The youtube video I watched was a fan-made music video for Arcade Fire's "My Body is a Cage". This fan, youtube user jthelms, spliced the spaghetti western Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" with the Arcade Fire's track from 2007. By taking two forms of media- film and music- he created a new material. I especially like his description of his work: "Upon listening to the new Arcade Fire album, the last song in particular evoked an intense spaghetti western scenerio in my mind. I created a music video for the song with edited clips from Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West"... my favorite western." It is interesting to see the creativity and thoughtfullness which sparked this unusual combination of forms.
The clip I watched on Hulu was a SNL spoof of Brett Favre's Wrangler Commercials. An actor impersonates Brett advertising Wrangler's new "Open Fly" jeans. This video was filmed, produced, and edited by NBC professionals working for Saturday Night Live. Hulu content includes clips, movies, and tv shows, all hosted legally by producers.
Unlike the fan video I watched on youtube, the Hulu clip seems more mainstream. It references Brett Favre's recent scandal - an issue relevant on many entertainment news sites. A prerecorded laugh track is also present in this spoof. The creativity behind the spoof is mainstream and easily understandable to anyone who has watched television within the past month, whereas the fan video references a classic film only familiar to movie buffs or to older people. Although clips from SNL are available on youtube, they are not legitimately hosted and are subject to copyright infringement. Youtube provides a broader platform, accessible to many types of users including mass media corporations and fan producers alike. I think youtube fosters creativity by not relying on traditional advertising, thus liberating its content from necessarily appealing to mainstream (i.e. easily advertised) interests.
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