Smith: YouTube will shake-up Hollywood

Cult director Kevin Smith has predicted YouTube will revolutionise Hollywood movies.

The filmmaker behind Clerks said the film-sharing website will allow the next generation of movie-making talent to emerge without the help of big studios.

Smith himself managed to break through by making his own cheap films and he thinks more and more will be able to do so with the website slashing distribution costs.

“If you make a film and you’re having a hard time getting people to see it, break it into six chapters and throw it up on YouTube,” he explained. “There’s a good chance somebody will see it.

“Since that film’s already ‘out’, maybe movie companies won’t be interested in distributing it, but they may give you a shot at doing another film.

“These days, the best thing is to do stuff on the net,” he told The Sun. “Even with a MySpace page, you can whip up a lot of attention. These are great opportunities that didn’t exist 12 years ago, when I started out.”

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