Hit Record, Just Once

HitRecord

The Google Now feature on my phone knows me too well.  Without any solicitation or searching I found an update (advertising? can it be called advertising if it’s absolutely right.  Isn’t that more like curating?) telling me about a show called ‘HitRecord On TV’. Which normally when Google Now sends me info about a show, it’s one that I already watch, and I’m grateful for it reminding me that there’s a new episode coming soon, but this was not a show I had seen or heard about in the slightest.  In fact I almost swiped it away, thinking my device had finally made a mistake in attempting to keep me informed.  That is until I saw the familiar face of one Joseph Gordon Levitt smiling from the image.

HitRecord was a project Joseph Gordon Levitt started in 2005 with his brother (2010 it became a full blown legit business).  To take a hundred dollar concept and simplify it down to a 5 dollar description, essentially it’s a site where artist can collaborate and offer their work to be produced in all types of mediums.  They’ve made short films, books, records, you name it, and it’s all handled through their site (http://www.hitrecord.org/).  That sounds like a great simple idea, until you really wrap your head around all the possible moving parts of a production company with an open door policy managing creative entities for the internet; as in the whole internet.  When you fully grasp that you realize this is super impressive and absurdly ambitious endeavor.

This all culminates to the TV show I had been directed towards by my smartphone.  ’HitRecord On TV’ released its first official episode for free on Youtube yesterday, and with it brought all the ambitious vigor the website originated with.  For all the moving parts, bells and whistles, the show is masterfully edited together.  Is it a bit twee?  Sure, but it’s sincere in its earnestness.  More importantly Joseph Gordon Levitt seems sincere in his eagerness to share all these talented people with the world.  With all these devices, networks, and apps that were supposed to bring us together, actually creating more space between us, it’s a project like this that seems to shrink that space back down.  The song at the end of the first episode created via hundreds of collaborators (I told you it was a bit twee, but in a good way) really is a great intro to the project as a whole, making the episode itself a bit more like a prologue, but a prologue you should definitely read (watch).  About six months ago I found Jerry Seinfeld’s ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee’ which I love, and I can say with all the earnestness and sincerity of JGL, ‘HitRecord On TV’ is the best thing I’ve seen on the internet since. I feel like the beginning of the internet was like throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.  I think we’re finally hitting a phase where the content is truly being thought out and well produced and ‘HitRecord’ personifies that ideal.  The show will be airing on Pivot TV, but if you’re looking to catch the first episode you can watch it right here:

 

Matt Cargile

About Matt Cargile

Matt Cargile is the Editor in Chief of rookerville.com. He also works in finance, but refuses to read any news printed on pink paper. He is a child at heart with adult means. His childhood dream was to either become a magician or the leader of the next great empire and somehow both these things make complete sense. He's contradictory in nature, but is always consistent.

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