When web video got introduced in the late 1900s, all people cared to see was
movement. Then they began to want narrative. Then….

Do you see where I’m going with this?

While YouTube will always have it’s place as the 24/7 version of America’s
Funniest Home Videos, at some point or another (I would argue the time
has come) people will want quality over crappity.

So… get prepared to produce quality stuff.

Done ranting.

- Ted

The more I find myself browsing through the increasingly infinite web, the less I feel I can come up with something unique.

Or, I should say I thought this.

I was wrong. This beautifully done video turned that idea on it’s head and then some. Is the video entirely original? No. Is the animation the best there is? No. The world has already been created (everything from ideas and thoughts to trees and oceans) so creativity is rarely (if ever) in developing an entirely new concept, but rather in finding a way to contrive something new out of the old. Those who can make what already exists relevant are the people who are going to find success. The one who spends his/her time trying to be outside of the self will only find frustration and disappointment.

This whole post may not be a new concept, or something you have never heard, but you have never seen it presented this exact way. You have never been presented with this combination of video, words, and minimalistic blog design that I hope is an invitation to go create something. Seriously, go do it.

Don’t get stuck 91 centimeters away from creating something.

How many times have you said or heard someone else say this? Personally, I have heard this so many times that it makes me sick. Before you go novel-elitist on me, let me explain.

Books are not better than movies. Books are different than movies.

When reading/viewing:

Books are more engrossing. The take more time, they take more energy, and they take more imagination.

Movies are less engrossing. They take less time, they take less energy, and they take less imagination.

Now some of you are saying, “exactly, books are better than movies” and are missing the point: you can’t compare them. You have to compare movies with other movies and books with other books (there is a well known cliché that I could easily throw in here, but I prefer bananas and pineapples). You cannot be upset when your favorite 400 page book does not fit perfectly in a two hour movie, and then be upset when Peter Jackson’s latest adaptation is “too long.” There are so many ironies in that previous sentence that it might make your head explode.

Look, I love books, and like most of the world I wish I read more. However, I also love movies, and I love movies adapted from my favorite books. I just recognize that they are different mediums of entertainment, not to be confused as the same. I judge the movie on its own merit, and the book the same way.

When you say that the book is better than the movie, you are saying that your own idea of something is better than someone else’s. Now, there is a shock.

Next time, when you go to ramble about the movie not living up to the book, please, think again.

Interesting thing about the web however, is that viewership increases simply because once your content is up, it doesn’t go away, so now it’s much more per hour but I’m too lazy to do anymore math than I already have. I don’t know why you needed to know this other than I want to encourage you to get your stuff on the web today (as in right now) because it isn’t entertaining/helping/motivating anyone just sitting there on your hard drive or in your brain. People to people connections are what drive the Internet so please, connect.