B-N filmed on youtube

Johnny Firefly, a noted Twin City performance artist, sang infront of a mural of Julius Witherspoon, while Casey Wells, an Illinois State University graduate student taped him in downtown Bloomington, Friday, August 31, 2007. Both are featured in new videos on YouTube and thought provoking video called Bloomington Mural. (Pantagraph, David Proeber)

Saturday, September 1, 2007 6:58 PM CDT

By Ryan Denham
rdenham@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON — Among the fake teenagers pouring their hearts out to a webcam and beauty pageant contestants embarrassing themselves, there is a man calling himself Johnny Firefly alleging racial hypocrisy in Bloomington-Normal. | Johnny Firefly video | Local youtube videos

In a 7-minute clip on the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube, Firefly paces in front of the downtown Bloomington mural of famous faces, using frustrated poetry to criticize how the two minority faces are separated from the others. The lone Native American face is one-quarter the size of the others.

“Subliminal things ingrained in all we do,” the poet and street performer says in the clip. “Poltergeist shadows that chuckle when we say things of lunacy such as ‘not in our town.’ But the mockery is on the wall.”

The video has been viewed more than 2,600 times — far short of YouTube’s most popular clips, like the Miss Teen USA hopeful’s rambling response to a geography question, which drew 10.8 million hits in less than two weeks.

But Firefly’s clips, and countless others from the Twin Cities, point to a growing awareness of the power of locally-produced Internet video.

There’s a Heyworth native with autism whose powerful video presentation on the disorder has attracted Hollywood. A local church produced a spoof of “The Amazing Race” so convincingly that many don’t realize its Christian undertones. And high school students turned dancing with their teachers into a bona fide hit.

The reasons for using YouTube are as varied as the productions: To make a point; to make people laugh; to hype an upcoming artistic endeavor; to take faith in God to another level; to inform. The list goes on.

But it’s the way YouTube can bring people from the Twin Cities together with viewers from around the world that intrigues Firefly.

“That’s the great thing. Being human beings, so many times we prejudge things,” he said. “But YouTube has broken down all of our prejudgments.”

‘The next Scorsese’

Firefly’s videos are shot and edited by Kasey Wells, 29, a graduate student in arts technology at Illinois State University. Before they started working together, Firefly wanted to make sure Wells was a “follow-through” artist.

“Everyone with a camera thinks they’re the next (film director Martin) Scorsese,” Firefly said.

But Wells earned Firefly’s trust, and they have since posted a dozen clips together, all highlighting Firefly’s socially aware, spoken-word style. Their latest clip had 15,000 hits in one month.

Firefly, 46, said the clips helped earned him a spot on an upcoming CD, and he and Wells are working on a feature documentary on his life.

“He gives me more content than I can keep up with,” Wells said.

But most people visit YouTube just to laugh, and 18-year-old Amir Ghasemi has delivered.

Ghasemi graduated from Normal Community West High School in the spring and attends the University of Illinois, wanting to be a lawyer.

He’s already a great dancer, as seen in a music video spoof of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” that he and a friend, Dario Marotta, filmed last year with teachers and staff at Normal West.

The video, made for a class project and Normal West’s student TV showcase “The Prowl,” has been viewed more than 27,000 times on YouTube, making it one of the most popular from Bloomington-Normal.

In the video, Ghasemi and Marotta lead a choreographed dance-fest, parading through NCWHS’ hallways in step as teachers boogie on tables before a massive final number on the roof.

“People kept asking me, ‘What were you doing on the roof? What were you doing on the roof?’ ” Ghasemi said of the last day of shooting. “Oh, just dancing with Mr. (Trevor) Chapman,” a teacher.

Not everything’s a hit

But not every clip featuring Bloomington-Normal personalities is so popular. Many don’t get 100 views.

Those include 14 clips of U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, a Morris Republican whose district includes part of the Twin Cities. Most of the clips, posted by Weller’s district communications director Andy Fuller, have less than 50 views, though Fuller said the more popular ones focusing on biofuels and gas prices give an indication of what’s on people’s minds.

“Our delving into that area was an attempt to go where constituents are these days, which is on the Web,” he said of new efforts that include the clips on Weller’s official Web site.

