Believe it or not, YouTube is one possible route to Hollywood these days. Following in the footsteps of unknown Uruguayan filmmaker Federico Alvarez comes Patrick Jean and his Pixels short.
YouTube Pulling Power
YouTube is much more than clips of cats doing funny things these days. Viral video hits can turn their makers and participants into stars.
Lauren Luke is now an in-demand Hollywood make-up artist, and she got that gig purely from uploading video clips of herself applying make-up to YouTube.
Lucas Cruikshank has not only made a ton of money from his ever-popular Fred character, but there’s also a movie on the way. Not bad for a squeaky kid playing an even squeakier kid.
And best of all was the story at the end of last year which saw Federico Alvarez land a $30 million movie budget on the strength of a $500 short film called Ataque de Panico! which he uploaded to YouTube where his skills were brought to the attention of people in the industry.
Pixels Short
April saw Pixels hit the Web. Pixels is a short film by French filmmaker Patrick Jean which shows classic video game characters such as the blocks from Tetris, Pacman, Space Invaders, and Frogger invading New York and beyond.
The clip, embedded below in full, became a viral hit on YouTube thanks to 1. being absolutely brilliant, and 2. being talked up by the likes of Shaun of The Dead director Edgar Wright.
Pixels Movie?
Now, believe it or not, it looks like Pixels could be expanded and turned into a full-length feature film.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jean was signed up by WME, which then led to him teaming with Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison production company. They’re all now thought to be working on a big screen version of Pixels at Columbia.
Conclusions
Short films have often led to directors being picked up and nurtured by Hollywood, but YouTube now gives filmmakers a new outlet to show off their work to a bigger audience. Which is an invaluable tool, and another way online video is proving its importance.
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