It should go without saying that making a film is hard. No, I'm not talking about those videos you made with your webcam, or those movies you starred in to pay your way through college. No, I'm talking about a feature length film, those suckers you shell out nine or ten bucks a pop to see at your local movie theater. That hefty price tag isn't unfair when you consider the thousands of hours of work from hundreds of people between pre- and post-production. Not to mention, with a few breakthrough exceptions, the millions of dollars poured into these films' budgets. It is because of a specific one of those exceptions that I am writing this article. The film is called Mystery Team and so help me God, you will go see it.
As you should have guessed by this column’s title, this movie matters. A lot. Not only is it one of the most enjoyable comedies I’ve seen in a very long time, but Mystery Team represents opportunity. Yes, that’s right, opportunity. Feel free to scoff all you want, but at least hear me out. Among the hundreds of streaming video sites on the web, YouTube alone is the fourth most visited website in the world. That’s millions upon millions upon gazillions of visitors a day. Internet celebrities and independent artists vie daily for video hits and precious subscribers. Yet, through all of this, how many have actually begun their entertainment careers on YouTube and subsequently broken through to real world success? More specifically, how many of these actors and writers and comedians and short film directors have made it to the promised land of Hollywood?
I’m sure you’re with me in a collective head scratch followed by a communal shrug. Chocolate Rain the Musical? Magibon the Movie? Barats and Bereta Do Vegas? (Actually, that last one would be pretty amazing). In either case however, even the most successful “filmmakers” of the YouTube community have found little to no success outside this digital domain. Aside from the upcoming “Fred” movie (which will undoubtedly be an abomination beyond words), there’s not a single one of them who have found any measure of success in real filmmaking.
Why? I’ll go out on a possibly unpopular limb here and venture a guess. It’s certainly not for lack of talent; for all the crap on YouTube, there’s plenty of gold. In my opinion, it’s for lack of effort. Don't get me wrong, it’s not that these people are lazy, but why would they venture out into untested waters when they’ve found success in their current market? If you’re popular on YouTube, it seems ridiculous that you’d choose to push that aside for a possibly disastrous bid for Hollywood.
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