Once watching a film or video was an organised, social event. The family or friends waiting all week to attend thier local cinema to see a featrue film.They used to show pre-show films , orininally being perhaps a news reel. Sometimes it was a cartoon or a rarely a short film. Short films did not really exist , in terms of geting public viewing unitl the invention of the DVD made it possible. Even then a short film meant 30 mins long.
Really short films did not really start until the internet was able to support video. When was that? about 2003 ish? Now you did not need some funding organisation to recognise you, only have your mum see you video film. Home video was just that , at home. Sequences of piped video, wandering around a family wedding, boring and loathsome nights in having to watch it again, only to be polite to the bride. Non linear editing was helping the self made filmakers to develop thier art, like the had seen on TV but with no-one to organise thier work into the corporate form they began experimenting with thier own idea of how to make a film. Again this was interesting but only to those who would see it and were interested in the first placei.e. family and friends. Who else would want to see your film. Oh yes of course! maybe Geremy Beadle, who would give you £250 pounds for showing your most embarrasing moments on T.V.
A new route for storytelling had unfolded, our family stories are passed down from generation to generation only to find that we cannot access them . ( super 8 film breaks after years of poor storage and vido 8 GONE ( anyone got a player I can borrow?) The stories about my Great Gradad survive but those about my sister are preserved on such film, in some mouldy cardboard box, never, never to be seen again. What a waste of film.
Has You Tube changed this? Will I be able to watch my work on the internet in 20 years time, when the grandkids want to see what I was like?
I can now see a range of short films, some good , mostly drivvel and not all for public viewing. It is evident that people are putting their inimite family records on the internet. Are they facinating? yes often they are. An evenings entertainment is more like wandering aimlessly through a photo album that I found lying on the desk and have no buisness looking at. ( this makes is slightly more interesting). But many of the videos are amusing, interesting and thought provoking. As you continue to watch , video after video you build a picture and a story that was never there in the first place. Is this helping my imagination and creativity?
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