YouTube
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YOUTUBE ALLOWS DIRECT KICKSTARTER, INDIEGOGO LINKING
Big news for crowdfunders — Google announced today that YouTube videos can now be directly linked to projects on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. (Actually, in Google speak, that’s “Using annotations to help fund your creative projects.”) Given the expansive reach of the user-generated video giant, this means that many more eyeballs will land on projects seeking coin on these platforms. From Google’s announcement: Over the past year, crowdsourced fundraising has exploded as great way to raise money for creative projects. We’ve seen lots of you using platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to fund projects, and we want to make it easier […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 17, 2012 -
We Are All Auteurs: YouTube’s Channels of Reality
In his prescient 1967 essay “The Death of the Author,” theorist Roland Barthes celebrated the birth of the reader at the expense of the death of the author: “Once the Author is removed, the claim to decipher a text becomes quite futile. To give a text an Author is to impose a limit . . . to close the writing.” Coming during the expressive, anti-authoritarian energy of the counterculture, Barthes’ essay served as a manifesto for a democratic impulse that would transform the readers, in fact, into the creators of the text. This was also an era of radical experiments […]
by Nicholas Rombes on Apr 17, 2012 -
Kony 2012, Viral Videos, and Documentary Ethics
In case you haven’t seen it, here’s Kony 2012, the half-hour documentary by the organization Invisible Children that’s swept the Internet this week. It’s about Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has been terrorizing the region around northern Uganda for a quarter century; a particular emphasis is on Kony’s notorious practice of kidnapping children and forcing them into military service. The film was posted on YouTube last Monday, and as of this writing it’s chalked up 62,172,848 views. Those kinds of numbers are impressive, and the people at Invisible Children, including director Jason Russell and two other American filmmakers who […]
by Randy Astle on Mar 10, 2012 -
MEDIA CURRENT: YOUR TV FUTURE
Internet Video (IV) will play an increasingly important role in the distribution of independent “film.” Even for the few who still shoot, edit and distribute on 16mm or 35mm stock, your future – if only for marketing and promotion — is tied to the digital 1s and 0s that are redefining media and communications. IV distribution is restructuring release “windows” and revenue recoupment. Revenue opportunities through DVD sales are shrinking; the TV market (with the exception of HBO, PBS and some made-fors) is evaporating; international commitments are tougher to snag; and the once higher mark-up on educational sales is a thing […]
by David Rosen on Dec 21, 2011 -
MEDIA CURRENT: NEWS & ANALYSIS FOR INDIE MAKERS
Indie-Current is a monthly heads-up tracking developments effecting the indie film scene. It’s a big — and forever getting bigger – world out there, so readers are encouraged to e-mail me stories I’ve missed or something you believe is important for others in the indie community. I can be reached at drosennyc@verizon.net. * * * Occupy Wall Street rocks To shouts of “We Are the 99%,” the Occupy Wall Street movement is spreading throughout the country and the world. Indeed, the whole world is watching. FCC latest scam On October 27th the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a plan to reform the […]
by David Rosen on Nov 2, 2011 -
Week Six at the Edit Center
On Monday we watch the famous f*ck scene from The Wire. In the past I have seen this scene used as an example of great writing, great directing and great acting. It seems to be a quintessential teaching scene. If you don’t know what I am talking about, you can see it below. We also watch a sequence from Unzipped, the documentary that follows the fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi (1995, edited by Alan Oxman, cinematography by Ellen Kuras, who went on to shoot a long list of films including Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless mind). Its lyrical look, pacing and […]
by Alix Lambert on Oct 24, 2011 -
HIGH SCHOOL SPIES ON YOUTUBE
Via Mashable comes notice of Agents of Secret Stuff, a slickly-shot, 35-minute high school spy comedy film by Wong Fu Productions. After only a week or so, the group’s latest film has been seen by 2.3 million people on YouTube. Here’s Wang talking about the picture: Written in a couple days, the 35-minute movie was shot in one intense week this past summer. Drawing from the talents of a few dedicated friends, the crew was no bigger than 10 and was usually just the three of us from Wong Fu Productions (WFP), plus the actors. There was no big budget, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 28, 2010 -
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS
Here are a few articles, links and videos that caught my eye this week: The shape of documentaries to come may be revealed by Prison Valley, which won the second FRANCE24-Radio France International Web Documentary Award last week. From France 24’s article about the new media doc by David Dufresne and Philippe Brault: Created by David Dufresne and Philippe Brault, the striking multimedia production takes viewers to the heart of Canon City, “a distant place that is home to 36,000 souls and 13 prisons.” Produced by the French company Upian and distributed by Arte.tv, Prison Valley, is an interactive journey […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 5, 2010 -
“NIGHT AND FOG” IT AIN’T
When I was sent a link to this video today I was initially sure it was a bad-taste put-on. It’s not. “I Will Survive: Dancing Auschwitz” is apparently exactly what it purports to be: a Holocaust survivor and his family dancing at several concentration camps to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” Reaction to the clip has been mixed. Buzzfeed calls it “the most heartwarming Holocaust memorial ever displayed.” At Haaretz, the filmmaker defends her clip. From their piece: Australian Jewish artist Jane Korman filmed her three children and her father, 89-year-old Holocaust survivor Adolk, in the video clip “I Will […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 13, 2010 -
SUBMISSIONS OPEN FOR YOUTUBE PLAY EXHIBIT AT GUGGENHEIM
Want to have your work featured among the likes of Warhol, van Gogh and Picasso? The Guggenheim Museum and YouTube have partnered to develop a contest to uncover what they call the “most creative video content in the world.” 20 videos will be selected for a special exhibition at the Guggenheim in October entitled YouTube Play. The submissions will be evaluated by an expert jury in the fields of art, design, film and video. Submission deadline is July 31, go to the Youtube Play channel to learn more.
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 9, 2010
