VictorHouse Films One of Many Benefiting from the YouTube Generation

Authored by Scott Goldberg on October 31, 2006 - 8:56am.

Millennial Modes is made possible by Cdigix.
Ty Clancey - VictorHouse Films

For filmmakers like Ty Clancey, a 27-year-old from Iowa who started VictorHouse Films in January 2005, the landscape has changed over the last year. He came to Hollywood five years ago, straight from film school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. At the time, the life of an aspiring Hollywood filmmaker was much the same as it had always been, which for people like Clancey amounted to little more than a shot in the dark.

But with the unprecedented rise of social networking and video sharing sites, the Hollywood model has been turned upside down. “What excites me most about the internet video revolution is the amount of opportunity out there,” Clancey said. “We’re right where we need to be to take advantage of it.”

His excitement has as much to do with new opportunities as it does with the experience he gained before the boom. The advantage is that his work stands out as a high quality product among the trash heap that has become the online video space. Many users are accustomed to getting clips from friends, which acts as an important filter to a library that is difficult to navigate.

What you see from VictorHouse is professional quality on all levels – the acting, the writing, the filmmaking, the editing – and the user benefits with a surprisingly good (and free) product. For the casual YouTube visitor, coming across a VictorHouse production is a welcome relief.

“If you get down to sketch comedy groups, for instance,” Clancey says, “the good stuff is really few and far between. If you can create characters that have some substance and depth, then you really separate your material from the pack.”

The majority of VictorHouse’s sketch comedy work is with an acting troupe known as The Lost Nomads. The group has been writing and acting together for nearly two years, but the online video sharing and social networking phenomenon has benefited them as well. Here is an example of a piece recently posted on YouTube:

Ty Clancey is a tranquil character by nature, so the pressure of becoming a Hollywood filmmaker has had little effect, though he does admit to the occasional (and normal) mania that comes with the turf. “I’m not going to lie,” he drawls, “there are some sleepless nights now and then, but that has more to do with the amount of things I’m trying to get done than it does with the pressure.” When asked if he ever finds the life of an aspiring, yet-to-be-discovered filmmaker overwhelming, he said, “Hollywood is only overwhelming if you think it’s overwhelming. If you’re worried about producers and agents seeing you, then yeah, it’s overwhelming.”

Prior to the video sharing revolution, the path of aspiring filmmakers was less concrete, and certainly not as efficient. “I hated the Hollywood system where you had a few people making most of the decisions, and most of the decisions were crap. What’s great with YouTube, Revver, MySpace, and all the others, is that it democratizes the internet entertainment culture. All you need is access to the internet, and if it’s good enough, people are going to notice. I can tell people, ‘Go to my website,’ whereas 2 years ago I would’ve had to send a reel, and everything would’ve taken so much longer. It’s especially great for younger people who are more hungry and want to move faster.”

One such project was a piece for iThentic.com, a company that distributes video content to cell phones, in the form of “mobisodes,” as they call it. Clancey’s 44-second clip entitled “The Last Line of Sexual Defense” is currently listed as one of four “iT Picks” on its homepage. The bit can also be seen on YouTube and Revver under the title “Crotch Airbag”:

Because VictorHouse was formed well before the internet video revolution, the ambitions of the company go beyond sketch comedy and mock commercials. “Our ultimate goal within the next year is to get a feature under our belt,” Clancey says. One is already in the works with the assistance of investors in India. Look out for Clancey and VictorHouse in the near future as they parlay the success of their online portfolio into mainstream attention.

Scott Goldberg

Millennial Modes, a weekly column that covers the trends, attitudes, and tastes of the millennial generation, is made possible by Cdigix.

Related Links:
www.victorhousefilms.com
www.thelostnomads.com
www.ithentic.com