Buy Life in a Day Movie. Watch online or Download
Genres: DramaDocument
Starring: Cindy Baer, Moica, Hiroaki Aikawa, Caryn Waechter, Bob Liginski Jr., Drake Shannon, Reid Martin Basso
Director(s): Kevin Macdonald, Natalia Andreadis
Country: USA, UK
Year: 2011
Available Quality: DivX
IMDB Rating: 7.8 out of 10 (4794 votes)
What do you get when you ask the people of the world to chronicle a single day in their lives? You get 80,000 submissions, 4500 hours of footage, from 192 countries. Kevin Macdonald has taken this raw material, all shot on July 24, 2010, and created a 90-minute paean to what it means to be human in the world today.
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Life in a Day (DivX) | Resolution: 640x352 px | Total Size: 697 Mb |
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Movie Photos:
We have taken some photos of "Life in a Day". They represent actual movie quality.
Visitors Review
mwolff5 (18 June 2013)
Amazingly real!
This movie blew my mind! How can an independent movie be so great? Thismovie shows every day people in the rawest form. You just do not seethis in any other film. It shows people real points of view, althoughvery subtle. I thought it was very interesting to see so many people'sfears and allowed the viewer to relate to this movie. I think the bestpart of it all is the fact that they allowed everyone to view it forFREE on you tube. No high-budget movie would do that! It is refreshingto see a movie being shown to all in its purest form and getting thebuy in it is most deserved from the viewer. This movie should be showeverywhere! Get out and see it!
alexart-1 (18 June 2013)
July 24, 2010: Life out of Balance
Morning, July 24, 2010. "It'll all end well," a man says to his youngerson, who is currently throwing a tantrum. "It'll all end well," hereassures the boy. What will end well? This situation? This day? Thislife?As Life in a Day progresses, the viewer travels through the lives onmany, literally living vicariously through others. This amazingdocumentary, produced by the Scott Brothers (one of which is the famousRidley Scott) and directed by Kevin MacDonald, travels all over theworld on one all too regular day: July 24, 2010. Starting in themorning, a time filled with a happiness and renewal, and ending in theevening, a time of reconciling and sadness, Life in a Day profilesthings that should be commonplace. The best part: these things arecertainly not commonplace. The Earth is a beautiful place. Our livesare great. Why not display them on film? And that is just the point.Like any great documentary, Life in a Day is a poignant film. Butunlike many great documentaries, it follows a subject that should notbe poignant. If you have ever seen Amelie, you know the great beginningsequence. An unseen narrator shows us two glasses dancing on a table, afirefly dashing across a yellow-lighted French street, and a manerasing the name of a dead friend out of his address book. Imagine amovie like this entire opening sequence and you've got Life in a Day.Beautiful imagery, such as a teenage boy shaving for the first time, iscommon throughout the entire film. One shot especially, that of askydiver falling to Earth, is probably the best part of the entirefilm. In a scene reminiscent of Koyaanisqatsi, a woman tumbles throughthe upper layers of Earth's atmosphere. It is quiet for a brief minute,and then, as the clouds engulf her, the noise of the people seeps in.The couple laughs together, sharing a time like no other together.And yet, there are some truly disturbing scenes. At a Love Parade,multiple people are shown getting trampled to death. A few rush over tohelp the fallen victims, but many carry on, screaming to their heart'scontent. One part that people will surely have a reaction to is theslaughterhouse scene. Fair warning: a cow is shot in the head twice.The cow is later decapitated graphically. As these scenes show,sometimes life isn't always great. The images may be ugly and bleak,but they are always beautiful.Life in a Day is a beautiful time capsule of people in the newmillennium. Simply put, it's a wonderful portrait of people who doregular things. On a more complex level, it's a documentary about howlives are constantly changing. Every action we do changes the nextaction that is going to happen. Time is important. It's also shapingthese actions. What's going to happen tomorrow? After all, as ScarlettO'Hara once said, "Tomorrow is a new day."
obinome (17 June 2013)
Building awareness enables empathy and responsibility.
