Joseph Gordon-Levitt's collaborative Internet project, HitRecord, is now a TV series. The actor released the video on YouTube, and announced the first episode on Reddit yesterday.
The first episode, which revolved around the theme "The Number One", had the vibe of an entertaining, but artsy variety show. It consisted of several collaborations stitched together to make up one cohesive concept. Highlights included a short film called "First Stars I See Tonight" that featured actress Elle Fanning. "One Living Organism" was a series of ideas rolled into one, while "One Song" was a cartoon about music and silence. The show ended a song called "You're Not The Only One" performed by Gordon-Levitt and his collaborators.
The show mostly got great feedback from Reddit's Netizens. There were some who refused to make an early judgement or didn't like the idea at all. One comment stated, "I watched the YouTube video. It was interesting but I'm going to score as a concept-in-progress, but not quite a success. Good luck with it, Joe." Another said, "This show's presentation is really douchy and kind of obnoxious."
However, most of the feedback on the actor's thread turned out to be positive. One commenter gushed, "After watching this... I have to say this has been the most incredible thing I have ever seen. If this isn't the most inspiring, unique, amazing display of harmony then there is no such thing. The sheer brilliance of the concept is so simple, but done in a way that it is almost magical. I can't say how impressed and genuinely happy this made me. Thank you a million times over JGL & collaborators."
Another said, "I know I got to this party late, but I wanted to share: At first I was extremely skeptical of this entire hit record project, but I was at least curious and willing to give it a try. I didn't get what the point of all the 'open door' and 'collaborative' jazz was all about, and didn't get why so many seemed so excited for this show, or Hitrecord in general. It took me halfway through the animated 1 song piece to finally get it. Here I was, watching this bizarre, unique, and wholly entertaining cartoon about different genres of music uniting to defeat a monster of silence. Here was a pure piece of art, made from 500+ contributors that I would have otherwise never seen, heard of, or enjoyed. I get it now, and am both humbled and inspired."
Gordon-Levitt invited fans on his Facebook page to ask him questions over on Reddit and he stayed to answer questions on the thread. On the future of HitRecord, the actor said, "I think we could eventually be making additional television shows, feature films, documentaries. I wanna continue making books, touring, etc. The future is bright, the best is yet to come.."
HitRecord on TV will debut on the Pivot channel on January 18. The show will also be available through online streaming on iTunes and Amazon.
Founded by Gordon-Levitt in 2004, HitRecord is an open collaborative company that uses the power of the Internet to produce music, video, stories, art, photography, and other projects. The online community has produced three books (the Tiny Book of Tiny Stories series), an anthology DVD, and three short films.
