With the slew of random Tumblr photo blogs, cat videos and “fails” appearing on the internet these days, it’s easy to forget that the web can provide a previously unavailable platform for people to showcase their creativity.
Take the example of PJ Ligouri – a 19 year-old Youtuber who has built up a community of followers who eagerly await each video he uploads to the channel. While his videos share a lot of the characteristics of videologging (vlogging) i.e. - a guy or girl in their bedroom talking to camera, the real creativity comes in the form of PJ’s self-taught skills in animation and special effects in packages like Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and After Effects, which have given his videos an extra and unique element.
Youtube first featured his videos on the front page in 2007 and he has since uploaded over 60 videos to the channel with over 31,000 Youtube subscribers and 2.25 million video views in total. His latest videos are particularly impressive. A Story About A Girl (below)/A Story About A Boy sees PJ apply his skills to live video creating live storytelling out of thin air with hand gestures.
An equally creative individual, but in the A/V mashup realm is 21-year old Perth artist Pogo whose mix of Alice in Wonderland has had over received over 4 million views with over 11 million views of all videos in total.
With rumours that a major movie studio is interested in getting him on board to do official mashups of their films, Pogo has since made remixes of films like Terminator 2, Up and The King & I.
Like PJ, Pogo’s skills have developed into live action mashups with the most recent video focusing on the sights and sounds of his mother’s garden. Up next, an A/V mashup of the entire city of Johannesburg in South Africa. You can watch his videos here or get more info at his official site - pogomix.net. Youtube, not just for cat videos.