Smashing
Very Very Sr. Cove Sleuther
All you need is love...and high speed internet.
Posts: 454
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Post by Smashing on Jan 28, 2007 9:47:37 GMT -5
So youtube featured this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSKlmhymihkThe account, cinemafreaks, has ten videos. The recently featured one has over half a million views, almost ten times as many views as the others, which speaks again to the power of being featured. I watched it and thought "eh, not a bad job for a kid in middle school." It has a theme song that you would guess he didn't do himself, but it's implied that he is the one making the video. At the end of the video, in an outtake, you hear a voice chuckle off camera. I thought, "a parent? a friend?" and wondered how much they might have helped with the video. Well, turns out he doesn't write/direct the videos. He's just the star. They clearly state that it's scripted on their channel and on their website. And Dylan says it in a podcast interview. In the interview he says he makes it with a filmmaker he had done two movies with. "We split it 50/50...all the stuff that we do." But then he says "she" (it's a nameless woman this time behind the camera) writes the script, then he reads the script, makes suggestions, and sometimes ad-libs. That doesn't sound 50/50 to me. It sounds like she's a writer/director (and probably editor) and he's an actor. They obviously want people to think it's a real vlog, at least at first look, because it's more impressive if a kid had done it. And clearly many are fooled. A lot of the 2000+ comments I skimmed reflected the sentiment of "you make good videos, kid." Remaining anonymous and downplaying your involvement seems like a cheat to me. I know, I know, LG15 did it. But they did it differently. They had NO references to the fact that it was a production at first. They perpetrated a hoax. I enjoy a good hoax if nobody gets hurt, because it requires being quite clever, and there's some satisfaction when the truth comes out. With Dylan, there's no big mystery. Who is he? He's Dylan, a child actor. Who makes it? Some filmmaker. If they're unknown (and not connected to known people), I'm not sure it matters who they are. But being the curious type I am... They give a link in the vid to another site beetv.net which as you can see links to Children International, encouraging you to sponsor an impoverished child. So we know she isn't the type that would exploit kids, and we don't need to fear for young Dylan. I'm not saying that's why they put a link to it, but it doesn't hurt to that end. Also on the page is a contact link that leads to barthsburgery.com, a tribute to You Can't Do That on Television. The same person has a youtube channel. The YCDTOTV fan isn't necessarily the filmmaker, it could be a friend of hers or something. If anyone cares, I'm interested to hear all your thoughts on this. edit: modified for typos. |
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Post by hyemew on Jan 28, 2007 10:31:26 GMT -5
Just impressions after watching the first five seconds of his video:
1. Acting is wooden. He said his line which has two parts- 1. My teacher, (name), assigned a project... 2. and our grade is pretty much riding on it!
A person "really" saying that or for whom that is real would have said those two things differently, the first part as he did but the second part with more inflection and anguish. The way he stared straight into the camera and just spoke the lines would have made it seem real fake to me if I hadn't just already read it.
Basing a conclusion on 5 seconds of video might not be fair, but then again maybe it is.
I also don't really get why he was cast, voice is kind of annoying...
OK I just watched the first minute. The constant "but thens" with their own facial expressions got old extremely fast and was ultra-annoying. There's no surprise after over 4600 votes he only has 2 stars.
When he went to put on glasses to imitate the teacher, if he had done an old guy accent that might have been ok, but the accent he did use which was more like a middle-aged black guy with a bad speech impediment was just awful.
"French and Indian War? We fought a war against India?" OK that might have been funny... if he was French. French and Indian War? FRENCH. If you aren't French, the joke totally gets bashed up against the rocks of sense. (The soon-to-be Americans and British were on the "Indian" side in that one.)
Now we're conflating the Revolutionary War and Cold War? Why again? This all seems so needless. And Kennedy and Washington... ok they really need to realize that a person's stupidity is only so funny, and that merely mixing up wars and thinking that Kennedy is Washington is NOT AT ALL. Jokes like that could go on forever, showing Gandhi and thinking it's Margaret Thatcher, talk about the Peloppenesian (sp.) War and say "didn't Napoleon defeat Russia in that?", etc. The misappropriations could go on all day, that doesn't make it funny.
