WebProNews

Tag: YouTube

  • YouTube Ups Upload Limit to 15 Minutes Per Video

    YouTube announced today that it has extended the upload limit to 15 minutes for all users. It was 10 minutes before. If you’ve tried to upload one in the past that was rejected for length, but would qualify now, you’ll have delete it from "My Videos" and do it again.

    "We want YouTube to be the best place to upload video," says YouTube upload and video management product manager Joshua Siegel. "Without question, the number one requested feature by our creators is to upload videos longer than 10 minutes."

    YouTube Upload Time Increased

    Additionally, he says YouTube has spent significant resources on creating and improving its ContentID system and other tools for copyright owners.

    "Now, all of the major U.S. movie studios, music labels and over 1,000 other global partners use Content ID to manage their content on YouTube," says Siegel. "Because of the success of these ongoing technological efforts, we are able to increase the upload limit today. We will continue our strong commitment to provide advanced technology and tools to protect the rights of small and large copyright owners worldwide. We’ll also do everything we can to release incremental improvements like this one that benefit our video creators."

    If you tag your videos with "yt15minutes" and upload it by August 4, YouTube may select it to feature on the YouTube homepage.

  • Which Sites Drive the Most Referral Traffic?

    John Pozadzides of the Web analytics company Woopra wrote a guest post for ReadWriteWeb looking at the web’s top sources of referral traffic. He breaks it down in to the following categories: social network, social bookmark, search, and media.

    Six versions of Google top the list for search before Bing makes an appearance. Facebook takes the cake in social networks, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn. In the social bookmark category, StumbleUpon leads, and in media, it’s YouTube.

    Mashable’s Jolie O’Dell reports that a court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia has demanded a Russian ISP block access to YouTube because it hosted what it says is an extremist video. The Internet Archive and three online libraries were also reportedly blocked. As O’Dell points out, a number of other countries have also blocked access to YouTube at different times.

    The New York Times reports that the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would effectively legalize online poker and other nonsports betting, overturning a 2006 federal ban.

    Pocket-lint reports that Amazon claims ebook sales will overtake paperbacks next year. It’s a pretty astonishing notion, but not too hard to believe considering that Amazon recently announced that ebook sales have overtaken hardback sales.

    Mobile Crunch has pointed out that RIM has purchased the domain BlackPad.com, speculating that a long-rumored BlackBerry tablet could be called the BlackPad.

    News surfaced yesterday that a directory containing personal details of over 100 million Facebook users has surfaced on a file-sharing site. BBC News spoke to the man responsible who says he harvested the info for a security tool.

    Back in early May, it was discovered that Google had invested in something called Recorded Future. Now Wired reports that the CIA is involved as well, in the company that monitors the web predicts the future.

    Facebook launched the long-awaited Questions feature yesterday (in beta). Search Engine Land has a detailed walkthrough of the feature.

    According to Ben Patterson at Yahoo News, citing information from Courant.com, U.S. libraries are loaning more DVDs on a daily basis than Netflix and Redbox are renting them. This make sense given that many libraries offer free DVD loans, and cheap prices on new releases.

  • Buick Taps Facebook, Twitter And YouTube To Promote Regal

    GM is working on a campaign to promote its 2011 Buick Regal and has launched a website called "Moment of Truth."

    GM promises its Moment of Truth site will include all reviews and consumer opinions no matter if they are negative or positive.

    "We are inviting consumers to find out on their own that Regal is a true performance sedan and worthy of their consideration," said Craig Bierley, Buick advertising director. 

     

    Buick-Regal

     

    "We are making it easy for the consumer to get unbiased opinions in one online location."

    Moment of Truth will pull in content from a variety of social media sources and give users the ability to share via social networks.  It includes YouTube videos, Flickr photos, comments from Buick’s Regal tab on Facebook, tweets from Twitter, as well as automotive reviews and blogs. Anyone can be a contributor to Moment of Truth by sharing their stories related to the Regal and posting them online.

    Other elements of the Buick Regal advertising campaign started earlier this month in unconventional and traditional outlets. The campaign continues to build on advertising outreach that Buick started with the LaCrosse launch last year.
     

     

  • Logitech Launches Contest to Find Help Promoting Google TV Device

    Logitech Launches Contest to Find Help Promoting Google TV Device

    Logitech has started a contest to promote Google TV, the upcoming service for which Logitech is a launch partner. The contest is called "Host with the Most", and asks if "you have what it takes to be a ‘host with the most’ for Logitech Revue with Google TV?"

