Why the One Second Film was an absolute victory for filmmakers

Remember the 'One Second Film'?

Set up by Nirvan Mullick back in 2001, the 'One Second Film' managed to do what many indie filmmakers had only dreamt about doing : raise thousands of dollars from people they didn't know to support their film projects.

After many years 'The One Second Film' to date has managed to raise over $334,000 according to the official site with more than 50,000 participating crew members and producers.

The 'One Second Film' was the first truly international grassroots crowd-funding project of our time. It was pre-Facebook, pre-Twitter and even pre-Youtube. The technology was simply not there on the market to help filmmakers promote this kind of project, but we heard about it long before we ever signed up to social networks.

The 'One Second Film' also managed to gather celebrity support in its early days from the likes of Pierce Brosnan, Kiefer Sutherland and even music icons such as Kanye West. On top of that, they were filmed signing the 1 Second Film badges that proved they had put money towards it. It was a nice thing for them to do, and it really helped (hint if any of you guys get asked to do something like this say yes!).

Hollywood celebs donate to the One Second project

Those donations then helped build the momentum for the non-profit art project that would last 1 second with 90 minutes of credits. It was a great concept, and it really brought people together in a new way. Even though The 'One Second Film' didn't reach the $1 million goal, it succeeded in many other ways, which deserves recognition from the film industry.

When IMDB took down the 'One Second Film' listing, the excitement for the project started to dwindle. It was a major blow to the filmmakers who had fought so hard to make it a reality. Without a listing it felt like the validation for the project was over, because IMDB was an important milestone to making it 'official'. Despite the setback, the project made its mark. Whether IMDB will ever put it back up is another thing, but it should certainly not be forgotten because without it, many of us would have missed out on the lessons it taught us. It showed filmmakers how to build support and market a film project from the ground up. It also showed ambition, and that no matter how big your project ideas are, you can see them through. These guys did something that went above and beyond what many of us would ever think to achieve and its for that reason I want to highlight this as an example of what you could do with your ideas.

If it had not been for The 'One Second Film', would sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo exist? The movement had to start from somewhere, and it was this project that changed the game for filmmakers. It really showed us that we could do it, and today thousands of projects are being made through crowdfunding across the web and it's a really great time for the indie scene to make its mark. What a victory the 'One Second Film' has been!

A special thanks to Nirvan and everyone who supported it. Whatever happens next, best of luck to you guys in the future, and if anyone from IMDB is reading, I would urge you to put that listing back up.