Have you been following the In Rainbows Music Video Contest? It's quite possibly one of the most inventive things I've seen in terms of musician-fan interaction. Instead of maybe just asking their fans to make them videos, this contest is going through the process of rough storyboards, voting, funding of sample animation for the top ten, and then a final round. It's basically emulating the process that goes on in an animation studio, but on the internet and in masses.
It's just in phase one right now, and if you haven't heard about it from other animation/music circuits, there's some neat (and not so neat) stuff: http://aniboom.com/radiohead
I feel pretty enthused about it especially since I have storyboards in the contest, and it can get lost in the sea of entries, so allow me to try and get your attention: it's got a girl in it, hallucination and some mental freak-outs: http://www.aniboom.com/Player.aspx?v=200107
I sort of feel like this is another step in the direction of user-created media broadcasted via the internet that's changing the way entertainment is made and seen. How do you guys feel about this?
OctEgon, the culture of the amateur thing is definitely scary. It kind of makes me think of going to indie film festivals, and these are the best of the submitted crop, but you see a ton of shit and maybe 1 film you liked, and these are actually people who know what they're doing and can work a camera (or not) and know how to submit a reel. But with youtube... eek. Makes the festivals look like gold.
Speaking of which, a good amount of the people that entered the contest don't even know what storyboards are, but I'm a comic book artist educated in film and animation and (despite the fact that i scribbled these together in two days) i tried to tell a story that conveyed the mood of the music. I'm curious to see how it pans out, to see if simply the most popular people will win, or the one who used the fancy Maya rigs, or some stupid flashy idea wins because it makes the usual joe smile.
[edit] And since I have you here and I think there's a lot of good taste on these boards, I'd actually appreciate any criticism on the piece I created: http://www.aniboom.com/Player.aspx?v=200107
Okay, here's the thing: if people continue to type before thinking, people are going to get removed. And if it reaches epidemic proportions, I think FREAKANGELS can probably struggle along nicely without Whitechapel.