    Logitech Revue is the company’s set-top box that will help the Google TV service launch (alongside TVs and Blu-ray players from Sony).

    Logitech Revue with Google TV

    The contest is looking for a "social media rock star" to help promote the device. Google’s YouTube is pretty excited about it (as the device will no doubt bring a great deal more YouTube video watching to living rooms). You can read the official rules here, but YouTube Product Marketing Manager Peter Sherman sums it up nicely:

    If you can prove that you are a true social influencer with a passion for the new universe of TV and video that Google TV will offer, Logitech may select you to become a Logitech host and pay you to spend time in one of their lofts in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco. Your mission will be to host a bunch of parties, show off the technology, and spread the word through your social circles.

    Naturally, YouTube is encouraging its users to nominate themselves.

    NewTeeVee looks at a new report from iSuppli, which finds that Internet TV is more popular than 3-D TV. That could mean good things for Google and all of its Google TV launch partners.

  • British Royal Family Launches Flickr Account

    The British Royal Family has launched a photo account on Flickr.

    The British Monarchy Flickr accounts features up to date images of royal engagements and archive photographs from the Royal Photograph Collection.

    In addition to contemporary images of The Queen and Members of the Royal Family at work, the Flickr account features historic photographs from current Royal Collection exhibitions at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle and on loan to museums and galleries around the UK. They include masterpieces of early British photography collected by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

     

    Royal-Family

     

    The Flickr launch follows the launch of the new Royal website and the British Monarchy Twitter account in 2009 and the Royal Channel on YouTube in 2007.

    Highlights of the Flickr account include:

    A "Latest news and diary" gallery showing the latest photographs from royal engagements.
    – Collections from The Queen’s recent visit to Canada and New York, and Holyrood Week.
    – A "Queen and Commonwealth" section, which includes pictures of Royal visits to Commonwealth realms and related engagements.

    At launch there are over 600 photographs, and this number will increase as the Flickr account is updated with photos from Royal engagements and events.
     

     

  • You Have Until the End of the Day to Do Something Interesting for YouTube

    Today is "Life In a Day" day. "Life in a Day" is a documentary project being put together by Ridley Scott, Kevin Macdonald, and the YouTube Community.

    "What are you doing today? Something routine like cooking breakfast or taking the dog for a walk? Or is it something extraordinary like your child’s first soccer game or your wedding day?" asks YouTube, describing the project. "Whatever it is, big or small, we hope you’ll capture it on video and take part in ‘Life in a Day,’ a user-generated documentary that will tell the story of a single day on Earth, as seen through your eyes."

    YouTube users have until 11:59 pm local time to film something for submission. The most "compelling" submissions will be selected for inclusion in the final film.

    There is an FAQ page here that gives most of the details you’d probably want to know. It will be interesting to see just how compelling this day turned out to be, once the project is finished.

  • Google Exec Speaks Of YouTube, “Imminent Profitability”

    Beyond Google’s second-quarter earnings report, there was bad news and semi-good news for the company’s shareholders this week.  The bad: YouTube, almost four years after Google spent $1.65 billion on it, still hasn’t turned a profit.  The good (if you believe it): the site is supposed to be in the black before long.

    According to Paul Kedrosky, Google executive Nikesh Arora said at the Fortune Brainstorm conference yesterday, "YouTube is on the verge of imminent profitability."

    Of course, very important people representing Google and YouTube have promised time and time again that the site will be profitable, and they’ve occasionally hinted at almost immediate timeframes while they’re at it.  This may not be any different.

    Then one other problem is that the phrase "on the verge of imminent" (to which Kedrosky responded, "Wazzat?") implies YouTube is more than a single step away from becoming profitable.

    Still, Arora holds the title "President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development," which should put him in the thick of things; not a lot of folks are likely to have a better idea of what YouTube’s advertising efforts have accomplished and where they’re headed.

    As a result, Google fans can perhaps continue to hope that YouTube will cross a financial threshold in the near future.

  • YouTube Teams Up with ABC Station to Offer Local News from Citizens

    Last month, reports came out that YouTube had a "top secret news experiment" in the works, which would involve citizen journalism and "going local in San Francisco." This was played down as simply a version of YouTube Direct.

