- January 15th, 2008
- Filed under New Media
With the launch of the new IMA Blog, there will be more authors contributing posts, and I am among them. You should expect to find a lot of opinions, a touch (okay, a lot) of sarcasm and the occassional soap box to provoke your witty and well-written comments. Struggling to find a compelling topic for my inaugural post, I have searched long and hard and decided to pontificate on the expansive YouTube-iverse.
My work at IMA is in video production. I work with an ever-changing team of talented people to identify topics, interview artists and otherwise generate content we can float out onto the web and hope someone nibbles at it. Occassionally a hundred someones, even on occassion a thousand or more partake in our work. But we have yet to discover the elusive million-views video formula seen in YouTube classics like Dramatic Look (my 2007 favorite) and the notorious Rick Roll. Even the unexpected hit, Slug Sex, is kicking our proverbial ass. (If you haven’t seen this video, you absolutely should.)
So what is it? What is that wonderful, viral quality that compells you to e-mail your friends? Perhaps a good laugh, maybe playful irreverance, or just a creative peppering of well-timed obesenities, often set to music, top the list of viral trends. Certainly, we try. For the Roman Art from the Louvre webisode project, we pulled out the big guns and created an episode eerily similar to VH1’s beloved, I Love the 80’s series filled with our own brand of wit and swearing. But it wasn’t quite enough to get us over the hump. So as we move forward, I think it is safe to assume we will keep producing content that we feel has a lot of artistic integrity, contributes to the mission of the museum, all the while brainstorming about ways to strike YouTube gold. So, I challenge you, our constiuents, all 5 people reading this blog, to offer your suggestions for how we can grow that number to 10, then 10 million. I’m waiting….
January 16th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Why aren’t there any witty responses to this yet?
January 16th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Give it time…
January 16th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Glad to have you blogging, Despi! Slug Sex was new for me. Thanks for sharing.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I am not the norm…I don’t spend hours on myspace, facebook, or youtube just surfing around. The only time I stumble onto those sites is because one of my friends has told me about a must-see tag. If the link is in the email, bam I am there. I will check it out right away. But if I decide to wait, usually I will forget to check it once I get home. So for me, it is word of mouth that I will check out a youtube clip.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
When are you going to blog about social curating? : )
January 16th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I’m intrigued by that notion…
January 16th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
I sometimes find that trying to puzzle out the reason that a given YouTube video has gotten insanely popular is akin to pondering a Zen koan. Perhaps this is a new path to enlightenment?
January 16th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I just checked the YouTube Top 20 most watched all time video list; something I do every so often. This time 12 of the 20 most watched videos were simply music videos. This surprised me. The last time I checked a majority of the Top 20 were certainly not “mainstream” and were humorous in nature. I’m not sure what this shift means, but I hope it’s a sign of good things to come.
I think the viral video sensation will never stop. The community aspect that others mentioned plays a major part in their success. It’s fun to be in the “know” and share the latest video craze with others. Where else but YouTube can you watch someone lip sync Eastern European pop songs or reenact Harry Potter with puppets and achieve amazing success. However, I think the rise of mainstream content in the Top 20 indicates that more often people are turning to YouTube for “real” content.
What does all this mean for museums? First of all I think this is great for museums! I think more people will be watching museum produced content as they realize it is available. YouTube and Web 2.0 are still fairly new in the grand scheme of things. It’s probably just going to take some time.
Finally, even as more individuals seek out “real” content there sill has to be community appeal. Museum videos have to have an element in them that people want to share. That element could be fact or humor, and to reach the most people it’s probably best to try a variety of concepts, which IMA is already doing quite well.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
The popularity of a youtube video is no different than the popularity of music or books or fashion and so on. Focusing so much on what you think people might like, in my opinion, is a waste of time (and I’ve wasted a great deal of it on just that). Instead, focus on making something you enjoy. Something that challenges you or which you feel is funny or important or whatever.
Of course, I suppose that advice doesn’t work if you don’t have some freedom in your creative process. So maybe I’m incapable of offering good suggestions or advice, given your situation.
Copy tv commercials.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
In response to Josh’s comments…
Maybe I don’t understand the statement but I don’t believe that music videos in the youtube top 20 is a sign of good things. Mainstream is only good if you want predictability and constipation. I’m also bothered by what seems to be an opinion that something hasn’t any value if it isn’t “real”, as you put it. I’m not sure what you mean by “real” but it sounds like you’re saying that videos of Harry Potter puppets and lip syncing Eastern European pop songs, have no value. I’m probably just hung up on this “real” content you mention, and may be misunderstanding you. If so, I’m sorry. I just think that its a great place for people to enjoy themselves and release some creativity, share some fun and it really bothers me that anyone would be happy to see an end to that.
I hope I’m not just speaking out of turn and if so, please forgive me.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:07 am
That’s more like it! Glad to see a few ideas going. And some arguing. I love that.
It is difficult to maintain balance in the creative process with popularity and some connection to museum goals. Most museums produce scholarly content and people watch it first because they are the Met or MoMA, second because the content is relevant tho them. Some places, get away with a much more critical approach looking back at the art world. But in both cases, I don’t know of any museum that has really completely embraced “fun” video for the sake of it being fun. We need to challenge ourselves to be brave and make time for that, knowing we must produce other types of things too.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:37 am
To clarify… I agree that the greatest aspect of YouTube is the ability for anyone to be successful. You don’t have to have a production facility, or in many cases, a great deal of experience for people to enjoy your content. The fact that the “Potter Puppet Pals” and the “Numa Numa Guy” (AKA Gary Brolsma) exist is a wonderful thing. YouTube is a creative outlet for many that wouldn’t otherwise have one.
What I was trying to describe, and perhaps I didn’t do a good job, is that music videos creeping into the Top 20 is maybe an indication of people wanting a variety of content types from YouTube. If they’re looking for music videos, maybe they’re also looking for news, history featureettes, and art lectures. These other areas of content which I called “real” in comparison to the Potter Puppet Pals, for example, aren’t more or less valuable to the YouTube experience than any other video, they’re just different. And I was trying to illustrate that.
I agree with Monkey King’s comment that instead of trying to predict what users will respond to just do what you like. That makes sense and I could see that being a successful strategy. I also think he makes a good point with the commercial comment. Most of the successful viral videos to date have been fairly short, at most music video length. Maybe that’s another thing to keep in mind.
I do however still believe that if YouTube users in general are diversifying they’re interests, looking for all sorts of content, this is going to be beneficial to museums.
February 13th, 2008 at 9:47 am
we need a music video and a weekly fun show fo sho