Of course, the embed code is disabled, but click here to see the video
The mind-blowing thing isn't the trick, it's the viewers ability to choose the path of their viewing experience.
The possibilities are endless. I can't wait put them to use at MobLogic and Wallstrip.
At last the mystery is revealed:
That explains this classic video from Black20:
Happy Easter Everybunny!
It's the Iraq war's 5th year "anniversary" today (March 19). Check out today's MobLogic show, "5 Years in Iraq."
Either the graphic designers are mad with the host and love to play them the fool or there's a more overt Obama smear agenda going on. Check it out:
One of my favorite political online shows, "Political Lunch" showed me some love last week by listing the mash-up videos as their #1 story. I sent him a link to the videos through FaceBook. I love when the love goes around. Almost makes me believe in Valentine's Day again. Not really. Here's the show. Watch to the end:
Here's the URL for the YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/YouChooseCandidates
A while back, I put subtitles on a YouTube video and since have garnered over 5 million views. Today, while Googling Pat Buchanan (don't ask), I came across someone else's mash-up of the debates and my video. It's a small web after all.
Here's their video:
The empty messaged and overly emotive, Barack Obama video, "Yes.We.Can" by the "can you believe they take themselves seriously" Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am has been poignantly spoofed:
Here's the "original":
Apparently, the band is ripe for parody:
YES!!!
Our friends Clark Caldwell and Miles Kahn produced a video in the ECNY Awards this year. It's from the hilarious mind of Dave Hill. Check it out and VOTE for them. It's in the Best Short Comedic Film category with the title, "Little Michael Jackson and Me".
By following Dave Hill's links, I ran into this masterpiece of mash-up. WOW!
What I wouldn't give to have a chance to take a shot at ole "trickle down".
It's striking how little has changed.
and now for something completely different:
Karina Longworth, author of the Spout blog and New TeeVee's, feature series, "Karina's Capsule", had this great analysis of the "Speechless" videos being hosted on Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog over the Thanksgiving weekend. "[...] Speechless, a series of short videos starring A-list talent that was produced and conceived by B-list talent and designed to promote United Hollywood’s position by dramatizing the impact of the writers’ strike on the art form."
The "Speechless" videos achieve many things on many levels and are definitely worth a quick look. The series has an exclusive deal with Deadline Hollywood, so I couldn't embed the videos. Instead, I decided to do my part of the blog chain and provide links to all them below:
#6: David Schwimmer and Kate Beckinsale
#8: Bill Macy/Felicity Huffman
From The Daily Show:
From The Office:
Incredibly enough, a New Yorker in Orlando saw a friend's suicide video "note" posted to YouTube. He then called the police and they got in touch with the Australian police in Melbourne where they busted down the door, took the guy to the hospital and saved his life! The power of the World Wide Web.
READ MORE or WATCH the guy's video. Be warned: he's pretty crazy.
Last Wednesday night, Luci and I went to see the Raveonettes play at our local venue, Southpaw. The opening band, Gliss, was really cool and had the kind of sound you'd expect for a band opening for the Raveonettes. However, the second band - Nicole Atkins and the Sea were the exact opposite. I have no idea what they were doing on this bill. To keep it short and as polite as I can be, suffice it to say they were underwhelming, melodramatic and ultimately, boring. They totally took the wind out of the show's sails before the Raveonettes came on. Apparently they have a following and lots of people came out just to see them, but then fled Southpaw once the Raveonettes hit the stage and the legitimate sound of rock hit their tender little ears.
Someone did a little recording of the show. Here's their clip:
Last time I saw the Raveonettes, it was just Sune and Sharin with acoustic guitars and a tambourine. This time, they were plugged in and the drummer played a 2-piece kit to a click track. I sincerely hate bands playing to pre-recorded material. Once it's introduced, I begin to doubt the reality of everything I hear. To be fair, they were really singing and playing, but there were times when a bass line or a drum fill would kick in and it obviously wasn't happening live. Beyond that, they put on a great show and the crowd dug it.
On Friday, a group of us went to a sold-out screening of "Control" at Film Forum. I was really impressed. The cinematography is stunning, but expected being a photographer's film. The acting is also spot-on. I do wish the band's characters were more developed. I was also expecting to be more in the head of an introspective depressive, whereas, I saw the Ian Curtis of "Control" as a guy who was driven over the edge by marrying too early and being torn between two lovers. Despite what I wanted or hoped for, the film totally works on every level. Luci summed it up best on the walk out of the theater when she said, "I've been waiting for that since I was a teenager."
Check out the throat singing styling of Yat-Kha as they pay homage to Joy Division with their unique cover of "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
In case you missed it, we dedicated a special noir edition of ReelerTV to Anton Corbijn and his debut masterpiece:
I've been able to see 2 out of the 3 films I really wanted to see when I was in Toronto, but didn't. Would somebody please program "My Winnepeg" so I can complete my quest?!?