    Now, YouTube has come out and announced that it is indeed participating in an experiment in citizen reporting in the Bay Area. YouTube is teaming up with the local ABC station, ABC7 (KGO-TV) to launch ABC7 uReport. And yes, ABC7 will use YouTube Direct to collect its news footage from people in the region.

    UReport from ABC7 and YouTube - Citizen Journalism in San Francisco

    "Though YouTube is a global site, it’s often local videos that are most relevant to your life," says YouTube News Manager Olivia Ma. "When people use camcorders and mobile phones to capture newsworthy events in their neighborhoods and upload them to YouTube, they’re broadening the window into our own communities. For example, in the San Francisco Bay Area (where YouTube is based), we’ve seen several YouTube videos inform local news coverage, from the snapping of support cables on the Bay Bridge, to the shooting of Oscar Grant by an Oakland police officer, to fights breaking out on Muni, the local bus system."

    YouTube and ABC7 are encouraging residents of the Bay Area to submit their news videos to the producers via YouTube Direct. ABC7 will then feature the ones deemed newsworthy on TV, their uReport site, and on their YouTube channel.

    It will be interesting to see if this experiment is a success and if we will see such partnerships in more cities.

  • YouTube Selects YouTube Play Jurors (Including Darren Aronofsky)

    YouTube has just unveiled the jury for YouTube Play, which was announced last month. The project features over 6,000 videos from 69 countries. The YouTube Play Channel had had over 2 million views.

    The jury includes musician Laurie Anderson, the group Animal Collective, visual artists Douglas Gordon, Ryan McGinley, Marilyn Minter and Takashi Murakami, artists and filmmakers Shirin Neshat, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Darren Aronofsky, and graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister. Guggenheim Chief Curator and Deputy Director Nancy Spector is serving as jury chairperson.

    "Already, this campaign has drawn some remarkable talent, and we’re looking forward to seeing more of your submissions in our quest to find the most creative video art in the world and showcase it alongside van Gogh and Picasso," writes Senior Marketing Manager Ed Sanders on the YouTube blog.

    The deadline for submission is July 31. Over the next few months, the jurors will watch the videos and select the "most creative and inspiring" ones to showcase at the Guggenheim museums in October.

     

  • YouTube Shows Future Standard Embed Code

    YouTube has introduced a new way to embed videos. The new style uses an <iframe>.

    Viewers of videos which use the following embed code style will be able to view the embedded video in one of YouTube’s Flash or HTML5 players, depending on viewing environment and preferences:

    <iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="385" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID" frameborder="0">
    </iframe>

    YouTube Player

    YouTube lists environments that support HTML5 here. They just use Flash when it’s not supported.

    "An additional benefit of the new embed style is that it will eventually allow embeds to work on mobile devices, which typically use a built-in player instead of Flash or HTML5," says YouTube software engineer Toliver Jue on YouTube’s API Blog.

    YouTube evidently intends to make this the standard embed code for users eventually, but for now they’re just previewing it.

  • YouTube Launches New Version of Music Page

    YouTube has launched a revamped version of its Music page, following in the footsteps of its shows and movies pages. The new page showcases the most viewed music videos, as well as special promotions, curated playlists, and unsigned talent.

    Users can also create their on mixes. "For example, in the mood for electronic beats? Just scroll down to that genre and click ‘play’ for an instant playlist," says YouTube Music Manager Michele Flannery.

    YouTube Music Page Revamped

    The page will soon include an "events near you" section that will show live music in your area, according to the company.

    The new music section could help Google as it builds its rumored "Google Me" social network. Soon all YouTube users will have to have their accounts connected to Google accounts after all.

  • YouTube Users Already Part of Google’s Rumored “Google Me” Social Network?

    Over a year ago, Google announced that it would start requiring all people signing up for YouTube usernames to have a Google account. Now they’re going to start requiring all users of YouTube that signed up prior to that to connect their accounts to Google accounts as well.

    Are you already part of Google’s new social network? Share your thouhts here.

    Here are the reasons Google gives for connecting YouTube accounts to Google accounts:

    – Improved account security. The Google Account system is robust and will help reduce spam across the site; users will get a slew of security and safety features that Google has spent the past decade developing.

    – A single account system. This may not mean much to anyone outside of the YouTube engineering team, but behind the scenes it’s extremely complicated to support two different account systems. Having all users on the same account system not only simplifies matters, but more important, it makes it much easier to use Google technologies to keep the site running smoothly (over two billion views a day and counting), as well as introduce new functionality.

