Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a digital age DIY Dick Clark

From his early days on television, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was extraordinary… as in extra-terrestrial. In his role on NBC’s sitcom “3rd Rock from the Sun,” he portrayed an alien visiting Earth named Tommy Solomon. Among other hijinx, Solomon ultimately discovers he is Jewish, a joke within a joke that teased out his actual offscreen identity.

Over the years, his award-winning career has been packed with hits, including the feature films “Beethoven” and “A River Runs Through It.” More recently, he wrote, starred in and directed “Don Jon.” These days, Gordon-Levitt is once again pioneering far-out terrain. In his new project HitRECord, the multi-talented JGL wears multiple hats as actor, director and producer.

That’s not all he is producing. JGL became a father upon the birth of his first child with wife Tasha McCauley last month.

Now on Netflix, the cutting-edge crowdsourced series “HitRECord On TV” is a fantastical, no-holds barred, nearly psychedelic variety show, with sometimes MTV-like split-second editing.

When hosting, Gordon-Levitt holds a selfie stick instead of a microphone, with the camera sometimes cutting to that feed. Orbiting around an individual theme, each episode consists of contributions from online participants, as curated by JGL as director.

The viral wonder of episode 1, which aired January 2014 and netted more than 1 million views, has turned JGL into a new kind of digital age DIY Dick Clark. HitRECord landed a 66th Emmy Award for social TV experience and Outstanding Creative Achievement in interactive media.

JGL initially began the experimental concept in 2004 as a collaborative production company online with his late brother Dan, who died in 2010. Often stylized as hitREC●rd, the project has released content since 2005, including short films screened at the Sundance Film Festival, books and DVDs. It evolved into a variety show on the cable channel Pivot television in January 2014, monetizing with marketing on Amazon and iTunes. This summer it made the leap to Netflix.

Anyone with an Internet connection may contribute

The premiere episode, which contains a stunning short film about a sight-impaired young woman’s adventure with night vision goggles, remains available on YouTube. Via the link, viewers also subscribe to alerts on new episodes and what the project terms “requests for collaboration.” Anyone with an Internet connection may contribute.

Once a post is established online, members can take each other’s work and remix it — adding music, animation or just creating something new based on the idea and add their own “record.”

“Having someone take creative liberty with what I’ve done, it’s just fascinating,” JGL told Time. “It’s like, ‘Wow they really got it.’ Or they didn’t get it. You can really tell, based on the art that they make. Much more than what the box office was.”

Each TV episode is produced with a budget of $50,000 and blends content from multiple users and performers. Just as when he hosts live shows, when the TV show begins, JGL urges audiences with an anti-anti-piracy call to arms: “Please turn all recording devices on.” Each opening credit reveals relevant stats on the collaboration, which are also listed under each member’s profiles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nShXkbeXkNA

Participants and JGL post requests for collaborations in every genre, including graphics and special effects animation. The results are mind-boggling. The site is constantly creating and releasing new collaborative content online and even compensates contributors. Since January 2010, they have collectively earned more than $1 million.

On TV, participants sometimes take to the stage to perform their work before a live audience. And even JGL joins in, sometimes rocking out on a drum kit, sometimes singing in otherwise ridiculous videos released on YouTube that showcase his R&B pipes.

The project always lists contributors by their onscreen logins, including JGL as “RegularJOE,” whose own stats are staggering, with 11 featured out of a total 1796 records, 176 albums, 265 collaborations and 6448 recommendations at the time this article went to press.

And just as on the site, JGL shares his point of view on the show’s themes for each TV episode. When exploring feminism, JGL asks, “What does feminism mean to you?”

He invites collaborators to share their views and add their own content to existing projects, with storylines, music, photographs, video and more.

In 2011, Time magazine’s Joel Stein took the crowdsourcing online to create a hitRECord style profile of JGL, which the site’s online users helped create.

Among its products are “The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1” and “RECollection: Volume 1,” a combination book, DVD and CD released September, 2011 on iTunes. The forthcoming Season 2 includes a wide variety of themes.

However, as evident on the site and in collaboration credits, HitRECord has developed a loyal following of creative devotees.

‘More than a company, it’s like a family, and more than a family I daresay it’s like the mafia of art’

“More than a company, it’s like a family, and more than a family I daresay it’s like the mafia of art,” hitRECord user “DeeAsHerself” commented on the site during the making of Stein’s profile on JGL. “You join, you learn how it works, you start RECording, and when you’re done, you can’t leave.”

Another contributor, “Ess,” a short-story writer added, “The most valuable thing that you get on the site is honest feedback. You can skip the fees for that writer’s workshop and avoid the sweaty palms and embarrassment at open mic night at that dive bar.”