Wikis: The Movie (Lucky Number Slevin)

Posted by: Heather Green on April 07

So, as you’re sitting in the dark theater this weekend, watching Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman and Lucy Liu in the $30 million “Lucky Number Slevin,” you’ll be able to thank or blame wikis (depending on how the movie is).

That’s because the makers of the film, Ascendant Films, used wiki technology from JotSpot to track the film’s financing and production. Instead of using paper or emails to send contracts, revisions, and budget information between lawyers, financiers and production staff in Berlin, London, LA and Montreal, they used the open space online provided by Jotspot.

Here’s a fun ode to dead trees: A typical independently financed movie produces a collection of contracts and documents close to a foot and half high.

The film’s finance specialist, Bob Norton, read about JotSpot in October 2004 and thought it would be a good fit. He says he plans to expand his usage of Wikis on future films to handle things like actor contracts and deal memos, etc.

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Reader Comments

Chas Martin

April 7, 2006 01:11 PM

You could look at this and say, "Look how far we've come." Or, you could recognize that this is still only the beginning. We have barely scratched the surface of how open source will change business. It's a matter of time until someone funds a film the same way John Dean funded his campaign. Why not post a script and sell shares for a $100 minimum? Why not let the audience decide what they want to see? This idea of the voice of the customer is not limited to entertainment. The window of opportunity for creative thinking has never been open as it is now. The idea of people funding ideas instead of large corporations dictating which innovations see the light of day is a force to be acknowledged. And, it's an opportunity to be exploited from the bottom up.

Marshall Kirkpatrick

April 7, 2006 01:42 PM

That's awesome. Here's hoping the movie doesn't bomb, for the sake of the medium - wikis I mean.

scott

April 7, 2006 04:09 PM

from comment above: "Why not let the audience decide what they want to see? "

I can't imagine a worse fate for film. In my mind, that would be like Michelangelo putting a giant block of marble in a public square along with a bunch of chisels and asking the public to help him sculpt David. :-)

Yes, I am aware that something similar to this is being done for the not-yet-released-but-already-a-cult-hit "Snakes on a Plane," but that's more akin to putting a dunking machine in a public sqaure and asking people to take their best shot.

Jim Dermitt

April 8, 2006 10:52 AM

In the end, it's all about a pile of paper with green ink on it. Currency and glue, just business.

Jhazline Lachey

May 1, 2008 07:11 PM

Just let the audience decide if they want the movie or not. and besides your not the once who make that movie..
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In Blogspotting Senior Writer Stephen Baker and Associate Editor Heather Green take a look at how cutting-edge technologies are changing business and society. Whether its blogs or wikis, data crunching or data targeting, technology’s advances are reshaping the world that we live in.

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