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Woman in water by raft

CROWDSOURCED CAST AWAY AT-HOME VIEWING GUIDE 

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Watch Crowdsourced Cast Away on your local community media channel!

Friday October 23 at 8PM | Sunday October 25 at 7PM

 

Building a Vermont Story from the Original Film

The original 2000 American drama Cast Away was directed and produced by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, and Nick Searcy. The film depicts the desperate attempt of Hanks, who plays a FedEx employee, to survive and return home after stranded on an uninhabited island due to an aircraft crash in the South Pacific. 

Social isolation, worries about survival, and whether one can ever return to the normalcy of life... all these themes sound like life during the COVID-19 pandemic. We Vermonters, like many others on the planet, can feel like castaways. However, we are not on a strange island, but at our own home. Capitalizing on this familiar strangeness, community members across Vermont produced scenes of their own that have been assembled into a remake of the film. Crowdsourced Cast Away showcases the natural beauty of Vermont, combined with the creativity and ingenuity of  Vermonters. 

Crowdsourced Cinema VT is a project of the Vermont Access Network, an organization of 25 regional community media access centers operating more than 80 cable channels statewide.

 

“Along came the VT Crowdsource Cinema project, which was the perfect project, at the perfect time.” – Donna Girot, Executive Director, CATV

Two people building the animated sequence for Christmas Dinner

Still from "Christmas Dinner" photo courtesy Stealing from Work.

 

Make it a Watch Party (even if you are on your own!)

You can’t watch a movie without food or a drink! So, we have found a few recipes that are island-inspired for you to enjoy, see below!

BINGO BOARD

We have also created a Bingo Board for you to fill out while watching the movie! Keep an eye out for each unique character, prop, or scene!

bingo board with Crowdsourced Cast Away trivia

Crowdsourced Cast Away Fun Facts

  • 36 teams from across VT and NH
  • 8 Remote Filmmaking trainings for teams
  • 39 scenes produced
  • 5 musical compositions created by VT  artists
  • 9 scenes featuring Wilson the Volleyball
  • More than 100 people contributed to the making of this film!
Chuck holds a smoking piece of wood, excited to have started a fire

Still from "Birth of Wilson," photo courtesy Leif Goldberg.

 

“I’m a radio programmer for WBTV-LP and doing video work has been a great extension of my skills”  - Cindy Marcelle, WBTV-LP Community Programmer

“Most of my students are from different schools and setting and setting out to be creative with strangers can be a challenge. Having this scene to work on provided my students with a chance to meet and work on something creative…”
- Jason Raymond, Digital Media Lab Instructor, Burlington Technical Center

On the set of the Plane Home, director Jude Domski coaches two masked actors

Still from "Plane Home," photo provided by Jude Domski.

Thanks to the following organizations who made Crowdsourced Cinema VT a reality
 

  • Brattleboro Community TV
  • Community Access Television
  • Lake Champlain Access Television
  • Media Factory
  • Middlebury Community Television
  • Mt. Mansfield Community Television
  • Northampton Open Media
  • Northwest Access TV
  • Vermont Access Network

 

Viewing guide developed by the UVM Public Communications - Communications Action Team