What began in 2001 as a CalArts student art experiment — a single second of animation made from twelve giant collaborative paintings — mutated into one of the oddest credit-and-crowdfunding controversies of the digital era. Director Nirvan Mullick sold $1 "Producer" credits as a deliberate fundraising mechanism: anyone donating $1 or more would be listed as a producer, while smaller participatory roles and even mere sign-ups were to be listed in the film's unusually long credits. Mullick pressed the idea in the mid-2000s by literally selling $1 producer credits on the streets of Los Angeles, raising modest seed money (the original painting event had been supported by a $1,500 CalArts grant and an early $3,000 from $1 donations). The project gained momentum after Mullick recruited celebrity donors and enlisted Stephen Colbert to make a tongue-in-cheek demand that his modest $11 credit be included on the Internet Movie Database; Colbert's involvement — plus a 2006 YouTube homepage clip showing celebrities donating — helped the project explode online and brought thousands of people into the credit rolls.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2000s
How a $1 'Producer' Credit, Stephen Colbert, and IMDb Turned The 1 Second Film into a Crowdfunding Controversy
The 1 Second Film (Nirvan Mullick) / 2000s
What began in 2001 as a CalArts student art experiment — a single second of animation made from twelve giant collaborative paintings — mutated into one of the oddest credit-and-crowdfunding controversies of the digital era. Director Nirvan Mullick sold $1 "Producer" credits as a deliberate fundraising mechanism: anyone donating $1 or more would be listed as a producer, while smaller participatory roles and even mere sign-ups were to be listed in the film's unusually long credits. Mullick pressed the idea in the mid-2000s by literally selling $1 producer credits on the streets of Los Angeles, raising modest seed money (the original painting event had been supported by a $1,500 CalArts grant and an early $3,000 from $1 donations). The project gained momentum after Mullick recruited celebrity donors and enlisted Stephen Colbert to make a tongue-in-cheek demand that his modest $11 credit be included on the Internet Movie Database; Colbert's involvement — plus a 2006 YouTube homepage clip showing celebrities donating — helped the project explode online and brought thousands of people into the credit rolls.
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