Boomerang

If anyone can turn a social media experiment into a cinematic mosaic of imagination, it’s Paulo Coelho. Arguably best known for his novel The Alchemist, Coelho is an internationally acclaimed author and lyricist who has sold over 100 million books. He may not have the most experience in film making and music composition, but plenty of his fans do. That idea sets the stage for The Experimental Witch Competition, a collaborative film project announced by the beloved Brazilian author last June.  

Coelho’s last novel, The Witch of Portobello, was told from the viewpoint of 15 different characters. For his film competition, Coelho asked filmmakers to choose a character from the book and shoot all of the scenes told from that character’s perspective. Filmmakers are asked to submit their movies via YouTube, while music composers will submit their contributions/theme songs through MySpace. Coelho will work with a professional editor to sew 15 winning films together to recreate the book, and will show the final version in film festivals throughout the world. He communicates this all through his blog. The Experimental Witch is, in essence, an experiment in social media. 

With his unique storytelling style and his passion for the Internet, Coelho is a huge advocate of social media - just check out his website, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube activity! He is also the first best-selling author to support free distribution of his own work online. Some say this makes him an advocate for piracy, but really it’s just about being “with the times” and giving readers what they want. Besides, distributing his work without cost has actually boosted his book sales.  

At the very least, the film will provide contributors, viewers and fans with a new experience and a screen capture of the plurality of interpretations on one of Coelho’s novels. The project, if pulled off successfully, has the potential to illustrate how the countless interpretations of an idea can be seamlessly woven together to illustrate fifteen visions and one story simultaneously. As Coelho states on his blog, it will be a bit of “cinematographic history” – in addition to being a social media experiment on the grandest scale. I just hope it’s as good as the book.