On July 24th around 80,000 people participated in YouTube’s “Life in a Day” project. The idea was to get people to capture their day on video and upload the footage to a special YouTube channel to be worked into a feature film. At the helm is producer Ridley Scott and director Kevin MacDonald who are reviewing the videos and hoping to put something interesting together for the scheduled premiere at Sundance 2011. In the mean time, the submissions are being added to the brand new interactive gallery on the YouTube channel. Take a moment to explore the orb of videos. It’s not the most amazing display, but I like that YouTube is exploring different experiences for navigating through content.

Check it out here.

Remember LonelyGirl15? YouTube’s 5th birthday was last week and I’ve finally gotten around to watching the “YouTube Stories” series they produced– 2 minute interviews with select creators about their successes with the medium. The stories, and this interview with the director, contain interesting little insights about creating for YouTube that are worth checking out–

What kinds of techniques do you use to make these videos look so good and feel emotional?
When we all make YouTube videos, we’re creating for a screen size of about 630 by 350 pixels, so go in close. Use eyes, use foreheads, look at the way people move their mouths when they talk…all that says a lot, beyond just the words. Use that emotional power of the face to amplify what they are saying. Shoot as close to the face as possible, because we’re trained by thousand of years of evolution to respond to those movements of the face. And don’t forget hands, which can speak in the opposite way…or in sync…and reveal much. In the end, we want viewers to feel they’ve had a chance to meet these subjects over a cheeseburger or a beer and really feel them viscerally.

What is something about YouTube users you didn’t know before you started this project?
What I didn’t fully understand was how much the content creators have given their lives over to communicating with others. They’ve found their mission. Sharing their talent or passion with the world. Despite realities of family obligations, old jobs, the need to learn a bit more about technology, the people who shine come through because of sheer passion and faith. They believe that what they are doing on YouTube will change the world, and the effort that belief inspires in them usually gets to a positive outcome.

– Inside the Making Of “My YouTube Story,” interview with documentary filmmaker Stephen Higgins

The story behind LonelyGirl15

Lacta “Love in Action” – η ταινία from LactaFilms on Vimeo.

via Adpulp

* The “You Vote, We Decide” model invites participants to vote on an idea and provide feedback, but the ultimate decision rests with the company.

* The “Crowd Decision” gives all authority to the crowd. The highest vote getter wins. This model is not likely to be used for strategic decisions, Carpenter said, “but this concept is great for engaging your audience … and for letting them communicate to you what they think is the meaning of your brand.”

* The “Expert Decision” model is reserved for highly specialized or technical decisions made by a smaller crowd of experts. Netflix, not a Spigit customer, used this model to conduct a contest that awarded $1 million to the first person to improve the accuracy of its movie recommendations for subscribers by at least 10 percent.

* The fourth model is the “We Vote, You Decide” model, which Carpenter also affectionately calls the “American Idol” model. In this case, the company solicits all sorts of suggestions, but narrows down the choices over time, just as Simon, Randy, Ellen and Kara do on the reality TV show, then turn the process over to the fans to pick the winner via phone call or text message. “The experts make a selection and kind of filter out the worst of the crop … guiding the process toward a certain area,” said Carpenter

Worth a read.

The videos will air as commercial spots, on prime-time television, across a wide variety of broadcast and cable networks. It’s a great addition to your reel and an opportunity to get yourself, your friends and your family on TV,

If you’re interested in sharing your videos or producing new ones, send us an email with a your background (that is, if we don’t already know you) and we will follow up with some information.

flip@urgentcontent.com

“Design should not be a one-way street, with artists creating work in a vacuum. We believe the best design, art and content comes at the request of a specific brief, mission or client. Speculative design competitions and processes result in superficial assessments of the project at hand that are not grounded in a client’s specific needs. Art always has something to say.

There are few professions where all possible candidates are asked to do the work first, allowing the buyer to choose which one to compensate for their efforts. (Just consider the response if you were to ask a dozen lawyers to write a brief for you, from which you would then choose which one to pay!)”

Read the whole letter here. Motionographer has always had its thumb on the pulse of the creative community and this call to arms is no exception. Although crowd sourcing (in the form of contests) was initially (and continues to be) hyped as a new, democratic production model, it is suffering from  inevitable backlash, and agencies and brands should take notice.

Who knew Joseph Gordon Levitt was a pioneer in new media? Remember him from the TV show 3^rd Rock From the Sun, or indie films like Brick and Mysterious Skin? Well, he founded a website called hitRECord.org in which creative individuals from around the world collaborate to produce all sorts of media—and maybe even make money in the process.

Here’s how it works:  Upload your work to the site—audio, images, text, videos—you name it. Other subscribers can then take your work and make something new (and vice versa). Don’t worry; they always give you credit and can’t make money off of your work. JGL proposes to turn his favorite projects into lucrative ventures, though he doesn’t say how exactly, and promises to split revenue 50/50 with the creators.

We’re fans. This site offers a venue for your voice. It’s a potluck of ideas. Creative people working together across the world, imagining, producing and editing all sorts of beautiful brain-children. Check out Morgan M. Morganson’s Date with Destiny, one of the short films produced through the site that was later screened several times at Sundance 2010.

Sound good? Then check this out– the Open Video Alliance wants you to explain what Open Video means to you in a 60 second video, for the chance to win a free trip and pass to SXSW Interactive this year. Get the details here, and let us know if you enter– we’ll post your entry on Urgensia.