    YouTube - Create an account - A Google Account

    There has been a lot of talk about Google working on a new social network (often referred to as "Google Me"). We still don’t know exactly what that’s going to be all about, but when people assess the success/failure of Google’s social media efforts, they often overlook that Google owns YouTube, which is essentially a giant social network (albeit one that revolves around video). Not everyone uses YouTube as a social network, but the more people that have Google accounts, the more people Google will be able to claim as part of its broader "social network".

    As we have discussed numerous times, Google itself could really be seen as one giant social network, with different products representing different features. If you have a Google account, you are part of that social network, regardless of what "features" you may or may not use.

    Do you think Google is using YouTube to bring its broader social network together? Comment here.

  • Old Spice Man Viral Marketing Campaign Impresses

    …Maybe you should watch it for yourself:

    And here’s the backstory:

    Fresh off his appearance during a tv spot during the Superbowl, former ASU 1996 Rose Bowl wide receiver Isaiah Mustafa, reprised his role as the manly Old Spice Man and has caused a coup in social media circles.

    In an industry that’s been increasingly filled with social media experts whose claimed to fame has been writing books about building a huge following on Facebook or Twitter, or building buzz, or sometimes seem like the Internet marketing equivalent of a Paris Hilton “I’m famous for being famous”, the Old Spice Man has brought a breath of fresh air to the social media scene.

    On Tuesday, he took questions from multiple social media channels – Twitter and Facebook – and a team compiled the questions and had numerous personalized responses posted on YouTube, which were then emailed, retweeted and circulated around the Internet.

    As of now, there are 205 videos posted on the YouTube channel with more content being progressively added.

    Before you jump in with a preliminary judgement that this is a case of new-fangled efficiency in aggregating multiple channels, take a moment to watch the finished product.

    The Old Spice Man comes across as:

    • Attractive to both genders – women want to be with him, men want to be like him.
    • Intelligent: He’s got the chops to reply with astute answers, compared to the incessant laughing and rambling common with some lifecasters.
    • Funny: He doesn’t take himself too seriously and his humor is infectious.

    Except for a few critics, he’s largely won over the bulk of his followers, including Digg founder Kevin Rose, actresses Alyssa Milano and Demi Moore. His biggest win could possibly be the 4chan community, a rabble-like elite community which has spawned memes like LOLCats and RickRolling.

    What helped make this a winning campaign. Some of the key details:

    • A successful marriage of social media practitioners and a tech team
    • Trust from Old Spice’s parent, Proctor and Gamble, for the ad agency to have a free hand in scripting and going live with responses to queries, without the typical multiple layers of management vetting and approval
    • Picking the right person to play the Old Spice Man and front the campaign.

    The missing ingredient in most social campaigns is an air of sincerity, playing it straight with the audience and an essential star quality and x-factor which all but a few lack.
    Isaiah Mustafa possesses all the following attributes in scads.

    Watch the videos and you might just get a taste of the future of social media.

    Old Spice Man replies to Digg’s Kevin Rose:

    –
    Alyssa Milano tweets her delight.

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    Old Spice Man replies to Demi Moore

    Comments

  • YouTube And Yahoo Top Video Sites In June

    YouTube And Yahoo Top Video Sites In June

    More than 177 million U.S. Internet users watched video content in June, according to the latest report from comScore.

    Google sites, driven by video viewing on YouTube, ranked as the top video content property with 144.5 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo sites (44.9 million viewers) and Vevo (43.7 million viewers).

    Google sites had the highest number of overall viewing sessions with 1.8 billion and average time spent per viewer at 261 minutes or 4.3 hours. Hulu also had high viewer engagement with an average of 135 minutes (or 2.2 hours) per viewer.

    Top-Videos-June

    Americans viewed more than 4.3 billion video ads in June, with Hulu generating the highest number of ad views at 566 million. Tremor Media Video Network ranked second overall (and highest among video ad networks) with 524 million ad views, followed by BrightRoll Video Network (333 million) and Microsoft Sites (222 million).

    Video ads reached 45 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 31.5 times during the month. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 24.2 over the course of the month.

    Other highlights include:

    *84.6 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.                                             

    *The duration of the average online content video was 4.9 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.

