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TORONTO – Canadian Internet video sensation Corey Vidal is launching the inaugural Buffer Festival in Toronto this November to showcase popular YouTube content in front of a theatrical audience.
The festival, to run over three days at the Bell Lightbox theater in Toronto, will feature video content from YouTube stars like Vidal, Charles Trippy, Tay Zonday, Charlie McDonnell of YouTube’s charlieissocoollike channel and Jack Douglas.
The aim is to go beyond smartphones, tablets, computer screens and TV sets to show popular YouTube content in a film festival setting.
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The Buffer Festival is backed by YouTube; the Toronto Film Festival; Vidal’s production shingle, ApprenticeA Productions; the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab; and Canadian exhibition giant Cineplex Entertainment.
The YouTube festival also comes as the Canadian film and TV industry increasingly migrates online in search of new markets for its product.
Canadian broadcasters and producers like DHX Media, Corus Entertainment and OUTtv earlier this year launched on-demand YouTube channels that charge a monthly subscription fee.
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And Canadian TV producer Temple Street Productions on Wednesday named Carlos Pacheco as director of partnerships at Boat Rocker Studios, charged in part with forging ties with established and emerging YouTube talent.
The Buffer Festival will feature 50 feature-length shows over three days, consisting of either themed screenings or work presented by celebrity YouTubers.
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