be kind rewind - the analogue acolyte messages the digital

Saw Be Kind Rewind last night. It's sweet and just right side of corny. Director Michel Gondry was one of the stars of last week's Phoric session. MG is an analogue obsessive in a digital world. The star of BKR is magnetic videotape rather than the ubiquitous DVD but despite this it's really all about the digital world of user generated content found in YouTube, Flickr, etc.

***Spoilers***

If you want to understand the real nature of human creativity at play on the interweb then watch this movie:

• It's not about the coolest technology [Mike & Jerry use video fercrissakes].
• It is about involving people [Mike & Jerry invite the renters to star in the videos].
• Copyright enforcement can be just plain nasty [the steamroller, people].
• Creativity is driven by necessity [Mike & Jerry don't dream this up just because they think that it's cool - they frickin' have to stop the shop being knocked down].
• Creativity begins with plagarism [The Fats Waller movie comes after they have learnt their craft through rip-offs].
• Great stories have their own truth & power [Fats Waller did not come from Passaic].

Most of all MG finds the creative, the magical, the alchemical in everyday life and its detritus.

Can you?

(not) loser generated content

Zest Digital are hardly amateurs but I like the idea behind this Scooteria video. User generated content often gets a pasting but there are two important things to remember:

• Context is everything. If you plonk a home video in the middle of slick, professionally-produced TV ads, they will look rubbish. On YouTube, they fit right in. The question is: Do we want to replicate TV on the web? And I reckon the answer is often "no". We have TV already. People want things they can share with each other. We don't mind that our friends don't take photos like a professional - we just want to share the experience with them. It's about Social Objects, people! The question is not "How do I make my video slick?" but "How do I make it social?"
• The amateurs are getting better (slowly). As our amateur efforts get more public, we find ourselves making more of an effort with our creations. And the tools to support us get better. And the professional advice gets more available. Mass amateurisation means that the average photo will get better over time. The average video will look better. Because the vast mass media produced in the world is amateur, not professional. We just haven't got to see this before so it may appear to some that the average has gone down. It hasn't - it's just that the population sample has changed.