Midterm - Homegrown Style vs. Professional Production

Amateurism vs. Professional Production

As the internet has continued to become increasingly popular over the last 12 or so years, sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook have staked their claim as popular hubs for homemade content. Consumers can upload and indulge in their own amateur content as well as that of others. Due to the ever increasing popularity of these sites, professional business, both private and public, have begun producing advertisements that imitate an amateur style as well, in an effort to emulate the Web. This amateurish style is become so popular, that some think it might eventually outweigh the value of professional production. However, this is not necessarily true. The “homegrown” style is more of an effort to connect with the audience than anything else and even though it still has to grow some more, it may never be as effective as profession production.

Any American with access to the internet is familiar with You Tube as well as social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The success of these sites comes mainly from the idea that they are pretty much based on the consumer. They all began shortly after the start of the new millennium as contained ideas that were either independent or small parts of larger businesses such as Google or New Corporation. Now they are already among some of the most popular sites on the web. Facebook and MySpace serve as social networking sites and YouTube is a video hosting services. All three are flooded on user generated content. YouTube in particular is filled with media of the “homegrown” variety. While it is true that both Facebook and MySpace allow users the ability to upload their own videos, the immediate function of the sites is social networking. YouTube on the other hand specifically allows millions and millions of people to upload their own videos as well as rate and comment on other user content. YouTube does contain professionally produced media, such as official music videos and episodes of popular television shows, but the real reason why the site has gained worldwide popularity is because it allows users to become involved. Not just by watching or commenting, but by creating their own content. An important thing to realize, however, is that while these sites are known worldwide, and are even at times spotlighted on television venues such as popular sitcoms and the news, they are mostly contained in the Internet.

As a result of the success of amateur content and that fact that it is very internet based, companies and studios have begun to produce ads and entertainment (movies, TV. shows, etc.) that resemble amateur “homegrown” videos. Ads like eTrade’s talking baby have been granted great success. Movies such as “Cloverfield” and “Quarantine” have attempted to bring the amateur style to the big screen. While audiences were interested upon first glance however, the two movies met with very mixed reviews. Then you have movies like the recent “Paranormal Activity”, which did extremely well. With that being said, it would seem that people can enjoy the style, but in small doses, which is why there is speculation as to whether it is the “wave of the future” so to speak. It would seem that it works well if the homegrown style media is short and sweet, rather that long and drawn out, which is why videos on YouTube and commercials for companies such as eTrade connect with audiences better. Not to mention that the success has a lot to do with the actual content of the media as well. One of the reasons for the success of “Paranormal Activity’s” success is the fact that it is of the horror/suspense genre.

Amateur media in the giant scope of things seems as though it is more of a pleasure for the moment. People like it but our culture, as well as most around the world, seem to receive, professionally produced media with tope of the line graphics much better. After all, when you look at the highest grossing movies of all time, the movies that have captured the most people are movies such as the Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Titanic, and most recently Avatar, which made over 2.5 billion dollars worldwide. None of these movies were done in an amateurish style. Instead, they are known for their use of CGI (computer generated images), amazing sound quality, and more recently 3-D technology, a style that is being used more and more frequently after the huge success of Avatar. This technology has become so popular that electronics companies such as Samsung are beginning to manufacture 3-D televisions. It may be possible to say that 3-D is the wave of the future. Nothing quite like feeling like you’re inside the movie you are watching. But even in this case there are some flaws, due the fact that people tend to have eye issues or motion sickness if they watch too long.

In the long run, it would seem that even though people enjoy the amateurish style used in different media, it ma only be a passing fancy, a fad of sorts. I think it will always be popular, but will never become as popular as the professional production that we have all come to love and enjoy. Nothing beats that high definition, crisp, animated graphics if they are done the right way. I think most people would agree with me.