YouTube CMO Chris Di Cesare on legitimizing online video as an art form in its own right

YouTube has been making a lot of news of late, not only for the massive amount of user-generated content it continues to upload (24 hours worth of video every minute), or for the billions of video views its serves up every month, but for the quality of the video its bringing onto its site and the expanding programs it’s offering serious aspiring video makers.

YouTube, having just turned five, is growing up, and like any business that survives its first half-decade, it’s looking to refine its place in its industry.

CMO Chris Di Cesare, who joined YouTube three years ago from Microsoft, talked to FierceOnlineVideo about how YouTube–without abandoning its massive community of users–is nonetheless making a special effort to legitimize and recognize video artists, independent filmmakers and is looking at developing a more serious side.

Last year, it focused on the YouTube Symphony, which was assembled through open auditions on YouTube and with the help of the London Symphony and several other partners. The online, collaborative ensemble eventually played at New York’s Carnegie Hall in April 2009, directed by Michael Tilson Thomas. More than 15 million viewers watched audition tapes by the time the concert was performed.

Since then, YouTube has also reached out to independent filmmakers, in January debuting a limited rental service for several Sundance Film Festival offerings. While the service had limited initial success, it drew raves from the independent film community for the outlet it provided.

YouTube’s play for indies and a place at the VOD table continued in June when it announced a deal with Gravitas Ventures, an indie film distributor that is offering hundreds of independent titles through its branded channel GravitasVOD.

In addition to a July 9 announcement that it would offer partner grants–a $5 million program that targets YouTube’s “new creative class”–just two weeks ago, YouTube rolled out support for 4K video, enough resolution to project on a 25-foot-wide screen. The implications for indie filmmakers–the first step toward an inexpensive, universal distribution channel–and their excitement about the potential was immediate.

Finally, YouTube, in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum, has, for about a month, been collecting video entries from more than 70 countries as part of YouTube Play, a project that will identify 20 short videos that are changing the video art form. The selected videos will be exhibited in the Guggenheim’s branches around the world.

A jury for the contest–which closes July 31–includes musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson; musical group Animal Collective; visual artists Douglas Gordon, Ryan McGinley, Marilyn Minter and Takashi Murakami; artists and filmmakers Shirin Neshat Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Darren Aronofsky; and graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, with Guggenheim Chief Curator and Deputy Director Nancy Spector serving as jury chairperson.

FierceOnlineVideo: What was the throught process behind YouTube Play, your partnership with the Guggenheim Museum?

YouTube’s Chris Di Cesare: We were just excited about how the YouTube Symphony project worked last year and we started thinking about the opportunity of partnering with different institutions, and changing the process a little bit and democratizing the opportunity for people from around the world. That was our basic motivating factor for the project.

When we really started looking at content, we were surprised at some great grass roots content coming in; we were really impressed by in terms of creativity as a whole, but we were kind of surprised that it hasn’t emerged yet, or been legitimized as a recognized art form.

And so, part of it was we saw this content coming in and asked ourselves “What can we do?”

Well, we started thinking about an institution that would share our vision for this and we approached the Guggenheim. One thing led to another and that’s how it all kind of emerged.

FierceOnlineVideo: The Guggenheim … no hesitation … it just jumped right into this?

Di Cesare: They, honestly, pretty much thought hard about how the traditional curatorial process that they go through works, and about how or what YouTube works and how those two things could be married and work effectively together.

They were excited about the opportunity from the very beginning and then as we talked more and more, Nancy Spector, the chief curator at the Guggenheim, just decided to jump in with both feet. She really saw the opportunity, taking something that traditionally could be considered an elitist opportunity for some, but opening that up for the world was really something that she was excited about.

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