Fifteen minutes of fame. With the invention of reality television and YouTube almost anyone can be a celebrity, at least until the next person comes along. In Weinberg's third article he lists the three conclusions media burn came to after beginning to film people with a handheld camera:
1. the more they saw, the more that people wanted to see themselves.
2. they had remarkably few inhibitions
3. if they became regulars on TV, they had to confront tough new personal realities; celebrities are not the same as you and me.
In class we talked about how YouTube has really proved this conclusions. We also talked about what happened after the 15 minutes of fame was over. In the documentary Winnebago Man we see this concept played out with Jack Rebney. Rebney was an actor hired to make an infomercial for Winnebagos in the 80's. Rebney had quite a temper and when the 16 day shoot was not going well, the camera crew recorded all of Rebney's outtakes. The tape went viral, although there was no YouTube to post it on friends were passing around VHS tapes of the outtakes and Rebney quickly became a celebrity for his explosive temper. (View the video here) The film follows what happened after his fame died down. Rebney became reclusive and moved to the mountains in California to live alone with his dog and few friends. He never wanted his 15 minutes of fame and did not handle being exposed well. It's a very raw look at how overnight popularity can change a person.
It was interesting to watch some of the media burn footage of the first time recording average people who had never seen themselves on film before. Looking at it in a historical perspective, reality TV got it's start from home video footage like what media burn captured.
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