What a fantastic film.As much as I love conventional scripted film and actors, I always knowdeep down that none of it is 100% real, therefore I am never fullylocked in for the whole duration of the movie and any emotions I feelare very short lived.I had to keep telling myself, 'This is real' to counter act the habitsof thinking 'this is not real' and this really made the experienceunlike any other, even with documentaries they are often over scriptedand distort the truth.I realize that to build empathy and responsibility we all need tobecome more aware of our surroundings. This is why the internet has hadsuch a positive impact on human rights, charities, and freedom ofspeech, which motivates democratic political changes too improve theplanet.I heard just yesterday that the US Congress was trying to pass a billthat would censor the worlds internet. Although online piracy is astrong motive, the real reason is to prevent the worlds people fromhaving a democratic voice. As the more we all see the starvation,inequality, war, corruption, deceit, the more we all strive to makeconstructive changes to a this over protected sick system.... The vastmajority actually want a kinder more equal planet, but right now thesystem is motivated by profits, and profits motivate dictatorship andcorruption.We must realize our ability to use technology to create a new system ofglobal wealth beyond traditional hierarchy and suffering. It will taketime, and we must continue to produce films which show the world as awhole, for us to really understand our connection to the environment.(Watch the Zeitgeist movement movies for free on youtube to understandmore about resource based economies)It makes me upset to know that so many people fear death. But hopefullylike me, people will grow to understand their real identity is thewhole of planet earth, imagine looking at planet earth from aspaceship, we must learn to see earth as an organism like a tree, andpeople are just leaves on the tree, they die, but the tree still liveson as something greater. Its a big step to take and the thought processdoesn't solidify over night,(took me two years to solidify thisawareness) but, now I see all suffering as 'my own' as 'I am' theorganism, and all joy as 'mine' too... and therefore we have aresponsibility to remove all religion which promotes the thoughtprocesses of individualism and division. we have a responsibility maketo make everyone's life blissful. AS I AM YOU, AND WE ARE ALL.This movie enables us to think like ONE organism should.
Kevin Loigu (17 June 2013)
Life in a day,,,
First of all, this is my first review. Second of all, this documentaryis pure gold. How can you sum up life? All it's wonders and downsides?I think Kevin Macdonald and Ridley Scott and the whole team behindmaking this film did a great job. Everything you see in the film ispure. It's real. It's like if you watch this movie you can realize justhow large our world is. You cannot compare your everyday world to theworld other 7 billion humans are living in. Well at least I couldn't.Movies are my passion. And so are many other things. Being one of sevenbillion makes you think. Makes you analyze. Makes you feel. About life,about death. About myself and about you. About your smile. Aboutschool. About granny. About yesterday and about tomorrow. Life in a dayisn't just a documentary. It's a true story told by everyone in thisplanet. And the story goes on every single day until the story slowlyfades... Make your life worth living for. It's not likely to lastanother story.
omar_hima (15 June 2013)
Life in a day , your whole life in a movie !
Most of people are not attracted to documentaries , but after seeingthis movie i guarantee you will become a fan of this kind . Life in aday is a cinematic experience that attempts to capture what life lookslike around the whole world in one day which is ( 24th of July,2010),thousands of videos were recorded from all the world - even from Egypt!- and were sent to the filmmakers whom they made a great effort toproduce such a documentary . The movie is engaging from the first sceneto the end , although there are different people , languages andcultures but it goes in a brilliant harmonic sequence . I stronglyrecommend this movie , it will extract your deep inner feelings of love, peace and happiness .
twilightasm15 (15 June 2013)
In a nutshell it was fantastic.
