Google's "Meet the You Tube Filmmakers" a pat on the back
...but some people don't deserve an open bar
by Marty Barrett
Google's Santa Monica office hired the art deco El Rey Theatre on L.A.'s Wilshire Blvd. for an informative but decidedly self-congratulatory event celebrating its You Tube user-generated video platform. Things were going just fine - and there was no reason for them not to be - when the critics showed up.
"Meet the You Tube Filmmakers," a catered networking affair culminating with a panel discussion with six directors, focused on You Tube's place as a marketing tool for professionals, even as their content sits a few clicks away from, in an oft-cited example, "Babies farting."
Located on the Miracle Mile, the 1936 El Rey was, like many preserved theatres of that era, a first-run movie house with chandeliers, brocade, and sweeping staircases. Now a trendy bar and live-music venue, the El Rey was an excellent location for this feeling-out session, in which guests opined on the constantly-refreshed dramas of old forms in new media, and how or if the old rules still applied.
Is audience-building a film on You Tube comparable to traditional methods?
"God, Inc."/director: Francis Stokes
Francis Stokes: I wanted an audience. At festivals there were 30 or 40 people in the room.
"my name is lisa"/director: Ben Shelton
"We_Are_The_Strange"/ director M Dot Strange
M Dot Strange: Half the people walked out and wanted their money back.
"In Loving Memory (Jesus Christ)"/director: Javier Prato
Is it a good thing that anyone can be a filmmaker?
Javier Prato: Yes.
Stokes: But the audience must be the determinant.
Each panelist's You Tube output has received hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of views. Strange's "We_Are_The_Strange" has been translated into 17 languages - by You Tube fans. And Strange looks at You Tube as a direct road to his fans, where his work speaks for itself.
"There is no System trying to make you look great," he said.
The filmmakers ran a gamut of bookish to outlandish to South American. There were no women. Each embraced You Tube, and viral distribution systems in general, with varying degrees of hope.
Strange, dressed like Eminem, was the most Riot Grrl of the crowd.
"I am trying to raise the bar," he said. "They (Hollywood) are are getting richer and fatter. And they're getting lazy."
The filmmakers glanced on whether or not creating content (low res, free, generally shorter length) for distribution on You Tube altered the nature of the content, or affected the choices made in creating it, but "Four Eyed Monsters" director Arin Crumley said his project, no less narcissistic and touching for his time than a heyday Woody Allen's work was for his, worked well on the viral screen.
"Four Eyed Monsters"/director: Arin Crumley
Arin Crumley: From a creative perspective it makes most sense to make your stuff and send it to the web, and make it decentralized.
But do You Tube movies generate money? Crumley, who had to take the complete film down from You Tube when he got a deal with the Independent Film Channel, says Yes. But other directors seemed to say the exposure was enough.
Prato, whose "Jesus Christ" short was the only panelist's movie to arrive in the inboxes of everyone I know, espoused a consciousness-raising philosophy that seemed at odds with Christian dogma (as well as horticulture).
"It is a pyramid backwards," he said. "You plant a seed online and it grows into a worldwide sea of information."
But Stokes, who was the first to bring up monetization about 30 minutes into the panel, said he built a Google map of all the zip codes of "lisa"'s subscribers and prevailed on local movie theatres in those zip codes to screen the movie.
The panel was opened up to questions, and this is when it seemed that a few invited guests, all beneficiaries of an open bar and delicious snacks, inexplicably chose to pounce on Google.
The generation that recognizes You Tube's innovation and potential, but has doubts about its usefulness as a "film" platform, is of a different mindset from the generation that has grown up with You Tube and expects the world from a free service.
"Can you identify the commenters?" one angry young man said. "I get a thousand comments on one of my pieces (he said 'pieces') and real criticism is buried under 800 useless, useless comments. Can we ID them so we can bar them?"
A woman who identified herself as an actress seemed unclear on the purpose of the discussion.
"I'm not a techie," she said, wondering at the use of words like "upload" and "decentralize" by the filmmakers. "I am a human being."
"How do I get an audience?" another asked.
