In one of my previous posts I talked about the future of film-making and how easy it is to get started nowadays. Any one with a home video camera and a PC can make a film.
Well, it is even easier than that, because any one with a mobile phone (with camera that can take video) can make a short film clip and display it all over the world via YouTube in a matter of seconds. This is an incredible phenomenon.
In essence, it’s almost like we have been transported back to the late 1970s. Rock music had become overblown and self indulgent and entrance into the music industry had become quite difficult for up and coming bands. What happened? Punk. Kids getting together and forming bands in garages, learning instruments, rehearsing, and playing any venue they could get into. They maybe didn’t have the musical skills of the older, more established bands but they made up for it in raw energy. Pubs and clubs opened up to showcase this new breed of rock. There was an punk explosion of talent that gave the music industry a shot in the arm.
This is what I see with YouTube. People who previously had not thought about making films are now making their own films and clips and sharing with their friends and the rest of the world via this incredible conduit - YouTube. There is a lot of rubbish on YouTube granted but you can also see the work of fledgling film makers in their mini epics that have been cleverly realized.
You see fantastic ideas put on screen in 10 minute format. One clip that hit the UK national news was a film taken on their mobile phone by a person whilst they were skiing down an escalator in a London Underground station. Interesting but dangerous. I looked on YouTube today and found two contrasting but very interesting presentations. The first one was the latest in a series called “Cube News”. Basically, “Cube News” is news for “cube dwellers” ie the office workers of today and is a humorous and irreverent look at life in today’s offices presented by a good-looking and feisty female. It is presented in a news programme format inside a “cube” and deals with all of the annoyances and frustrations surrounding working in a “cube”. The second was more of a documentary called “Heavy Metal in Baghdad” filmed using only a hand held video camera. In a series of films, the story traces the progress of two independent music executives trying to film Iraq’s only heavy metal band. But what you get is an insight into what life is actually like in Baghdad at the moment, something you would never get from traditional news publishers. A real eye opener!
YouTube also provides the ability for you to search through videos. For instance, I am a Scunthorpe United follower. So, I can search for all of the videos posted about Scunthorpe United. You can keep up to date with clips from terrestrial TV, camera phone and video at the press of a button.
This is a breeding ground for the next generation of film makers I’m sure. YouTube has millions of hits every week. Many more people watch clips on this site than go to the cinema. Short films of odd and strange events attract hundreds of thousands of visitors. I suppose the beauty of it is that the audience don’t have to pay for the privilege of seeing these masterpieces to get a couple of hours worth of entertainment.
I have no doubt that there is any army of Hollywood executives watching YouTube scouring for talent, getting ideas for movies and using it as a marketing device for their multi million dollar product. It is already plain to see that major studios plant their trailers on YouTube to gauge market reaction.
YouTube is an incredible facility. It allows any one regardless of whether they have any money, or whether they know the right people to make their own films and have them viewed across the world. Individual expression now has a global outlet.
In the next post I will look at whether YouTube is being abused.