Others from the area just aren’t destined to be big hits, such as clips of a young girl named Kylie’s birthday party and a painfully long, seven-part series on the aftermath of a snowstorm last winter.

The easiest to find are from concerts at U.S. Cellular Coliseum, including February’s John Mayer show.

Visiting artists determine what types of cameras are allowed into the Coliseum, said Traci Raymond, the faciltiy’s booking and events manager.

“I don’t necessarily endorse people coming in and taking videos when they’re not supposed to, but I don’t see any harm in it unless the artist is unhappy,” said Raymond, who along with Coliseum spokesman Bryan Bloodworth said she wasn’t even aware Coliseum footage was posted. | Jerry Weller video

Autism politics

One local post that has developed heavy interest features Marty Murphy, a Heyworth native with high-functioning autism, speaking about “my life, across the bridge, over the river of autism.”

The clip was shot by Los Angeles director Graham Streeter, who was in Normal last December researching a feature film he plans on shooting there next winter and which features an autistic character.

Streeter found Murphy through Jacquie Mace from the Autism Society of McLean County. The taped presentation is half informational and half stand-up comedy. It’s been viewed 6,800 times.

Now, Streeter is trying to cast Murphy in his film, called “Normal Folk,” and Mace said she sends the YouTube link to groups considering hiring Murphy to speak.

But another effect of the posting was that Murphy, a self-described controversial figure in the autism community, was exposed to new criticism over her speeches and writings. Her tone and advocacy for finding a cure have angered some who see eradicating the disorder as wanting to eradicate autistic people.

“For some of these people, if you want a cure, you’re a Nazi,” Murphy said in an interview.

A video posted in response by “AutisticPride” is critical of Murphy, and negative comments posted below the original video were removed by Streeter, said Mace and Murphy.

The clip “adds a little bit of controversy for people who are strongly opposed to down-talking the condition of autism,” said Streeter, claiming the clip has changed a lot of lives for the better because of Murphy’s dynamic personality, honesty and humor.

“There are a lot of positive things on there, but there are a lot of negative things, too,” Murphy said of YouTube. |"Marty Murphy Speaks about Autism"

‘The Amazing’ spoof

Positive messages define Heartland Community Church’s five-episode spoof of “The Amazing Race,” clearly some of the best-produced Twin City clips on YouTube.

In the series, five teams of church members race around the Twin Cities looking for clues just like on the popular CBS show. Each episode conveys a different theme as part of the Normal church’s yearly message series.

The men behind the project are youth pastor Kyle O’Hagan, 29, and church volunteer Mark Lockett, 29, a Twin City native. Because the videos were first shown during Sunday services and always followed with a pastor-led discussion, they are largely devoid of the words “God” or “Christ.”

The clips are simply entertaining, shot on high-definition video over about five weeks last fall and edited by Lockett on a Hollywood-caliber system.

“It’s those fine-quality production points that really hit home to people,” Lockett said. “Yes, that’s artificial. Yes, it’s entertainment. But I’ll you what, sometimes it takes that for people to approach the throne of God.”

O’Hagan and Lockett said they put the clips online for Lockett’s portfolio, and because it let members who missed a week catch up.

“The style of our church uses media and things that are very cultural — that people would identify with — and relate them with the timeless message of the Gospel,” O’Hagan said.

Lockett thinks others just came across the clips because they were fans of the TV show.

“A lot of people thought it was real at first,” he said. “A lot of people were like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe “The Amazing Race” came to Normal!’” | Amazing Race Normal

What is YouTube?

-- Founded in 2005, YouTube is a popular video-sharing Web site that allows users to post videos that are 10 minutes or less from their computers to the Internet for free.

-- Google purchased YouTube last fall for $1.65 billion.

-- YouTube drew 55 million unique viewers in July, up from 51 million in June. Tens of thousands of new videos are added every day.

-- Videos are free to watch and searchable using “tag words” and video titles.

-- Infamous videos that have received worldwide attention include the LonelyGirl15 series, a clip of prisoners in the Philippines dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” and just about anything from Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central.

-- Though many of YouTube’s clips are homemade, the site has been accused by companies who own professionally produced content of providing an easy path to copyright infringement. YouTube is frequently asked to take down copyrighted material, but much litigation is still pending.

SOURCES: Nielsen/NetRatings, YouTube/Google