The Bazaar Way of Making a Movie Revisited

It is helpful to actuall read Eric Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" before announcing a movie contacted in a Bazaar way so you'll know what Bazaar means... ;-)

After I read it (it makes a very good read for everyone) I realized a few things. One was that even in most Bazaar-style projects there is still a core group of developers typically one or two that does most of the work. Few projects have more and they are typically very important and mature.

Secondly, that a Bazaar style movie may be something entirely different. Its screenplay may be free as in free speach or not, but what's more important is how it is managed and makes use of the Internet. For instance, after every scene is shot, it is edited, and an ad-hoc copy of the edited scene is placed on the web for everybody to download. Furthermore, a Slashdot-like site is available for people to comment on the scene.

The production team of the film will read this user input to understand what should be modified in the scene (if at all), and then take measures to fix it. Eventually, close to final copies of the entire film are placed online so people can watch them and revies them as well.

It may actually produce on average motion pictures of higher quality than what is done today. (in which a large part of the pictures that hit the silver screen are mediocre or junk). This is due to the large amount of peer review conducted within the film's production.

This model probably will not work for T.V. shows where there's a tight schedule and new episodes have to be aired routinely. But it may actually be very good for films.