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.