You Tube Fakery

Perhaps I'm just an idealist.

There are many good and bad things about these systems of tubes we call the internets. The list of bad things goes on and on (Ron Paul, kiddie porn, the fact that companies make you visit their websites to report problems rather than let you talk to someone), but he list of positives would take up many many hours of typing.

One of the things I find most charming about the internet is how it provides equal access for people. Anyone can write a blog and get it read, anyone can accidently upload naked pictures of themselves and get themselves fired from Disney. Anyone can make a video and have it seen by millions of people around the world. OK Go is a great example of that. They make one funny music video, people watched it and liked it, and now they are getting name checked by Common on his new album.

Inevitably someone is going to try and exploit this idea of the Everyman making it big. It happened once with the YouTube videos for lonelygirl15. When it turned out she was fictional, a product of filmmakers trying to parasitically feed off of the cultural zeitgeist, people turned against her and them.

It's happened again. A singer named Marie Digby has been posting videos of her playing cover songs on her guitar in her living room. The way the story goes is that the videos came out, people began watching them religiously, she got on song on the TV show The Hills, scored a spot on Carson Daly's show, radio airplay, and finally she got a record deal with Hollywood Records.



A complete lie.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, it was all cooked up by Hollywood Records executives. Apparently she was signed with them back in 2005, 18 months before she began appearing on YouTube. Carson Daly and radio DJ's introduced her music by saying 'they just sort of found her on the internet,' which was a complete lie, because she was booked on those shows by Hollywood Records. Her MySpace page claimed she was unsigned (it's now been updated to say 'major' label).

Why does this bother me? Marketing has always tried to hitch on to whatever trend was popular at the moment, and this wasn't the first time an artist has misrepresented themselves for publicity. I think what gets me about it is not only the fact that she was lying and her company was lying, but others participated in this.

I don't view Carson Daly as any bedrock of integrity, certainly. But he chose to make a flat out false statement on his show, one that as a producer on his show (and someone who, believe it or not, actually knows a bit about music) absolutely knew to be false. I find that reprehensible, to help further propagate this marketing campaign that that Hollywood Records has started.

Again, I'm aware that this is a pretty small problem in the grand scheme of things, but how would you feel is you found out that something you enjoyed for its intimacy and amateurishness turned out to be nothing more than a product? I'd feel pretty cheated.

Before I sat down to write this, I watched a couple of videos by Marie Digby. Her song choices are pretty lame (Hollywood Records had a plan that she would sing cover songs so people would find them while searching for the real song), but she has a nice voice and she's very easy on the eyes. Maybe she'll become a star, who knows?

I won't be listening.

Slow News Day, Plus Movies!

It seems to be a slow news day out there. I've been trolling around the murky depths of the interenets, and yet can't find too much to discuss. Other than Jerry Falwell inviting Newt Gingrich to speak at his college. Huh? That reminds me of the press seeking Mel Gibson's opinion after Michael Richards disgraced himself onstage. Or asking O.J. how he would have done it, if he'd done it.

So, it's finally out there. Acceptable TV finally got their sit up, which allowed Chris and myself to post our latest masterpiece, "The Most Dangerous Man Alive." That was sort of frustrating, because we finished this one rather quickly, in about a week, vs. the last one Atomic Man, which took ages and ages. This one is far better, we both feel. If enough people watch it, it'll get on the Acceptable TV show on VH1, too, which would be great.

I'm working on another short next week, tenatively titled "Spaceship Adventures." We'll see how that goes. Since we have access to all of these nifty special effects that Chris is able to do, I figured, why not a space show?

I should be working on my script. I'm going to work on my script now.

The Most Dangerous Man in the World

So Atomic Man is finished. You can see a crappy low-resolution version in the post below, or you can go to YouTube and type in Atomic Man. Either way. Did it come out exactly the way I wanted it to? Nah. Am I happy with it? Mostly.

Hot on the heels of Atomic Man comes "The Most Dangerous Man in the World." Who is a woman. And she's really nice. We shot for about seven or eight hours today, and got the entire thing filmed. All two and a half minutes of it. The important thing is that it is done. I had assistance from the lovely Kate in securing talent, and the filming went pretty smoothly.

Really. The actors I worked with took things seriously, and if you could see what we were doing, you'd know that was a feat. It makes me want to make movies, if I can have the good fortune to work with talent like this.



Stay tuned. I'm editing tomorrow, and it should be finished in a few days.