YouTube's Blog
Last Chance To Vote
While we're all wishing for health, happiness and love in 2009, the 10 finalists in YouTube's Project Direct short film competition are likely hoping the New Year will bring something entirely different: a chance to attend the 2009 Sundance Film Festival as the winner of Project Direct!
Their fate will be sealed in approximately 24 hours after all of you cast your final ballots at youtube.com/projectdirect.
To make your last chance to vote easy, we've featured all of the top 10 entries, which come from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Brazil, on the home page today. Watch them all and then visit the contest channel to vote for your favorites.
The winning entry and the top two runners-up will also receive cash prizes and DVD distribution to top Hollywood executives attending the Sundance Film Festival.
So make a filmmaker's New Year's wish come true and vote now!
Happy Voting,
Sara P.
YouTube Film
24 Hours, 24 Videos: Welcome to 2009
So here it is: 2009. And after our 24-video marathon run through 2008’s memorable moments, hopefully you’re feeling suitably entertained and fired with enthusiasm for the year ahead.
But before we move on into the unknown, let’s take closer look at some of the videos we have featured through the day – be it for the sake of Auld Lang Syne, or just for kicks. Because here at YouTube there is nothing we like more than a bit of backstory to place a video in context.
Weezer: Pork and Beans
Weezer's video hit YouTube on May 23. Drawing on 24 of the biggest viral hits the site has seen to date -- from "Dramatic Chipmunk" to "Miss Teen USA 2007 South Carolina" to Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain" -- the video salutes some of the most memorable moments and people in YouTube's history, generating more than 15,500,000 clicks in the process and creating (dare we say it) a video that transcended the sum of its estimable parts.
Christian the Lion
This story of an unbreakable bond between man and beast was one of the most talked about videos of 2008. It briefly chronicles the true story of a lion being reunited with the two men who raised him, years after he'd been released back into the wild and become the leader of his own pride. The actual reunion took place in 1972, but this archive footage was rediscovered and posted to YouTube earlier this year. If one video saw tears stain the leathery cheeks of the battle-hardened YouTube Team over the past 12 months, this was it…
Frozen Grand Central
The New York-based collective Improv Everywhere have become firm favorites on YouTube, thanks to their unique public hijinks. Videos like "No Pants Subway Ride" and "Food Court Musical" offer good examples of their large-scale pranks, but the elaborate public performance "Frozen Grand Central Station" was especially popular. The video features more than 200 people simultaneously freezing in place at Grand Central Station in New York City; the reactions of onlookers are as striking as the stunt itself. They claim to ‘cause scenes’ – they don’t lie.
Where The Hell Is Matt?
Matt Harding is best known as the goofy guy who danced his way around the world. But Harding's frankly risible grooving has brought inspiration and joy to millions of people -- over 14 million have viewed it on YouTube alone. As one observant user said: "It shows that no matter how different we are on the outside, inside we all just want to dance, laugh, and have fun."
Rick Astley: Never Gonna Give You Up
Chances are that at some point in 2008, you or someone you know experienced a "Rick Roll": a bait-and-switch prank that dupes you into watching the video for Rick Astley's 1980s hit "Never Gonna Give You Up." The joke even transcended the Internet with organizers of football games, parades and rallies "Rick Rolling" unsuspecting attendees. But perhaps the ultimate "Rick Roll" occurred on April Fool's Day, when YouTube rigged up every feature to the video. Then he was pronounced Best Act Ever by MTV Europe after – you guessed it – an internet poll. You naughty, naughty people.
Will.i.am: Yes We Can Obama Song
When Barack Obama delivered his concession speech after the New Hampshire primary, little did he know he was providing the script -- and the inspiration -- for the most-watched political video of 2008. Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" music video, a celebrity-studded mash-up of Obama's speech, became an instant viral sensation upon its release in early February, and arguably had a massive influence on Election '08 and popular culture. Seen over six million times just on Will.i.am's official YouTube channel, the video has inspired voters, young people, and satirists alike.
Fred Loses His Meds
Who says you can't become an overnight success on YouTube? Not 15-year-old Lucas Cruikshank, or Fred Figglehorn as he is known to fans, who created a Web series in which he plays a hyperactive six-year-old with anger management issues. Fred's hyper-kinetic videos quickly caught people's attention and helped make him the fastest-rising star in YouTube history. The above video (his second) was Fred's first to break a million views, jump-starting his meteoric rise to his current position as the No. 1 Most Subscribed user on YouTube.
