The notion of democratized communication, and how we exchange information, is evolving at such a speed that it seems strange to think of where we were collectively, even just a few years ago. We are in a completely different era of technology than say, a decade ago; so much so, that the former sentence would have sounded alien in 1999. Democratized communication? Eh? Now it’s taken for granted that every man, woman, and child would have an iPhone (even in the remotest forests of Papua New Guinea you can imagine there is Wi-Fi; Pre-Facebook, pre-YouTube, pre-Twitter – Oh my god, the Stone Age!). Today, we are all filmmakers with our state-of-the-art videophones; all journalists with our own blogs; all record labels with our portable studios and Myspace. Quality control? Forget about it. In essence, all the traditional media are fossilizing in the corner unable to figure out how to make money out of the populace anymore: Rupert Murdoch, Guy Hands, etc. are on a sinking ship and can’t keep up with the only media players still making any money: the Google, Apple, YouTube’s of the world. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just is.
This brings us to an interesting new project being spearheaded by two Hollywood notables (Ridley Scott, and Kevin MacDonald – who directed ‘Last King of Scotland’ and ‘State of Play’). On July 24th, they set the world a challenge to film whatever it is that excites them, only on that day, and send in the clips for the two to make a feature length documentary of their favorite parts – set to air at Sundance next year. This is a YouTube challenge, and one that is an interesting erosion of the boundaries that traditionally set audience and auteur apart. Oh sure, I know what you’re thinking: These will be boring clips of Joe Shmoe gardening, or pretentious wannabe filmmaker shots of light cascading through trees, or the ubiquitous red balloon floating heavenward for an hour, loaded with existentialism and bad college solipsism. Perhaps. Or (you cynics)…this could be a fascinating piece of real life voyeurism that is far more interesting to sit through than the latest big budget Hollywood tripe starring Christian Bale and some blond chick fighting imaginary dragons whilst Mathew McConaughey is constantly taking off his shirt (to better fight dragons, of course). Forget quality control, I’d rather have this YouTube experiment any day. Just spare a thought for the poor bastard who has to edit it.
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