This film is incredible beyond belief. There's not much for me tocriticize at all. The flow of clips got ever so slightly offbeat...meaning it got a bit boring. Also I don't remember there beingsubtitles. I kind of want to know what they are all saying.I dounderstand that there were a lot of different languages and theyprobably didn't have the budget to translate so much for the release atSundance. I hope they subtitle it when it hits theaters in June. Iloved this movie with all my heart and when it hits theaters, I amgoing. Also when it goes to DVD I'm getting my copy. There isn't a goodreason not to like this film. It is happy, funny, heart-wrenching andoverall one of the greatest movies I have seen.
ip man (13 June 2013)
Making the ordinary extraordinary
Many of us struggle to experience something beautiful and extraordinaryin our lives, trying to do things which allow us to feel a littlespecial in the midst of our daily lives. What this film shows us isexactly the opposite - that the extraordinary in our lives lies in themidst of our daily activities, if we can just allow ourselves to acceptand appreciate our lives without any preconditions. We also discoverthrough this film that many others also share our hopes, fears,humanity and prejudices.I salute those who have shared their most intimate moments and privateexperiences with the rest of us for in having the courage to allowthemselves to be seen, they have shown us that it is possible to livethrough life's difficulties and still persevere - such is theresilience of the human spirit.You see the Japanese father and his young son living in an abject messand wonder why. Then you see them offering incense in remembrance ofthe deceased mother and you get that lump in your throat. There aremany other poignant moments - a young man telling his grandmother thathe is gay - you can almost hear her struggling for the right things tosay on the other end of the 'phone.This film is also about connection and what it is to be human. Despitethe sometimes blurry images, it succeeds extremely well - you careabout the people sharing their stories - because they are real peoplewith authentic stories, and not from the fevered imagination of aHollywood scriptwriter.Make sure you stay to the end to watch the final clip.It is probably the best movie I have seen this year - quite amasterpiece of experimental film making.If you only see one movie this year, make it this one.
tedg (13 June 2013)
Snail Eats Label
Life in a day: The Scott brothers sponsor a film with YouTube. Isuppose the idea from YouTube's side is that ordinary people make filmsthat are real, and that allow us to deeply share humanity... the kindof films you can find on Google's YouTube.This film really is good, but it is precisely because it has whatYouTube cannot give: coherence and something like a zen long form essayon engagement. It is, in other words, composed, with themes, andblending; contradictions (but without comment); differences unified.Sound and song that binds; rhythms that you can understand throughoutas the rhythms of life.Some of the people you meet, you simply fall in love with, but thiswould not be the case if you saw them alone. It only works because ofthe composition, the story that we weave that bridges the thing. Someof the scenes were clearly shot knowing the whole, and that takes awaysome of the truth of the thing, and truth matters here. But thatintroduces only minor friction.The final shot could stand alone. I'm not sure if it is computergenerated or not: a snail progresses on a billiard-sized white balluntil it encounters a label that says 'mind your own business.' Thesnail eats the label. I think YouTube would like to brand itself as avideo FaceBook in the sense of allowing anyone to see anyone, with theassumption that everyone is interesting in some way. This is engaging and personal. The source material may well have comethrough a YouTube- like process, but what this shows it that you needlong form, a story and some talent to make things that matter.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
Steve Pulaski (08 June 2013)
Life as we know it on film
In late July, filmmaker Kevin MacDonald asked the Youtube community tofilm themselves on July 24, 2010 and submit the video to the Life in aDay Youtube page. The videos would be edited and made into a ninetyminute feature film that would premiere at the Sundance Film Festivalin January 2011. It was such a creative idea I couldn't wait to get myFlip and record myself, sadly, the line "must be 18 years or older"prevented me. Whatever, I was still excited to see what others wouldfilm and submit to this film. Who wouldn't? Kevin MacDonald stated "itwould be kind of like a time capsule that people in the future, maybetwenty, thirty, forty fifty, a hundred, two hundred years could saywow, that's what life was like." To be fair, Life in a Day did comewith a price. The submission