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Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald Crowd-Source YouTube Vids in 'Life in a Day'

by Matthew Zuras on July 7, 2010 at 09:50 AM

Life in a Day promo
We're getting a little sick of crowd-sourcing, but 'Life in a Day' -- a new project by Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald -- seems like it could have some promise, if only due to the cinematic weight that the directors bring to the table. Macdonald, who directed 'The Last King of Scotland,' and Scott, who directed sci-fi favorites like 'Blade Runner' and 'Alien,' have partnered with YouTube to create a user-generated, slice-of-life documentary to be shot entirely on July 24th.

The directors are asking anyone with a camera to film just about anything -- mowing the lawn, the birth of a child, waiting in line for some Tasty-D-Lite -- and upload it to the Life in a Day channel between July 24th and July 31st. Scott and Macdonald will then edit and incorporate the footage into a feature-length documentary set to premier at the Sundance Film Festival this coming January. Filmmakers whose footage is used for the film will be credited as co-directors, and 20 of them will be flown to attend the screening. The guidelines for videos are fairly open (i.e., no clips of other movies, no corporate logos, and, although unstated, probably no hardcore porn), so that the directors can pick and choose from any number of quotidian scenes.

Last month, we reported on a similar project called YouTube Play, an experimental attempt by the Guggenheim to find amateur art films, that has been lukewarmly received by art critics. But Macdonald, and Scott especially, have the cinematic chops to create great films; and by drawing from a pool as large as YouTube, they are basically ensuring that their video database will include at least 90 minutes of decent videography, if nothing more.

Reuters reports that the directors are working with Against All Odds Productions, which will provide cameras to people in remote regions so that the film is sufficiently multicultural. Will it turn out like the hit-or-miss 'Babies,' or more like Dziga Vertov's masterpiece, 'Man With a Movie Camera'? We won't know until January. [From: Reuters and YouTube]

Tags: crowdsourcing, documentary, film, kevin mkevin macdonald, KevinMacdonald, KevinMkevinMacdonald, LifeInADay, ridley scott, RidleyScott, SliceOfLife, sundance, sundance film festival, SundanceFilmFestival, top, video, youtube

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