The online video revolution

I just remembered: I was out of town so forgot to blog this front-page story in Thursday’s San Francisco Chronicle: Online video sites blend the bizarre with the mundane to reshape visual entertainment.

(Photo: Chad Hurley (left) and Steve Chen started YouTube when they realized how difficult it was to exchange dinner party videos. )

Excerpt:

“There’s a lot of experimenting and showing off going on,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. “Eventually the better stuff will survive, and people doing it for a thrill will fade away.”

Nearly half of all Internet users — about 34 million homes, if not more — have watched video streamed online, according to Forrester Research, a technology research firm. And it’s not just movie trailers, music videos or the latest episodes of “Lost” from iTunes.

Simultaneously, the online video phenomenon is producing a new generation of amateur filmmakers like Carroll, who are able to capture thousands if not millions of viewers online, rivaling some television shows.

They have the equipment — even cell phones and digital cameras can record video these days — and they have software to edit it. Now, they also have the final piece: Web sites that allow them to post their clips for free and find a ready audience. Like blogs for citizen journalists or podcasts for radio broadcasters, online video is opening the door for anybody who ever dreamed of producing the next “Friends” or “Sopranos.”

“We’re starting to see that anyone with an Internet connection, a digital camera and computer can become a star overnight,” said Steve Chen, the 27-year-old co-founder of YouTube. …

It’s not just the under-20 set that is taking advantage of online video. Consumers and businesses are also producing commercials, educational and how-to videos, said Hunter Walk, product manager for Google Video, which, besides selling episodes of popular television shows, lets users search for and upload clips. An RV salesman made a video tour of the motor homes he was selling; a handyman demonstrated how to grout a tub; locals offered a walking tour of their hometown.

Shaun Landry, an actress and founder of the San Francisco Improv Alliance, began publishing clips of her performances on the Internet a few months ago. They’ve become a marketing and publicity tool for her, helping her land gigs. Though she has recorded her shows for years, she couldn’t afford to post them all on the Web. Now she can do it for free. “For artists who struggle, who are lucky enough to get a video camera for Christmas, you can’t get any better,” she said. …

Pleasanton’s Ourmedia, which turned 1-year-old this week, lets users store and share as much multimedia as they need. “Internet video used to be a once-in-a-blue-moon occasion,” executive director J.D. Lasica said. “Now people want to go to a site where they can store and collect their works and other people’s works. More of us are becoming creators and collectors of personal media.”

JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.