Youtube video leads to $30 million Hollywood contract

[gap5ewl]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8417789.stm

A producer from Uruguay who uploaded a short film to YouTube in November 2009 has been offered a $30m (£18.6m) contract to make a Hollywood film.

The movie will be sponsored by director Sam Raimi, whose credits include the Spiderman and Evil Dead films.

Fede Alvarez's short film "Ataque de Panico!" (Panic Attack!) featured giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.

It is 4 mins 48 seconds long and was made on a budget of $300 (£186).

So far it has had more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.

"I uploaded (Panic Attack!) on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of e-mails from Hollywood studios," he told the BBC's Latin American service BBC Mundo.

"It was amazing, we were all shocked."

The movie Mr Alvarez has been asked to produce is a sci-fi film to be shot in Uruguay and Argentina. He says he intends to start from scratch and develop a new story for the project.

"If some director from some country can achieve this just uploading a video to YouTube, it obviously means that anyone could do it," he added.

YouTube recently revealed the most watched videos of 2009. Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle topped the chart with more than 120 million views worldwide of her debut on the show.

Yeah I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty awesome:
[YT]MncSm4PKhdo[/YT]

 

[J-Sentius]

Read about this. It's very interesting. The video is great too.

Congratz to the guy.

 

[The Apatow Crew]

Now your gonna have all kinds of MF'ers uploading stuff on youtube, thinking its gonna land them a deal with Hollywood.

 

[Manic]

The fact that that video was made on a budget of $300 speaks volumes about much money is wasted in Hollywood these days. Of course, if these movies are gonna make millions, I guess they might as well overspend to keep the producers and execs from just pocketing the leftovers.

 

[katie_girl09]

That guy's really got some talent. Congratulations to him.

 

[Batman713]

Neil Blomkamp's short was much better IMO.

 

[Raiden]

Wow, this movie is amazing considered how shoe-string the budget is. Funny how this filmmaker can make it look so realistic, whereas other Hollywood movies that cost millions still have things that look very CGI (such as Spider-man 3). Kudos to him for landing that big Hollywood contract.

 

[Paradoxium]

You have to consider the cost of equipment is probably not included. Camera, the software and the computer. You had volunteers for the extras. The director himself probably produced the graphics, so he knows the types of surfaces and environments to shoot on. Also the free man hours compared to a paid per hour job is significantly different. There is no measure for that.

That said he did a good job. But $300 is very misleading.

 

[Sundancer]

That said he did a good job. But $300 is very misleading.

Agreed. Plus you can't judge directing skill based on this one clip.

 

[Alex The Great]

Fantastic video, it looks better than some movies today....Good camera work (cloverfieldish) Amazing effects (like the alien craft/plane chase)

I hope he does well

 

[Super_Child]

This is brilliant stuff everyone is going to be talking about this guy and his movie next year!

 

[knowsbleed]

That is amazing for such a small budget. He puts Michael Bay's 150 mil for Transformers to shame. I like how he was able to show immense fear with the music and visuals without actually showing any human fatalities.

 

[Super_Child]

I like how he was able to show immense fear with the music and visuals without actually showing any human fatalities.

Exactly! Imagine what he could do with 120 mins and a big budget.

 

[NotAHenchwench]

Now your gonna have all kinds of MF'ers uploading stuff on youtube, thinking its gonna land them a deal with Hollywood.

This is already happening, sadly enough. With the youtube partner option, people everywhere are trying to make partner to make mad money off of their videos.

 

[Sentinel X]

^How is this sad? there are a lot of talented people out there who can probably do some great stuff in Hollywood. Instead we get the same ol' A nd B-list actors and directors make films all the time. This is good. Its not like its American Idol either where you are forced to watch every idiot make a fool of themselves to the whole world...we will only hear about the good ones, like this guy

 

[NotAHenchwench]

It just makes it difficult to weed out the mediocre ones when I'm looking for something is all.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

Wow that was pretty cool. Wonder what the actual film will be about?

 

[I'm Old Greg]

A few years ago, a director named Kerry Conran spent 4 years on his Mac making a 6-minute trailer about giant robot war machines. A famous producer saw the footage, and that trailer became the movie, ‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’. It lost $80 million.

A few years after that, director Michael Davis made a 17-minute reel of animated footage showing different action scenes that he wanted to turn into a movie. The ideas were stupid, but so is Hollywood so New Line gave him a bunch of money and those drawings became ‘Shoot Em Up’. It lost $52 million.

52 is less than 80, so sensing that this was moving in the right direction, Hollywood will try the same idea once again

 

[SuBe]

I saw that video a few weeks ago. I loved it. He reminds me of Neil Blomp*whatver*.

 

[The Guard]

Beyond the fact that this is definitely kind of cool, I fail to see how this video alone qualifies the man to work in Hollywood. The camera shots themselves are pretty basic, there's nothing particularly inspiring about the incident itself, or even the effects work, though yeah, it's kinda cool.

So he spent $300. Sure, calling in all manner of favors, etc. He obviously had a graphics program, people who volunteered to work for free, etc, etc, etc.

That said, I would imagine someone somewhere SPOKE with this man before they hired him, and decided he has talent beyond effects work based on these meetings and probably seeing other work he's done, and that they didn't just hire him based on this. Because that would be a little silly.

 

[Spider-Who?]

A few years ago, a director named Kerry Conran spent 4 years on his Mac making a 6-minute trailer about giant robot war machines. A famous producer saw the footage, and that trailer became the movie, ‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’. It lost $80 million.

A few years after that, director Michael Davis made a 17-minute reel of animated footage showing different action scenes that he wanted to turn into a movie. The ideas were stupid, but so is Hollywood so New Line gave him a bunch of money and those drawings became ‘Shoot Em Up’. It lost $52 million.

52 is less than 80, so sensing that this was moving in the right direction, Hollywood will try the same idea once again

HEY! I LIKED Shoot Em Up! t:

 

[[A]]

Now watch him make an average/mediocre movie. Way to go, Hollywood

 

[The Apatow Crew]

HEY! I LIKED Shoot Em Up! t:

So did I.