// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the open-source film say? It was a reel public domain.
Open-source films (also known as open-content films and free-content films) are films which are produced and distributed by using free and open-source and open content methodologies. Their source files are freely available and the licenses used meet the demands of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) in terms of freedom.[1][2]
Definition
[edit source] | This section may contain original research. No secondary source states that open-source films must meet the Open Source Definition. (August 2026) |
A definition of an open-source film is based on the OSI's open-source software definition[3] and the definition of free cultural licenses.[4] This definition can be applied to films where:
- The license of the movie is approved for free cultural works. Specifically this is true for the Creative Commons licenses BY and BY-SA.
- The materials used in the movie (sources) are also available under a license which is approved for free cultural works.
- The movie and its sources are made publicly available via an online download or by other means that are either free or with a cost that covers reasonable reproduction expenses only.
- The sources should be viewable and editable with free/open-source software. If this is not the case they must be convertible into such a format by using free/open-source software. The same applies to the movie itself.
- It should be possible to re-create or re-assemble the movie using the source materials.
Films or film projects which do not meet these criteria are either not open source or partially open source.
List of open-source films
[edit source]| Name | Type | Released | CC License | Sources | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dancing to Architecture – a motion picture about TINA | Documentary | 2002 | BY 2.5 AU | Collaborative production. Vital Focus 2002. | |
| Route 66 - An American Nightmare | Road movie / Gonzo-documentary | 12/2004 | BY-SA 3.0 | link streaming torrent | Became popular as Germany's first open-source film. The license changed to CC BY-SA in July 2009. |
| Elephants Dream | Animated short | 04/2006 | BY 2.5 | Created with the Blender open-source software. | |
| Stray Cinema | Short film/ Remix project | 2006 | BY 3.0 | Collaborative project | |
| .re_potemkin | Contemporary art project | 2007 | A remake of Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin" using crowdsourcing / peer production method. | ||
| Big Buck Bunny | Animated short | 08/2008 | BY 3.0 | Created with the Blender Open Source Software. | |
| Jathia's Wager Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine | Short film | 02/2009 | BY-SA 3.0 | Sources only consist of the movie without music score. | |
| Sita Sings the Blues | Animated musical of the Indian epic the Ramayana | 2009 | CC0 1.0 | ||
| Valkaama | Feature film | 01/2010 | BY-SA 3.0 | Collaborative project. HD download available (720p and 1080p) | |
| The Digital Tipping Point Archived 2009-01-18 at the Wayback Machine | Documentary | in production | BY-SA | Collaborative project. | |
| Sintel | Animated short | 10/2010 | BY 3.0 | Created with the Blender Open Source Software. | |
| La Chute d'une plume (pèse plus que ta pudeur) | Animated short | 10/2010 | BY-SA 3.0 | Created with the Kdenlive Open Source Software. | |
| Original source footage of Tears of Steel | Reference material for easing technical development of movie technology | 2013-03-15[5] | CC-BY (no usage of actor footage for commercials) |
This is a first time addressing of the huge lack in available free high quality footage for motion tracking, keying and cleaning testing. The material was recorded with the Sony F65 camera (4k native sensor, see also Ultra HD) and is formed by roughly 80,000 frames, each in OpenEXR half float files, in 4096 x 2160 pixels. This is 5 times more footage than used in the film. For the movie production the format encoding Rec709 “scene linear” was used in the processing pipeline. |
Documentary
[edit source]An open-source documentary film has a production process allowing the open contributions of archival material footage, and other filmic elements, both in unedited and edited form, similar to crowdsourcing. By doing so, on-line contributors become part of the process of creating the film, helping to influence the editorial and visual material to be used in the documentary, as well as its thematic development. The first open-source documentary film is the non-profit WBCN and the American Revolution, which went into development in 2006, and will examine the role media played in the cultural, social and political changes from 1968 to 1974 through the story of radio station WBCN-FM in Boston.[6][7][8][9] The film is being produced by Lichtenstein Creative Media and the non-profit Center for Independent Documentary. Open Source Cinema is a website to create Basement Tapes, a feature documentary about copyright in the digital age, co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada.[10]
Further reading
[edit source]- Cassarino, I.; Richter, W. (2008). "Swarm creativity: The legal and organizational challenges of open content film production (DIME Working Paper No. 45)". In Andersen, B. (ed.). DIME Working Papers on Intellectual Property Rights (PDF). London: Birkbeck College. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
See also
[edit source]
References
[edit source]- ↑ Suehle, Ruth (2010-10-08). "Applying the open source software model to the world of filmmaking". Opensource.com. Retrieved 2026-08-01.
- ↑ Löker, Koray (May 2008). Revolution of Open Source and Film Making: Towards Open Film Making (MA thesis). Bilkent University. Retrieved 2026-08-01.
- ↑ OSD
- ↑ Definition
- ↑ 4 TB original 4k footage available as CC-by
- ↑ "Web Power to the People", The Boston Herald, 29 September 2005.
- ↑ "The Glory Days of the Rock of Boston", Boston Globe, Op-Ed, 18 July 2009.
- ↑ "'BCN Documentary Looks for Archival Contributors", Boston Herald, 11 August 2009.
- ↑ "WBCN and The American Revolution", The Huffington Post, 11 August 2009.
- ↑ "Watch Documentaries and Animated Films Online". NFB.ca. 27 August 2012. Archived from the original on 1 July 2007. Retrieved 2012-10-25.