One of my good friends and I have this conversation at least once a week.  Either Andrew or I will show the other a video or animation and inevitably one of us says “Damn.. I wish I had thought of that first.”  One such video was a Matrix-style shoot-out using only their hands.  You know how you point a finger and someone and go “Bam!” like you just shot them?  In this video, kids in a gym did that, and blood appeared, and they instantly scattered and had a shoot-out.  It was pretty fascinating.

The most recent one of these wasn’t sent to me by Andrew (I did forward it to him, however).  This particular one isn’t a single video, but a series of videos created by two guys at CollegeHumor.com.  It starts out with one guy pulling a prank on the other and videotaping it.  Naturally, the second guy has to pay him back, so he pulls another prank.  And the prank war escalates.  The final prank is one of the most sadistic things I’ve ever seen in my life (Don would probably love it).

Devilvet has written recently about how artists should expand their art across several media.  We’re mostly theatre artists here, but one thing that’s really close to theatre is film.  With the proliferation of amateur (not to be confused with amateurish) films on YouTube and other such services, reaching a vast audience has never been easier.

For your viewing pleasure, watch the College Humor Prank Wars (start from the bottom and work your way to the top.  trust me, they’re hilarious) and think about ways that you can utilize short, five-minute films to expand your audience.