"And we were all done... on time and everything"- just thought it was said in a very fake manner, that's all. "finishing touches"- and again. He often does these voice inflections at the end of sentences which are very unnatural to human talk, but are very commonly found when someone is reciting a speech (not saying it's a good thing, but I know I can recall many times hearing someone inflect their words like that when reciting). There's a lot more reciting than acting going on here.
Wait, now juggling lots of tapes... the kid brought in 20 unmarked tapes for the heck of it?! WHY? I know he's stupid but needlessly hauling a bunch of tapes, all conveniently unmarked, when obviously as a "excellent video editor" he'd at least know better, is really annoying. Is it just to create drama?! Because I'm sure we can all see where this is headed (he'll put in the wrong tape, something potentially embarrassing plays).
And I thought VCRs were mythical creatures anymore, who even uses them?!
The first tape was rather funny, no clue what the second one was supposed to be. And also, since it was his partner Derek who brought in a bunch of his own random unmarked tapes from home, why was the cinema kid giving a soliloquey on one of them?! I thought cinemakid hated him, and yet this random kid he was assigned to has secret confessional tapes of cinemakid? This continues to make less and less sense, someone really should have thought it out better.
In conclusion, WHY THE HELL DID YOUTUBE FEATURE THIS?! I guess whomever is funding this and paid a band to write them a song also paid youtube off.
There are a disturbing amount of "this is funny!" comments looking through the last couple pages, though they mostly seem to come from teen girls who think that at least partly because "he's sooo cute" and partly because they are amused easily.
I prefer some of these other comments:
"any one can act retarted.:0 WoW"
"wow... maybe i just dont understand how idiocy qualifies as humor... but i feel dumber just watching that" (AMEN!)
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Post by hyemew on Jan 28, 2007 10:39:19 GMT -5
Also, I think the reason bad things about the video is hard to find is because they have it set to "APPROVE". I just left them a message about some of the inconsistencies and it won't show up until approved. I'm surprised they approved ANY of the bad comments, but I guess to make it seem more realistic? No one would have NO bad comments, and yet they manage to keep it to about a 10:1 ratio of good to bad.
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Post by curiousgeorge on Jan 28, 2007 11:46:16 GMT -5
Is the "purpose" of these vids to generate revenue for a charity or something benign? I realize that YT is a wonderful chance for creative people to practice and learn the craft of film making and also that there are a lot of people who just do it for fun, but I am a curious about the "end game" of anything that requires scripting, financial resources, etc. I'm not implying any untoward motive for this project, I'm just curious about folks who appear to have some sort of secrecy, and comment control issue, attached to supposed vlogs. It certainly is interesting to see what folks are doing with this medium... I'm really hoping we will see someone who can do this, find a way to make money doing it, and yet still deliver an entertaining product. Call me a Running Capitalist Monkey, but I would like to think that someone can make some money doing this and deliver a high quality product. I am really surprised that a young, Sundance-level of quality, type filmmaker has not released a YT series yet. Think "Pond" as a serial. Oh wait, there IS one... well, kinda  |
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Smashing
Very Very Sr. Cove Sleuther
All you need is love...and high speed internet.
Posts: 454
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Post by Smashing on Jan 28, 2007 17:01:09 GMT -5
In conclusion, WHY THE HELL DID YOUTUBE FEATURE THIS?! Exactly. I think youtube thought it was "real." They often feature young people doing things that are only impressive because they are done by kids, whether it's piano playing, juggling, whatever. Considering this was done by an adult, I think it's not only a lame video, but a lame way to get attention. Is the "purpose" of these vids to generate revenue for a charity or something benign? I realize that YT is a wonderful chance for creative people to practice and learn the craft of film making and also that there are a lot of people who just do it for fun, but I am a curious about the "end game" of anything that requires scripting, financial resources, etc. I'd guess they are gunning for a Nickelodeon show. |
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Post by hyemew on Jan 28, 2007 17:18:58 GMT -5
Umm if YouTube thought it was done by that kid.... then how do they explain the elaborate theme song? What kind of kid is able to do all that (by which I guess we mean talk about his real life experiences? Unscripted and all... complete with props like sparklers) AND get a rock band to make him a song? I mean come on, it was so blatantly NOT done by just him it's absurd. At least lonelygirl15 was plausibly real when we were searching, this guy wouldn't even be worth a search because it's all so obviously fake and scripted.
