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photo credit: laihiu

One of the things that bothers me about some of the open source proponents is the all or nothing philosophy I often find in their mantra.  I admire idealism, but I do not endorse an all or nothing stance especially when it comes to filmmaking.

An easy example to further illustrate my frustrations is open source software - I use both open and closed source software and have no problems with both of them existing simultaneously.  If I hated Microsoft I'd stop using their software, but I don't hate them, I don't hate Apple or any software / hardware manufacturer.  I simply weigh the pros and cons and use what I want to.  I use mostly free software, but have no problem buying some commercial programs (like Adobe Premiere).

To me the world is a beautiful multi shade of grey and it seems that simple minded individuals are always trying to reduce it to black and white to make it easier to grasp.  I don't want to simplify it and I try to avoid absolutes.

Brewing within the free culture movement that's pioneering collaborative projects like open source movies is a strong anti-commercial sub-group that seem to HATE copyright.  I really don't understand that much.

I support free culture, but I have nothing against copyright or restrictive culture either.  I see them both as co-existing together.  I just signed a contact to become the director and co-writer for a regular closed source documentary.  I pitched the producer the idea of shooting part of it (filming the entire process of creating the movie etc) as an open source documentary and releasing it online for free under a cc by-sa license and he was ecstatic about the idea.

Soon I'm going to publically announce the project, but basically I'll be shooting two documentaries one completely open source and one closed source.  To my knowledge it's the first pairing of the two (open and closed source movies) within the same project.   I think it's really exciting and represents another small step in a positive direction.

I personally plan on doing both open and closed source movies and don't see a contradiction in the two.  Even if I were to get RICH from making closed source movies (which of course is very unlikely) I'd still participate in free culture works and create free open source films.  I find very few people seem to endorse this blending of the two, maybe it's too early for it now and the market needs time to adjust.

When I talk to traditional filmmakers and people from the "old school" way of doing things they seem flabbergasted that you'd want to release something you spent so much time on for free (ridiculous and greedy, but probably more based on habit and ignorance), while at the same time I find many of the free culture people so anti-commercial they consider it like a crime to even consider making profit and restricting the usage of something.  I find both points of view ridiculous and wish more people could wrap their mind around both co-existing peacefully.