So I didn't get to see David Cronenberg's latest film, "Eastern Promises" in his home town of Toronto, but I did get to see him at the beautiful DGA Theater here in New York tonight.
Although it's very hard to tell from the picture, he sat and talked quite a while afterward. Kinda looks like Bill Maher talking to Sigmund Freud.
I liked the movie, but I wasn't as impressed as I hoped I would be. It just never quite reached the tension I think it was trying for. Great performances, story, direction and effects though. All very Cronenberg.
I really wish I could embed this video of a Cockatoo dancing, but alas, not everyone is into sharing. Too bad, because it's simply amazing. But since I can't here's a still to tempt you -
And the link: CLICK HERE!
I was lured in by this spectacular ad for Sony. Who can resist bunnies and the Stones?:
Which led to another amazing ad from the same campaign:
Which then led to the inevitable and hilarious spoof:
I haven't blogged in a while because I've been working incredibly hard to kick off a couple new projects. First, I have been hired to produce another series for Magnet Media. Whereas the first series is about the tech behind post-production houses, this one spotlights the hottest producing talent of the music industry. I'll have more details when we get closer to launch.
I was also recently approached by my friends over at CBS Interactive to edit some mash-up videos of their TV shows. So far, I've concentrated on David Mamet's foray into television, "The Unit". I have total freedom to be as creative as I want. So far it's been great to just let my imagination run wild. I'm not sure how these will be promoted or what the master online plan is, but stay tuned.
Here are some of my latest online favorites:
"Don't Tase Me,Bro!" - or - what I like to call, "Celebrating the First Amendment: Southern Style!"
John Kerry was speaking in Gainesville, Florida where Luci and I met and were married. This is the same University where I saw Spike Lee and Timothy Leary speak.
CLICK HERE to listen to the kid's entire rant and here's another link if you want to see the aftermath.
I still don't understand why the cops were there in the first place. And while his rant is a little annoying, convoluted and aggressive, if you're giving a lecture at a state university and provide an open mic for audience questions, freedom of speech is kind of on the table.
The funny thing is, I don't think he was speaking out against Kerry at all. This kind of fascist behavior by police makes my stomach turn. They actually charged him with inciting a riot! Escort him out, ban him from lectures, but a TASER?! Come on.
I wish I could embed this video, but the proprietary people over at Cadbury, won't allow it. CLICK HERE!
I don't really get the connection between the video and chocolate, but damn that gorilla sure does commit to a scene!
Sir Ian McKellen breaks down the acting process for Ricky Gervais in a scene from "Extras".
The Keith Olbermann piece below was broadcast one year ago today. All you need to do is change the date, update the statistics and run it again. It still rings just as shamefully true.
We are making yet even MORE changes to the film. Or at least, we will be soon. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a video tape full of Super 8 footage of children at Mamou!! This is what we feel our film has been so desperately needing and we can't wait to integrate it into the cut. We hope it will really liven up some of the interviews and replace some of the static photography.
Having migrated to Final Cut Pro from Avid, I feel lost going back to the interface. It feels so archaic and clunky. Avid requires you to click so many times before you can do a task, whereas Final Cut, you can one-click the same task most of the time. I really don't know how I ever did it and liked it so much.
I feel like I've been out of the doc scene for a while since I've been concentrating so much on online video production. I just came across this mention in an indieWIRE article from March -
Here's an excerpt:
And let's not forget about some of the fine doc-focused blogs housed right here on indieWIRE, including Steve Rosenbaum's Docu-Blog/Steve's POV. Although there is a lot about documentary film in the blog, Rosenbaum also offers his unique take on everything from Web 2.0 to the fate of television as we know it. Amy King, Associate Director of SILVERDOCS, provides her own fresh perspective on the world of documentary film on King Blog, managing to incorporate welcome doses of humor while writing about festivals, seminars, and things in the news of interest to doc makers and lovers.
Also housed on indieWIRE's servers are blogs by Scott Westphal-Solary (no link necessary) and Morgan Spurlock, both of which generally focus more on the filmmakers' work, and the wild roller coaster ride that goes along with making a documentary film. Readers got to follow Westphal-Solary's three year journey from the early stages of his project "All God's Children" through to its recent completion [SEE ABOVE]- with an honest look at all the struggles in between. Spurlock's fascinating story has also played out on his blog for the past three years, from touring the festival circuit with "Super Size Me" to his appearance on "Oprah" to the explosion of his "30 Days" TV series - and the many ups and downs along the way.
So where is this vibrant online doc community headed? "I think it's clearly moving towards online distribution and exhibition of documentary content," says Block, who also maintains a personal blog called Around the Block: Doug Block's Doc Blog. "And I think creative collaboration across geographical boundaries will be increasingly viable. A lot of smart folks are searching for a paradigm of online distribution that combines the best aspects of successes like YouTube and MySpace within a serious documentary framework, where it's not just a playpen for self-promotion or goofing around." Stay tuned...
Sounds right in line with our plans. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE
i was thrilled to read this article and quite honored to be mentioned along side all these other bloggers. It gives me all the more reason to commit to updating more often.
And here's something funny:
Welcome to the first installment in a forthcoming series featuring my favorite online shows. I'm going to call it: "My Favorite Online Shows" (genius, huh?)
blip.tv is a video hosting site that we try to use to it's fullest. If you're in the "business" of doing shows for the web, they're the closest thing to 1-stop shopping for your web uploading and distribution needs. blip's a favorite for people like myself because they don't restrict you to 100mb files like most (if not all) video sharing sites AND they'll host the Quicktime file (almost unheard of). They have a plethora of online series. Many of them seem to share the same regard for clean compression, high production values and quality content that we at Good Hard Working People strive for.
I figured I should start sharing some of my favorite quality online shows instead of showing yet another viral video that's received 1,000,000+ views. Like this guy:
Don't get me wrong, I'll be posting plenty of those as well. They don't call them "viral" for nothing. And we are far from perfect in our shooting and encoding process, but we're quickly improving and have been since we started.
Because of the shear size of YouTube's audience/users, you kind of have no choice but to syndicate there. But if you want the video to look good, you don't make YouTube your only host. What differentiates our aesthetic from the typical "YouTuber" is the care, knowledge, technology, money and sweat we put into our online video. The shows I'll be featuring will do the same and you guessed it, they all host their shows on blip.tv. Coincidence?
#1 Wallstrip. Where stock culture meets pop culture.
For those of you who know me, you know I've worked closely with Adam Elend and Jeff Marks since they began this show. They've been doing this show DAILY for nearly a year and were recently bought by CBS. They've produced, written and directed everything you see. In other words, I've seen them first-hand busting their butts and they deserve all the success they've had. I'm sure the outstanding acting chops of their host, Lindsay Campbell had a little to do with their success as well. Check it out :
#2 Make. The Makezine Podcast shows you how to make things! Bre Pettis makes something every week and shows you step by step how to do it. This is one of my favorites.
And one more. Goodnight Burbank A short, smart comedy set behind the scenes of a local channel's newsroom. Really funny stuff. Jet Set's Zadi Diaz has a cameo in this episode. Jet Set is one of the most popular and well-produced online shows, but more on them later.
Hope you enjoyed the shows! Just remember online video doesn't have to mean big, chunky pixels.
Maybe I should call the segment, "Shrinking the Pixel" or "Sharpening the Internet" Suggestions?
The COMPLETE 1.18.08 trailer. Kind of like Celebration meets King Kong on 9/11. Spooky!
RE-POSTED FROM GOOD HARD WORKING PEOPLE'S BLOG
We are hosting all the episodes of ReelerTV on blip.tv which is allowing large file sizes and very convenient codes for embedding all sorts of file types.
Today we realized that they are featuring two of our episodes on the front page!!!
Episode 3 about Vitus is being featured in the "Don't Miss" column on the right. And even more exciting: Episode 2 about Chavez is being featured in the loop of clips from various different shows on the top left (it's clip 12).
This week CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 aired a show about Headline News anchor Thomas Roberts who was sexually abused as a teen by a Catholic priest.
I'm not sure if there will be further re-runs of the episode but you can read a statement by Roberts by copying & pasting this link into your browser: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/03/09/roberts.btsc/index.html
A lot of what he has to say resonates with the experience of the victims we interviewed for "All God's Children" who were abused by Evangelical missionaries, not Catholics. The shame, the inability to tell others, the decades that pass - and then the courage. A courage which I applaud in Thomas Roberts as much as in any non-celebrity.
What struck me most was this:
"When I was in college, another boy, Michael Goles, came forward and reported his abuse at the hands of Father Jeff. I knew I could help Michael if I, too, revealed Father Jeff's abuse, but out of a feeling of self-preservation, I remained quiet. Michael wasn't believed, and his case was thrown out of court." - Thomas Roberts
How big the shame, how terrible the fear must be that you are not able to step up when someone else has already gone public and a conviction may depend on your testimony.
This is also something we came across in the making of our documentary with one of the alleged perpetrators. The person making the accusation still stands alone with no one braving to speak up against the alleged abuser.
Then the closing words of this article struck me. While I'm currently in the midst of submitting our documentary to festivals in hopes to bring it to an audience and maybe open the doors to wider distribution - worrying if it's good enough, if programmers will select it, if we cleared all legal rights, if the color is corrected, if we can afford another submission, etc. - I'm reminded again of what really matters. The people in our film suffered a lot and making this film may have caused them some more agony, but just like Thomas Roberts, this is why they told us their stories:
"If this story compels even one person to seek help for being sexually abused, then it is all worth it. All it takes is telling one person. From there, strength grows and you can tell a second person and so on. Then you can finally have control of your life back." - Thomas Roberts
POSTED FROM THE GOOD HARD WORKING PEOPLE BLOG
