Too many people treat YouTube like a playground full of idiots--too vast and stupid to merit attention. Writers won't take YouTube seriously until real writers show up on YouTube. Video pioneers like Robert Bruce are not alone anymore.
The Continental Review has opened the first video poetry outlet, loaded with web video experiments from loads of established poets.
I'm just starting to sample the work, but I enjoyed Tom Beckett's megaphone-blasted zen poem--just a taste of the simple editing and sound effects tricks available to the amateur web video writer. I also loved Allyssa Wolf's turn on the microphone, a luscious-sounding poem jazzed with text swimming across the screen. I've dabbled in video storytelling, but I'm always looking for new inspiration. Any ideas you want to add to the mix?
"The vision is to provide a haven for original video readings, coupled with a number of regular video-reviewers giving their opinions, in (re)embodied real-time, on recent books and issues relating to contemporary fiction, theory, poetry and poetics."
(Thanks to BookNinja for the link)
With improved sophistication and development this could be a great idea. Maybe my standards are a little high, but I really believe in memorizing your poetry before reciting it to an audience. I also am also a fan of Brin Hill's Morning Breath, a poem turned short film - beautifully adapted and complete. That's another level of video poetry though.
Posted by: Kimberlee Morrison | July 5, 2007 10:52 AM | Permalink to Comment