Usedcarsaleman will have to admit that the following has occurred over the last 20 years: big changes in the business of distributing a "self-created" film/video product.
Usedcarsalesman will take you from his personal "Point A," 20 years ago, to his "Point B," in the present day, to give you an idea of the big change.
- Point A: The first video I ever made was for an 8th grade social studies project. Usedcarsalesman and his father spent much of the spring/Easter holiday in 1985 using a consumer Sony Beta-cam to shoot video of photos in various science and future-oriented books. Now, Usedcarsalesman will admit, that he did have a little bit of an advantage getting this done due to the fact that my dad worked in the film and television field professionally; anyway, my video project was called -Future Cities- and I basically narrated the story as the video moved from one still photo to the next, describing various concepts of what life was going to be like in the future here on the planet and perhaps off, as in space colonies and so forth. Well, when we completed the project, Usedcarsalesman took the finished tape to the school's library so that the librarian could play it on a video player that was wired by cable to a television in the class room. It received an "A"-grade and that was the end of it: the total "distribution" of -Future Cities,- a very professional looking production involving a lot of work, was to one television in one classroom (which is admittedly all that Usedcarsalesman intended). Now perhaps one other center of video content distribution might have considered airing -Future Cities,- the local cable company in Arlington, Va. If Usedcarsalesman had mailed them a tape, he is sure they might have considered playing it in the late hours of the morning. But that, at most, was the extent of his video distribution capabilities at the time as an early teen, at least in my family :)
- Point B: It's 2005 and a very different world for people, young to old, amateur to professional, who wish to make self-created video/film productions. Obviously, we have seen millions upon millions of people begin to use the Internet and, in the last few years, to use more advanced services like broadband and P2P file-sharing networks. But recently, services such as Google Video have emerged that, at least for now, allow any person to essentially upload and store a large, hours-long video file on a Google server for free. Once there, the video file becomes available for millions of potential viewers to download and it's not amidst "a hive of scum and villainy" as it would be with most P2P networks :). Furthermore, Google is even setting up Google Video so that producers can charge viewers of the video in an electronic, "pay-per-view" fashion.
Now, if you took Usedcarsalesmn as a kid in 1985 and sent him forward in time to 2005, he'd certainly be looking at making a video production to show to more people than just the few occupants of a single classroom, that's for sure. As a matter of fact, he's not sure where his limits would be. One can also say the same about the limits of others producing self-created video today thank to Google Video.