After directing her first film in London, New Zealander Michelle Hughes found herself asking: "Why limit the footage to five or six filmmakers when we could release it online and let the whole world have access to it?"

Open-source film project Stray Cinema was the result, and over the past year more than 60 filmmakers have taken up the challenge - you can watch the top five in a real-time webcast on 22 August. "I always wonder if someone is going to tell my story - the film I had in mind when I shot the footage. Of the 63 films on our website, no one has yet!"After directing her first film in London, New Zealander Michelle Hughes found herself asking: "Why limit the footage to five or six filmmakers when we could release it online and let the whole world have access to it?"

Open-source film project Stray Cinema was the result, and over the past year more than 60 filmmakers have taken up the challenge - you can watch the top five in a real-time webcast on 22 August. "I always wonder if someone is going to tell my story - the film I had in mind when I shot the footage. Of the 63 films on our website, no one has yet!"During what hours of the day do you feel most inspired?
I am normally inspired when I am relaxed, and not trying to do a million things at once. Hence inspiration usually strikes when I'm walking into town from Newtown in the morning.

How would a good friend describe your aesthetic or style?
Well, here's a quote from my friend Dee yesterday: "Gosh, man, you're wearing your grandma's old skirts? That is so, erm, vintage."

Describe the concept behind Stray Cinema.
It's an open source film. We want people from around the world to download the raw footage from our website, and make their own version of a film from it.

We then ask people to upload the film they have made onto our website to be voted on by our online community. The top five films will be shown alongside the director's [my] edit at the 'real world' screening event on the 21st of this month [August 2007].

Stray Cinema will be an ongoing annual event with a yearly screening in the country the footage originates from - this year the screening is in London.

How did the idea come about?
I directed a film in London in 2005. When I came to Wellington in early 2006, I met with my friend Tom (Goulter), who was going to edit my film, and told him about my idea of sending the raw footage out to five or six other filmmakers to remix. We then asked ourselves: Why limit the footage to five or six filmmakers when we could release it online and let the whole world have access to it? In doing so, we would embrace relevant online goings-on such as open source, file sharing, creative commons licencing, creative communities and many other geeky things.

What aspect of the project has given you the biggest thrill?
Every time there is a new film uploaded to our website I get really excited. I always wonder if someone is going to tell my story - the film I had in mind when I shot the footage. Of the 63 films on our website, no one has yet!

What's the biggest challenge you've faced running Stray Cinema?
Creating and maintaining an online community. It's easy to get people to visit our homepage to have a peek at what we are doing. The challenge is keeping them on the website, coming back and ultimately participating and contributing to the project in one way or another.

People don't just have to make a film to participate, they can contribute music, vote and comment on the films and even provide new footage for the next Stray Cinema.

You trained in performing arts and have worked in promotions and media sales. What led you to running the Stray Cinema project?
When I shot the film in London I did not have an open source film project in mind, I was just going to make one edit with the footage.

At the time I was writing about film for an online art magazine and became really interested in the process of filmmaking and the idea of bringing the audience in on the process, rather than just showing them the finished product. I had also just started up a Myspace page and was turning into a bit of a geek...

Ultimately Stray Cinema was an experiment, combining the open source ethos with filmmaking. I was desperate to know what the outcome would be.

Thanks to internet technology, Stray Cinema is a global project that's accessible to anyone with a computer. In what ways would you like to see that technology develop over the next five years?
My personal view on film sharing is that it is a reflection of a political movement that is happening all across the internet at the moment. The idea of democratising media, and making it accessible for all - or at least more - people to tell their story.

I would like to see more new media and web 2.0 technologies emerge that embrace this idea, and continue to encourage collaboration and discussion between communities of special interest.

How can our readers get involved with the Stray Cinema project?