Digging into some cutting edge theming options proved promising and beneficial with regards to the future of web design. The more we discover, the wider the horizon of web apps and Drupal gets.

Working on Open Source Cinema, like most other Raincity projects, has been an exceptional experience and a fantastic way to really delve into getting to know the newest Drupal system. This project has left Raincity Studios extremely optimistic about the future of Drupal and web apps in general, and continues to motivate the Studios take on new challenges that come their way.