Week four

Week four discussed the beginning of the sensation which is online film or video.

We were given a number of questions to answer with regards to short films online

1. Where and when did useable online video start?
According to the website http://dembot.com/post/310798115/a-decade-in-history-of-online-video  (accessed 2 September 2010) online video was around but lacked any real viewers until about 2004 when a number of online video's such as Howard Dean's political campaign took the online world by storm. It seems to make the point that online video's were not popular at all untill 2004 when groups starting gathering together and creating large scale online video websites.

As internet connections increased and networks became stronger online videos became more common and in April of 2005 youtube posted it's first video and so began what is probably the most popular online video site on the internet.

2.
What recent innovations are being used to lure us in the movies?


What are they luring us from?

Innovations to lure us to movies come in all shapes and forms such as online campaigns and advertisements to build up excitment for a movie via little games or trailers.

Movie makers are attempting to lure us outside and to the cinema's as this day and age there is the possibility of downloading and watching films online and due to all the piracy ect this can really cost the movie companies alot of their wealth.

Question 3. Are short films still being made? Why? Who pays for them to be made?
Short films are still being made evidence is shown with all of the dedicated festivals and groups who continue to create and distribute the short films http://www.aussieshortfilms.com/ (Accessed 2nd September 2010) (www.tropfest.com/) Short films still gather interest because of their more artistic and refined focus on specific themes rather than genres like mainstream movies. A large part of the reason short films will probably always be available is websites like youtube allow people to demonstrate their filmaking and present the finished products to a large audience.

Short films seem to be funded privately by different companies such as Metro screen who fund short films to find breakout directors. http://www.metroscreen.org.au/breakout.htm

Question 4. Define the term viral with relation to movies.

Viral video's are defined as video's which gain popularity by being spread over the internet. So naturally a viral movie is one which has been shared online and quickly become popular.

Question 5. Online video distribution isn't limited to the short film format. We are now starting to see television styled shows made solely for internet release (webisodes). Find an example of this style of content and discuss how viewing television content in this way can positively and negatively affect the viewer's experience.

A good example of the idea of webisodes is the office comdedy series 'Back on Topps' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWlL9R6Q_OU Back on Topps began as a completely online webseries and like many others is humerous rather than dramatic or serious.

The advantage of such webseries is that they can usually be viewed for free and are by far more easily accessable than say going to the movies. It has an advantage over most t.v shows as you can choose when to watch these webseries and they are usually not inerupted by more than one advertisement (Usually placed at the begining)

Of course it is disadvantagous as there is very little if any atmpsphere when watching an online webseries and unless you have a very large computer monitor you won't get to experience the same quality and picture size and you would say at a movie or on a good tv. Also watching shows/movies online is far less social than doing so with friends out at a movie or on tv.





As for three short films that are being distributed online I looked on http://www.youtube.com/ (2nd September 2010) and found that