New Media

We live in a golden age of independant film. Never has it been easier to create and publish film works. Anyone can pick up a camera and shoot a film and put it on Youtube or Tumblr or what have you and have it viewed by an audience. While I do admit that there is a lot of drek on Youtube, I feel that the site has only caused the industry to flourish, albiet in a nontraditional way.

I remember my Film 101 prof saying that there was no way for internet film to make money. This is not only hilariously false, but also more then a bit naiive. People regularly make money on the internet. Look at Roosterteeth. They make money off of their web series' alone and are a decent sized company. Jouneyquest was made by a company that only has a web presence. Don't even get me started about Tobuscus.

Not only are people making money with internet film, but they are generally of high quality. For every "Annoying Orange" there is a "Video Game High School". Youtube has become a place for aspiring film makers to show their stuff and improve on thrie skills, all without having to set foot on a traditional movie set. I advise anyone who has an interest in becoming a film maker to look at Youtube and to post there as well. You can learn so much from it.

A few Youtubers I recommend are slomozo (Bing), freddiew, arcadefox, and kitty0607 just to name a quick few. Slomozo is a young film maker who's vlog, Past Bing/Future Bing, while entertaining, also has advice for the aspiring which I find very cool. Freddiew is the blockbuster film maker of Youtube in my opinion. While all his work has a similar theme, VGHS was a splended bit of work and shows that he can branch out from his run and gun features, if, granted, only a bit. Arcadefox is a diamond in the rough. Do not let his MS paint visuals fool you, this guy has talent. While his stuff is mostly comedy, he also has some tragedy and romance in his work. He is able to manipulate and influence the watcher's emotions, no small feat, with simple paint drawings. Kitty0607 uses Gmod to make films and has inspired me to give it a shot (granted it was a pretty unsuccessful shot). His films are mostly absurdist humor, but they all have a pretty good story line, especially Elliot Goes to School, one of my favorite Youtube series' of all time.

In short, don't underestimate the Youtuber. This goes for beginners like me and also for the big wigs in Hollywood. There are people with great amounts of talent out there and posting. You might be one of those people with talent and if you are, get your camera and start shooting. I will be waiting to like and subscribe.

It Begins

Hello Bloggerland! I hereby welcome you to my very own film blog. I decided to get this blog started up after a good friend of mine said that it would be a good way to release some of my frustration about my current state of affairs. Right now I am in my 20's, living at home, working at Walmart. This is not the life I had planned for me. While I do have a plan to get back to film school (I spent a year there before my finances took a turn for the worst), I currently have no camera and no money to get a camera so I cannot act on my artistic passions. I am almost afraid to post my Youtube here as I feel that the things posted there by no means reflect what I am capable of. So I am going to use this blog to try to talk educatedly on the subject of film and hopefully attract others with similar interests, experience, or schooling so that I can broaden my horizons and perspectives.

So the main question, as it is with most blogs, is when am I going to be posting things? Well I am going to shoot for every day, whether it's a full on article like this one or just a response post from other posters. Granted, sometimes circumstances will arrise where I will not be able to keep up with this schedule. I ask for your patience in advance.

I suppose I should describe myself and my tastes a bit to my audience. As a male in my 20's I am fond of the blockbuster action movies that do come out every once in a while. "Avengers" was a great movie. I like action, horror (usually), suspense, adventure, comedies (usually), mysteries, more or less a bit of everything. I am a fan of silent film and think that Buster Keaton is 10 times the comedian Wil Ferral is. I am willing to give most things a go, but will not hold back any criticisms I have about a particular film or style of film.

That being said there are a few things I do not like. One is the super arthouse type film. "Meshes in the Afternoon" was an interesting film, but I am not putting it on my IPod any time soon. I also cannot stand the American Pie series or any of the films related to that style, which I have dubbed the "horny teen" movie. Watching "Hot Tub Time Machine" was the worst mistake I have made in the viewing arena. I am not against nudity and sex in film. Both can serve a purpose and can be powerful tools in driving an emotion home. However, no movie's most memoable line should be "I feel pregnant".

Well I suppose that's that. I am open to any feed back or questions anyone has. I will be back tomorrow with more film talk. Until then!