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2007

Glued to Tube

By Kevin Herrera, Santa Monica Daily Press

February 19th, 2007

CITYWIDE By his own accounts, Nick James has been “ kicking around town” for the last 20 years trying to strike it big as a filmmaker and comedian. What he realized during that time is that if he wanted to make money
in Hollywood he would have to do one of two things — make major compromises or go it alone and face the possibility of never being discovered.

That is, until he found YouTube, the immensely popular free video sharing Web site that lets hundreds of thousands of users upload, view and share video clips that are rated by viewers. Videos that receive the highest rating are featured on the Web site, with the directors being invited to participate in YouTube conventions, including the one in San Francisco last weekend that James attended thanks to the popularity of his comedy sketches that feature Santa Monica as the backdrop.

“ I’ve been trying to break into the business for about 20 years in one way or another and with YouTube I’ve been able to see my stock rise,” said James, who goes by the name of NickyNik.

“ Now I have hundreds of people tuning in every time I post a sketch and that has helped me get my name out
there,” James added. “I also have the freedom to do what I want in the way I want, whereas before, I would go into these meetings where there would be one person whowould love a script and you would have all of these A-list actors attached, and then the next week another person would say ‘no’ and that would kill the project.

“ Now the only person I have to worry about is myself.” James isn’t the only one who has found their 15 minutes of fame thanks to YouTube. The site features more than 600 videos — some as short as 10 seconds — featuring Santa Monica as the backdrop. They include everything from music videos and home movies to public service announcements about recycling and a woman named Joanie talking about her first UFO encounter in the Santa Monica Mountains. There is even a video featuring former teen heartthrob Kirk Cameron of “Growing Pains” fame, who tries to preach the gospel to some gang members on the Santa Monica Pier.

Speaking of walking, those who log into YouTube can watch “Desperate Housewives” star Teri Hatcher climbing “ The Stairs,” a popular workout spot at the northern end of the city, and Tony Hawk and Stacey Peralta enjoying a few spins around The Cove Skatepark. “ The best thing about YouTube is the freedom,” James said. “You get to do things on your own terms.”

Streaming and screaming video

With any new form of communication comes consequences. Recently, school officials were alarmed to learn that students at Malibu High School posted videos that poked fun at teachers and showed risky behavior on school grounds, with some kids shown running amok on campus, jumping off the roof of buildings, performing acrobatic moves off tables, and literally running up and off the walls. Two videos posted by the same user targeted two students by calling into question their sexuality. Those postings forced administrators to take action by notifying parents and revisiting policies around the use of cell phones in the classroom. Some of the videos were made by students using their cell phones. Board members suggested adding a policing on video postings and soliciting student input in formulating regulations since the youth are well aware of technology changes.

“ Like any technology, YouTube can be abused, and clearly when students are ganging up on one kid or are harassing people, bringing cell phones into class and taping teachers to make them look bad, that’s clearly abuse,” said Jonathan Taplin, professor of communications at the Annenberg School for Communications at USC and an expert on digital communication. “I think it is up to the schools to try and control the use of cell phones and cell phone cameras ... There is a huge amount of stupidity on YouTube. But then again, there is a huge amount of stupidity on television; we just have more regulation of it because the technology has been around longer.”

A spokesman from YouTube said in an interview earlier this year that any footage showing someone getting hurt, attacked or humiliated is removed once the company is made aware of it.

“ Our community controls the content on the site and they’re the ones [not us] who flag content they deem inappropriate,” the spokesperson added. Despite the controversy, there are those who see YouTube as the ultimate form of democracy, allowing anyone with a video camera to post videos they deem important to the public.

The implications for political discourse are huge, said former Santa Monica Mayor Mike Feinstein, who has posted more than 100 videos on the site, including footage of City Council meetings, Green Party events and national news coverage of council actions, such as the decision to challenge “double dipping” by major banks who charge customers fees for using a competitors ATM.

“ A lot of the stuff that goes on in the city is not practical for City TV to cover because of the cost,” Feinstein said. “It can be $2,000 to $3,000 for City TV just to show up.With YouTube, we can provide cameras to community volunteers who will show up and film this stuff.

“ It really is endless the amount of things we could cover by doing this. We can take public participation to another level.”