Executive producer Ridley Scott and director Kevin Macdonald are reuniting for Life In A Day 2020. YouTube Originals announced Scott, Macdonald, and executive producer Kai Hsuing are revisiting the concept first utilized in Life In A Day, requesting ordinary people from across the globe film themselves on Saturday, July 25th.
The original documentary was a collection of videos shot by people around the world on July 24, 2010. More than 80,000 videos were submitted resulting in a documentary considered “one of the biggest participatory feature film projects ever made.”
Life In A Day is currently available on YouTube.
“Making the first Life In A Day was one of the most joyful and eye-opening experiences of my life. Contributors were generous enough to share often quite intimate moments from their lives as part of a huge, life-affirming, film-making experiment,” said director Kevin Macdonald. “I am thrilled, ten years later, that we are making Life In A Day 2020. In that time, how have we changed? How has our relationship to filming ourselves changed? And at this extraordinary turning point in history what are we hoping for in our future?”
Life In A Day 2020 will premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and on YouTube.
“We’re thrilled to be collaborating with YouTube again, a decade after Life In A Day premiered and captivated audiences at our festival,” said Tabitha Jackson, Director of the Sundance Film Festival. “Given the extraordinary current moment, I think it’s the perfect time to premiere this for a new edition of a work that so powerfully demonstrates the power of cinematic storytelling to reveal and celebrate our shared humanity.”
“Following the success of the 2010 documentary, this is an important moment to revisit this inventive film concept with Ridley and Kevin,” said Susanne Daniels, Global Head of Original Content for YouTube. “This project truly demonstrates the uniqueness of YouTube by showcasing the power of the human experience told through the eyes and cameras of individuals around the world.”
Details on Submitting Videos, Courtesy of YouTube Originals:
Ten years after YouTube’s groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed Life In A Day, and at an unprecedented moment in time, the renewed participation-based project asks the world to share what one day looks like through their personal camera lenses. On July 25, 2020, everyone is invited to capture and reflect the reality of our world over a 24-hour period. All footage must be filmed on July 25th only; participants will then have until August 2nd to upload their content to be considered for the final film.
Additional information and guidelines on participation can be found at lifeinaday.youtube.
Once submissions close, a 30-person team of multilingual reviewers stationed around the world will begin reviewing and translating submitted videos. The film’s three principal editors – Mdhamiri Á Nkemi (Blue Story, The Last Tree), Sam Rice-Edwards (Whitney), and Nse Asuquo (The Stuart Hall Project, The Jazz Ambassadors) – will then undertake an enormous post-production effort, working alongside director Kevin Macdonald to shape the film’s final narrative out of submitted footage.