rate was unprecedented, and I assume lotsof people didn't make the final cut for the film. If they did, theirclips were butchered to probably lest than a third of what they were. Afilm like this has many positives, but a lot of negatives as well.When documenting a film of this large magnitude, there are a plethoraof negatives I must state. One, I feel like the people that producedtheir own clips were cheated in a way. Both Kevin MacDonald and RidleyScott are smart people with a lot of knowledge, but it is sort ofscummy that they get to collect the check for their small part in thefilm, while the true stars were the Youtube community. To my knowledge,the "actors" in the film don't see a dime of what this movie sees.Probably just a typed letter on Youtube.Another aspect that sort of brings the film down is the fact that thereare numerous scenes that take place outside of America, or in differentcountries. That's perfectly fine, I was interested in seeing whatpeople in Egypt, Africa, Europe, Asia, or where ever would film. Thedownside is the film is absent of subtitles, making it impossible tofigure out what these people are saying. I bet the producers themselveshad no idea what these people were saying either. You can see whatthey're doing, but that only gives you the vague representation of whatis going on.Now that I've dug through the flaws, lets talk about the positives. Forthe most part, the film is shot rather well. Keep in mind, thousands ofcameras were used to shoot this movie without a doubt. Different megapixel count, different size, quality, capability, editing, whatever.It's hard to make something look that nice when numerous cameras wereinvolved. Some stuff in this film was mobile phone footage which lookedwell. Whoever cleaned up the audio/video on here is a technical genius.My favorite scene in this film was probably the homosexual teenagerconfessing his true sexual orientation to his grandmother. You can seethat he is truly nervous, and scared of her reactions to his love life.We don't hear the grandma, but we see the teen's reactions. This is thekind of thing that belongs in this movie. In ten, twenty, thirty,forty, fifty, etc years homosexuals will hopefully be accepted and notridiculed for their being, and teens won't have to worry aboutconfessing what they believe is right. They'll be accepted, and freefrom homophobic bullying.Numerous other scenes in Life in a Day are very heartfelt andemotional. The end clip is very near and dear to your hearts, and thefilm does it's best to fit these clips in chronological order becausethere is no true storyline. Life in a Day is an inventive piece of filmthat I had the pleasure to see while it was streaming Thursday January27, 2011 on it's own Youtube channel live from The Sundance FilmFestival. Such a surreal experience, and such an unforgettable film.Starring: The Youtube Community. Directed by Kevin MacDonald and RidleyScott.
bubba_blais (08 June 2013)
"Life in a Day" shows us that it was nothing special to be alive on July 24th, 2009.
This was a very cool concept, but I think its one of those things thatwhen its all said and done, it doesn't exactly pan out the way youthought it would. It was definitely intriguing some of the time, but Imostly found it a bore. Its just what people do everyday - chores,work, talk about their problems. Films are made as an escape from this,I don't want to watch one about it! Just because its a new idea and itsset to inspiring music and its "artsy" doesn't make it good. I'm notsaying its terrible, its just nothing special. Just like a regular day.And I mean that bluntly; of course everyday is special, but walking towork? Yawn. Milking goats? An hour and 34 minutes of this and you haveyourself "A Day in the Life". There are some exceptions, but overall,you definitely have to be in a certain mindset to enjoy it.
rbferre (08 June 2013)
Ordinary Wonderful World!
How many times have you wondered how a human being lives in anothercity of this planet? Not something we see in the movies, just aregular, ordinary, mundane, and simple human being.How many times have you thought how life is short and how you should doto get the most of it.Well, this movie is about these questions and much more. Using rawfootage sent by people from different backgrounds and 192 countries -which makes us think how powerful the media is - it takes to afascinating journey to witness a long needed reality check. Fascinatingin its own way, because the scenes you see are ordinary. And that iswhat the enchantment is... art from the ordinary.It is not a reality show, nor a fictional movie. Life in a Day isjust... Life. With all frustrations , discoveries, sadness, and hopes.Just life.I watched this movie not expecting too much. And boy was I wrong - thiskept me mesmerized for 94 minutes. And at the end, you will askyourself if you are doing the best from your existence in this planet.Not to be missed!
