YouTube proper may primarily be the domain of lowbrow workplace procrastination outlets along the lines of “Obama Girl” or “My Son Is Gay,” but a little bird just alerted me to the VIP section of YouTube and, as in the real world, a little selectivity goes a long way. The YouTube Screening Room may not offer Dom Perignon bottle service, but you can virtually hear the masses outside begging for entrance from behind the velvet ropes. Indeed, once safely ensconced in the Screening Room, the bar is raised significantly in terms of the quality of video—film, if I may be so bold—posted there.
The idea is this: Four new short films posted every two weeks in a high-quality player format for free. And these aren’t just random home videos; these are most often films that have made the rounds at festivals and received positive attention, but haven’t been picked up by major studios or distributors, and thus have only been available to a certain class of movie buff or industry insider. Plainly put, the Screening Room is fighting elitism four films at a time (with the permission of the filmmakers, of course—this here is no pirating situation) and I’m all for it.
Recently, the Screening Room offered an animated short titled “I Met the Walrus,” which used as its soundtrack an interview that a 14-year-old boy recorded in 1969 when he ambushed John Lennon with a microphone. The short was nominated for a 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short, but I never would have seen it had it not made it to the Screening Room. I’m glad I know what I was missing.