Inception and (500) Days of Summer actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt started the hitRECord project five years ago, which has since evolved into an open collaboration production company. Anyone can join hitRECord, which runs in the form of a social network. It’s not as intuitive as Twitter or Facebook, but after spending the better part of the evening on it posting “records”, I’m able to understand how it operates.

Basically, anyone can post content. Audio, video, pictures, text – you name it. Another user can download the content and build upon it: they can download your song and then put images over it, making a video. You list the “resources” where you pulled the content from which are visible. The content is called a “record”.

This summer, hitRECord is hosting a Summer in the City series @ Pianos NYC where they showcase short films made by hitRECord members and otherwise impromptu readings and jamming. The first show was hosted last Monday with two more on the 30th of August and the 6th of September. Speaking of which, anyone can create “collaborations”, a project where they give some information about what they’re looking for and invite other members to post. The Summer in the City series has various collaboration pages.

Yesterday after having no damn idea what was going on, I figured how the collaborations worked and today I created song versions of “tiny stories” posted by other members. I also wrote and recorded a song about Summer in the City and the hitRECord production company in general, which I included in the collaborations pages. You can listen to my song HERE.

All in all, hitRECord is a load of fun. A bit difficult to navigate at times and the editing options are not apparent (you have to click on a little gear image on the side to edit), but otherwise it’s worth it. It’s an artist’s dream – collaborate, no matter the distance, with anyone.

You can check out some more of my “records” HERE.

Thoughts?