In late July, filmmaker Kevin MacDonald asked the Youtube community to film themselves on July 24, 2010 and submit the video to the Life in a Day Youtube page. The videos would be edited and made into a ninety minute feature film that would premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011. It was such a creative idea I couldn't wait to get my Flip and record myself, sadly, the line "must be 18 years or older" prevented me. Whatever, I was still excited to see what others would film and submit to this film. Who wouldn't? Kevin MacDonald stated "it would be kind of like a time capsule that people in the future, maybe twenty, thirty, forty fifty, a hundred, two hundred years could say wow, that's what life was like." To be fair, Life in a Day did come with a price. The submission rate was unprecedented, and I assume lots of people didn't make the final cut for the film. If they did, their clips were butchered to probably lest than a third of what they were. A film like this has many positives, but a lot of negatives as well.
When documenting a film of this large magnitude, there are a plethora of negatives I must state. One, I feel like the people that produced their own clips were cheated in a way. Both Kevin MacDonald and Ridley Scott are smart people with a lot of knowledge, but it is sort of scummy that they get to collect the check for their small part in the film, while the true stars were the Youtube community. To my knowledge, the "actors" in the film don't see a dime of what this movie sees. Probably just a typed letter on Youtube.
Another aspect that sort of brings the film down is the fact that there are numerous scenes that take place outside of America, or in different countries. That's perfectly fine, I was interested in seeing what people in Egypt, Africa, Europe, Asia, or where ever would film. The downside is the film is absent of subtitles, making it impossible to figure out what these people are saying. I bet the producers themselves had no idea what these people were saying either. You can see what they're doing, but that only gives you the vague representation of what is going on.
Now that I've dug through the flaws, lets talk about the positives. For the most part, the film is shot rather well. Keep in mind, thousands of cameras were used to shoot this movie without a doubt. Different mega pixel count, different size, quality, capability, editing, whatever. It's hard to make something look that nice when numerous cameras were involved. Some stuff in this film was mobile phone footage which looked well. Whoever cleaned up the audio/video on here is a technical genius.
My favorite scene in this film was probably the homosexual teenager confessing his true sexual orientation to his grandmother. You can see that he is truly nervous, and scared of her reactions to his love life. We don't hear the grandma, but we see the teen's reactions. This is the kind of thing that belongs in this movie. In ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, etc years homosexuals will hopefully be accepted and not ridiculed for their being, and teens won't have to worry about confessing what they believe is right. They'll be accepted, and free from homophobic bullying.
Numerous other scenes in Life in a Day are very heartfelt and emotional. The end clip is very near and dear to your hearts, and the film does it's best to fit these clips in chronological order because there is no true storyline. Life in a Day is an inventive piece of film that I had the pleasure to see while it was streaming Thursday January 27, 2011 on it's own Youtube channel live from The Sundance Film Festival. Such a surreal experience, and such an unforgettable film.
Starring: The Youtube Community. Directed by Kevin MacDonald and Ridley Scott.
When documenting a film of this large magnitude, there are a plethora of negatives I must state. One, I feel like the people that produced their own clips were cheated in a way. Both Kevin MacDonald and Ridley Scott are smart people with a lot of knowledge, but it is sort of scummy that they get to collect the check for their small part in the film, while the true stars were the Youtube community. To my knowledge, the "actors" in the film don't see a dime of what this movie sees. Probably just a typed letter on Youtube.
Another aspect that sort of brings the film down is the fact that there are numerous scenes that take place outside of America, or in different countries. That's perfectly fine, I was interested in seeing what people in Egypt, Africa, Europe, Asia, or where ever would film. The downside is the film is absent of subtitles, making it impossible to figure out what these people are saying. I bet the producers themselves had no idea what these people were saying either. You can see what they're doing, but that only gives you the vague representation of what is going on.
Now that I've dug through the flaws, lets talk about the positives. For the most part, the film is shot rather well. Keep in mind, thousands of cameras were used to shoot this movie without a doubt. Different mega pixel count, different size, quality, capability, editing, whatever. It's hard to make something look that nice when numerous cameras were involved. Some stuff in this film was mobile phone footage which looked well. Whoever cleaned up the audio/video on here is a technical genius.
My favorite scene in this film was probably the homosexual teenager confessing his true sexual orientation to his grandmother. You can see that he is truly nervous, and scared of her reactions to his love life. We don't hear the grandma, but we see the teen's reactions. This is the kind of thing that belongs in this movie. In ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, etc years homosexuals will hopefully be accepted and not ridiculed for their being, and teens won't have to worry about confessing what they believe is right. They'll be accepted, and free from homophobic bullying.
Numerous other scenes in Life in a Day are very heartfelt and emotional. The end clip is very near and dear to your hearts, and the film does it's best to fit these clips in chronological order because there is no true storyline. Life in a Day is an inventive piece of film that I had the pleasure to see while it was streaming Thursday January 27, 2011 on it's own Youtube channel live from The Sundance Film Festival. Such a surreal experience, and such an unforgettable film.
Starring: The Youtube Community. Directed by Kevin MacDonald and Ridley Scott.