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Vlogs where 'Jackass meets Foreign Correspondent' are internet success story

The film begins in bright sunshine above a patch of ocean, before the camera dips into the underwater world below. A few seconds later a shark cuts through the green gloom, its underbelly and dorsal fin identifying it as a Great White.

What takes your breath away, is not just the proximity to one of humankind's potential predators, but that the clip was shot by a California surfer who  had spotted two of the creatures the previous day and then opted to go back with his camera.

\\ "The Great White Cojones!" This is just one comment amateurs videos Made by Chuck Patterson, which was posted on Vimeo, one of the alternative sites independent publications that have arisen from YouTube has become the undisputed power in online video.

Last month, 90-second video showing baby sloths in Costa Rica, posted on the same high-definition site, was watched by a million people; then it was copied to YouTube, doubling the number of viewers. Lucy Cooke, the person behind the film, is now in talks with broadcasters to make a full-length feature.

Cooke and Patterson are part of an explosion in online films, documentaries and vlogs or video logs that, because of the ever-lower cost of digital production, are flourishing on the web more than ever before.

And, as well as capturing exotic animals on video doing something especially captivating and thus cranking up millions of views, the expanding video culture online is also increasingly creating yet more ambitious serious films and video journalism for a constantly growing number of portals from non-mainstream media.

Internet portals, such as alternative imaging company VJ movement Focused on young people online company TV VBS.TV , and the news broadcaster Current TV, are catering to an arguably rising demand for current affairs documentaries from a new, online audience â€" especially, they say, ones composed of younger viewers disenchanted with traditional news media.

Founded by the street-fashion magazine Vice, VBS takes an irreverent look at music, underground culture and news, but its selling strength is its "infotainment" documentaries covering volatile countries such as Liberia, North Korea and Iran.

Andy Capper, editor of Vice magazine and director of VBS's film Afghanistan in the UK, which will soon be released, said: "The established [television] news media was parodied by Chris Morris in the Day  Today and it still stands. They have this way they intonate their words. You  see the news and think "that's boring, what's next?" but if you see something you are moved by it â€" it sticks in your mind."

With Leo Leigh, the son of the director Mike Leigh, Capper made the film Swansea Love StoryTo be young homeless couple on the Welsh town, and he also prepared the Vice Guide to Liberia , an edgy tale about the poverty, political instability and chaos remaining in the country after years of bloody civil  war.

According to Capper his films are about news and entertainment. "It's immersionism â€" being immersed in your  subject, getting intimate with them, not being there with a big camera crew and a fluffy microphone but being there and then blending into the background and letting people speak. Young people react to that."

While critics might argue that the style of VBS films is not new, its audience appears to be. VBS claims to reach four million viewers regularly.

Charlotte Cook, head of film programming at the Frontline Club, describes VBS's output as "jackass meets foreign correspondent" but says it appears to be tapping into a new audience.

She added: "It's like the Ross Kemp stuff. People hate it because it's presenter-led and from one viewpoint, but it was watched by people who wouldn't normally watch that sort of thing. VBS has managed to capture a market among people who think that broadcast documentaries aren't for them. The BBC would die for its viewing  figures."

Charities and campaign groups are also tapping into the demand.

Film Greenpeace activists protesting against the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent, made by award-winning director Nick Broomfield, was released online last year.

A documentary site upfront about the subjective nature of his movies. VJ movement, founded two years ago, Thomas Loudon, video journalist, on the fact that "objectivity illusion", allows its members to set the news agenda.

In the VJ Movement network about 158 video journalists use the website to pitch documentary ideas to members. If the vote is won, they go ahead with their projects. Loudon said: "We really want to know what the audience have to say and we want to use their knowledge to aid our reporting. Participation is the only way forward for media."

Heather Croall, director of the Sheffield Documentary Festival, said that the growth in self-publishing platforms and social media had led to the democratisation of film-making. "Everyone can self-publish and be publishing directly to an audience without having some commissioner like BBC or Channel 4 approving it," she said. "If you tag your videos correctly they can be seen by millions."

?€? This article was amended on August 18, 2010. Because of an editing error, the original title and the lines in the text referred to VBS 's film of Afghanistan to the UK as "fool". This error was corrected, as the title links to such "DIY film".