Guy Walks Across USA, Million of Views, Gets on CNN, Life is Good
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As thousands of cinemas across the world scramble to install the latest 3D projectors in order to charge premium prices for movies that have no business being shown in anything more than 2D — some shouldn’t be shown at all — millions of people with an Internet connection are enjoying some of the most wonderful and inspiring filmmaking for free on YouTube.
As Avatar is on it’s way to being re-released in theaters in order to grab a few more million dollars for an extra 20-minutes of never before seen footage, thousands of independent directors are working on old-school filmmaking that foregoes high-tech CGI and green screen effects for real people, real locations and really cool shooting and editing techniques. Instead of relying on film festivals and Hollywood marketing campaigns, they are uploading the footage to YouTube for free in hopes of hitting “viral” status.
Viewers are no longer impressed with CGI special effects. At one time people thought that the White House exploding in Independence Day was the coolest thing ever put on screen. Since then film audiences have seen gigantic robot fights, guys in leather trench coats dodge bullets, and a weird ring-obsessed creature named Gollum fall into the lava of Mount Doom. Sorry for the no spoiler alert warning for that previous sentence, but if you haven’t seen Lord of the Rings by now, you never will.
People are no longer impressed to see fake dragons battling fake werewolves. Anytime something looks too unbelievable to be filmed for real, it mostly likely is just done with a green screen and some high tech computers. The CGI tipping point has been reached. Audiences now want real. Whether it’s on the big screen, or on YouTube, filmmaking is getting back to its’ roots.
Some of the most famous examples of real filmmaking going viral are OK Go’s videos for “Here it Goes Again” and “This Too Shall Pass.” Even more recently are the impressive Old Spice ads that have actor Isaiah Mustafa as the “man you wish your man could smell like” walking on water, riding a horse and diving onto a motorcycle. People are watching and re-watching these commercials over and over again because they are trying to figure out how the creators made them.
The most recent foray into this unique and real storytelling is a viral YouTube video sponsored by Levi Jeans called “Walk Across America.” The two-minute long video has an unknown man — wearing Levi Jeans — “walking” across America through some of the most iconic landmarks this country has to offer. The whole video is actually 2,770 frames of stop-motion photography that took more than two weeks to capture.
The filmmakers have also posted a “Behind the scenes” video of how the shoot was done for those viewers who need to know how a magician pulls a rabbit out of his hat. The real goal of the behind the scenes footage is just to prove that the filmmakers actually did this for real. No one would care if they just filmed a guy in front of a green screen. It would have only taken a few hours and not much money. Instead they created actual art by renting an RV and going on the road, and even used such simple tools as a protractor with a piece of string attached to it to make the walking movements look more fluid.
We here at SoManyMP3s.com have written several articles about the power of YouTube. It’s no longer just a site for people to upload videos of their babies laughing and cats playing piano. And now that YouTube has extended their upload time limit to 15-minutes, from 10-minutes, filmmakers will even have more time to tell their stories on this free service.
Potential filmmakers used to have to go to high priced schools to learn the craft, and they needed big bucks to rent equipment and purchase film. Now, anyone has the potential to make some serious art and have the ability to showcase this art to millions of viewers with YouTube.
Mike walks across America from New York to San Francisco. Here’s a Google Map of our journey:
http://bit.ly/brNULW
Music – “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
http://www.myspace.com/edwardsharpe
Posted on 08/2/10
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