Life in a Day: film crowdsourcing at its best

I love the idea of crowdsourcing. I’ve received a few comments that suggest crowd sourcing is the lazy man’s marketing. Why come up with an idea yourself when you can get others to do it for you? I don’t agree. The basic marketing principles that have been instilled upon me have made me aware that we now live in a relationship era, where it’s up to brands to listen to consumers and cater to their needs and wants. Consumers too are more willing to share details of their lives and interests, how else can you explain the rapid growth of Facebook and Twitter?

And why should film makers be any different?

I was fortunate to catch Life in a Day, and if you’ve been on the YouTube homepage lately you will see their banner ad. Described as ‘a thrilling piece of cinema’ by The Times, the documentary film consists of clips from film makers all over the world that were submitted to YouTube to share what they did on the 24th of July 2010.

A few people I have spoken to have asked me how on earth such a film could work, in the same way non-believers of crowdsourcing ask how a resulting idea could function? With master editing work and an extremely good soundtrack. the 95 minute film shows morsels of humans’ day-to-day lives across the world in such a way that you feel part of each of their stories. From the cancer sufferer, to the global Korean cyclist, I had the impression that I was part of something big as well as very insignificant indeed. The daily routines of hundreds, if not thousands of human beings shared in this film just went to show the communality of people as well as the subtle differences we all have. From getting out of bed on one side or the other, to the food we eat based on our local cuisine.

Without ruining too much of the film I wanted to blog my recommendation to go and see it. It really is brilliant. Even if you don’t admire the quality of the video footage, hopefully you will enjoy the very skilful editing and the fact that the film is made up or reasonably ordinary people who have gone out of their way to contribute to a brilliant idea. Much like a very good piece of branded content that has been crowdsourced.