In the crowded marketplace of video-sharing sites Icewhole.com, the brainchild of The Underground Movies Company, dares to be different. Sure, the basic YouTube formula of, “make movie, upload movie, summarise movie, watch movie, watch related movies - all for free”, is intact, but with a cool twist.
With this year’s international panel of judges’ including Morgan Freeman, Richard Attenborough and acclaimed screenwriter Katia Lund, tasked as they are to pick the cream of the crop of uploaded features, what exactly is the appeal of this distinctly different venture?
The anarchic style is signalled from the off, with new visitors to the website invited to register as ‘icewholes’, a weak but characteristic pun. This off-centre approach continues into the profile page section, which substitutes genuine entries for a made-up rundown of your own personal quirks. It can feel as if the serious intent you thought was behind this site has been a mere deception.
Once this initial silliness is over (but not forever), the raison d’être of the laudable site emerges; to invite aspiring and emergent filmmakers, with genuine talent (i.e. which extends beyond lip-synching Backstreet’s Back into a hairbrush) to upload their work, and have it voted on and critiqued by the great cyberspace public.
And what an array of entertainments are on display: from the daft (Tom Cardo-Moreno’s animated Colin & Oska series), to the innovative (Katy Davis’ disconcerting Gobblelynne) to the downright pretentious (Love You, Joseff Hughes). The site, founded in America, may currently be a minnow on the UK scene, but displays enough quality product to suggest it will soon become a major resource for new talents and their spotters.
Sign on to upload your work or cast your vote at www.icewhole.com.
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