YouTube Screening Room: Good PR, Not Much Else
June 19, 2008 by Mike Abundo
Filed under Computers
Welcome to the YouTube Nation, traditional independent filmmakers. Four-Eyed Monsters was the first feature-length film on YouTube, and now YouTube creates a special Screening Room specifically for independent films. The Screening Room will feature four short films every two weeks, and feature-length films on a case-to-case basis.
Since indie filmmakers have to eat, video descriptions will prominently feature buy buttons linking to wherever the filmmakers sell their DVDs. Selling paid offline video to a free online video audience? Good luck with that.
Frankly, I prefer my YouTube films truly organic — succeeding out in the wild instead of in some contrived “screening room”. Control and compartmentalization have little place inside online video. Good on YouTube for gaining cred with traditional indie filmmakers, but don’t expect this to be much more than a press release.
As stated on NewTeeVee.com:
“YouTube has a much more massive scale than Atom could have ever dreamed of, but that doesn’t change the fundamental situation. People prefer farts being lit on fire to artsy short films.”
I’m sure YT knows it won’t get rich off this stuff; and neither do the filmmakers.