A documentary shot by filmmakers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010.
24 Dec Life in a Day (2011)
Snail Eats Label
Life in a day: The Scott brothers sponsor a film with YouTube. I suppose the idea from YouTube’s side is that ordinary people make films that are real, and that allow us to deeply share humanity… the kind of films you can find on Google’s YouTube.
This film really is good, but it is precisely because it has what YouTube cannot give: coherence and something like a zen long form essay on engagement. It is, in other words, composed, with themes, and blending; contradictions (but without comment); differences unified. Sound and song that binds; rhythms that you can understand throughout as the rhythms of life.
Some of the people you meet, you simply fall in love with, but this would not be the case if you saw them alone. It only works because of the composition, the story that we weave that bridges the thing. Some of the scenes were clearly shot knowing the whole, and that takes away some of the truth of the thing, and truth matters here. But that introduces only minor friction.
The final shot could stand alone. I’m not sure if it is computer generated or not: a snail progresses on a billiard-sized white ball until it encounters a label that says ‘mind your own business.’ The snail eats the label. I think YouTube would like to brand itself as a video FaceBook in the sense of allowing anyone to see anyone, with the assumption that everyone is interesting in some way.
This is engaging and personal. The source material may well have come through a YouTube-like process, but what this shows it that you need long form, a story and some talent to make things that matter.
Posted in 2011
Ted’s Evaluation — 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
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