"Just say something interesting," Strange replied. He might have added a silent "Duh."
by Marty Barrett
Google's Santa Monica office hired the art deco El Rey Theatre on L.A.'s Wilshire Blvd. for an informative but decidedly self-congratulatory event celebrating its You Tube user-generated video platform. Things were going just fine - and there was no reason for them not to be - when the critics showed up."Meet the You Tube Filmmakers," a catered networking affair culminating with a panel discussion with six directors, focused on You Tube's place as a marketing tool for professionals, even as their content sits a few clicks away from, in an oft-cited example, "Babies farting."
Located on the Miracle Mile, the 1936 El Rey was, like many preserved theatres of that era, a first-run movie house with chandeliers, brocade, and sweeping staircases. Now a trendy bar and live-music venue, the El Rey was an excellent location for this feeling-out session, in which guests opined on the constantly-refreshed dramas of old forms in new media, and how or if the old rules still applied.
Is audience-building a film on You Tube comparable to traditional methods?"God, Inc."/director: Francis Stokes
Francis Stokes: I wanted an audience. At festivals there were 30 or 40 people in the room.
"my name is lisa"/director: Ben Shelton
"We_Are_The_Strange"/ director M Dot Strange
M Dot Strange: Half the people walked out and wanted their money back.
"In Loving Memory (Jesus Christ)"/director: Javier Prato
Is it a good thing that anyone can be a filmmaker?
Javier Prato: Yes.
Stokes: But the audience must be the determinant.
Each panelist's You Tube output has received hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of views. Strange's "We_Are_The_Strange" has been translated into 17 languages - by You Tube fans. And Strange looks at You Tube as a direct road to his fans, where his work speaks for itself."There is no System trying to make you look great," he said.
The filmmakers ran a gamut of bookish to outlandish to South American. There were no women. Each embraced You Tube, and viral distribution systems in general, with varying degrees of hope.
Strange, dressed like Eminem, was the most Riot Grrl of the crowd.
"I am trying to raise the bar," he said. "They (Hollywood) are are getting richer and fatter. And they're getting lazy."
The filmmakers glanced on whether or not creating content (low res, free, generally shorter length) for distribution on You Tube altered the nature of the content, or affected the choices made in creating it, but "Four Eyed Monsters" director Arin Crumley said his project, no less narcissistic and touching for his time than a heyday Woody Allen's work was for his, worked well on the viral screen."Four Eyed Monsters"/director: Arin Crumley
Arin Crumley: From a creative perspective it makes most sense to make your stuff and send it to the web, and make it decentralized.
But do You Tube movies generate money? Crumley, who had to take the complete film down from You Tube when he got a deal with the Independent Film Channel, says Yes. But other directors seemed to say the exposure was enough.
Prato, whose "Jesus Christ" short was the only panelist's movie to arrive in the inboxes of everyone I know, espoused a consciousness-raising philosophy that seemed at odds with Christian dogma (as well as horticulture).
"It is a pyramid backwards," he said. "You plant a seed online and it grows into a worldwide sea of information."
But Stokes, who was the first to bring up monetization about 30 minutes into the panel, said he built a Google map of all the zip codes of "lisa"'s subscribers and prevailed on local movie theatres in those zip codes to screen the movie.
The panel was opened up to questions, and this is when it seemed that a few invited guests, all beneficiaries of an open bar and delicious snacks, inexplicably chose to pounce on Google.
The generation that recognizes You Tube's innovation and potential, but has doubts about its usefulness as a "film" platform, is of a different mindset from the generation that has grown up with You Tube and expects the world from a free service.
"Can you identify the commenters?" one angry young man said. "I get a thousand comments on one of my pieces (he said 'pieces') and real criticism is buried under 800 useless, useless comments. Can we ID them so we can bar them?"A woman who identified herself as an actress seemed unclear on the purpose of the discussion.
"I'm not a techie," she said, wondering at the use of words like "upload" and "decentralize" by the filmmakers. "I am a human being."
"How do I get an audience?" another asked.
"Just say something interesting," Strange replied. He might have added a silent "Duh."
Labels: events, google, los angeles, media, platforms, you tube
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