Everything, By Everyone is a film about the Internet. In large part, it’s the story of a website called Newgrounds and the online cultural trends it helped create and drive over the last decade or so. It's also the story of how the web became fun as well as functional and a tool for creative people of all kinds.

Newgrounds is the web’s largest collection of Flash animation and largest collective of Flash animators and its story is very much analogous to the story of the internet. A computer-savvy kid in a basement doing stuff for fun leads to a popular site with millions of visitors, which eventually leads to a successful business and an internet institution. Newgrounds predates YouTube, MySpace and Google. It has existed long enough to have been part of some historically critical years in evolution of a now ubiquitous internet and it’s still going strong. It is the rare example of a website that neither vanished in the dot-com implosion nor was swallowed up by a large corporate interest. Perhaps most importantly, Newgrounds was an early driving force behind the idea that regular people could use the Internet purely for the purposes of entertainment programing. This idea is now universal. A look at the history and evolution of Newgrounds is an opportunity for a discussion of:

• The evolution of online entertainment from basic html to streaming HD video

• The evolution of Flash animation as an artistic medium

• The evolution of online gaming and downloadable content

• The increasing number of creative people who are able to use the tools of the web to make a living doing what they love

• The rise of “user-generated content” sites which provide a forum for people to share things to watch and read and listen to

• The increasing impact of online content on traditional media

• The importance of all forms of independent media

The film will be comprised of interviews and footage of artists, authors, animators, gamers and other persons of interest. Their insights will be interspersed with and illustrated by original animation from online collaborators as well as old favorites from the history of flash and the web. The intent is to create a fun and informative film that is equal parts History Channel and Cartoon Network. To keep tabs on the latest developments, click here.