Star Wars according to a three-year-old
This sweet-faced little lady became a YouTube sensation with her retelling of the original Star Wars movie. Fans of the film can go on for hours discussing the plot, but this three-year-old sums it up in less than two minutes. If not the most detailed description of Star Wars ever, it's arguably the most adorable. Warning: Spoiler Alert.
The Miley Cyrus Story
Not only did Miley release a hit song (and video) this year with 7 Things, which inspired several user-generated parodies (some of them nearly as popular as the original), but the Hannah Montana star also launched her own YouTube channel, MileyMandy with best friend Mandy Jiroux. The girls have used their channel to vlog and generally horse around for their audience of over 292,000 subscribers, and it's also where they post their M&M Cru dance battle videos, which together have notched nearly 15 million views and took the world's "biggest online dance battle" to a whole new level.
Super Mario Rescues The Princess: Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade
As the creator of Family Guy and American Dad, Seth MacFarlane has had a tremendous impact on animated entertainment. This year, MacFarlane opted to launch Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy exclusively on Google and YouTube. Not only was this a groundbreaking event for online video, it also showcased the financial opportunities that online advertising can offer film-makers (not that this comes as much surprise to members of the YouTube Partner Program).
Now we’ve had our say, we’d love to hear what you made of our end-of-year round up. Leave your comments below – it wouldn’t be YouTube without a little back and forth now, would it?
Here’s to a video-rich 2009,
The YouTube Team
2008: The Year In Video
It has been a busy and exciting year here at YouTube. With 13 hours of video uploaded every minute, hundreds of millions of views a day and 23 country-specific versions of the site, apart from anything else we were faced by a mountain content to sift through and myriad factors to bear in mind when compiling our end-of-year list of memorable moments. Which is why we turned to our estimable team of statisticians to help formulate the selection – if only to avoid unseemly bust-ups around the office.
With the help of our all-powerful analytics tool, the aim was to balance the raw power of heavy video views with a subtle blend of community engagement metrics including ratings, favorites and the ability to stir up a comments storm. The net result was a cluster of memorable video moments which this year we have whittled down to 24 and will reveal at the rate of one an hour until 2009 dawns and the whole process can begin in earnest again. Until then, revel in the videos that made the cut last year:
At the stroke of midnight (Pacific Time) you can expect a more detailed run-down of the clips on the list complete with some background information to place them in context. Until then, it would spoil the surprise to breathe a word of the videos to come. So sit back, enjoy your New Year’s Eve and prepare yourself for a jog through the most memorable YouTube moments of 2008.
Have fun,
The YouTube Team
In Memoriam: A Salute to Those Who Departed in 2008
As 2008 comes to a close, we pause to pay our respects to those notables we lost this year. Today's homepage salute honors a wide range of the dearly departed -- amongst them, a 20th Century movie legend admired for his work in philanthropy, the South African singer and human rights activist known as "Mama Africa", a comedian who shared the humor behind "Seven Dirty Words," to a computer science professor who taught his life's wisdom via "The Last Lecture".
Here one of the world's best-known mountaineers and explorers receives a musical tribute by a group of fellow New Zealanders who sing the praises of this "Humble Mountain Man."
As you watch this series of video tributes, we encourage you to share your own memories in celebration of the things these remarkable people shared with the world.
In Memoriam,
The YouTube Team
Send A Filmmaker To Sundance
Drum roll please…the prestigious programming team at the Sundance Film Festival has reviewed the many outstanding films submitted to this year's Project Direct short film competition and the results are in!
We were thrilled to see so many of you who competed in last year's contest return for more, and we were equally thrilled to see so much new talent alongside them.
In fact, some of last year's finalists made it into the top 10 once again, proving that filmmakers on YouTube are not one-hit wonders, but consistent, talented storytellers.
Now it's up to all of you to decide which of these 10 filmmakers will make it to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT.
The filmmakers' challenge was to create a short film including 3 specific props: a red phone and 2 other props made famous by films from the Sundance Film Festival's 25 year history.
Your challenge is to watch them all and vote for your favorites at youtube.com/ProjectDirect.
For a sneak peek of the top 10, check out Darren Aronofsky's video announcing the finalists:
Now start voting! You have until 11:59PM EST on January 3rd to cast your ballot.
Enjoy,
Sara P.
YouTube Film