(I just went back and watched the previous episode, he makes a reference to 867-5309?! OK that's even before my time, like he knows about that. In a note on episode 8 someone listed at least three or four 70s-80s references, obviously we know when his scripter grew up.
This episode is also extremely annoying because the girl in question just happens to call him to complain about him talking about her in previous youtube videos while he just so happens to be recording and talking about her- which he denies to her. Well, she knows where his page is, she's watching, which would presumably keep him from continuing on with this episode dedicated to talking all about her, but it clearly doesn't.)
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Smashing
Very Very Sr. Cove Sleuther
All you need is love...and high speed internet.
Posts: 454
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Post by Smashing on Jan 28, 2007 18:14:23 GMT -5
Umm if YouTube thought it was done by that kid.... then how do they explain... At first watch, I didn't even think about the theme, as it could've been done by friend or family. I don't think YouTube (and by YouTube I mean the single employee that was on feature-video duty that day) puts a lot of thought into analyzing the videos. They see something, or have something sent to them, take it on face value, and feature it. |
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Post by Terryfic on Jan 28, 2007 18:29:00 GMT -5
I wonder with the news that YouTube will be setting up profit sharing, if they will review their featuring policies. I, like many people, believe they often feature less than impressive videos, but as a result these videos usually get at least 100,000 views. So with profit sharing, if your video is featured you will have a really good chance of seeing some decent bank. Should YouTube be more selective with the videos they think should be the most profitable.
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Smashing
Very Very Sr. Cove Sleuther
All you need is love...and high speed internet.
Posts: 454
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Post by Smashing on Jan 28, 2007 18:41:06 GMT -5
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Post by hyemew on Jan 28, 2007 18:43:37 GMT -5
What's scary is there is one single solitary person in charge of the featured section. So it's basically whatever SHE wants. They could definitely stand to have a "review" committee, I don't think things like Dylan's Couch (along with even far far less creative things which have been featured) would make it past a group. It's crazy really, one woman stands between all of youtube and half a million views. Too much power in one pair of hands...
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Smashing
Very Very Sr. Cove Sleuther
All you need is love...and high speed internet.
Posts: 454
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Post by Smashing on Jan 28, 2007 18:48:10 GMT -5
I agree. It defeats any notion that videos succeed democratically. I think they take turns featuring videos, but it's still one person deciding at a time.
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Post by hyemew on Jan 28, 2007 20:09:40 GMT -5
No, it has always been Mia far as I know. She was doing it in Sept. and is still doing it last I heard.
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Smashing
Very Very Sr. Cove Sleuther
All you need is love...and high speed internet.
Posts: 454
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Post by Smashing on Jan 29, 2007 1:25:37 GMT -5
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Post by milowent on Jan 29, 2007 9:19:51 GMT -5
just watching the featured dylans' couch vid. we always complain about how youtube features the stupidest videos - pratfalls, etc.
this kid is clearly a production - an IMS! don't we think more IMS should be featured by youtube? things like samhas7friends were NEVER featured and languished on youtube.
i thought the featured vid was fairly amusing. hyemew's criticisms only make sense because hye was clearly in the honors track and able to avoid folks like derrick in middle school.
p.s. that theme song kills me. its so oldstyle indie.
"dylan talks about things, nobody cares about, but you watch anway, dylan talks about things, nobody cares about, but you can't look away. dylan's couch dylan's couch dylan's couch yeah! dylans' couch dylan's couch, dylan's couch yeah!"
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