A young Galway-based film maker has produced one of the internet hits of 2011. Entitled 50 people one qustion-Ireland, it received 85,000 views within four days of being uploaded to the popular video sharing site, Youtube.
The video has been added to tens of thousands of Facebook pages all around the world, and has commanded newspaper coverage in New York, Netherlands, and Japan.
The 11-minute video was made by Kamil Krolak, a 25-year-old film maker living in Galway for the past six years. Krolak, originally from Poland, is a second year film and television studies student at GMIT. This is the first video he has ever uploaded, but admits there are more in the pipeline. He shot the film around Galway in November of last year, asking 50 people on Shop Street a very difficult question, and only decided to upload it last week.
The response has been phenomenal. The video has been viewed almost 200,000 times and has been liked by 1,981 people. It has received more than 700 comments with levels of praise ranging from “absolutely excellent” to “utterly beautiful” and triggered a wide range of emotions in many of its viewers.
The video is also seen as a perfect encapsulation of all that is good about Galway, with comments including, “This short movie will represent Galway forever, it represents its people and its heart”, and, “It will always be an icon for Galway and Ireland”.
The 50 questions video format originated in Los Angeles and has been a worldwide phenomenon, but after some research Krolak realised there was yet to be one conducted in Ireland. He admits he is hugely surprised at the success of the video, and finds it hard to ascertain the secret to its popularity.
“Lecturers were urging us to do something different, so when I realised Ireland had no such video, I decided to do it. Everyone is asking me why it is so popular, but it is hard to know. From the emails I have gotten I think everyone experiences it in a very personal way, we can all relate to it.”
