Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 8:13 AM PT

 

YouTube Screening Room: AtomFilms Redux?

It was with more than a little irony that I read about YouTube’s new Screening Room program for short films last night. In all the coverage in the blogosphere, no one has mentioned that this is the exact same thing AtomFilms did for 10 years, and it didn’t work for them.

It’s ironic because at AtomFilms (where I used to work), was way ahead of the online video curve, offering short-form content ranging from Oscar-winning shorts to crude viral-y animations. Then we watched in 2006 as YouTube came out of nowhere and blew past us to become the 800-pound web video gorilla.

Now AtomFilms has abandoned short films and basically become a sub-brand of Comedy Central, and YouTube is stepping into Atom’s old role of providing high-falutin’ short films online. Adding insult to injury, the industry is abuzz with the thought of revenue sharing with YouTube — when AtomFilms has paid out big money to filmmakers for a decade.

YouTube even got a quote in its press release from Daniel Dubiecki, the producer of Juno and the short film The Big Empty. Dubiecki had a number of popular shorts on Atom over the years.

Technically, the short film route didn’t work for Atom — it had to merge with Shockwave.com to survive the dotcom crash and was then bought by big media company Viacom. Without telling tales out of school, during my tenure there the most popular films were either animation, comedies or anything that hinted that there might be a bare boob.

Those Oscar winners? No one cared, bring on Pornographic Apathetic.

YouTube has a much more massive scale than Atom could have ever dreamed of, but that doesn’t change the fundamental situation. People prefer farts being lit on fire to artsy short films.

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  1. I figured the Screening Room wouldn’t amount to much. Now we know there’s a historical precedent. Thanks, Chris!

    Mike Abundo on June 19th, 2008 at 9:16 am - Permalink

  2. If YouTube Screening Room is going to be anything like the party, the screening and the rooftop after party YouTube threw last night in Hollywood this should be a great new platform for Indie Filmmakers.

    I really like the part about being able to sell DVDs and Digital Downloads. Very Cool.

    Tim Street on June 19th, 2008 at 9:17 am - Permalink

  3. “People prefer farts being lit on fire to artsy short films.”

    You may be right as far as the current YouTube generation is concerned. However, even art film connoisseurs thought that dad’s farts were the highest form of entertainment at some point in their lives.

    My point is that YouTube faithfuls will not stay the same age forever, and YouTube is (wisely) providing a content migration path to keep their interest.

    But will your average art film ever enjoy the same mass appeal as “Jackass 2.5″? Probably not.

    Paul Brunato on June 19th, 2008 at 9:21 am - Permalink

  4. No, most of the films in hte screening room won’t become the most popular videos (and they don’t have to), but many will be watched by more people than the better shorts on Atom.

    It would help if either of the posts on it had a link, so we could decide for ourselves

    http://youtube.com/ytscreeningroom

    take 15 minutes to watch the Danish Poet which won the Oscar for best animated short in 2007. It isn’t the same as seeing it in a theater with the filmmaker like I did, but it is better than most feature length animated films you’ll see.

    http://youtube.com/ytscreeningroom?v=iTef0HWbW_M

    And then embed it or email the link to someone. That is how these films will build an audience.

    Steve Rhodes on June 19th, 2008 at 9:54 am - Permalink

  5. The key differences here:

    1. Youtube offering a lot more to leverage as a platform that Atom Films could.

    2. The world having caught up on web video (being too far ahead of the curve is a disadvantage).

    I think those make it foolish to just immediately write this off as “bah! it’s already been done and failed!”

    Also, lets not get overly elitist about YouTube. I speak as someone who has had the same exact videos (Bodega, Checkmate) be hits on YouTube and then later play for film festival audiences or the NPR crowd.

    To reference Mo Better Blues… Is it possible that the people don’t come out for snooty art videos because the grandiose [expletive] making them, don’t play what the people want to hear?

    Shakespeare wrote for the masses yet kept it a level above just some burning farts, right?

    If you don’t want to create work that appeals to someone outside of the film industry, then you shouldn’t complain when it doesn’t do numbers.

    rafi on June 19th, 2008 at 9:58 am - Permalink

  6. @Steve,

    Thanks for the reminder, I added a link to both.

    @Rafi,

    I concede in my post that YouTube is a much different ballgame than Atom, and it has the added advantage of learning from history.

    I was reacting to the fact that memories are short-lived on the Internet. This has been done before (iFilm did it too).

    If YouTube can make it work — more power to them. I think people should be exposed to short films, really good ones pack more entertainment than most features, I just don’t believe large audiences (U.S. audiences mostly) will connect with them.

    Chris Albrecht on June 19th, 2008 at 10:43 am - Permalink

  7. Heh, this is what we’re trying to do with ReelConnect.com. Looks like we’re just going to have to focus more of the tools for filmmakers since the 800 lb gorilla is now absolute direct competition. We will have better networking tools though.

    Matthew Wood on June 19th, 2008 at 11:55 am - Permalink

  8. [...] Chris is skeptical about the program’s success — what I’m still wondering, though, is if this really will give the undiscovered filmmaker a chance to get greater exposure. While YouTube Film and Animation Manager Sara Pollack was vague on how future films will be selected by an undisclosed editorial team, citing a process of word-of-mouth and filmmaker outreach, she did promise that filmmakers could email YouTube directly at ytscreeningroom@youtube.com to pitch their films. Hopefully they’ll be able to find some hidden gems in the mass of unsolicited submissions they’re doomed to receive — if only so the Screening Room can occasionally feature films produced in the last year. [...]

