Our Story

The 1 Second Film has grown into a non-profit global collaboration fueled by grassroots, celebrity, and corporate support. But it wasn't always that way. The project began several years ago as a student's effort to bring a school together.

In 2000, Nirvan Mullick was a student at California Institute of the Arts when he conceived a collaborative way to bring his school together through the creation of one-second of animation. The idea: organize a big party with live music and performers, during which people attending would help paint 12 giant frames of animation.

After being awarded a CalArts Interschool grant, the collaborative event was organized. On March 8th, 2001 (International Women's Day), hundreds of people came together to create the 12 large murals. Based on the success of the event, Nirvan expanded the concept into a series of 5 collaborative sequels designed to build global community while addressing various social issues. After graduating, Nirvan set out to finish The 1 Second Film and create a foundation for future projects.

In 2004, starting with no money or camera, Nirvan made a xeroxed flier and began pitching The 1 Second Film to people on the streets of LA, selling producer credits for $1 or more. The response was encouraging- people chipped in $1, $5, sometimes even $20, allowing Nirvan to print better fliers. One month and 300 producers later, enough was raised to buy a video camera to document the process.

Armed with a small video camera and some fliers, Nirvan and cinematographer Craig Trudeau began traveling to film festivals, sneaking into parties, and pitching The 1 Second Film to anyone they met, including celebrities like Kevin Bacon, Stephen Colbert, and Tom Green. As celebrity and non-celebrity bidding wars developed, Nirvan began keeping a production blog detailing the adventures and posting funny clips online. After getting listed on IMDb and featured on the homepage of YouTube and Digg, the project began to grow virally.

Thousands of people around the world began discovering the project online and sending donations as well as letters, photos, and videos. Volunteers hand-entered the producer names until enough was raised to build an automated website. Using Drupal's open-source technology, the new website gave each producer social-networking features as a way to facilitate collaboration and allow the project to scale up.

During this time, Nirvan assembled a Board of Directors and formed The Collaboration Foundation- a non-profit organization to provide oversite to The 1 Second Film and the collaborative sequels.

Based in Los Angeles, the project continues to grow. With the help of online producers and volunteers, the production has traveled to 28 states across America, presenting at YouTube, Google, TED>LA, universities, art galleries, and street corners. The project continues to attract support, including computers and editing software by Apple, web hosting by Pair.com, and post-production services by FotoKem.

While still fundraising to complete The 1 Second Film, our growing list of producers is becoming a growing community, working together to help make a film that makes a difference. Our story is still just beginning, marking the first steps in a 5 Phase Plan to bring the world together, one-second at a time.

Timeline of Benchmark Moments

Below are some of the significant moments in the growh of this project.

2000 - CalArts Interschool Grant

While pursuing an MFA in Experimental Animation at CalArts, Nirvan was awarded a $1,500 CalArts Interschool Grant, supplying the seed funds to create the collaborative animation event. Additional funds were raised by selling $1 producer credits to students, teachers, and many of the school's departments.

March 8, 2001 - Animation Event

On March 8th, 2001 (International Women's Day), the 12 frames of animation were painted by hundreds of people during a collaborative event.

Sept. 11, 2001 - Non-Profit Sequels

After September 11th, Nirvan began developing a collaborative art project to address the impact of that moment. The idea grew into a 5 Phase Plan to bring the world together with collaborative art while addressing various social issues.

February 2004 :: FotoKem and 70mm

After graduating CalArts, and completing two other animated shorts, Nirvan began to finish The 1 Second Film. Nirvan met with Michael Brodersen of FotoKem to get a quote for 35mm post-production costs. FotoKem (who had awarded Nirvan's 'The Box Man' a FotoKem Student Grant in 2002, unexpectadly offered to donate 70mm services. This offered Nirvan a unique way to market the film and fundraise to grow the project.

February, 2004 :: Fundraising On the Streets

Nirvan made a simple flier and began to pitch the 70mm one-second film to people on the streets, fundraising $1 at a time. The positive response encouraged Nirvan to make improved fliers, he aslo made a simple website and began entering names by hand while slowly raising money.