Hellmant (07 June 2013)
Somewhat of a groundbreaking experiment!
'LIFE IN A DAY': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five) This YouTube experiment documentary film was assembled from 80,000 userclips filmed in over 192 nations around the world in one day. ProducerRidley Scott and director Kevin Macdonald asked YouTube users aroundthe world to submit clips they would film of themselves (on SaturdayJuly 24th, 2010) to be compiled in to a feature length documentary film(sort of a time capsule video for generations to look back on for yearsto come). They received 4,500 hours of footage and users who's videoswere selected to be used in the film were credited as co-directors. 25%of the video used in the film was provided through cameras sent toparts of the world without that previous resource (in order to fullycover life throughout the entire world). Macdonald has said hisinspiration for the film was to expand the average YouTube video into'art'. Some have criticized him and Scott for being 'pretentious' withtheir ideals for the film while others have praised them. The resultingproduct is a mixed bag of art and entertainment that is sometimesmasterful filmmaking at it's best and equally boring and pointless atother times. As a whole I'd say it's a pretty impressive achievement.The film is just a series of clips from various YouTube user videosmixed together just as randomly, with no common narrative or storylines. Individual segments usually have a common thread linking themtogether but as a whole the film kind of just rambles on for almost 95minutes. At times it's very touching, intimate and beautiful and atother times it does seem pointless, uninvolving and dull. For this ithas been heavily criticized as well as praised. I'm sure which clipsare interesting and amusing to some will be boring and tiresome toothers (and vice versa). I think there's enough here to please morethan bore most viewers though (unless you just have a really shortattention span or ADD and are addicted to MTV style filmmaking). Ifyou're the type of viewer that needs each YouTube video to be twominutes or less in order to consider watching it than this probablyisn't the movie for you. With that said I do think this movie isprobably better viewed in segments. As a whole, no matter how big of anattention span or artistic patience you might have, it's bound to gettiresome in places. The segments watched individually wouldn't havethat effect though (this is true of a lot of other movies as well).The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2011 andthe event was streamed live on YouTube. It's now available on DVD andcan be streamed in it's entirety on YouTube for free. I submittedseveral clips to the film production that were not included in thefinished movie. Three were available for viewing on the page's site,along with most other entries (I deleted one though), and the otherswere not accepted because they violated one of the film's guidelines orrules, I think (I'm not sure which though). I think my clips areamusing and fascinating on their own but I can understand why theyweren't included in the film, they wouldn't really have fit well intoany of the montages. Having seen the film now I have a better idea ofwhat types of things I should have filmed (which more likely would havebeen included). I like the way Macdonald and team put the film togetherfor the most part and I think it results in something very beautiful,moving and breathtaking. Despite it's short comings I think the filmworks as a whole and is somewhat of a groundbreaking experiment thatshould be viewed by all and probably will be by viewed by many, fondly,for many years to come.Watch my 'LIFE IN A DAY' clips here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1rDIY0kLvk and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7WbpOnI3nYWatch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKd3ajZbngo
Josh Anderson (05 June 2013)
Eye Opening Look into the Lives of People All over the World
The idea of taking footage from people all over the world is a novelapproach to a documentary. It creates an extremely candid and objectivelook into normal real life in our magnificent world. I have traveled alittle bit in my life, but a film like this still makes me feel like Istill haven't the slightest clue what billions of people live like inthe world. I want to watch this like 3 more times just to try and takeit all in. Though I'm sure the editors had a massive job cutting downthe submissions into this feature length, I still feel like watchingthis was like drinking from a fire hose. From eating and working toreligious practices and play times, from people's fears to people'sloves you see a remarkable representation of life on earth in one day.The downside to this film is that, because of its candidness, you seesome of the horrors of life like cancer, people being trampled to deathat a festival, a man who has just had open heart surgery. But it isbalanced by the beauty and adventure of life: birth, children at play,etc. At the end you will be left feeling like even if you are no onefamous, or you don't have much going on in life, you are part of thisplanet and your story is as significant as everyone else's. I have afeeling we will be seeing more documentaries and movies made like this,incorporating average people's footage.
rperry-17 (05 June 2013)
The last fifteen minutes....
