Student Films Screened Online

The sun was hidden behind a blanket of clouds and the wind was non-existent keeping the temperature pleasant. It was a nice day to shoot the outdoor scenes of this short movie.

In the credits of The Open, only five names of the crew and cast flash before the viewer's eyes. The director worked the camera while the other four appear in the film and helped in-between takes to set up scenes.

"We are going to have to come back. The sun's going down and we still haven't shot the ending," said Robert Bava while perched on top of a painter's ladder with a $3,000 camera resting on his shoulder.

For his independent project, Bava, a second-year Digital Media Arts student in his final year at Seneca College in Toronto, created a full-packaged DVD. It comes complete with a behind-the-scenes documentary and commentary track with him and the cast.

As a media student, Bava knows he can gain exposure for his film through a number of outlets. Instead of entering the movie in local student and amateur filmmaking festivals, such as Toronto's YoungCuts Film Festival, has decided to post his work online.

"Many film festivals have a lot of guidelines, including an entry fee. They're usually a good way to showcase your work to local communities, but, for the most part, uploading online is free and will reach a much broader audience," Bava said while cramped in the dark Seneca editing room.

With his eyes attached to the screen of the Macintosh computer and his right hand clicking seamlessly on the mouse, "I just want to show people what an amateur film creator like me can do with a little help from a few friends and no actual budget," he said.

This begs the question; can an amateur moviemaker with little equipment garner worldwide exposure at the click of a mouse?

Popularity of video streaming websites has grown to an all-time high in 2006 and many of them serve as outlets for hobby moviemakers.

The video sharing website YouTube offers a free online portal to upload user-created video. The site, which was started just over a year ago, has caught the attention of the media and others. Among them, amateur video makers have willingly put up their work for the world to see.

According to the Nielsen estimates released in a report on March 14, 2006, YouTube attracted over nine million unique users to their site in February 2006. This is significantly more than other video streaming sites like Google Video, iFilm and Yahoo's video search service. All of these sites saw fewer than seven million unique visitors in February.

The report also said the increase in online video interest is linked to the increase of broadband use. In the U.S., the number of active broadband users from the home has increased 28 percent from last year. As the broadband penetrates more home Internet connections, more time is spent on the computer accessing sites offering photo service and streaming media, such as audio and video.

Aric Whittom, the chair of digital video editing at the Toronto Film School says video posted online does have a wide reach but the production is not high quality.

"For the most part, the video posted online is low budget and done for personal use," Whittom said.

More than 30 million videos are shown each day. The most popular videos on YouTube are small and short humorous clips. However, many have still posted their amateur artistic work.

Under the channel heading "Short Movies", more than 140,000 posts have been made. Not all posts are appropriately categorized, but most of the posts found here are self-produced, independent and amateur films.

Michael Lazazzara is a technical researcher and guest segment producer for G4 Tech TV's Call For Help and Gadgets and Gizmos. He thinks the successes of these sites are due to rise in popularity of video podcasts, and believes the accessibility of equipment and increase of Internet use is a factor.

Video camcorders have become progressively cheaper over the years. Once camcorders were large and bulky, had minimal recording options and cost well over $1000 Canadian. Now anyone can purchase a basic MiniDV camcorder of a high enough quality to shoot basic sequences. Camcorders today go as cheap as $399.

One reality usually overlooked when posting video online is the space available to the user. There are restrictions to size and time. Anyone can post a video on YouTube, but the video cannot be more than 100MB or more than 10 minutes long. This is the case of many of the online video sites, reducing the quality of the video and putting a time restriction on amateur filmmakers looking to spread their work.

Other alternatives, such as Google Video, have no size limit. Videos more than 20 minutes long and at high quality are found through this outlet at no extra cost.

Even though uploading video may be free right now, Lazazzara thinks the free ride won't last long. "Somewhere down the line, it will have to be paid for". Whether we see more Google ads and sponsors around the videos is a question yet to be answered, but, in the end you're gonna have people paying for this service," said Lazazzara.

In Bava's case, in order to put The Open online and gain recognition, Lazazzara says a lot of work will have to be done to promote it, but it's a good start. "Putting your video or movie online can relieve the problem of where to put your work. People can put it up online without it costing them a cent," said Lazazzara.

Some video podcast sites such as www.domainoftheinfinite.com offer their website as a medium to promote independently made films. Sites such as these work together with the iTunes service to upload video on to video enabled iPods. With a small donation to the site, anyone can upload a video or film they would like to promote.

Whittom suggests most of the amateur moviemakers he teaches and the footage he sees usually mimic the video people have been exposed to growing up. He said he has seen a lot of snowboarding and skateboarding videos over the years.

"They're riding on the coat tails of others. Creativity is not something you can teach. Most students want to learn how to do something they have already seen. It takes a while, but eventually they create their own thing," Whittom said.

Shooting The Open has taught Bava how hard amateur film making can be. He enjoyed putting together the movie idea with his friends, but setting up the shooting locations and times when everyone is available was frustrating. It also took a physical toll; climbing ladders, trees and on top of a van to get the perfect angle took a lot out of him.

"Things are obviously easier with a bigger crew, but I have no money to work with so we all pitched in a little extra hard work and got the thing done," Bava said.

Bava designed the content of the movie's website himself, including the trailer, wallpaper, downloads and the story behind the film. In the DVD, he created the visuals from the outside in and the designed all the selections screens found on the disc.

He admits the project's sole purpose was to bring together all the media and technology skills he has learned over the two-year course at Seneca College. However, he wouldn't mind seeing this movie gain recognition for all the hard that was put into it.

"It was a long and tedious process, much like any large project. Fortunately, I had a small but reliable movie crew who was just as enthused at the idea of the film as I was. In the end, they are what matters most because they're the ones that helped make the film end up the way it is," said Bava.

The lead character in Bava's film is drawn to a place called The Open. When he gets there he cannot escape. His dreams become reality and the truth is unknown. With a surprise ending he doesn't want to give away, Bava looked back with a big smile on his face as he said, "Look for it online, it'll be up there soon."