In Box

Recently, we've received many letters in response to "Joy and Pain," Videomaker Publisher and CEO Matthew York's August 2007 Viewfinder column on the subject of YouTube videos.

Wow! You summed up what I was feeling without figuring out how to verbalize it. Yes, I have had a problem with YouTube videos ever since they started becoming so popular. Despite the number of hits, I have seen very little that amuses me as a storyteller. It's all "kicked in the crotch" videos. It's all disposable entertainment. The worst thing about it is that these people consider themseleves filmmakers! If you go out and make a video where someone gets hit in the crotch - put it on YouTube - and get 90 thousand hits... OK, congratulations, but you are not Martin Scorsese now. Perhaps you are right, Mr. York, and all these videos are popular not because they are films but because they are targeting the "Schadenfreude" of society. We need to make a distinction from true filmmaking and "kicked in the crotch" "Schadenfreude" video. They are not the same.
Tyson Wheeler
Via e-mail

I must say that your editorial took me by surprise! I thought I was the only person left who is very disappointed with the current crop of videos on most of the sites. I receive links from friends quite often and, to be honest, I tend to stop watching more than half before they reach the end. I do not take joy or pleasure from another's misfortune or pain, I tend to feel their pain. The mind-numbing number of schadenfreude, staccato-cut, in-your-face videos out there tend to drive me crazy!

This link below is a video I shot for a short video contest that had the theme of "memories" and a three-minute time limit. My short ended up being only 50 seconds long but beat out 23 others to win the contest. It is a serious type video and one that far too many people can relate to. I even had people request DVD copies of it. I hope that you enjoy it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8aEAEJDpa0

Keep up the good work. The August issue has to be one of the best ever.
Mike Teutsch
Port St. Lucie, FL

Matthew, I couldn't agree more with you on the Joy and Pain article (actually I seem to agree with all your editorials). I don't understand what this says about mankind either - is it something within us biologically??? I can't stand the violence and deaths, as well as the Schadenfreude that has littered the Internet. I too would love to see someone host videos that people like me and your readers could watch and submit production-valued entertainment without having to sift through all the crap that's out there. I have a friend, Todd Jeffery, who went to AFI who had a great comment: "You can get just about anybody to watch just about anything if it's only 90 seconds." You do a great job, love your magazine, and I always learn something new.
Brendan Brooks
Via e-mail