I'm going to review this based on just the last fifteen minutes of thefilm. I have not seen the whole film yet, just the trailers and the lastfifteen minutes.Review:"My God. Could not be imagined, could not be written, could not havebeen foreseen.Astounding ending, but ultimately at peace with life. In a Day. MyGod."The film quality is way above what you might expect, as is the sound.This is not a collection of home video, but some astounding shots. Thestory itself is unwritten, just assembled, but incredibly well.I think it will take some time for this work to be recognised for whatit is.As will the vision of the people who came up with the idea. The resultis surely way beyond what they could ever have imagined.
aronjackson1995 (31 May 2013)
Very good film and extremely unique
My first impressions of the film were that it was fairly confusing andhad no sense of order. However, if you paid close attention, you couldbegin to tell that the film was telling a story, beginning at theearliest point in the day. Immediately, you expect the ending of thefilm to be the end of the day. My initial thoughts would be that thefilm would be rather boring and something which I would not pay to goand watch at the cinema. However, it is completely mind-blowing. Theway in which the editors used clips generated from YouTube fromhand-held cameras and adapted them into a way in which a professionalfilm would be made is astonishing. The film is slickly edited to a highdegree; it breaks the codes and conventions of a documentary, but wassuccessfully pulled off by Kevin MacDonald.The film is mesmerising in terms of the thought process behind it. Theidea to film a worldwide society on one single day and create a filmfrom clips uploaded to YouTube is extremely unique. To add to this,MacDonald has included third-world countries by providing them withcameras, which further builds on the uniqueness. The film shows thecontrast between light and dark, day and night and the contrast betweenlife and death. The contrasts, we would have thought, would be obviousto the audience, however they were relatively subtle and disguised; ittook detailed analysis and observation to see these contrasts but Ibelieve that this subtleness draws the audience further into it andmakes them understand the concept behind the film.However, some of the scenes included in the film, such as the slaughterof livestock, questioned the appropriateness for younger children,despite being rated 12. Yet, this theme of death is emphasised here. Attimes the film became tedious and the audience often found themselvesdistracted. The lack of voice-over pushes the audiences focus away fromthe film as does the lack of dialect in certain places. One certainpoint, where racism is shown, may cause offence to people of thatreligion and create a negative opinion, of the film, based on onespecific scene.Overall, I thought that the film was unique and exciting in places.However, some aspects often left me distracted.
TheUnknown837-1 (31 May 2013)
It engages the audience more than any documentary I've ever seen and leaves us with that profound and beautiful sensation that only the movies can give us.
