YouTube and Social Video Sharing Sites as ... Art?

So the other article from Sunday's Post I wanted to talk about led the Arts section -- 'Rules for YouTube: Make Art, Not Bore' (and by extension, other video sharing sites).

The title sounds like it's about how to make a popular viral video, (a la the Viral Learning Center video), but it's not about superficial stuff, like the best techniques for capturing groin shots, cleavage, and kittens, or how to best use shaky camera angles.

Instead, it's about looking at the inherent strengths and weaknesses of social video sharing sites, and figuring out how to unlock the artistic potential of the medium:

Now, you might say that if you throw enough stuff on the wall, some of it's going to stick (that is, not suck), but seeing as how online social video sharing sites are still a relatively new medium, the "grammar" is still being developed. It's an interesting read.

What's this grammar stuff? Nowadays, people understand that video is more than just a moving slideshow, though it took people a while to figure that out. Online social video sharing sites have their constraints and their advantages, so people are still figuring those out.

The article isn't all high-falutin', postmodern art theory and criticism; it does suggest some guiding principles for making a good (and popular video), including (paraphrasing):

• Know the limitations of the medium
• Find your niche
• Be sincere (even if you're being ironic)

Anyway, I'm not going to rewrite the article -- check it out and see what you think.

In an unusual twist, the print article features more content than the online version -- the print version starts with the full-page graphic of some famous viral video clips (with their titles, which you can search on), whereas the online article only links to a few. This is the opposite of what you might expect.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: youtube, social video sharing