HitRecord is an online collaborativemedia platform founded and owned by actor and director Joseph Gordon-LevittGordon-Levitt. The company uses a variety of media to produce such projects as short films, books, and DVDs. HitRecord has produced such short films as Morgan M. Morgansen's Date with Destiny and its sequel .
History
In 2005, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt started the site with his brother, Dan. It began as a way for them to solicit feedback for videos they posted, but as time went on they opened the platform up to other creative people who wanted to review and remix their and others' work. In January 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival, HitRecord launched its new website and introduced its new professional production methodology, allowing contributing artists to be paid for their work. He invited audiences to collectively collaborate with him in the filmmaking process, and create, record, and remix each other's art with the goal of creating cohesive short multimedia work that would have a special screening at the end of the Festival. That year, Joseph sent out $50,000 worth of checks to its contributors. The site now hosts nearly 80,000+ members and pulls in about 1,000 videos, songs, text pieces and artworks daily. The company's logo is the record symbol, which Gordon-Levitt can be seen wearing frequently in interviews, at events and appearances. The actor/founder says "that round REC button became a symbol, a metaphor for taking things into my own hands and doing it." HitRecord's work was also featured at 2010 SxSW and at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
The show premiered on January 18, 2014, at 10pm on Pivot. It is hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the series will feature short films, live conversations and performances. $50,000 is set aside from the budget of each episode to compensate contributing artists.
Books
The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories 2010 was self-published in 2010 by hitrecord.org. Featuring 45 contributors from 2,312 contributions to the Tiny Stories collaboration. This edition of the Tiny Book of Tiny Stories 2010 was sold exclusively via HitRecord's website and carries no ISBN. The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1 was released on December 6, 2011. Gordon-Levitt, known within the HitRecord community as RegularJOE, directed thousands of collaborators to tell tiny stories through words and art. With the help of the entire creative collective, Gordon-Levitt gathered, edited and curated over 8,500 contributions into this collection of original art from 67 contributors. Volume 1 saw its sequels when HitRecord released The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 2 on November 13, 2012 and The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 3 in 2013. Volume 2 featured 62 contributors from some 14,946 contributions. In May 2012, HitRecord published Little Red Riding Hood Redux, the adaptation of the classic fairy tale with art, essays, and paper doll cut-outs from 66 contributors. The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1 and the book of RECollection: Volume 1 are both available on iTunes.
Anthology
RECollection: Volume 1 is a collection of a book, a DVD and a CD released on September 20, 2011. It features contributions of 471 collaborators is what and is the very first anthology of HitRecord's work. The book is 64 full-color pages of poetry, prose, paintings, photography, comical curiosities, non-sequiturs, and bed-time stories. While the DVD is a collection of 36 short films created under the direction of Gordon-Levitt. It features short films, animations, music videos, "tiny stories" and records from HitRecord's various live events. The CD is a compilation of 17 collaboratively-made songs sung by various artists on Gordon-Levitt's "pretend" radio show.
