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New! The Tyee Video Section!

Keying off the Reel BC Viral Video night discussion, we offer a new video section and an invitation to fill it.

Geoff D'Auria 5 Dec 2011TheTyee.ca

Geoff D'Auria is The Tyee home page editor and web manager.

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Emotion -- from the Latin "emovere" ... from ex- "out" + movere "to move".

What are the magic ingredients in viral video?

Kittens? Almost certainly.

Pratfalls? Worked for Chevy Chase.

Laughing babies? Oh, stop.

Put these all into a video together and what do you get? Well, probably a mess.

That's because blindly chasing after that elusive viral formula risks forgetting the thing that lurks beneath all of these things -- emotion. A video needs to move us in some authentic way, emotionally, for us to feel compelled to pass it along to our friends and colleagues.

That's what the panelists from our Thursday night discussion on viral video seemed to agree on. The discussion was a wide-ranging affair between some of the best minds in the video and film business (details here), a discussion that culminated in the announcement of the Reel B.C. Viral Video winners (see below).

But the discussion often returned to the power of emotion.

Welcome to Tyee Video Picks

With that in mind, take a look at the new piece of the sidebar on our home page. It's a new window into The Tyee called "Tyee Video Picks."

The window, which highlights the day's featured video, links to our new video section, the place where we'll be archiving all the videos we will have featured in the preceding weeks.

Where do the videos come from? From you.

Send us the links to your favourite videos -- the ones that move you, surprise you, shock and enlighten you -- and if the video is about "news, culture, or solutions" that relate to British Columbia, there's a good chance you'll see it highlighted on our home page at some point in the coming weeks.

It's also the place where we hope to introduce you to some of the smart and slightly insane characters (reporters, regular contributors, editors, business folk, and so on) that call The Tyee office home.

So, keep an eye on the video window in the coming weeks and send us your video picks!

And the winners are...

The winners of the Reel BC video contest, which were announced at Thursday night's event and which are no featured in our new video section, are:

FIRST PLACE: Clearcut, a video that shows the fun that can be had in a clearcut when you have mountain bikes, a video camera, and imagination.

SECOND PLACE: Among the Swarm, a beautiful meditative video showing the birds of Boundary Bay.

THIRD PLACE: Dream Green -- A LipDub, wherein students from David Thompson Secondary in Vancouver lipsync and recycle to a Glee song.

TYEE CHOICE*: What Vancouver Means to Me, a melancholy lament for those who feel somewhat betrayed by Vancouver (the city and the man).

*The Tyee Choice award was voted on by the folks in The Tyee office.

Thanks to everyone for taking part and don't forget to submit your videos!  [Tyee]

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