YouTube - a post by Gordon

The person of the year is YOU! This title made it to the front covers of January's issue of Time Magazine this year. Youtube.com is not about Britney Spear shaving her hair nor Al Gore saving the world from global warming, it's about you, hence its name. Its about individuals living in the comfort their home, whom want to express what they want to say or show to the world. This web based video sharing network has not only reached North America, from where it started, but across the world. Youtube is a global movement! If an individual has a computer and internet connection, then most likely they would have had connected with Youtube at some point. The average Joe can become famous over night just by posting a Jackass-like video of himself. Before you know it, the youtube video gets recognized by the news press and TV producers, which may land them on national television.
In fact, Sportcentral featured a new sport presented on youtube called 'locker boxing' last week. It features two persons in a locker room, wearing padded equipment, such as hockey helmet and gloves. The objectives is to punch the opponent until they drop and can't get up. The person who remains standing declares as winner of the match. Even though locker boxers are padded, the impact caused in throwing punches at each other can lead to some serious concussions...
...which makes me think. The technology age is moving so quickly, now everyone can handle making their own music videos and short film. I remember when I started my film program in high school, we used an analog editing system, called the Casablanca: a $4000 black box that connects to any TV. The following year, after a computer hardware device called the 'firewire card' was introduced, everyone in the film class was editing in digital format. The professional 'look' in movies was no longer beyond our reach, but in the accessible tools of a digital camera and a desktop computer. Before the end of the 2nd year, we were compositing CGI (computer generated images) on our films, making Mission Impossible-like explosions.
Video has developed so rapidly since the millenium. Everyone is a filmmaker now and you don't even need skills. All you need is a cheap digital still camera and computer to upload it on to Youtube, then BOOM, millions of hits over a short period of time...what a revolutionary explosion.