Continuing my end-of-year wrap up ...
What follows are the top ten videos I've embedded here on Freedom to Differ this year. This list is very subjective - these videos are not necessarily the most viewed or most commented on, nor are they necessarily the funniest or the most original, but they are my ten favourite videos from 2007. However, before I list the the top ten, here are posts that contained the runners-up ...
Videos that make a point: Our branded world (on advertising), New York City's graffiti problem, Did You Know? (a look at the world in the 21st century), Why? How? What? ("examines the omnipresent Powerpoint-culture in search for its philosophical potential"), A Fair(y) Use Tale: explaining copyright (very clever).
Political: Public service announcement, Ferrets for Freedom (ferrets really don't like Rudy Giuliani), YouTube's liberal viewer (an example of liberal viewer's fine work), John Edwards feeling pretty and Hair (two videos looking at that $400 haircut from differing perspectives).
Advertisements: Where else but Queensland? and The Wind (both are very effective).
Funny: Funny or Die (Will Ferrell as the landlord), Cows With Guns (animation to go with the classic song), Cold Blooded Christmas (black and disturbing, but I found it very funny), Life in Second Life (what if Second Life was real), Bizarre video of the day (thanks to Michel Gondry), How not to use PowerPoint (a funny look at PowerPoint presentations), Shepherd Smith and Paris Hilton: "If We're Going To Spend All Day On This, I'm Going To Have Some Fun" (from FoxNews), and New Jib Jab video: What We Call The News (no list is complete with JibJab).
Internet love songs: The Facebook skit, Because of YouTube and Love 2.0.
And there was also this little video Starring Me!.
Here is the top ten ...
10. A Vision of Students Today: This video, created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University, is an original look at the lives of students today. (See my original post A Vision of Students Today)
9. A Few Good Creative Men: A fantastic mash-up of A Few Good Men. Remember, "We write ads or people die ...".
(See my original post here.)
8. Film lovers will love this!: EUtube, the European Union's YouTube channel, attracted controversy with this cheeky video, "Coming together to celebrate European films - every year 300 new European film projects are supported by MEDIA". (See my original post here.)
7. James L Brooks' Fight Club: James Tinniswood edited together a very clever trailer for Fight Club based on this premise, what would happen if the Oscar winning writer-director of feel good dramas like As Good As It Gets, Terms of Endearment and Spanglish had directed Fight Club instead of David Fincher? (See my original post here .)
6. Internet People: A fun song looking at various celebrities from online video. (See my original post here.)
http://view.break.com/362585 - Watch more free videos
5. Here Comes Another Bubble: Not only was this one of more controversial songs of the year (over issues of copyright infringement), it was actually also one of the best. (See my original post here.)
4. Michael Cera gets fired from Knocked Up: An original and funny piece of viral marketing for Knocked Up and Superbad. (See my original post here.)
3. Go to Jihad? No, No, No!: A great video from the Funny or Die gang. (See my original post here.)
2. The Machine is Us/ing Us: This superb video by Michael Wesch clearly explains what Web 2.0 really means. (See my original post here.)
1. So, what's the winning song: This video announced Hillary Clinton's campaign song while wonderfully parodying the finale of The Sopranos. Entertaining in and of itself, it also encapsulates the year in video - viral, political, parodying, but above all clever. (See my original post here.)
