User Generated Media: The Movie!
In a world of viral video where no movie or celebrity or old TV show is safe, I’m surprised it took someone so long to get the idea for an interesting new movie. Thank heavens, the time where User Generated Media takes the spotlight is at hand! Behold Be Kind, Rewind – the new movie directed by Michel Gondry.
Be Kind, Rewind stars Mos Def as the owner of an old-fashioned VHS video store, and Jack Black as his mysteriously magnetized friend. One day Jack enters the store and somehow erases the information on every video in the store.
Onoes! What are we going to do? Won’t Mos Def have to close the store down and hit the streets in search of a new job or a lucrative multi-million dollar rapping career? No, not quite. Jack Black comes up with a brilliant idea: all they have to do is refilm all the movies! And that is exactly what they do. With nothing but a video camera and some cheap costumes, they begin to remake everything from Ghostbusters to Driving Miss Daisy.
Just watching the trailer, it becomes obvious what Gondry’s vision of User Generated Media is: he seems to be very much for it. The video store patrons become enamored of the new movies, and begin demanding them. The trailer shows what seems to be a future fame for the two main characters.
But not all User Generated Media gives way to happy-slappy comedy. JJ Abrams, Producer of Lost, is utilizing UGM for a far more disturbing purpose: a horror film. The movie currently titled "1-18-08" and also known as "Cloverfield" MIGHT be a monster movie (no one’s sure yet – it could be a disaster). What we do know is that the majority of the movie will be delivered in video camera, camera phone, and webcam footage. That’s right – an attack on New York City where the citizens let you know what’s happening as they face the horror. Check out the trailer for "1-18-08"
I’m excited about these new User Generated Media-focused and -lensed films. It seems to be opening up the craft to all new possibilities. Who knows what other inventive stories will come from this?
Comments (1)
August 21st, 2007 at 12:46 pm Posted by Avi Abelow
I was very happy to see this blog post about user generated media. I personally produced a documentary movie that is made up of 99% home video that I gathered from 16 different people!
I have no background in film or media and the impetus behind producing the movie was because of the importance of its message. That is why I gathered the home video footage. I had no idea that this bright idea of mine to gather home video footage would end up in me producing a movie that would be screened all over the world!
This generation is all about “power to the people” and the people finally have a way to get messages across to the public via video that big money, studios and conglomerates don’t want to invest in. I know, I didn’t get a cent to produce my film or get assistance from production or distribution companies – they all didn’t want to take my movie. I had to do it all alone! The beautiful thing I succeeded in producing and distributing a movie all on my own – that is the power of the people today! May enough people take advantage of this power and get across positive and important messages out to the world.
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