8
Family fortunes
3
Read the article again and find out who:
1 wanted to be linked to Charlie bit my finger?
1
Do you ever watch funny video clips online?
2
a Read the article. Match the words in bold to
2 spent a lot of time watching life through a camera?
3 can make money from advertising in video clips?
4 is concerned about how some parents are spending
their time?
these meanings.
5 filmed a child’s medical problem?
1 caught on, became extremely popular
6 was Charlie bit my finger! made for?
2 non-serious accidents
3 biting
4 try to be like someone else you admire
5 extraordinary event
4
Do you think funny family videos are a good
opportunity for making money? Why?
6 very quickly
7 waking up after an operation
8 profitable
b What is the writer’s attitude towards this trend?
a He is surprised that it is so popular.
b People may not appreciate real-life experiences.
c He feels it may be changing parents’ attitudes
extra reading:
Photocopiable
towards their children.
Online videos: how to
cash in on your family
The old saying – never work with babies
and animals – may have to be revised.
A British parent revealed that he made
more than £100,000 by posting an
amusing video of his children online.
Howard Davies-Carr was responsible
for the online phenomenon, Charlie bit
my finger!, a 56-second video clip of his
baby son chomping down on his older
brother’s finger. The video was posted
online in 2007 so that the children’s
godfather in Colorado could watch it
but such was the charm and comedy of
the clip that word soon spread and the
video quickly went viral with nearly 400
million viewings. With advertisers keen to
be featured alongside the clip, the website
began sharing the profits with DaviesCarr under its ‘partnership’ deal.
The deal is a type of partnership
between users who have posted videos
online and the website. It monitors all
uploads to its website, and if there is
2,050,362
enough interest or it believes the video
will go viral, it contacts the user who
uploaded it to offer them the chance to
make money. Advertisements placed on
the page or embedded within the video
clip can generate huge profits that are
then shared between the user and the web
company.
Inevitably, Davies-Carr’s success story
was swiftly followed by others. From the
minute the news emerged that serious
money could be made from funny family
videos, cameras were raised in front
of toddlers hoping to catch a similarly
lucrative moment. David DeVore, who
filmed his son coming round from an
anaesthetic at the dentist, made almost
£100,000 in the first year after uploading
the video. Katie Clem, who filmed her
daughter Lily’s reaction to news of a
family trip to Disneyland, earned more
than £3,000 and five million views for her
video, while Randy McEntee’s film of his
17-month-old twin sons was viewed 50
million times.
In fact, browsing through the videos
posted online, it appears that the next
generation spend their whole time falling
off swings, pulling the cat’s tail, shoving
teaspoons up their nose or falling asleep
face down in chocolate pudding. It also
suggests that for many a modern parent,
life is experienced solely through the lens.
After all, someone has to be filming all
these comedy moments. Howard DaviesCarr admits that he had his nose pressed
to the viewfinder all the time when his
children were little, in the hope of a
follow-up to his hit.
But what exactly was Davies-Carr – and
those seeking to emulate his financial good
fortune – missing in the anxiety to record
his children’s mishaps? Our contact with
the world increasingly comes through a
viewfinder. In the rush to record, are we
forgetting how to interact with reality,
even the most rewarding reality, like when
our children do silly things? And when
we have shot our film, rather than just
boring our friends and neighbours with
hours and hours of moderately funny –
and not so funny – moments, we upload
it on to a website in the hope that it goes
viral and provides us with a pension.
2a 1 went viral 2 mishaps 3 chomping 4 emulate 5 phenomenon 6 swiftly 7 coming round from an anaesthetic 8 lucrative 2b b
3 1 advertisers 2 Davies-Carr 3 the website and users (who send in video clips) 4 the writer 5 David DeVore 6 the children’s
godfather
220
face2face Second edition Upper Intermediate Photocopiable
© Cambridge University Press 2012
Instructions p210
220