The Way We Watch

Ten Creative Videos Worth Spreading From 2009

If you are like me you get a lot of links that come from friends to see this or that video.  I've collected the ten that I still go to again and again for inspiration or that just make me smile.

Enjoy!

1. Her Morning Elegance

I've seen this 10 times and I still get a kick out of it.

2. Birds On The Wires
Thanks to Judith for posting this on her site.

  

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

 
3. A Thousand Words
Lovely short story told on film with no dialogue and an Asian guy in the lead role!

A Thousand Words from Ted Chung on Vimeo.

4. The Hush Sounds - The Lions Roar.

I'm cheating. This is from 2007, but I learned of it from a terrific  2009 post by Web Designer Depot.
There are lots of Kinetic Typography videos but this was a real pioneer and it's still so inventive.

The Hush Sound — Lions Roar from Mig Reyes on Vimeo.

5. Michael Jackson Vs. Mr. Bean

Every video Patrick Boivin makes is better than the last one.  I don't know how he does it.  I'm just glad he's making these wonderful witty artful films for us.  (Couldn't embed. But click the pic).

6. Be Amazing

Maybe the most expensive book trailer, I've ever seen.  But it's so SPOT ON.
Funny and terrifying if it came to be...

7. HBO Cube: "The Affair"

Some really neat narrative possibilities are explored in this cool demo that HBO has put together that shows four different views of the same action.  Most impressive is the sleek cubed housing that the video plays in.  On the coolness meter this is an 11. 

Can't embed this one, so click the picture or here.

 

8. 100 Questions Answered - Vlog Brothers

The Vlog brothers, Hank and John Green, started a video meme last year.  They decided to forgo text based communication in favor of creating video messages to each other.  Lo and behold what they said was informative, funny and hit a nerve with the massive Young Adult literature audience.

They've continued making YouTube videos. Simple ones - talking into the camera - but using jump cuts to keep the message crisp and highly watchable. 

Their YouTube Channel is here http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers

 
9. The Long Haul

Sylvain Dumais was featured here on my post earlier in the year.  I like this video a lot but more than that I like how he used social media to pull in demand for his services.  Using his own money, Sylvain created this video (with a team of talented producers, designers, production crew and actors). He uploaded to vimeo and the blogoshpere went wild as did mainstream media. 

I recently asked Sylvain on Facebook how what he working on and if he was busy.  He said, "Many things! I shot 3 spots for a US client and I'm now trying to sell a viral to a big corporation... I think it could be wicked - stay tuned!"  

Stop Motion | The Long Haul from DUMAIS on Vimeo.

10. Your Video Here.

Yep.  This spot is reserved for your video.  Make it with still camera, a filp, a computer laptop camera, your cell phone....  Just keep making it.  Shoot. Edit.  Post it on the web.  Tweet me.  I'm looking forward to watching.

This post is part of a group writing project from the Daily Blog Tips community to put together the best of 2009 on the web - find out how you can join here. 

85 Bloggers and Sites - These People Rock

On the anniversary of my first year of blogging, I wanted to share the bloggers and sites that I've been plugged into over the last year.

Blogging is just one part of a social media platform.  Getting a good look at who's out there and finding where your voice intersects with others is an important part of the process of developing your social media platform.

You'll need a Google account to see these. All of these sites sit on my iGoogle page. Check them out by clicking here.

Know anyone I should add during my second year?
 
Photo credit: Andrew B.

Helpful Tip: Add Video To Your LinkedIn Profile

Hat tip to Ron Callari for pointing this out to me.  This video (by Niall Harbison) gives a step by step on how to add video to your boring LinkedIn profile.  The video must be hosted on YouTube.  Try this and point me to your profile page.

Cool stuff. Must try it myself!

The original post is here if you can't see the video.

Please Don't Make Yourself At Home

 
Last night I was stuck at 42nd Street and the West Side Highway and needed to stay put in the neighborhood for 90 minutes while my son was a bowling party.  I ambled into the nearest food establishment.

  Seemed kind of welcoming to me from the outside.

 

 


 After I bought my slice and soda at the counter I sat down and saw four signs:

 

 
The sign to the right says, "Is not permitted food or beverage from outside."

Luckily, my slice and soda were $5.00 (over the minimum). I didn't plug my phone in to charge it and I didn't bring any food from the outside in with me.

Syntax aside, rules are necessary, for sure.  But when you want repeat customers to your blog or service, figure out ways to keep the conversation going.  If you don't want repeat customers do what this restaurant does - bombard us with rules.

