Jathias Wager - An Open Source Sci-Fi Movie

UPDATE - We just released Jathia’s Wager, an open source science fiction film - Watch it below right now, then leave a comment and join our social network or see all download and viewing options and get the source files and view licensing options here.

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Visit the watch and download page for more viewing options (this page has been updated with HD versions, you can also download the source files and see licensing options here.

Jathia’s Wager: An Open Source Sci-Fi Movie Created by International Collaboration has been Released.

Jathia’s Wager is a science fiction film about a young man living in an isolated community of humans who must make a life changing decision about his future species. Just as open-source software is a collaboration of programmers creating free code, this film was created by a collaboration of movie enthusiasts, and it is being distributed for free online. The audience is encouraged to participate in future derivative works, and the original source materials are made available for that purpose.

The film was shot in Ventura, CA with 50% of the footage using green screens, with the backgrounds inserted afterwards. Different versions of the film have been released using various Creative Commons licenses: which even allow future commercial usage of the content. Historically, there have been very few films released under such a license; and none that were created using this online style of collaboration.

One example of collaboration in the filmmaking process for Jathia’s Wager is found in the “Universal Life-form” character in the movie. The actor was shot in a green screen studio in Ventura, CA; the voice came from a voice actor in the UK; and the special effects were redone 3 times after a flurry of exchanged e-mails. The result: people working together from different parts of the world to create a better original movie.

This film was written and directed by, and is starring Solomon Rothman, an independent filmmaker who started the project after his first open source film (’Boy Who Never Slept’) had been seen millions of times.

Jathia’s Wager originated as a 7 page concept script that was released online with the call to action:

“anyone wanting to help make a no budget, sci-fi movie is invited to join the team”

Before production had started, Jathia’s Wager had already attracted international attention .

Jathia’s Wager was created without almost no money, by people of all different backgrounds, many of which had never worked on a movie before; they just wanted to contribute for the joy of it.

Rothman said this about the project:

“The collaborative approach used to make this film is why this movie turned out to be a wonderful creative adventure, in spite of our filmmaking limitations and our lack of funds. I hope we can expand this story and continue the Jathia’s Wager universe; there’s a lot more to come!”

The movie is Jathia’s Wager and you can watch it online for free at http://moviepals.org. It is being distributed on video streaming sites, and via file-sharing networks.

If you really liked this film, you’re encouraged to contribute or support it by sharing it with your friends. PLEASE stumble and digg it :)!!!

If you liked this movie please join us and help create new films:

Join Our Meetup HERE to attend specific events from Movie Pals Entertainment. We also just launched a full fledged social network at filmmaking.la which allows for everything from discussions, to posting videos, and blogging. Over time we hope it will grow into a thriving community of filmmakers and movie lovers alike.

Blog Posts and Articles:
Note: These may not contain the latest blog entries on Jathai’s Wager, Click here to read our blog and check out the open source movies category for the most up to date info on our collaborative filmmaking projects.

Post Production (After the film has been shot):