    YouTube Screening Room Launches « NewTeeVee on June 19th, 2008 at 1:02 pm - Permalink

  9. I don’t think Short Films will dominate online viewership in any way, shape or form but the Screening Room offers YouTube a way to increase the prestige of their content. Film festivals carry this prestige, and YT has partnered with Cannes, Tribeca and Sundance to cover these events and probably will with AFI Fest in the Fall. It’s a stepping stone to a strategy that will showcase that not all content on youtube is crap and that’s a message advertisers want to hear. It’s part of a larger strategy that courts filmmakers to distribute immediately rather than suffer the long road of the festival circuit. I’m not saying Atom Films wasn’t there first, but I am saying that the climate is more appropriate now seeing that YouTube has an enormous marketshare and offers huge viewing potential to any short film featured that Atom Films was never capable of.

    Bobby Jennings on June 19th, 2008 at 1:30 pm - Permalink

  10. YouTube’s ‘screening room’ announcement today underscores the powerful role the Internet can play for independent filmmakers to share their work and build a fan-base without the limitations of conventional theater distribution. But it’s not the first — Lycos Cinema has provided a platform for indie filmmakers to showcase their work since late 2006. Having been at it for a while Lycos Cinema is loaded with hundreds of award-winning independent films, such as God’s Lonely Man (Grand Jury Nominee – 2006 Sundance Film Festival); The Corndog Man (Emerging Filmaker Award – 2000 St. Louis International Film Festival); Kid Brother (Special Jury Prize – 1988 Paris Film Festival, Unicef Award Berlin International Film Festival); and The Zeros (Audience Award, Narrative Feature, 2001 SXSW Film Festival).

    And as part of a major upgrade in May 2008, Lycos Cinema teamed up with Independent Features for an online film festival that is running from May 5 to June 30. The festival takes advantage of Lycos Cinema’s unique, patent-pending watch and chat capability, which allows fans to synchronously discuss and watch movies in real-time. So it really mirrors the community experience of a film festival with fans socializing and buzzing about their favorites. Fans also get to vote, and the top films will be shown at the Tribeca Cinemas in NYC in late July. Check it out here: http://cinema.lycos.com.

    Bill on June 19th, 2008 at 5:06 pm - Permalink

  11. I’m uncomfortable with the notion of YouTube the broadcaster as a whole. It’s nice to have a window dedicated to film, but it creates just another gatekeeper; it stinks of the traditional distributor/TV network model. Didn’t YouTube promise to “broadcast yourself”? The positive aspect of video-sharing sites for independent filmmakers is that it creates a level playing field, as far as media hosting is concerned. Combined with blogs, syndication and social networks, it gives filmmakers the tools to broadcast, themselves, over the Internet, and create awareness for their films in the traditional venues, and vice-versa.

    François Lafrenière on June 19th, 2008 at 7:59 pm - Permalink

  12. I watched the films at the screenings last night and then tonight fired up the YouTubes with my wife and enjoyed them again. While it’s not the same as watching them on the big screen, it was better than watching TV. Most of the shorts currently up are Oscar nominated or winners (and it shows – these are great), yet I don’t think I would have come across them otherwise.

    Mark Rotblat on June 19th, 2008 at 9:56 pm - Permalink

  13. [...] Albrecht, a former employee of AtomFilms back when it did exactly what YouTube is doing now, had some words about the new Screening Room. He’s a tad on the bitter side, but he does have a point. [...]

    Random Salad - Geek Culture Webozine » The YouTube Screening Room. Finally, and only Sorta. on June 20th, 2008 at 2:41 am - Permalink

  14. Thanks Chris for this interesting post. It raised a few good points about the challenges. I have been working on a similar project for a while. And you post has given me a new direction to think about.

    Keep writing.

    Puneet on June 20th, 2008 at 6:15 am - Permalink

  15. [...] was skeptical of YouTube even getting into the shorts biz, but I can’t understand why the site wants to get [...]

    YouTube Paying Upfront for Content « NewTeeVee on June 21st, 2008 at 9:50 am - Permalink

  16. Are you saying PORNOGRAPHIC APATHETIC isn’t artsy? [Insert fart noise here]

    -t. arthur cottam, director of PORNOGRAPHIC APATHETIC

    http://www.DirtyLittleShorts.com

    T. Arthur Cottam on June 24th, 2008 at 2:45 pm - Permalink

  17. [...] a big name like Comedy Central on your side doesn’t hurt. And with YouTube getting into the indie shorts game, now was probably an opportune time to get more [...]

    Atom Rebrands, Relaunches, Releases New Series « NewTeeVee on June 27th, 2008 at 8:30 am - Permalink

  18. [...] my first reaction to hearing about new short film website businesses is along the lines of what Chris Albrecht of New Tee Vee had to say regarding the launch of YouTube’s Screening Room endeavor, i.e. a massive dose of [...]

    A Ride Down IndieRoad | Bad Lit on August 6th, 2008 at 10:22 am - Permalink

  19. This sucks. I loved AtomFilms.

    Anon on September 13th, 2008 at 5:14 pm - Permalink

  20. [...] http://newteevee.com/2008/06/19/youtube-screening-room-atomfilms-redux/ [...]

    Youtube Screening Room, another ATOM films? « 1008indyfilms’s Blog on March 18th, 2009 at 3:49 am - Permalink

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