GOOD 100: Meet Tiffany Shlain, Changing The Way We Make Movies

Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, public speaker, writer, founder of The Webby Awards, and co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Her new film series, Let it Ripple: Mobile Films for Global Change, will include 12 short films made collaboratively by inviting people—like yourself—from all over the world to send in videos about their lives using their cell phones.

This year, Shlain launched the Sundance feature documentary Connected, an autobiography about “love, death, and technology.” She will also be releasing two new “cloud films”—what these collaborative films have been dubbed—this year, in which she will use footage sent in by people all over the world.

Once a cloud film is completed, Shlain’s team offers free customized versions of the films to nonprofits to help spread their messages. Embracing the concept of cloud filmmaking, she published a “Cloud Filmmaking Manifesto” for the Tribeca Institute Future of Film blog that outlines what constitutes a “cloud film.” The first film in the series, A Declaration of Interdependence, with music by Moby, was released September 2011 and has been translated into 65 languages.

“In this past year, we have made over 450 free, customized short films for organizations,” Shlain says.

And she’s not stopping there. Her next call for entries for an upcoming cloud film will be this summer, intended for a fall 2013 premiere. Get those cameras rolling.

Get this and more delivered to your home by subscribing to GOOD Magazine at subscribe.good.is. It's just $25 for an annual subscription (more than 20% off the cover price)!