YouTube, LG Crowdsourcing Project Seeks to Capture 'Life in a Day'

With 24 hours of video uploaded every minute, YouTube would already seem to be doing a pretty good job documenting everyday life on Earth. But the video-sharing site has launched a project with director Ridley Scott that will try to perform that task all within a single video.

The “Life in a Day” project will crowdsource footage of life around the world on a single day, July 24, and compile it into a documentary-like film. Amateur filmmakers are encouraged to tape their daily routines that day and submit their videos to YouTube, where Kevin McDonald, director of The Last King of Scotland and One Day In September, will weave them into a comprehensive look at a day in the life of the planet (Scott, director of Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, will executive produce). The resulting film will be submitted to the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

LG is sponsoring the project as part of its “Life’s Good” marketing campaign, which promotes the idea that life is made better through electronics (LG’s in particular). “This project is a fantastic opportunity to engage with You Tube users on a personal and emotional level that�s both rewarding and enjoyable,” said Dermot Boden, chief marketing officer at LG Electronics, in an e-mail message.

LG’s logo and the “Life’s Good” tag line appear on all promotional material for the Life in a Day project, including display ads and mastheads. LG will also take over YouTube mastheads in more than a dozen countries during the campaign, including the U.S., U.K., India, Korea and Spain. This represents the largest YouTube sponsorship with LG to date, according to a YouTube spokesman.

The project, which was announced Wednesday morning on YouTube’s blog, is expected to last about eight months. Videos must be submitted by July 31, and the 2011 Sundance Film Festival takes place in January. After the festival, the finished film will be hosted on YouTube.

Follow Douglas Quenqua on Twitter at @DQuenqua.