YouTube is getting ready to roll out its first slate of originals in early February, and it's giving them a promotional push at Sundance Film Festival.
At a Sundance panel on Sunday, the video giant highlighted some upcoming projects for its subscription service, YouTube Red. Panelists included YouTube's global head of originals Susanne Daniels, AwesomenessTV's Matt Kaplan, director Scott Winn and Rooster Teeth's Gavin Free.
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Here's a look at what's coming up:
A Trip to Unicorn Island
The documentary follows YouTube star Lilly Singh, who has almost 7 million subscribers on her IISuperwomanII YouTube channel, during her 26-city tour. The Indian-Canadian video blogger, who recently appeared on Jimmy Fallon, couldn't make it to Sundance because of last weekend's East Coast blizzard.
However, director Winn was able to take her place to talk about the film, which offers an intimate and candid look at Singh's journey to stardom.
What a fantastic week at #sundance Thanks @Fullscreen @CanonUSApro @YouTube for making it awesome and taking good care of me.— Scott Winn (@scottdavidwinn) January 25, 2016
Lazer Team
The feature length film was directed by Rooster Teeth co-founder and CEO Matt Hullum (known for his Red vs. Blue videos) and written by Rooster Teeth co-founder Burnie Burns along with Chris Demarais and Joshua Flanagan.
Rooster Teeth Productions, which went from just a YouTube channel to full-fledged company, made the movie with help from funding from fans. Last year, the Austin-based company raised more than $2 million on Indiegogo.
"I think it’s important to let people know that you can really come from any background and do something big
even if you’re regularly just making YouTube videos," Free told Mashable following the panel. "It means a lot to be up here. I’d never been to Sundance before but I know the importance of it... it’s going to help more people see our film."
The sci-fi comedy, which follows four unlikely heroes who battle to save Earth from an all-powerful alien enemy, will debut in select theaters nationwide on Jan. 27 and as a digital exclusive on YouTube Red.
Dance Camp
At @YouTube Red's 1st original screening, incl a sneak peek of @MegsDeAngelis in #DanceCampMovie from ATV Films! pic.twitter.com/uXgCAxDi86— Christopher Erwin (@chrnov) January 25, 2016
The AwesomenessTV Films project stars digital influencer Meg DeAngelis and Jake Paul, alongside Nadji Jeter (Grown Ups). It follows a cast at yep, you guessed it, a dance camp.
So yes, there will be a lot of dancing. But also lots of dancing pros -- the film is produced by Jon M. Chu (Step Up 3-D) and choreographed by Fatima Robinson (who most recently worked on The Wiz).
"We feel like dance is really popular on YouTube," Kaplan told Mashable in an interview last month. "So as we were thinking about which film would be the first in our joint venture [with YouTube Red], we realized the idea of dance –- with influencers big on their platform –- would be a great way to start."