Yesterday at South By Southwest I had a total fanboy experience, complete with trembly fainty feelings and mind-imploding excitement. As I sat next to the Starbucks kiosk on the third floor, my laptop warming my knees and a triple espresso burning a hole in my stomach lining, a group of guys walked by who looked strangely like the cast of Trailer Park Boys. My first thought was that it was a couple of dudes dressed like show leads Julian and Ricky. But then I realized . . . it really was fucking Julian (right) and Ricky (left)! I mean, it was John Paul Tremblay and Robb Wells, the actors who play them. They were just hanging out, acting like regular guys, with no fans mobbing them or giving them love because of course we weren't in Canada, where the Boys are superstars.
"Trailer Park Boys!" I tried to yell, but my words came out all whispery. They ambled by, and I watched them go all the way down both escalators, trying to work up the nerve to scream, "Trailer Park Boys rock!" But instead all I did was grab Liz Henry's arm really hard and say, "Omigod I just saw the guys from one of my favorite TV shows ever!" Anyway, if John or Robb happens to read this because they're doing a Google vanity search: You guys ROCK! SXSW was lucky to have you!
Luckily, Mary Hodder arrived just in time to take my mind off my inability to scream fannishly at Canadian comedians. She regaled me with tales of her startup Dabble, a video search and discovery community, which is really taking off. That's why she was in the unique position to tell me all about the most popular genres of online DiY filmmaking . . .
"I love the brownie community," Mary said, explaining that Dabble has an entire group devoted to how-to videos about making brownies. How-to videos, it turns out, are an incredibly hot genre for new filmmakers just getting their vodcasting feet wet. Here are Mary's top twelve DiY video genres:
1. Mini tv show-style — It’s Jerry Time or Ask a Ninja
2. Videobloggers: telling their own life stories like Ryanne Hodson
3. Genre guys: snowboarding or car videos
4. Commentary: Rocketboom or the Bush Blair video.
5. Indie film shorts like Four Eyed Monsters
6. Random.. silly.. funny.. ridiculous… ephemeral Tag: momwalksin tag: lipsync
7. How-to’s that actually show you how to do something in detail or teach: French Pod Class
8. Remixs and mashups: The Presidency Then and Now or Matrix Reloaded or Brokeback to the Future.
9. Interviews like those at GETV.
10. Parodies like the 8up commercial.
11. AMV or anime music videos: Loveless
12. music videos - lipsync sitting at the computer, dancing around withmusic playing, that in effect, remakes the artists own music video intoones the users like, that stars themselves. Here is Hips Don’t Lie.
Mary Hodder Explains It All to You [via Dabble Blog]
