Former LCD Soundsystem mastermind James Murphy has signed on to helm a short film as part of Canon's Project Imaginat10n campaign, which will feature a whole slew of celebrity amateur auteurs creating their own shorts based on a selection of still pictures that anyone at home can upload to the Project Imaginat10n website. 

Those stills will then be narrowed down through online voting and a selection process involving director Ron Howard, who is acting as a mentor on the project. The final picks will be used as source material by the celebrities to establish such themes as mood, setting and back story for their short movies -- a process that Murphy is glad will be taken care of.

"The cool thing is that I don't have to do the existential task of asking myself, like, 'What am I going to direct?'" he tells Pitchfork. "It's based on a bunch of pictures, like 10, that people send in. I get to pick them from a narrowed-down list."

"I don't feel that weird feeling where I'm trying to convince myself that the company's OK," continues Murphy, a self-described "Canon Dude." "I'm genuinely like, 'Oh! I have 11 Canon cameras already.' That made it easier. Plus, I just like having a deadline, because you can say 'I want to direct something' your whole life and never do it."

Murphy will begin production on his film early next year with a premiere scheduled later in 2013. In the meantime, he's looking forward to reaching out to Ron Howard for help. "Maybe I'll have his phone number on my iPhone and I'll just be like, 'Ron! I need to eat some sushi! Where do I go?'" he jokes.

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