Internet video has come a long way in a short time and it seems clear that as bandwidth expands, so expands our consumption of web media. Some of this includes Hollywood fare, but a lot (most?) of it is made with a camcorder at zero cost and distributed worldwide at zero cost by hosting sites like YouTube. Vimeo offers the same service but with a culture difference; you could call it a high brow/low brow thing but it seems more like just a caring and encouraging community that appreciates artistic expression.
The first annual vimeo awards festival attests to that culture. The two day conference included lectures, workshops, screenings, awards and a party. Full disclosure: one of the organizers for this event is a close friend but even if Blake hadn’t hooked me up, I would have said the same thing. This was an amazing event and represents an important trend in the evolution of video towards a truly democratic medium. The videos they celebrated are pushing the artistic envelope in every genre and their workshops and lectures were forward-thinking and inspiring. We have lived through media revolutions before (tapes to CDs?) but this may be the first one that actually changed the content. I can’t wait to see where we are in another 10 years…
great write up, man.