The line stretched from the doors of the Cantor Film Center, around the corner and south down University Place. Dominated by desiccated Subway wrappers, blankets and — of course — females, the crowd was an unusual sight on the normally free-flowing street.

A woman, passing by after a day of shopping, stopped to ask who or what everyone was waiting for. Giggling fangirls exchanged knowing smiles.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt had come to NYU to speak about his website and production company hitRECord.org. The actor, best known for his work on “3rd Rock From the Sun” and “10 Things I Hate About You,” has become a star in the past year after starring in “(500) Days of Summer” and the mind-bending blockbuster “Inception.”

Gordon-Levitt’s site functions as a vibrant online community of artists who operate in dozens of different mediums to “remix” the work of others into completely new pieces. Members can browse the uploaded work of thousands of their peers and transform those files into entirely new works. The most ambitious projects evolve into short films, many of which Gordon-Levitt contributes to.

When the NYU Program Board announced they were bringing the star to campus, anticipation quickly mounted.

“This is the biggest speaker we’ve hosted in a while,” said Caitlin Miller, the Program Board’s Lectures Committee chair. “There were 275 tickets available, and they sold out in an hour and a half.”

The night had been billed as an evening of “live RECording” and Gordon-Levitt panned the crowd with a handheld camcorder. Peering out at the room from behind a pair of thick-framed glasses, he opened with distinctly progressive rhetoric fit for the NYU crowd.

“I think culture likes to pigeonhole us these days,” he said. “They say you have to be an actor, a musician or a filmmaker or a painter … You can only be one thing, and I don’t think that’s true.”

Just outside, Mark Johnson, creative director of hitRECord.org, waited with three laptops. Those in attendance could upload pictures and video from the event, with the goal to create an instantaneous art project from the evening’s events.

Gordon-Levitt delved into a short question-and-answer session, conducted with a techie twist. A slideshow asked the audience questions like “What is the difference between pop culture and art?” and “How do you feel about somebody remixing your work?” Responses were sent immediately to Twitter, and Gordon-Levitt used the best tweets to fuel a discussion about the current state of art.

“The Q-and-A was by far the most effective part of his presentation,” Tisch junior Michael Ren said. “That was when he connected best with the audience.”

“I didn’t want to just work within the Hollywood industry,” Gordon-Levitt said. “I wanted to open the projects I’m doing to anyone who can contribute.” He hoped that NYU students would answer the call.

Some of the company’s more finished films were screened for the audience, such as “Morgan M. Morgansen’s Date with Destiny,” a tantalizing mix of animation, live action and dynamic narration from Gordon-Levitt himself.

The bulk of the evening was devoted to discussing the website.

“It started to feel like a pitch,” Ren admitted. “I felt a bit disconnected toward the end.”

Absent from the event was some of Gordon-Levitt’s signature buoyancy; this was not the actor who literally bounced off the walls on “Saturday Night Live” or played laser tag with Jimmy Fallon.

But despite the lecture-like atmosphere, several students came away with an interest in joining the site. “I didn’t know much about it before,” Tisch senior Sam Reese said. “But now I’m definitely interested in remixing some of his stuff. I’ll throw [some work] up there and see what happens.”

LSP freshman Roya Shariat, who had arrived hours early to guarantee a front row seat, also said she liked the presentation.

“The site is a very cool concept,” she said. “It’s so interactive and very collaborative. It’s so much better than anything else out there.”

As for Gordon-Levitt, he hopes that one day the site will be able to produce larger projects, like a feature-length movie.

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, November 22 print edition. Kfkayla Epstein is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected]