The YouTube Screening Room. Finally, and only Sorta.

Google has just announced the YouTube Screening Room, a horrendously ugly YouTube channel featuring independent short films from around the world.

Before you get too excited, it should be noted that “independent” films in this case are likely not the sort of thing that you and your friends can put together over a long weekend. The four films up so far are very high caliber productions, and only four more will be selected for screening every other week.

Chris Albrecht, a former employee of AtomFilms back when it did exactly what YouTube is doing now, had some words about the new Screening Room. He’s a tad on the bitter side, but he does have a point. Specifically: “People prefer farts being lit on fire to artsy short films.”

While I’m not very excited about the YouTube Screening Room in particular, it’s another solid step for mainstream video content as it slowly backs its way onto the Internet at gunpoint. With online networks like Revision3 already bringing TV-quality original programming to the web it can’t be too long now before I’m back down to a single cable bill.

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