Gangsta Feet

Ya ya it's cheesy...but I couldn't resist. I actually planned on watching a movie for this blog but I ended up being too busy again. (I left home at 4:15 AM, worked, did some animation at school, then went to a club meeting, and just got home at 9:10 PM and I have to get up at 3:30 AM again for work all day tomorrow so I can't stay up late) So I was rather frantic, wondering what I could possibly blog on instead. Then I got home and I checked my facebook account. Everyone's activities are followed on facebook now, and someone had posted a link to a remix of Happy Feet. I thought it looked cute so I checked it out. After I watched it, I realized I had just interacted with art, almost without even thinking about it. YouTube has become a rather regular part of our lives. Just like most everyone is either on facebook, myspace, or, as in my case and many others, both-many people are beginning to see YouTube as a normal occurance to online activity. More than the quality of the movies it represents, the website is more about artful interaction. It makes art a part of life, instead of some intangible "filmmaker" thing. Anyone who has a camera and the internet can create something.

Now in a way this is a good concept, because it helps everyone get in touch with their creative side. It also connects artists online, which is a vast untapped universe of filmmakers connections. Out of these random, distance-separated and otherwise unlikely relationships come new ideas and applications of ideas. Perhaps some ideas one never would have ever actually tried to make come to fruition may actually happen because that one person met one other online that helped him realize his ideas were worth the time to make. Perhaps they created the listening, caring mentor role, or they may even have helped with technical difficulties. The point is, filmmaking is about connections and support, and the internet provides this well. In the case of YouTube, filmmakers are a dime a dozen. People that may never have thought of themselves as the next big director may suddenly realize an online video blog sounds fun...and that feeling grows and gets developed in a fun and easy way, until they realize they are more creative than they thought. A friend they met on YouTube may tell them that one of their videos was artistic and suddenly a new filmmaker is born.

There is another aspect to YouTube that I find interesting. It creates an environment of truly experimental film. Not experimental in the sense that we see in class, but true experimentation of the media. After all, who cares what people think of a video blog? A friend's birthday party? It isn't like the film is going to a festival. So the filmmakers hidden in their safe rooms and playing around with the video camera and fun and brand new editing techniques, are completely unhindered by society's wishes. They make exactly what they want. Whatever feels fun or creative to them, they do. There are no expectations. So why not?

So then you come up with random funny and totally off the wall videos like this Happy Feet remix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcreSuOfYYQ

No, the video isn't especially good, but that isn't the point. The point is, whoever this filmmaker was, he wanted to make a spoof of Happy Feet. He probably saw the film and felt he could make it better, or at least better according to what he personally wanted to see. He wasn't hindered by legal rights for use of footage from Happy Feet, or rights to the music he used, because he has no interest in selling his work. He made it simply for his own enjoyment. And personally, as I watched it, I could sense this kid's passion, and it made the video that much more interesting to watch.