Unseen YouTube

Title: ramiro

Views (as of this posting): 7

This might be the least-watched cat video on the internet with only 7 views. The cat seems cute enough and it’s certainly doing some cute stuff- there’s even SPOILERS a second cat at one point. So where did the filmmakers go wrong? I believe it’s a matter of shot choice, the angle is far too wide for us to really appreciate the cat’s adorableness (especially when mixed with the poor compression) and so the viewer never really engages with what they’re seeing, some close-ups would really have helped.

Title: ggggs

Views (as of this posting): 22

At first glance this piece resembles what happens when someone tries to take a still photo not realizing they’re in video mode- but then why would they upload that to YouTube? That question is answered at the 3 second mark with a surprising twist followed by an abrupt ending.

Title: zocalo

Views (as of this posting): 6

An unbroken seven minutes of silent, sideways footage of a group of teenagers (?) as they walk through a city, one of them has a guitar. I imagine both the lack of sound and the video’s orientation are unintentional but they work to make it much more interesting. Even if this guy were an amazing guitarist I probably wouldn’t hear him over the sound of the crowd and the jittery hand-held video would probably be mildly dizzying if titled ninety degrees- however silent and sideways this whole thing takes on an abstract quality (I especially like the street shots). Ironically I think this presentation gives me a much better feel (expressionistically) for what it was like to be at this place at this time with these people than it would if I could clearly see or hear anything.

Title: IMG 1132

Views (as of this posting): 37

Filmmakers have often struggled with depicting characters who’s states have been affected with drugs or alcohol. The approach here is straight disorientation, the upside down frame (intentional or not) instantly conveys the impairment of mental and physical faculties. The aggressively red wall, the protagonist’s partial nudity, and the unseen third parties passing in front of the camera really sell the debaucherous nature of what we’re seeing even before the middle fingers start flying around. The ending, while attention getting, is ambiguous, implying that the filmmaker passes no judgement on the scene playing out in front of him, he is simply documenting it, allowing us to interpret what we have just seen.