A father and son document their lives caring for someone they love, whois stricken with cancer. A man steals from a grocery store. An elderlycouple, their hair pristine white, finally tie the knot. A young mantells his grandmother via a phone call that he is gay and that he hopesshe can come to love his significant other as much as him. A group ofwomen sing as they perform their daily duties. A photographer describeshis way of life. People walk, go to work, talk to each other, talk tothe camera, as they do in life. Because this is life. Life isextraordinary and life is mundane. And life, no matter from whatperspective we examine it, is mesmerizing. And Kevin Macdonald's film"Life in a Day" is all of that and more.This is one of the most enthralling, captivating, and magnificent worksof art ever produced by human hands. And that is the honest truth,since it was, in deed, created by hundreds of people. Some of themfilmmakers, most of them just ordinary Janes and Joes like you and me.Detailing what happened in their lives on July 24, 2010 and submittingtheir footage to Mr. Macdonald and producer Ridley Scott, they providedthe materials for a genuine masterpiece. "Life in a Day" is amasterpiece not because it is artistic or cared for with creativetenderness (even though it is). It's a masterpiece because it isunabashedly honest and personable. I watched the movie on its liveYoutube debut while it was simultaneously screened at the Sundance filmfestival. And for an hour and thirty-four minutes, I sat therecaptivated. Nothing could have torn me from my seat. Even though mostof what I saw was fairly ordinary, things I could see walking down anystreet in any town. Paradoxical as it sounds, the mundane ismesmerizing.In his movie, Mr. Macdonald and his hundreds of co-directors examineshuman life as fact and with honesty. He reveals the frailties,tenderness, brutality, horrors, and beauty of life in our world allwithin that short window of an hour and a half. It's so captivatingbecause it's all real and these are stories that many of us canidentify with, and others we hope never to. That's when the moviereally becomes a tear-jerker. Sometimes there are long stretches oftime on particular subjects, other times it's a montage accompanied bytruly wonderful, ear-worm music. There is so much that I want to sayabout "Life in a Day" but I must restrict myself. Because the moviereally has to be seen to be believed. I cannot possibly do this film'semotional and psychological justice simply by writing about it. All Ishould (and will) do is tell you my reaction, as I just have. This isone of my most personal reviews and it's fair because it's a personalfilm. It engages the audience more than any documentary could ever do(though I haven't seen "Shoah" yet) and it leaves us with that utterlyprofound and beautiful sensation that only a great picture can do. Eventhough it is very, very simple in a lot of ways. After all, StevenSpielberg once said "Oftentimes the simplest ideas are the best ones."He was right. Boy, was he right."Life in a Day" is a masterpiece.
Golf India (30 May 2013)
Unremarkable YouTube mash
I watched this movie/documentary on the back of excellent reviews, andthe caliber of the director and producer. The subject matter wasinteresting, asking the web community to capture events happening intheir life or around them, on one day - thereby trying to captureglobally the essence of living. However it seems the scope of thesubject was too large, and difficult to condense and organise. As aresult there is no plot, and only a loose structure around the time ofthe day, i.e. rising of the sun, breakfast, lunch... with all sorts ofjumps to different subjects/locations/genres. That is OK if you want tosit through a random mish-mash of amateur clips, but I wondered whatwas the added value from 90 min of me surfing on YouTube. The answer iseditorial choice - it's all in the art of sampling, compiling andpresenting. To be fair, some parts were slick, but I wasn't sure aboutthe sudden jumps throughout, with no apparent link. Was the style meantto be impartial and objective / shocking, to drive a point home /partisan, representing a sanitised view of the world (big sponsorbacking through LG, who won't like a depressing story even if that wasthe reality of the user videos)? In the end, I felt the movie wastrying to be all things to everyone. It seems this explains thepopularity. But I failed to connect with the movie. Worse still, I feltreally nauseous from the jerky camera movements. I went to the cinemato be entertained, not to induce vomitting. If you must watch thisfilm, do it from a small screen. I wouldn't pay any money to watch itin the cinema - it's pointless.
annabel_jasmine (30 May 2013)
I can't decide whether I like it or not...
