Free Speech or Breaking the Law?

Voting in California while getting threatened and harrassed. from wolfsbayne on Vimeo.

It's a video that didn't cost much to make but it's full of spectacle, story and emotions.

Entrepreneur, technologist, social media nerd, hunter and music producer Brooks Bayne went to the polls today in Sherman Oaks, CA wearing an anti-Obama T-Shirt.

"We were excited about voting today in Sherman Oaks, but we were threatened with violence and arrest over shirts we made. We were accused of "electioneering". California, you need to define this term better in your statutes.

I don't work for any party. And I wasn't showing my support for a candidate, nor was I attempting to obtain votes, or hand out campaign materials.

I'd like to see all states define "electioneering". If you don't work for a party or candidate, you should be able to wear what you want when you vote."

What do you think? Was this free speech or was Brooks breaking the law?

Spectacle Story and Emotion

What ever you are marketing, even if it is a presidential candidate, Spectacle, Story and Emotion are more than your friends. They along with editing, music and voice over they are your lovers. Mixing them together you can create beautiful or ugly babies and those children can go on to make you proud or leave you broke and bitter.

This campaign video from Barack Obama is a sappy emotional story that depending on who you are can move two or more emotions and has the ability to motivate you to vote for or against a man with an American story to share.

My Birthday Wishes

My Birthday is this week and friends and family have been asking what I would like. There aren't too many things I really need so I've had to think long and hard about what I want and I've come up with a list.

I don't think I'll get all of these things by my birthday but I do hope that by next year this time all of my birthday wishes have come true.

My Birthday Wish List (in no particular order)

1. Beers on the Diggnation Couch with Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht.

2. A comedy writing lesson from Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine of Ask A Ninja.

3. Cocktails on the set of Tikibar TV with Dr. Tiki, Lala and Johnny Johnny.

4. Discover some new music and a cool new websites with Steve Woolf and Zadi Diaz of Epic FU.

5. A "How To Snowboard Episode" of French Maid TV.

6. A massage after playing paintball with The guys from Big Fantastic.

7. Getting a cool new video gadget the same time as Steve Garfield and having Steve set it up for me and explain to me how to use it.

8. Share a bottle of wine with Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV

9. Being able to watch all of my friends shows on my TV as easily as I can watch Heroes or any other Network or Cable TV Show.

10. Some hugs from my online video friends because we are all making more than a living from online video.

Why Should You Update Your Content on a Regular Basis?

http://1timstreet.com

Now I've never been one to update my web series content on a regular basis but it's something I'm always wanting to do. I just haven't found a cost effective way of doing it yet. But now that I've found a new Rev Share outlet I'm more motivated than ever to come up with a weekly version of French Maid TV so that I can reap all the benefits of fresh content.

I ran into Michael Berkley Co-Founder and CEO of SplashCast and he gave me the scoop on Rev Share for Online Video in widgets for Social Media sites.

SplashCast is distributing content and sharing revenue for Sony BMG, Warner Bros., Universal and MTV as well as bloggers, video bloggers and anyone who already has compelling content with distribution. There is one caveat: SpalshCast needs to be able to sell advertising against your content. If they can find a brand that is willing to buy your video advertising inventory then it's a go. If the sales peeps at SplashCast don't think they can sell your video content to an advertiser they won't take it on.

Keep in mind you could come to SplashCast with an advertiser yourself and they might help you distribute.

If you do strike a deal with SplashCast you could get a standard 50% / 50% Rev share deal or as high as 70% / 30% if you are selling the advertising.

SplashCast is looking for video content that is episodic in nature and already has a meaningful audience with 100,000s of views that they can help turn into viral videos.

THE BIG TIP: The shelf life for video content inside a widget on social networks is very short unless the content is refreshed on a regular consistent basis. Unless you create and post new content on a regular basis people will drop your widget from their site.

There are other rev share deals for video out there and if you have one that you would like to chat with me about please let me know.

