Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Youtube: The New Silver Screen


The possibilities of how technology will evolve are truly endless. When the iPod was released in 2001 it completely changed how we listen to music and impacted the music industry forever. The iPhone was released only five years ago and Apple yet again completely changed the way we would use mobile devices forever.

In 2009 Apple released the iPhone 3GS, which was the first iPhone with high-resolution video recording capability. That same summer I first started working for a video production company in Dayton, Ohio and we had an idea to buy this new iPhone and in collaboration with a local artist film one of the first music videos using only an iPhone. By using the iPhone 3GS and building a jerry-rigged camera stabilizer we were able to produce a very successful project.  The music video only took one day of shooting with Ben Rivet, a musician, using different locations in the Dayton area and currently on YouTube has over 120,000 views.



After the video was released using primarily YouTube we gained major exposure for Ben Rivet, the production company, and I was even interviewed by Wired magazine on the pros and cons of shooting a music video with an iPhone.


The purpose of this story is to elaborate on the possibilities of technology in relation to film and music. The iPhone video capabilities have improved significantly since 2009 and the amount and uses of photography and video apps are endless. The easily accessible exposure one can gain using Youtube is also phenomenal. We are all aware of Youtube celebrities famous for all the wrong reasons, but the positive approach that small time independent artists like Ben Rivet can use to gain exposure is much more important. The rise of independent projects using only high-resolution mobile devices is rapidly increasing and it will be astonishing to see how this changes the industry forever.

-Kyle Brock

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