An important freedom, a good cause/raffle, and a Flag day reminder that the District of Columbia (but let's not forget Puerto Rico, the USVI, and Guam) deserves to be a state...
I recently had an interesting conversation about the business model that is YouTube sailing videos, with someone who was bemoaning the whole idea that supporting cruising by begging is wrong.
For the most part, I don't think that making films to provide income is any different than writing articles for sailing magazines or books. Last I heard, writing about sailing, cruising, and fixing up boats is considered a job and certainly not begging.
Fact of the matter is that making films, more often than not, is a lot of hard work.
Anyone who knows anything about the business of film or video is aware that the central core of the economic model is that the work is viewer supported in one way or another. So asking someone to support a series or channel they are watching is nothing at all like begging. However, the line gets a little hazy when someone starts asking viewers to subsidize a new boat or underwrite their endeavors past the fair price of the proverbial movie ticket.
That said, I'm not a big fan of YouTube and it would be my last choice as a venue to exhibit any film I'd make. Partly because the whole YouTube vibe is somewhat mercenary and has that huckster/carny edge that the old movie houses that only played B-films that were heavy on violence, cleavage, and titillation like the "Love-Slaves of the Amazon" ilk, to get bums on seats. Or in other words...
Click Bait!
I'll go on the record here and say that while I don't believe in God, heaven, or hell however, if those things did exist, there really should be a special place in hell where people who don't deliver on film poster and click-bait promises spend eternity.
But, back to YouTube where you get the added extras of having your film peppered with commercials in all the wrong places and at the end of your video YouTube suggesting a selection of videos for a doctor who squeezes pimples, some maga fodder from Fox news, a video of some woman trying on bikinis and, of course, cute kittens. Which, I guess, is the sort of videos YouTube thinks cruising/sailing audiences are into.
Listening to a Clash cover
So it goes...