Celebrities

Nirvan running into celebrities while selling producer credits. His first celebrity pitch was to George Clooney, met by chance in FotoKem's parking lot after making photocopies of flier #2. Mr. Clooney passed based on the xeroxed flier. Nirvan took this lesson to heart and began making better marketing materials, including a set of collectible business cards. As the presentation improved, more people started to chip in, including celebrities encountered, such as: Tom Arnold, Ben Harper, Christina Ricci,and Andy Dick. Nirvan added the celebrity names to a new and improved flier #3 and noticed an immediate improvement when pitching the film on the streets.

Buying a Camera for the Documentary

Nirvan decided to document the absurd adventures of making the film, and soon raised enough to buy a $700 mini-dv camera.

Film Festival Fundraising :: 2004 - 2005

Craig Trudeau and Nirvan became friends at the AFI Film Festival in 2003, sneaking into parties and living the life of short filmmakers. Craig began selling producer credits for T1SF in Vancouver while Nirvan fundraised in LA; collectively the two raised enough to fund a trip to the 2004 Toronto Film Festival where the duo snuck into parties and sold hundreds of producer credits. The first full color flier #4 was made especially for the trip, which paid off by inciting a bidding war between Tom Green and Andy Dick. With over 800 producers and growing, Nirvan decided to create a feature-length making of documentary to play during the growing credits. He and Craig then began travelling to film festivals to recruit more celebrity producers to grow the project.

IMDb :: 2005

After getting over 1,000 producers, including celebrities like Kevin Bacon and Pierce Brosnan, Nirvan began to submit the film's credits to IMDb. IMDb rejected the project at first, but with the help of video footage (watch below) from Stephen Colbert, The 1 Second Film's credits were eventually listed on IMDb. Thousands of people around the world then began stumbling across The 1 Second Film while looking up the credits of the various celebrity producers. Fundraising began to transition from on-the-streets to on-line donations. *Note: IMDb later removed over 3,000 Producer Credits - Read more about our IMDb saga

YouTube :: 2006

After a year of on-line donations trickling in, our Sundance 2005 video clip was featured on YouTube's home page. In just 4 days, over 700 new producers donated a combined $7,000 on-line. This provided much needed resources to begin developing an automated web site.

The Collaboration Foundation :: 2006

In 2006, The Collaboration Foundation was formed as a non-profit organization in the state of California. Nirvan assembled an experienced Board of Directors (Ben Goldhirsh, Stephen Nemeth, Julie Taymor, and Albert Maysles) to provide support and oversight to The 1 Second Film and the various sequels.

Launch of Automated Drupal Site :: March 2007

After entering thousands of producer names by hand, Nirvan discovered Drupal, a powerful open source Content Management System that specializes in empowering online communities. Drupal made the development of an automated social-networking site affordable. After a year of fundraising and several months of work, this website was launched giving all of The 1 Second Film's producers unique profiles and automating the donation process, enabling the project to scale up.

Digg and Social Media

After launching, the1secondfilm.com was featured on the homepage of digg.com, helping us fundraise and reach more participants.

Apple, FotoKem, and Pair

Companies began donating valuable services to support The 1 Second Film project. Apple donated over $25K in computers and software for editing our documentary, FotoKem donated office space for post-production, and Pair Networks donated web hosting to allow our online community to continue to grow.

Road to Oprah

We launched a quest to ask Oprh for $1 to join our producers. After more fundraising, we bought a used school bus for $3K on e-bay, converted it into a bio-diesel RV and mobile billboard, and drove it across America sharing this project with thousands of people. Presentations were given at YouTube, Google, universities, highschools, coffee shops, skate parks, and even a Veteran's Home. Footage will included in the documentary and is being prepeared to send to Oprah's producers.

What happens next?

We continue to raise the budget to complete our film. Our goal is to create a 'Tipping Point' as we go, to bring as many people as we can together, while raising the funds to complete this film. We don't know what will happen next, but continue to overcome obstacles while documenting a collaborative journey.