youtube

Officials at CERN, the European nuclear research organisation in Geneva, are to switch on the world's most powerful particle accelerator on 10 September and look, they've made a YouTube video to celebrate.

This week, YouTube launched The Screening Room, an area of the site that will showcase eight new short films every month, and the occasional full-length feature. In the first crop are films written by Miranda July, directed by cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel, and starring Kevin Pollak.From the press release:People will be able to communicate directly with filmmakers to share thoughts, exchange opinions with fans, and provide honest feedback using YouTube's features to comment, rate, and share films. The YouTube Screening Room will also include a "Buy Now" button, allowing filmmakers to link to websites selling DVDs and digital downloads of their films, as well as a High Quality player, which offers users the best viewing experience possible.YouTube is sharing ad revenue with filmmakers based on how many people watch their work, explains Sara Pollack, who manages the company's filmmaker relationships.

'Cult of Sincerity' is the first full-length film to debut on YouTube. ('Four Eyed Monsters,' you'll recall, played the festival circuit and in independent theaters before it showed up on the 'Tube.)When you watch the full-length version on YouTube, there's a lengthy, infomercial-like intro that explains that, if you sign up for an account on the music site AmieStreet.com, the filmmakers get $2. (You'll also get two free songs from AmieStreet.) If you actually buy a $3 credit on AmieStreet to get more music, you get a free downloadable version of the film.Here's how co-director Adam Browne describes the movie in an e-mail he sent to me (and presumably, other bloggers):“The Cult of Sincerity” is an off-beat look at life after college.

YouTube is announcing a new feature called "Insight," which gives video creators a way to see where there video is being watched (there's a cool map of the world with countries that light up) and when (is your video a Monday-morning-at-the-office-hit?)

From the NY Times coverage:

...YouTube executives suggest that marketers can use the tools in several ways. A movie studio might run several versions of a trailer to see what is catching on where, and if a humorous spot is catching fire in Texas, might start running that trailer as a TV ad in the state.

A political campaign could test spots of a candidate discussing the environment or the economy; if an environmental spot is popular in Pennsylvania, that might help decide what the candidate stumps about there.

- YouTube and TiVo have gotten together to deliver YouTube videos to about 800,000 TiVo users who have the right box and the necessary broadband connection. TiVo has never shared any stats on how many of their users are getting content from the Internet this way (and likely won't, anytime soon). TiVo did an earlier deal with Brightcove; the new YouTube link won't be active until later this year, says the Wall Street Journal.

- Could video kill the Internet star? Here's a NY Times piece worth reading. Steve Lohr writes:

More Michel Gondry breeding his DIY, home-crafted aesthetic: Be Kind Rewind site has Sweded home movie versions of blockbusters.

More Akira news... Although I posted on the Kanye West/Spike Jonze video for Flashing Lights only recently, I haven't really been a fan of West up to now (although Chris Milk who I interviewed for Remixing Music Video, has made some great clips for him), suffering as he does from typical rap star pomposity. However Flashing Lights, and the Stronger video (Youtube embedded here) twist him in a direction that really connects to a larger cinematic zone.

I love the Stronger video because it is a direct homage to uber-animé, Akira. The motion trails from the motorbike lights as they zip through a neon-lit Shibuya are astounding. Shame Hype Williams didn't go the whole way conceptually, and make a condensed live action version of the film rather than intercutting performance footage and spoiling the flow. But then Hype is commercially expedient if nothing else.

More Akira news... Although I posted on the Kanye West/Spike Jonze video for Flashing Lights only recently, I haven't really been a fan of West up to now (although Chris Milk who I interviewed for Remixing Music Video, has made some great clips for him), suffering as he does from typical rap star pomposity. However Flashing Lights, and the Stronger video (Youtube embedded here) twist him in a direction that really connects to a larger cinematic zone.

I love the Stronger video because it is a direct homage to uber-animé, Akira. The motion trails from the motorbike lights as they zip through a neon-lit Shibuya are astounding. Shame Hype Williams didn't go the whole way conceptually, and make a condensed live action version of the film rather than intercutting performance footage and spoiling the flow. But then Hype is commercially expedient if nothing else.

Last year, I wrote about how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences requested that YouTube yank any clips from the Oscar telecast...and yet the official Oscar site didn't offer much video to Oscar-obsessed Internet users.

The same thing is happening this year. Oscar.com offers mostly footage from the "thank you" cam, a backstage opportunity for winners to be more profuse in their gratitude.

Jack Truman is a Missouri filmmaker whose short, "Phone Sex Grandma," played at Slamdance in 2006. (It stars his mom, disturbingly enough.) Truman also had a documentary short shown at Slamdance this year.

Here's his distribution strategy for "Phone Sex Grandma": put it up for free on YouTube (an ad plays briefly on the bottom of the screen), and offer viewers the opportunity to buy the short at iPod definition or DVD definition -- in digital form, without DRM -- from B-Side Entertainment. (It may also be available somewhere on B-Side's site as a physical DVD you can order ... but I couldn't find that.)