Youtube Life in a Day - Life in a day on Earth

OK, so recently you may have noticed the Youtube Life in a Day symbol in place of the original logo that appears in the top lefthand corner, this consists of a blue globe with the red 'video duration line' wrapped around it. This logo was designed to symbolise a movie directed last year by the Youtube producers including clips entered by people from 192 countries wordwide who documented their life in one day. They wanted to capture the contrasts and similarities between the many different cultures across the earth and they managed to condense this into 90 minutes.

I personally got to see the last viewing of the Youtube Life in a Day movie yesterday, it was streaming live at 7pm UK time and I tried to embed in at the foot of this article but obviously now it will only display the previews, however, you will apparently get another chance to see it later this year.

I personally thought the film was great, I mean, don't get me wrong we all know that this sort of documentary has been done in some form or another in the past but they did add a sense of style and overall theme to it which makes it a success in my eyes.

The classical music and day to day scenes of life, death, birth, childhood, recreation, adversity and work give a immense depth of emotions. On one hand you see the innocence of a father teaching his son to shave for the first time and then you see another courageous Japanese father whos wife passed away and is also raising a 4 year old son.

Photo courtesy of rscrobinmx99

The film begins with a lot of abstract clips of the moon during the early hours of the morning from what I am guessing, otherwise I guess it is an attempt to be different from the obvious 'beginning' cliché. I think it this works well because it exhibits the reality that time is not structured as we have been conditioned into believing, time is not defined by schedules on earth, a life the day of an individual could be stricken with insomnia or working the nightshift.

We see an example of this in a black male who speaks to the camera when he is awake at night with noises of a baby crying and a women coming from the background of his inner city apartment. I like the way they show the life in a day of real people, this man asks 'Do you know how much energy it takes to be a rebel? free from religious and political oppressions, with a girlfriend who is unhappy at her situation. Soon all my plans will come into reality, soon my dreams will come true'. I would like to say his dreams are becoming reality thanks to Youtube.

I also like to mention I thought the inclusion of the Russian youth Alexander Bayturin was an asset because I think Eastern European youths exhibit a greater sense of individualism in the modern day because they aren't exposed to the amount of commercialism arriving from the US. They also value traditions and family life due to a more relaxed culture, I think their message of a spirit of freedom and less emphasis upon material possessions was nice but you should really watch the preview clip in the link below to see what sort of person he is.

I hope this has been a nice taster for those that weren't lucky enough to catch the premier of the movie, I would recommend subscribing or waiting for the later showing in 2011 if you are an independent movie's fan.