Shane Dawson vs. Zachary Quinto
If any of you follow Shane Dawson on YouTube and/or Twitter, you might know by now that he has won a competition on Starz called "The Chair." Two incredibly talented individuals created two very unique films, and the winner, Shane, received $250,000.
I am very happy with this result, partially because my friend Drew Monson was cast in a lead role, and he knocked it out of the park. Killed it. Crushed it. Is that how people talk these days? But also because I strongly feel that Dawson is bridging the gap between YouTube and film.
Shane's humor is unique. It's fast-paced and evokes emotion. In the age of the Internet, this is important. You need to keep viewers interested in something, because they know they have a million other things that they could be watching/reading/doing/tweeting.
I'm writing this now because of Zachary Quinto's remarks about Shane's film. To be honest, I wasn't really a fan of Shane's movie. I think he is a funny individual, and I strongly believe that his next film will be better. And the one after that will be better. And the next, better. This was his first film, and coming from YouTube, this is a huge and insanely difficult leap.
Quinto removed his name from Shane's film, and he called it tasteless. I find this to be a huge mistake. While Shane's movie might not have been the best of the two, he clearly is a visionary. Without him, I strongly believe no one would've watched The Chair. I do believe talentless individuals become famous on YouTube, but to accumulate millions of subscribers, billions of views, and maintain that success for almost a decade is extremely rare.
Shane's movie will outsell and outperform Anna's movie, despite my opinion that she created a better film. I feel like this made it insanely difficult for Anna to win, in fact nearly impossible, but she had the opportunity to create a film that was promoted by Starz and Quinto. I will be following her future very closely.
However, Shane's ability to create and promote content, and his deep knowledge and understanding of his audience is the reason he is so successful. Zachary Quinto is a great actor, and he understands the film world extremely well, but he fails to look into the future. There will be always be the Star Trek's, the Hero's, and the American Horror Story's, but there will be a day when YouTube and mainstream films collide, and when that day comes, Shane Dawson will be the first one to capitalize on the new art.
Go watch "Hollidaysburg." Go watch "Not Cool." They are both worth a watch. Both individuals are first time directors, and I think they will continue to create amazing content. I do not know the future of YouTube and film, but dismissing a film and a person because you cannott comprehend the future of Internet video is pretentious and silly.
