It’s undeniably true: we live in a Youtube age. I mean, just look how much time the ZRC spends on media available on Youtube, or how many trailers we’ve embedded on the site hosted on the mega-behemoth video service. Likewise we have found the service an invaluable resource for hosting our own videos and short videojournalism pieces.

It’s also undeniably true, however, that Youtube is full to the gills with ‘funny’ short videos, often of wacky pets or precocious children, and that these videos can rack up millions of views, something that many aspiring filmmakers would kill for.

And thus, there’s some bitterness on display, perhaps, with the following:

In today’s snack culture, there’s no shortage of home videos circulating online, garnering millions of views worldwide. To demonstrate the difference in quality between a short film and a video, we had three directors turn the popular viral video “Charlie Bit My Finger” into a short film. We ended up with three very different cinematic interpretations, but they all share one thing in common: a great director makes all the difference. Come see the world’s best short films at the Worldwide Short Film Festival.

There’s an ideology advanced here about the relative value of directly recording and minimally editing reality vs. carefully composing a film, and that’s a topic that can be debated heatedly; it isn’t, however, our focus here at the ZRC.

I tell you about this little promotion from the ‘Worldwide Short Film Festival’ because, naturally, one of the three short films they’ve commissioned is an Anti-Zombie flick.

First, here’s the original ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ video, a relatively harmless piece of pablum:

It has been seen, as of this writing, an astonishing 322,316,802 times.

Anyone could envy that kind of exposure, except perhaps a criminal caught on tape.

Now, take a look at what this innocent expression of childhood was turned into by a sick puppy named Jeff Chan:

Truly shocking and appalling stuff. Not to mention derivative; it reeks of ’28 Days Later’ crossed with ‘Left 4 Dead’. Plus all the video overlays? They don’t make things scarier or more impressive. Little squiggly blood vessels, seriously? Does anyone actually ‘see red’ when they get mad, or does Zombiism supposedly infect the camera too?

At any rate, the ‘film’ gets a thoroughly negative Living Supremacist rating from the ZRC, and director Jeff Chan should be deeply ashamed.

Thanks to Horror Society for the tip on this one.

Tags: Euro-zom, Movies, Youtube Mischief, Zombie Flavored Creativity Substitute

This entry was posted by John Sears on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.