The now indispensable YouTube

Got this interesting item about the movie Breaking Through. It was about how John Legend, who is the producer of the picture, did a unique casting call. Instead of the usual cattle call for talents to find the dancers needed for the film, the popular music star partnered with Madonna’s Dance On. This is a leading YouTube dance video network founded by Guy Oseary, Allen DeBevoise and CEO Amanda Taylor that serves as a source for undiscovered talent. 

If you have seen Breaking Through with all its intense dance sequences, I am sure you will agree that Legend along with director and screenwriter John Swetnam were able to pool together a most talented group of dancers and choreographers, thanks to YouTube. It was Swetnam, who also wrote the script for the box-office hit Step Up All In, who saw the huge potential of a YouTube dance story and who later discovered that the site would also be useful in the search for dancers. 

Breaking Through, which is now showing in local theaters, is a coming-of-age dance film that follows the journey of a talented dancer played by Sophia Aguiar, a 21-year-old girl from a small town dreaming of stardom. She becomes an overnight sensation after the hip-hop dance videos she uploaded on the Net are noticed by a talent scout. As her popularity rises, she risks losing herself and everything she cares about for the sake of the music and fame. 

Breaking Through is the first dance film of its kind. It is a combination of two sub-genres, dance movies and found footage. To put this on the big screen, Swetnam researched on the current underground venues featuring the latest dance styles. It was while doing so that he found out that the new sub-culture of dance is really in the Internet itself. 

Recalls Swetnam: “If you go to YouTube, you have all these people who have hundreds of thousands of followers and they make and post these amazing dance videos, and there are kids from all over the world with huge followings. So I wanted to tell that story, so I could merge the Internet with dance.” It was not long after that he also discovered incredible dancers for the picture.

And so YouTube has once more widened its use. It used to be a place for mothers to display their baby photos or where we can find cute animal pics. Then somebody thought of shooting his own music video and uploading the footage on YouTube. And soon talent scouts were combing the Internet for talents. It was in YouTube that a singing dancing kid named Justin Bieber and a dancing violinist Lindsey Stirling were discovered. Comedians also uploaded their routines and gained fame like our very own Maine Mendoza with her dubsmash videos.

And as the making of Breaking Through has shown, you can now aIso Iook for dancers in YouTube. I do not know if it was in Madonna’s Dance On that Gab Valenciano showed off his dance moves. But it is very likely that it was on the Net that Beyoncé saw his stylish steps and decided she wanted them for herself. So dancers out there, get videos of your dancing up on YouTube as soon as possible. Given how wide YouTube’s reach has become, a single click from somewhere in this world can mean the break of a lifetime.

YouTube is a fairly new invention. It was launched 10 years ago. It is a video-sharing website where anybody can upload, view or share videos like home movies, film clips, video blogs, educational videos, etc. It has also become a most effective promotional tool. If you want to make something known in quick time to as many people as possible at nearly no cost, put it on YouTube.

Still on YouTube. Found this on the digital news a few weeks ago, The 100 Most Popular YouTube Videos of All Time. Here are the first 20 videos in the list. And looky, looky PSY, who is an Asian star, is No. 1.

PSY, Gangnam Style; Justin Bieber, Baby feat. Ludacris; Taylor Swift, Blank Space; Katy Perry, Dark Horse; Katy Perry, Roar; Enrique Iglesias, Bailando; Taylor Swift, Shake It Off; Meghan Trainor, All About That Bass; Mark Ronson, Uptown Funk! Feat. Bruno Mars; LMFAO, Party Rock Anthem feat. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock.

Eminem, Love The Way You Lie featuring Rihanna; One Republic, Counting Stars; Shakira, Waka Waka (This Time For Africa); PSY, Gentleman; Sia, Chandelier; Wiz Khalifa, See You Again feat. Charlie Puth; Jennifer Lopez, On The Floor feat. Pit Bull; Miley Cyrus, Wrecking Ball; Romeo Santos, Propuesta Indecente; Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Thrift Shop.