User-Generated Content (UGC) – one of Big Media's latest buzzwords. It has corporations worldwide scrambling to organize online sweepstakes that snatch up unknown filmmakers' ideas in order to market products and help break You into the biz.  

But can You blame them?  Think about the amount of red-tape and expense that ad agencies encounter - that perilous journey an idea takes through channels of clients and focus groups, sterilizing raw ideas into the bland commercials that You end up despising.  Or maybe they're just reconciled to the fact that they can no longer connect with this younger Millennial generation and now look to the Millennials to sell a product for them?  They can't reach You, so they ask You to reach for it yourself. 

And what happens if these UGC ads prove to be immensely successful? Have we come upon a revolution in market distribution channels not only for ad market share, but for entertainment in general? From Wikipedia to CNN's iReport to Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment, we are witnessing a radical shift of control.

As a young filmmaker with a fledgling production company and several videos strewn across the internet, I should see this UGC frenzy as an amazing opportunity, but I can't help feeling like I'm playing into Big Media's hands.  While I'm filming my submission, subconsciously I'm feeling extremely connected to the product. I'll want to support the product that might make all my dreams come true.

Furthermore the value of compensation for the product from the old model (ad agencies) to the new model (UGC), is drastically different.  Yes, you could say that the amount of compensation is relative to the previous lack of a platform for these young filmmakers, but this charm shouldn't hide the fact that Big Media now has a marketing position that is more effective and consistent with their  demographic.

Yet my ambitions gear me toward pursuing every opportunity to put my company on the map, which can be quite overwhelming given the increasing number of number of UGC requests.  So I ask myself - which product will benefit from my production style best while not sacrificing an avant-garde approach?  The retention of your uniqueness while attempting to appeal to a broad audience can be a slippery-slope, and I don't plan on bleaching out my ideas so that an additional demographic can be reached.

Nevertheless the UGC trail is blazing, and Big Media isn't looking back.  Doritos scored a huge response to their UGC Super Bowl ad competition.  Dove Cream Oil is ramping up sweepstakes for a UGC ad to be aired during the Oscars.  Stock footage innovators offer to represent filmmakers who upload 30 second vignettes to be used as template commercials into which marketers can slide their product.  Already we're even seeing post-structuralism versions of UGC in the Nissan Sentra ads featuring Mark Horowitz, the poor man's Napoleon Dynamite, living out of his car in staged low-budget video segments.

But UGC can also leave your product open to consumer backlash. As reported by the NY Times when Chevy announced a UGC campaign for the new Tahoe, they received venomous submissions entitled "Our Planet's Oil Is Almost Gone. You Don't Need GPS To See Where This Road Leads" and "$70 to Fill Up The Tank, Which Will Last Less Than 400 Miles. Chevy Tahoe"

The question is - Are these Big Media companies giving lucrative opportunities to young filmmakers or just exploiting young filmmakers' innate connection with their own generation as it relates to products, or maybe even a little bit of both?

Still, you can't win if you don't play.

Ty Clancey