I had to watch Life in a Day at college for the next part of myA-Levels as it focuses on New Media Technology. This film is one of ourmain case studies, when I found out that I was going to watch this filmI wasn't very happy about the idea but now I have watched it I can seewhy people rate it so much as it is one of those films that you canwatch over and over again and notice new things.When I first started watching the film I thought it was odd as itdidn't seem real, the more I watched though I understood that peoplewere happy to be taking part in the film and wanted to help otherpeople understand what everybody else does every day and how people'slives are all different.I thought the film was really good as you were able to understand whatsome people have to go through. I was also impressed with the way thefilm was edited as it helped you understand what was going on more asit was edited into a kind of story line throughout the whole day. Ireally like the film as it is a somewhat time capsule and in years tocome people will be able to watch this film and understand how we usedto live and I think it would be a great idea if something like thiscould be made every so often.However I didn't enjoy some of the footage that was added into thefilm, I understand that the producer and director wanted to get alldifferent types of things in however you were never warned about someof the shocking clips that was in the film. Another reason why I didn'tenjoy the film is because it seemed surreal as everybody on the filmseemed happy and everybody knows that it isn't true as there are plentyof other things going on in the world. For example, people in poverty,I understand they are happy with what they have got however they weremaking out they were on top of the world and nothing could be better.My overall impression is that I can understand why the film is a groundbreaking film as it was really good, edited well, and made youunderstand everything differently. Everybody has different views ondifferent things and I suppose it just depends on what you areinterested in to whether you will enjoy the film or not. I'm happy thatit helped YouTube become a more developed website and more well knownto other people as people needed to understand that it wasn't just afilm for videos and that the videos on there should actually meansomething.
Vince27 (27 May 2013)
Unbelievable
Life in a Day is a remarkable, emotional and an inspiring film full oflife.The film is shot by hundreds of people, from around the world, who senttheir own personal videos into YouTube to make this stunning picture.It is hard to really review the film because of what it is about: life.The film captures life for anything on Earth, whether it be a human oran animal. Cultures, religions, ways of life and philosophies are alltouched upon in this amazing piece of history. Never before has theentire world been seen in a film such as it has in this picture.People from all over the world are captured living as they do normally.There is no Hollywood, there are no actors, no directors and nowriters. This film is about people. It is obviously very difficult to explain what life is and I am notgoing to do it. But this film does it and it does it in a way anybodycould understand.Life in a Day is awe-inspiring in the way it captures life on Earthwithout being sentimental. At the end of the film, there won't be asoul in the world that isn't touched.
siukong (27 May 2013)
Just another extraordinary day
By its very nature, Life in a Day is an ambitious film. It seeks toencapsulate the human experience and all that it entails: life anddeath; love and hate; poverty and wealth; our dreams and our fears; andso on. I would argue that it does so successfully - or at least assuccessfully as possible for an undertaking of such scope (80,000submissions totalling 4,500 hours of footage cut down to just an hourand a half!). It manages to strike a balance between the beauty ofprofessional shooting and the raw visceral power of amateur footage.Very little seems contrived or awkward, and the editing and music donot usually distract from the simple energy of the vignettes beingshown. In fact, the score is quite good and the editing only comes tothe forefront when it's doing something meaningful - revealing links,emphasizing contrasts, or completing a thought.A few stories are highlighted and revisited as the film progresses, butin general it never lingers too long on one scene. You would think thismight hinder the presentation of some of the slower, more peacefulaspects of life, but it really doesn't. In fact, the lasting impressionfrom this film is not one of chaos but one of unity and connection.That being said, at times the emotional roller-coaster you are beingput through can be slightly bewildering. Some viewers might dislike howquickly they are brought from one emotion to another, but most willprobably be too engaged to feel more than a twinge of regret that aparticular scene couldn't last longer.Some might argue that the more brutal realities of life areunderrepresented (war, death, crime, prejudice, etc.), but I think thatperception is probably due to how much we are bombarded with them byour daily news and entertainment. Don't get me wrong, there is plentyof misery on display here (whether it be as simple as the sting ofrejection or as profound as the fear of dying), but it's often moresubtle than explicit and it's tempered by a positivity that sometimesseems to be lacking in our view of the world.As a cinema enthusiast, this film excites me with the prospect ofincreasing interactivity and grassroots power. As a human, it gives mehope that we can live in harmony and understanding. And I'm usuallyquite the cynic.Final summary: 9/10 | A
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