The now-notorious YouTube video Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out may have been a fake, but the ultra-low-budget, Toronto-shot and -produced clip became an international sensation, reaching three million viewers in just two weeks. Canadian content-makers working on traditional platforms can only dream of getting an audience that big.

Across the world, viewers debated the authenticity of the video featuring a bride-to-be having a meltdown that culminates when she hacks her hair off only an hour before her trip down the aisle.

‘We didn’t think it would be as big as it was at first. We thought it would be effective, but we certainly didn’t think it would take off as fast as it did,’ says Toronto director John Griffith.

Created by Toronto agency Capital C Communications for Unilever Canada’s Sunsilk hair products, it first appeared on YouTube in January. The intent of the non-branded video was to get the phrase ‘wig out’ back into the vernacular of the masses.

‘It was almost guerilla style, but a lot more fun,’ says producer Robbie McNamara. ‘It took less than a week to prep, three hours to shoot and then three minutes to upload it to YouTube – and then eventually to the world.’

Produced by McNamara’s Burnout Productions, with Capital C creative director Kjirsten Georgison, the six-minute clip was shot on video in a Toronto hotel room with local actors, including Jodi Behan as the bride. There was very specific blocking worked out, a loose script – including key dialogue moments, such as the bride screaming ‘Why did you let me cut my hair?’ – and editing by Sean Danby (Rosita).

‘We wanted to have a rough and almost invisible editing style and make it feel very amateur, but at the same time get really great performances out of the [actors],’ says Griffith.

The performances ended up being good enough to land the Toronto cast an appearance on Good Morning America and an invitation to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, not to mention being authentic enough to conjure a global debate.

‘I think ultimately the key to the success of the video was its authenticity,’ says McNamara. ‘It really fooled a lot of people.’

At ICE, it’s You again

McNamara and Griffith call the phenomena ‘netseeding,’ and it’s likely to be a hot topic at Interactive Content Exchange 07, an interactive media business event put on by the New Media Business Alliance in Toronto March 21 and 22.

Last year, the non-profit organization hosted I-Summit, an ideas- and knowledge-sharing event, which focused on the emergence of iPod video. This year, the event has been rebranded to include a market element, and is focusing on the person at the center of the new media universe – that’s right, it’s You again.

‘This year the focus is on the user and how the user fits into the value chain,’ says Ian Kelso, NMBA president and executive producer of ICE 2007.

The two-day event features panel discussions on topics ranging from how to reach increasingly fragmented audiences, to exploring new business models developing around emerging platforms.

There will be more than 90 speakers, including science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer, Shel Israel, author of the business blogging best seller Naked Conversations, and former Corel boss Michael Cowpland, now the owner and CEO of Zim Corporation.

‘In the past two to three years, there has been a huge transformation in terms of how much interactive platforms affect other industries,’ says Kelso.

To address this, ICE brings together a diverse cross-section of people from across media and entertainment industries. Online content developers will meet film, television and music producers, marketers and book publishers. In addition, Kelso says it is important to facilitate meetings between the big and little players.

‘We’re trying to get big media companies together with the tiniest emerging companies, who can have the freshest ideas,’ he says.

www.ice07.com