Myself and my partner Natalie started filming poetry a couple of years ago, first at our own events and then also adding in additional events in and around Merseyside. The project has involved filming night after night and then the time intensive editing and processing of the films. I would hazard a guess that we've probably put in somewhere near the 700 hour mark - just doing this. So what's the bottom line? What's the point?
Well althought the YouTube figures jump about a bit in odd ways - we have reached the 10,000 hits mark on the internet. We've filmed over a hundred plus poets and got them into homes in just about every country on the planet.
Amazing what hard work and sweat can achieve with fairly modest means.
If you think you might be interested in seeing poets and poetry nights from the comfort of your own home and can put up with one or two scouse accents ;) hehe - why not take a look at what we've been doing?
All you need to do is click on this link below;
www.youtube.com/user/MerseyPoetryScene
We have recorded some fantastic musicians on there as well as poets and some of the poets will be known to those of you here on wol.
Now I've said my peice for most people.
..................
For those that like statistics here are some that relate to the filming and this project
Insomnia brings statistics!
Since we started filming poetry our YouTube related channel has now had of 10,000 hits.
Ged Thompson's poem - The Coin Purloin has been the most viewed video
343 times in the UK
13 times in the USA
3 times in Turkey
2 times in the United Arab Emirates
2 from an unknown region
1 time from Antigua
1 time from Russia
1 time from Hungary
1 time from India
1 time from Mexico
1 time from Canada
1 time from Saudi Arabia
1 time from New Zealand
Accordion Polka - performed by Helen Maher has possibly been seen by by the most diverse group of people. The number below being each view.
UK 29
USA 29
Romania 13
Canada 8
Philippines 8
Germany 7
France 7
Hungary 7
Poland 5
Israel 5
Ukraine 4
Azerbaijan 3
Japan 3
Russia 2
Lithuania 2
South Korea 2
Sweden 2
India 1
Netherlands 1
Iceland 1
Uruguay 1
Spain 1
Serbia 1
Belgium 1
Brazil 1
Mexico 1
Ireland 1
Italy 1
Australia 1
Greece 1
In the footsteps of our fathers - a poem by Isobel attracted 138 online views which made it the highest viewed video during the last 3 months of last year.
All views were from the UK, except for;
USA 3
United Arab Emirates 2
New Zealand 1
One of, if not the highest viewed video from last years National Poetry Day event at the Bluecoat was Emlyn Jones' performance of;
Hans Litten's - My Thoughts Are Free (Die Gedanken sind frei)
The video was viewed over 200 times, as follows;
USA 89
Canada 28
Germany 27
France 13
UK 11
Brazil 9
Netherlands 5
Austria 5
Mexico 4
Romania 3
Portugal 3
Trinidad and Tobago 2
Costa Rica 2
Ecuador 2
Switzerland 2
Australia 2
Hungary 2
Saudi Arabia 1
Columbia 1
Egypt 1
New Zealand 1
Ireland Chile 1
Serious poems tended to figure prominently. One very funny poem that got very good numbers was Graham Robinson's - Cockney Rhyming Slang which was viewed over 100 times. 58 times in the Uk was surprising given the lingo. Why? Well it meant that cockney rhyming slang made it's way abroad - in these numbers;
USA 17
Germany 5
Australia 4
Romania 3
Canada 3
Austria 2
Russia 2
Jordan 1
Switzerland 1
Nepal 1
Northern Mariana Islands 1
Algeria 1
Singapore 1
Slovakia 1
Venezuela 1
Italy 1
Ireland 1
France 1
South Africa 1
New Zealand 1
Dave Bradley's poem R.I.P Dory Previn has been viewed around 100 times!
Uk 48
USA 33
France 4
Canada 3
Australia 2
Switzerland 2
Netherlands 1
Israel 1
India 1
Venezuela 1
Spain 1
Italy 1
Sweden 1
Belgium 1
The Forrest - a poem by Paul Nicholas Pyke recorded at the Dead Good Poets Society got 84 views!
83 from the UK and 1 from Russia - go figure?
I stole a smile from you - a poem by Denis Joe reached 83 views!
8 from France, 6 from the US, 2 from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, 2 Netherlands, 2 Saudi Arabia, 1 Ireland, 1 Bulgaria.
Arandora Star - a poem by Dave Subacchi was viewed just over 100 times from its filming on National Poetry Day.
Another National Poetry Day poem;
An Alien landed on Billinge Lump - by Brian Seamus Campbell Hart, brought 90 folk along to the landing site!
Kevin McMahon's - The Haunting has seen 80 people afflicted by its bacteria!
David Bateman's - Lava Lamp took 80 people back to the 70s!
Fish & chip Babies - by Glenys Feeney reached out it's knitting to, again 80 people!
Joy France has had her Toaster poem viewed 69 times!
John Hulme's - Not Sorry Now, shouldn't be. It's been viewed 67 times!
The viewing figures and locations have been pretty amazing. In the age of the internet some people fair better than others for whatever reason, but this is just viewing figures.
The above said, if internet viewing figures were a sport - Ged Thompson would be a run-away victor. Another poem of his - The Weighing was viewed by 268 people! In fact Ged has a number of poems hitting similar stratospheric numbers.
For those that have been filmed whose name didn't come up, likelihood is you've still been viewed 20/40 odd times with your videos and from some fantastic and exotic locations. If anyone wishes to ask about a specific poem and details - just drop me a line...
Hopefully some of this is of interest and maybe offers a little poetic encouragement!
Ian Whiteley
Thu 11th Jul 2013 22:47
great stuff Chris - I love a stat or two :-)
really rewarding and selfless effort by you to promote others - keep up the good work :-)