On the weekend of November 8-10th, Toronto hosted the first annual Buffer Festival, a Youtube film festival show casing content from creators hailing form San Fransico to London and back again. I had the privilege of attending this event on Saturday November 9th. I left for the conference around 7:10AM and use multiple means of public transit before finally arriving at the TIFF LightBox in downtown Toronto to receive my lanyard and tickets.
The first stop of the morning was a 9:00 showing of Youtube sensation Charlie McDonnell's work- including short films and comedy sketches. This event was hosted by Michael Aranda and Charlie himself, in which they discussed the production of the videos, as well as Charlie's experience as a "famous" Youtuber. Shortly after this screening, a meet and greet was held at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre, where fans of the British Youtube star could meet Charlie and have their photo taken with him. After waiting in line for just over an hour, I had the privilege of meeting Charlie and taking a photo with him. The experience wasn't exactly what I was expecting. After having been watching Charlie's videos loyally since about 2006, I was expecting to be a bit star struck when meeting him, but what I actually experienced was more similar to catching up with an old friend. Youtube is such a unique form of media. Unlike film or television, when one watches a Youtube video, there is a real sense of relationship and conversation, and with social media websites like Twitter and Tumblr, the relationship between creator and fans can become even more real.
After stopping for a short chat and a photo with Charlie, I moved on to the next screening of the day, which was a screening of short films and discussion on their production, with, once again, Charlie McDonnell, and Khyan Mansly, two prominent short film creators on Youtube.
Later on in the evening, I attended my final event for the day, which was a seminar called "Fandom Factor" with Alex Carpenter and Jimmy Wong, which discussed the effect that fandoms had on content creation on Youtube. (A note for those who aren't internet obsessed: fandom = fanbase, or the community that surrounds a certain book or film series, i.e. the Harry Potter fandom.) This was definitely my favourite event of the day as it was very intimate, being held in the small Maple Leaf Theatre in the basement of the CN Tower, and very informative. After the seminar was over, I had a chance to talk with and once again, get a picture with one of my favourite Youtubers, Alex Carpenter. I had a similar experience as I did with Charlie: I wasn't scared, or star struck, it didn't even feel like the first time I had met Alex, and I could tell from the excited conversations and the hugs and greetings from other fans, I wasn't alone in this feeling. Youtube content creators build such a special relationship with their audience, through their videos, through responding to comments and tweets and e-mails, so much so that the more appropriate term for fans and viewers might be rather, friends.
At the end of the day I found myself walking down the damp Toronto streets at dusk, toward the bus that would eventually take me home, reflecting on the amazing community that Youtube has become. Since the community's inception in early 2006 to how far it has come now, in 2013, the same values remain: creativity, and relationship building. Although Youtube continues to grow and become more of an industry than a community, my main hope is that next year, I can return to Buffer Festival and make the same comments about the events that I attended and the people that I met as I did this year... And I have a strange confidence that I will be.