It's like putting up a sign in the window that says,  "We don't want you here for very long."

If I'm stuck at 42nd Street and the West Side Highway again.  I'll walk to tenth ave.

The Most Fun iPhone App Around...

I'm not a professional photographer - nor do I ever aim to be one - but I sure feel like one since I've been using Chase Jarvis' Best Camera App for the iPhone.  He's created an easy three button app that simulates his editorial photo work.  The full story on Chase and the app is here

I wanted to quickly show you some before and after shots using the app so I made this simple iMovie.  Take a look.  You'll be surprised to know the composer of the music is the marketing blogger Adam Singer who makes his electronic music available to everyone at his site: adamsinger.org. 

Also via the app, Jarvis has created a very easy way to share your pictures with Facebook, Twitter, the best camera app community and your own iphone photo library.  My pictures can be seen at http://bestc.am/photographers/7921. What is neat is seeing how other people are using the particular filters.  If you click on http://www.thebestcamera.com/ and double click any photo you can see what filters and what order they were used.

I've always wanted to be Duane Michaels and now I can be (in my own mind)! 

Makes Me Want To Watch - Makes Me Want To Share

Awesomeness.  My impulse upon seeing this was to spread it.

The stuff that cuts through the clutter gets shared.

Would I buy the camera?  Not so sure.  Will I remember the brand?  You bet.

Do you want to share this? 

Can't see the video. Click here.

5 Lessons Learned On Producing Viral Video

Last month I produced and directed (via Wheelhouse Communications) the book trailer to Libba Bray's Going Bovine for Random House Children's Books. This video lit up Twitter when it debuted on EW.com and continues to build a growing audience through Young Adult blogs and other sites.  I wanted to tee up the valuable lessons learned in this experience for you to bear in mind on the next video you make:

1. Be Different.  A standard Q & A  author video with cuts to the cover art is not going to stand out or be remarkable.  In this video, we started with a wacky premise: the author wore a cow suit and did not mention it at all.
   
   
2. Spend Time On The Edit.  Most beginning web video makers want to concentrate all on the shoot. Here's my advice: spend more time on the edit. If you're hiring professionals make sure you've budgeted ample time for the creatives to digest all the footage, try out sequences, and then some more time to add some zing and polish.
   
   
3. It Takes A Village To Go Viral.  With the video done, it was time to get people to notice it. Everyone involved in your video should have a strong or fledgling social web prescence to shout out to the world, "Hey, watch this video!"  In the case of Going Bovine - Random House has an incredible in-house publicity department that worked all the blogging and twitter angles to their advantage. 
   
   Libba Bray, the author, has a well trafficked blog and sizable twitter following @libbabray. Her twitter following includes fans, other authors, librarians and bloggers.  Bray blogged about the making of the video (see here) and then tweeted out the link when it was first available.  Lastly, yours truly, the filmmaker pointed all my contacts to see the video by posting on twitter, facebook and linkedin. Through some social networking, I was able able to get it posted on the popular eguiders.com site. (see here).
   
   
4. There Is A Place For Traditional PR. A month before the book's publication, the video premiered on the highly trafficked EntertainmentWeelkly.com's site (EW.com =  nearly 4 million visitors/month) Shelf Life.  Random House did a great job getting this eyeball friendly placement and it was the initial engine that drove views.  I think it was a good strategy.  It forced the truest and most loyal fans to go to the EW site and read the positive review of the book and the video - See here.
   
   
5. Video Feeds The Conversation.  The second life of the video started a week after the EW.com blog premiere.  RH posted the video to YouTube. Fans of Young Adult (YA) literature are all over the web. It's an extremely vocal and supportive group that includes readers, librarians, teachers, publishers, authors and agents. Again, it was traditional PR relationship building at work that informed this audience about the book's release and the video.
   
   When thinking about spending the resources and time on a video think about if there is an existing online community that is already in place.  For this video, it was interesting to see how many blogs embedded the youtube clip or linked to it. See here, here, and here for examples. I would show you the plethora of tweets that the video received but time has erased them from twitter's memory. Believe me - the link chirping was plentiful.

Summary
Be clever with your video - first and foremost. No one is going to link to plain Jane video anymore.  Use your budget for editing; it's the most essential part of your process.  Create videos for audiences that have strong social platforms in place.  Lastly, everyone involved in the making of your video should have a strong social web presence.