What Hard Drives Do I Need for HD?

http://1timstreet.com

I don't normally blog about tech products but every once in a while I come across something that I think is pretty cool and the G-tech guys have been very good to me - inviting me to parties at the Playboy Hef Suite in Vegas and making great drives that I use - so I thought I would point out two of their products that can be very useful to online video producers and editors.

I ran into Roger Mabon of G-Tech at the HDEXPO in Burbank this week and he had some new storage products that might be of interest to online video people who use Final Cut Pro and need to move large amounts of HD and SD video files around for editing.

First is the G Speed ES a 4 drive RAID that goes up to 4 TB and second the G Speed XL PCIe supports up to 24TB and is expandable up to 180TB with a 800 MB/sec throughput.

I don't personally edit HD (I have produced/directed projects in HD) but if you want to you can use these new RAID storage drives from G-Tech.

Tim, I'm an online video producer I don't care about HD video. Are you stoned?

Well, if you care about making money from online video you should care about HD and other Hi Res formats like RED. You should be doing everything you can to capture your video in the highest quality format that you can so that when people can watch online videos on their HDTVs your video looks better than everyone else's.

I'm not telling you to go shoot the best daily horoscope show on a RED camera but if you are creating video content that could live on TV, DVD or go to the big screen then you should consider how you can shoot High Resolution Video.






Do you have a tech product that online video creators should care about?

Let me know.

How Can You Watch Web Videos on Your TV?

http://1timstreet.com from Digital Hollywood Dave Mathews of Boxee.TV talks about the open, connected, social media center that won iStage's $50,000, a booth at CES and how you can use Boxee to watch online videos on your TV.

And Dave mentions how you can share what you are watching on TV with your friends without sharing if you are watching any Internet TV programming you don't want your friends to know you are watching.

Tubemogul Buys Illumenix

It sounds like an acquisition of comic book companies: "Tubemogul Acquires Illumenix" in order to take over the world. Well I don't know about taking over the world but this is certainly a step in the direction of giving Visible Measures a run for their money.

I think it's a very smart move for Tubemogul but what's really missing in the marketplace right now is a combined FLASH / Quicktime / Windows Media Player / Silverlight metrics standard that tracks all videos served on the planet.

The technology is there. Let's see who is able to get everyone on board and agree on standards that advertisers and content creators can use. Maybe by 2012?

3 TubeMogul Tips for SEO

http://1timstreet.com

Are you new to the online video game? Would some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tips from Mark Rotblat of TubeMogul be of use to you?

Here's a video from the new offices of Tubemogul by Massimo Burgio from SMX London 2008 and a few tips:

1. Descriptions and Tags are very important. Use them.

2. Make sure you put your URL upfront in the description because the first couple of lines are often the only things that show. URLs in descriptions are often clickable and can get a 1% click through rate which is often higher than the click through rate of the ads around a video.

3.Put your most important TAGS in first and look to see how they show up on the different sites listed on Tubemogul as you enter them.






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Political Videos are Dominating the Viral Video Charts. Wassup?

Wassup 2008 is on it's way to viral gold this weekend. Online digital studio 60 Frames has create spectacle, story and moves two or more (depending on who you are) emotions with a parody / update of the "Wassup" Bud commercials.

"Its been eight long years since the boys said wassup to each other. Even with the effects of a down economy and imminent change in the White House, the boys are still able to come together and stay true to what really matters."

This video will make you laugh, make you sad and depending on who you are it might make you angry or even cry in two different ways.

On a personal note, I wish that the events that make this video work on so many levels didn't exist but they do and I think this video has the power to start conversations that will enable online video creators to help change things for the better.

We have some tough times ahead of us but we don't need to let them get in our way. We need to look for the opportunities that will present themselves and we need to work together to make the best of them. The best way to do that is to share.

If we can share what we as video producers find, share what we learn, share we need and share what we have we can make our lives better and then we will be able to help others.

The video producers that are going to survive this economic downturn are producers who can create content that cuts through the clutter and delivers a return on investment for their advertisers, sponsors and investors.

Negative political videos maybe dominating the viral video charts but we don't need to let doom and gloom ruin our online video party.