Today's youtube offering is a "trailer" for a movie that hasn't yet been made. In the comment introducing the clip, the author writes:
"Preview trailer for 'sexually-infused murder mystery.' We are seeking funding or a Sugar Daddy to make the rest of this Indie."
Now, I'm sure youtube isn't the most efficient way to go about finding financing for an artistic endeavor, and maybe right now youtube's demographics aren't conducive to the "right" people seeing the pitch, but in the coming disintermediated world, maybe this is the cutting edge of movie financing. Maybe someone who could make film happen sees this, and finances it. Or maybe 25 people out of the thousands that will see it and each put up a little $$ and the thing gets made that way. Or perhaps a studio hates the filmmakers but loves the concept and script and buys the project up. Etc.
The sky's the limit.
2 comments:
Interesting economic development. And, from the trailer, actually might be a movie I'd want to see.
I had no idea that youtube events would unfold the way they have, but it comes out today, that the very popular youtube videos by "lonelygirl15" were in fact not blogs by a teenager but the creation of three 20-something geeks (one of whom JUST HAPPENS to be an aspiring filmmaker). While the creators of lonelygirl were anxious to point out that they were not a front for a Hollywood studio, it's clear that their intent in this was at least as much financial as it was artistic.
The lonelygirl videos will continue on their own website . . . judging by the number of views, commments and responses lonelygirl's videos got on youtube, one might expect the new website to be very successful; I am guessing however that a big part of the appeal of lonelygirl's videos was the prpesumption that they were the honest toughts and feelings of an actual teenager. Knowing it's just a story may not remove a key part of the videos' appeal.
In either case youtube shows another aspect of its power, appeal, and potential: economic, artistic, and emotional.
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