    *Video ads accounted for 12.2 percent of all videos viewed but only 1.2 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

    comScore

    also introduced its new Video Metrix 2.0 online video measurement service offering improved reporting of online video ad impressions.
     

     

  • YouTube To Provide Upcoming Video Producers With $5 Million

      Think you’ve got a video idea cooler than OK Go, but don’t have the cash to produce it?  If you’ve already had some success on the online channel, help may be on the way.image from www.hsdent.com

    YouTube has announced a plan to give out $5 million in grants to worth video creators. The YouTube Partner Grants program will invest in select emerging video producers and their goal is "to catalyze the creation of new ideas and production models" from some of the online video channel’s more innovative creators.

    Here’s how it works:

    • YouTube is identifying eligible partners based on factors such as video views, subscribers, growth rate, audience engagement and production expertise.
    • Selected partners are contacted by YouTube and invited to submit a Grant proposal.
    • Proposals are evaluated by YouTube based on signals which include projected performance, distribution plan, marketing plan, cost requirements and appeal to advertisers.
    • If approved, funds are transferred to the partner so they can get started on their project.
    • More info here.

    Comments

  • Millennials Won

    Millennials Won

    Millennials are expected to make online sharing a lifelong habit, according to new research from Pew Internet and Elon University.

    In an online survey of 895 technology stakeholders and critics, 67 percent agreed with the following statement:

    "By 2020, members of Generation Y (today’s "digital natives") will continue to be ambient broadcasters who disclose a great deal of personal information in order to stay connected and take advantage of social, economic, and political opportunities. Even as they mature, have families, and take on more significant responsibilities, their enthusiasm for widespread information sharing will carry forward."

    Some 29 percent agreed with the opposite statement:

    "By 2020, members of Generation Y (today’s "digital natives") will have "grown out" of much of their use of social networks, multiplayer online games and other time-consuming, transparency-engendering online tools. As they age and find new interests and commitments, their enthusiasm for widespread information sharing will abate."

     

    Social-Sharing

     

    Most of those surveyed believed the sharing of personal information online has many social benefits as people open up to others in order to build friendships, form and find communities, seek help, and build their reputations. They said Millennials have already seen the benefits and will not reduce their use of these social tools over the next decade as they take on more responsibilities while growing older.

    "The majority noted that new social norms that reward disclosure are already in place among the young," said Pew Internet Director Lee Rainie.

    "Some experts also expressed hope that society will be more forgiving of those whose youthful mistakes are on display in social media such as Facebook picture albums or YouTube videos."

    Nearly 30% of respondents said the abundant sharing of personal information on social networks by young people will fade, most of them noting that life stages and milestones do matter and do prompt changes in behavior.

    Among other things, many of the dissenting experts also said Millennials will not have as much time in the future to devote to popular activities such as frequently posting to the world at large on YouTube, Twitter or Facebook about the details of their lives.

    "Some of the experts said an awkward trial-and-error period is unfolding and will continue over the next decade, as people adjust to new realities about how social networks perform and as new boundaries are set about the personal information that is appropriate to share," said Janna Anderson, director of the Imagining the Internet Center and a co-author of the study.

     

     

  • YouTube Announces Support For 25-Foot Screens

    This development may be a sign that YouTube’s engineers have run out of things to do.  Or it could just be a not-particularly-hilarious joke.  But for whatever reason, YouTube recently announced support for videos that are meant to be shown on 25-foot screens.

    For those of you who don’t happen to work in movie theaters or use whole walls as televisions: that means YouTube now supports a resolution known as "4K."  And to put that in perspective, a post on the YouTube Blog confirmed, "4K is nearly four times the size of 1080p."

    Which is neat from a technical perspective, at least.  It could also more than negate YouTube critics’ longstanding complaints about shoddy video quality.

    It’s a bit hard to imagine who or what will be able to take advantage of the 4K option in the near future, however.  The blog post later noted, "[V]ideo cameras that shoot in 4K aren’t cheap, and projectors that show videos in 4K are typically the size of a small refrigerator.  And . . . watching these videos on YouTube will require super-fast broadband."

    Ah, well.  YouTube’s put together a short playlist of 4K videos if you feel like trying to view one.

  • YouTube Announces $5 Million Grant Program

    Let’s face it: while there’s some fantastic content on YouTube, there’s also some stuff that features good writing and acting, but is recorded using a bad cameraphone and a poorly disguised studio apartment.  YouTube intends to address that problem with the new YouTube Partner Grants program.

