On July 24, 2010, 80,000 people filmed themselves and their surroundings for YouTube’s critically acclaimed, crowdsourced documentary Life in a Day.
Now, a decade later, the platform is making a sequel.
Lauded directors Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald, who created the original film, have teamed up with YouTube again to make Life in a Day 2020, which will premiere at Sundance Film Festival and on YouTube in January 2021. Like it did in 2010, YouTube is asking anyone and everyone around the world to record their day during one 24-hour period–in this case, July 25, 2020–plus answer a few thematic questions: What do you love? What do you fear? What would you like to change? And what’s in your pocket?
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The first Life in a Day documentary was whittled down from 4,500 hours of submitted footage to a 94-minute film that has accumulated 16.3 million views on YouTube. The docu, embedded below, follows the linear course of a full day, mixing clips to show global commonalities like waking up and making breakfast, working, and spending time with family. Clips range from mundane (farmers sleeping in fields, subway rides, and eggs frying) to pretty magical (proposals and marriages, a boy coming out to his accepting parents, and intricate religious rituals).
“Making the first Life in a Day was one of the most joyful and eye-opening experiences of my life,” Macdonald said in a statement. “Contributors were generous enough to share often quite intimate moments from their lives as part of a huge, life-affirming, filmmaking experiment. I am thrilled, ten years later, to be making Life in a Day 2020. In that time, how have we changed? How has our relationship with filming ourselves changed? And at this extraordinary turning point in history, what are we hoping for in our future?”
Susanne Daniels, YouTube’s head of originals, added that right now is “an important moment to revisit this inventive film concept.”
“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,” she said.
Footage can only be captured July 25, but participants have until August 2 to submit their footage. Once submissions are closed, a 30-person, multilingual team will review submitted videos, and lead editors Mdhamiri Á Nkemi (Blue Story), Sam Rice-Edwards (Whitney), and Nse Asuquo (The Stuart Hall Project), along with Mcdonald, will select clips to include.
Those who are interested in participating can see filming requirements here.
