There’s the old cliché that if you chain a million monkeys to a million typewriters, eventually one of them is going to accidentally write Macbeth. Regardless of what Shakespeare’s ghost and PETA might think of this concept, the general idea applies well to the modern media age—not for the cliché’s original meaning, which was a jibe at statistics, but for its snide underlying message: Even idiots can create something that someone somewhere will consider priceless.
Well, welcome to the world of Web 2.0, where “user-created content” is all the rage. Websites from MySpace to YouTube to Flickr to eBay to any forum you’ve ever stumbled into are based on this very concept: Set up a site, let people populate it and upload their crap, and the crap will become the draw. Slap some Google ads in there, maybe a banner or two, sit back and let the money roll in. It’s so simple, even I’d do it on this site (if I was allowed by the site’s host).
Although there’s millions of people with a jaw-dropping lack of anything interesting to say, there’s plenty of people who are willing to provide all kinds of free content that websites actually used to pay for a long time ago. Fan films, of course, have been at the forefront of user-created content for decades; every time someone posts a homemade Batman movie online, it’s free publicity for DC Comics, Warner Brothers, all the companies that make Batman toys, and so on. Similarly, even with no official Star Trek series currently in production, that whole franchise is just as alive and kicking as ever on the internet these days, if not more so, due to fan production efforts like New Voyages.
And without question, people like all this user-generated content. They like having a say (even if it’s lost in the morass of like-minded individuals), and they enjoy seeing the best examples of this amateur movement held up as something to aspire to—or to at least watch for a few minutes. It only stands to reason then that Big Media would want to grab more of this free content and use it elsewhere—not merely on crummy VH1 shows that recycle web clips of someone getting slammed in the crotch (isn’t at what ABC Family Channel is for?) but to also use it in DVDs, movies and such.
Don’t think so? Certainly the amateur film style is getting out there. MTV’s loathsome Jackass franchise was famously (still) borne of underground videos. Meanwhile, fan film contests like the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge and the Battlestar Galactica fan film contest covered by FCT two days ago not only spread a sense of goodwill among fans while gaining lots of free content, they also get eyeballs and mindshare. Any fan who learns of the contest either makes a movie or thinks, “Man, if I had the time, I’d make a fan film where the heroes would….” Time spent thinking about the contest is advertising—you’re actually doing their marketing to you for them at that point. And if you actually do make a movie? Even better—you’ll spend hours and hours thinking about their franchise.
And again, the content holders get the upside of free content. Look at the folks behind the recent release of the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon on DVD. They held a fan film contest, chose a winner, and got another marketing bullet to put on the back of the box for virtually nothing. Spike TV is slated to show winners of the Star Wars contest, while Sci-Fi Channel is going to air some of the BSG shorts. Meanwhile, you have a trio of professional movies about making fan films, like 5-25-77, Son of Rambow and the in-pre-production untitled flick based on Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation on the way, not to mention Fanboys, due this summer, which actually was a partially-completed fan film until Kevin Spacey’s Trigger Street production company shelled out to turn it into a real flick. Lego fan films have certainly become part of the equation–when Spiderman 2 came out a few years ago, they actually commissioned a Lego Spiderman short in a fan film style, for people to watch online. Is it impressive? You bet. Does it blur the lines between fan films and real films even more than usual? Double your bet.
There’s plenty of other examples as well, but what all this means is that the fan film aesthetic—the look and feel of user-generated content—is being adapted and largely co-opted by Big Media. Much as in the world of indie rock, the ‘not faking it’ vibe, the feeling that something is ‘real’ and therefore somehow more pure, is always valued by corporate types and Madison Avenue. Now, in their quest to control that ‘realness,’ you see companies sponsoring fan film contests for their own products and other surprising developments—so, is a fan film sponsored by a major corporation still a fan film? Is it more ‘real’ for having not been developed (too much) by the corporation, for instance? Does any of this matter? Post your thoughts below and let’s find out.
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