    YouTube Logo

    This initiative will involve YouTube distributing $5 million in grants to certain official partners.  The idea, as explained on the Official YouTube Blog, is that "[t]his additional funding can allow partners to invest in better cameras, achieve higher production quality, expand their marketing efforts, expand their staff, or just hire more talent.  Anything that will help them evolve their art, business, and ultimately the entire creator community."

    Of course, YouTube isn’t just mailing bags of cash to every partner who’s ever made a popular video.  And people shouldn’t even bother to contact the organization on their own.  Instead, (unspecified) requirements related to things like video views and audience engagement have been established.  Then YouTube will reach out to partners who might be eligible and see if they’d like to submit a proposal.

    Another slight catch is that the grants aren’t so much gifts as loans; YouTube made clear that they "serve as an advance against the partner’s future YouTube revenue share."

    Still, this program should provide some content creators with amazing opportunities.  Hopefully it won’t be long before proposals start getting approved and the overall quality of videos on YouTube takes a turn for the better.

  • YouTube Hosting Q&A With Katy Perry

    YouTube Hosting Q&A With Katy Perry

    YouTube said today it is hosting an event that will allow fans of singer-songwriter Katy Perry, to ask the artists questions.

    The YouTube Blog offers more details. "You have until midnight PT on July 18 to submit a video or text question to Katy’s channel (www.youtube.com/katyperry). Everyone will be able to vote on the questions until July 18, and Katy will answer the most popular in an exclusive Q&A as conducted by YouTube’s own Lisa Nova."

     

     

    "We’ll put the interview on the homepage shortly after it’s edited and uploaded to YouTube."
     

     

  • Google Expands Its Reach With YouTube Leanback

    Forget scooting forward, typing a fresh search query, playing with the mouse, and then pushing back again between clips.  YouTube Leanback has debuted, and it’s meant to make watching consecutive YouTube videos a more relaxed and uninterrupted experience.

    YouTube Leanback qualifies as one of a number of projects meant to take Google into new markets and different parts of the average person’s life.  Consider that Chrome OS is supposed to make a splash on desktops, YouTube Mobile’s targeted at cell phones, and Google TV is supposed to make the company a central fixture in living rooms.

    In fact, YouTube Leanback might even turn out to be a sort of beta version of Google TV, since that isn’t too close to arriving.

    Anyway, if you haven’t already guessed based on its descriptive name, a post on the YouTube Blog explained that YouTube Leanback, which is itself in beta, "is all about letting you sit back, relax and be entertained.  Videos tailored to your interests play as soon as you visit the site and they play in full screen and high definition, continuously."

    The post later explained, "This feed is based on your YouTube settings and preferences, including content from your subscriptions and videos your friends are sharing on Facebook (assuming you’ve connected your YouTube account to your Facebook account)."

    As for the interface, everything can be controlled using only arrow keys, and you can get an idea of what the whole thing looks like thanks to the following screenshot, which YouTube sent to WebProNews.

    This should go over well with individuals who spend a lot of time on YouTube.  It’s likely to inspire more people to try watching YouTube on a proper TV, too.

    Of course, YouTube for Television was introduced in January of last year, and YouTube XL was released about five months later, so Google’s not at all guaranteed to achieve success here.

  • Massive YouTube Film Experiment Announced

    A project that should entirely live up to the billing "historic cinematic experiment" has begun.  Ridley Scott, Kevin Macdonald, YouTube, and LG have asked people all over the world to record (part of) their lives on July 24th, and then much of the footage will be used to create a single film that’ll premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

    This undertaking has been labeled "Life in a Day."  It’s meant to act as a sort of time capsule, showing what the earth was like at a specific point.  The only restrictions involve not including trademarks or copyrighted content (music, TV clips, etc.), and would-be participants must also upload their footage before July 31st.

    As for the men behind the project, Kevin Macdonald, who directed The Last King of Scotland, will be responsible for actually editing the footage together, and Ridley Scott, who’s perhaps best known for his work on Gladiator, Blade Runner, and Thelma & Louise, is acting as executive producer.

    The final product could be quite remarkable.  Scott, Macdonald, YouTube, and LG have created a strong incentive for people to participate – 20 contributors will get taken to the premiere, and everyone whose footage is used will be credited as a co-director – so there should be no shortage of material.

    More information is available here if any of this sounds interesting to you.  Good luck to all involved.