YouTube Skits Kill Movies

It’s not exaggeration. YouTube skits can kill movies because they understand basic rules about retaining audience attention.

Skits are immediate, the joke hits you in the first two minutes. Brevity. Skits don’t take an hour to tell a 10 minutes’ story. Skits are loud, be it costumes, makeup or dialogue.

Skits are comedy, usually local brew but it is funnies that travel because people born here, now live over there.  Skits can never kill movies, that is what you believe. They can, for the following reasons.

1. Age. Skit consumers can be as young as 15 to 30 and have no loyalty to camera angles, background music and other rules of traditional movies.

2. Consumerism. Skit producers are daring. Their main goal is a large pot of subscribers that will result in easy YouTube money, to provide them with cars, modern houses and celebrity status.

3. Original content. Skits are about subjects traditional producers regard as too hot to handle because of television censorship. YouTube by-passes traditional outlets like cinemas and TV.

4. No overheads. Unlike traditional movies, there are no production costs for cast, crew, equipment and props. In fact, in countries like Nigeria, professional actors are willing to volunteer their services because of exposure. For example, guest appearing in skits like KiekieTV or Mr. Macaroni guarantees wider exposure.

5. Editing costs. Some skit producers don’t even enter an editing studio because they shoot long takes and also edit in-camera.

Conclusion

YouTube skits might not kill movies per se, but they can force them to change their ways, provide new story ideas and edit tight to accommodate internet competition.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.