Visionary is the celebration of extraordinary individuals, innovations, ideas and events that offer progressive or foretelling insights. Bendrix highlights his thoughts and other lunatic fringe thinking.
Michael Rubin is the author of “Droid Maker” a book about the digital video revolution. Rubin states that Francis Ford Coppola, Steve Jobs, and George Lucas were the pioneers of the movie making: special effects, gaming avatars and video editing. The innovations that were created has given tools to everyday people to create motion picture stories in their own homes. This video was created at Macworld in 2006 when Podcasting and video-sharing were just arriving on the scene. The following is a tribute to the pioneers who paved the way for all of us to be able to create movies using the digital format.
January 9, 2009 will mark the end of the Macworld Expo’s 25 year run. Apple once needed this conference to stimulate interest in new product announcements, but with foot traffic in stores around the globe: there are now over 3.4 million visitors every week. “That’s the equivalent, of 100 Macworld conferences every week.” says Phil Schiller senior vice president of worldwide product marketing at Apple Inc. As a business decision I applaud the reasoning to shave off this expense from Apple’s bottom line. Undoubtedly the pressure for Apple to rush new products to market at their annual Macworld conference will be a major relief. Another upside to the company of secrets is that they can move at their own pace and better stifle the rumors traveling through the Mac die hard forums and groups. There are a multitude of reasons why it does not make sense to have Macworld any more, an ailing Steve Jobs is a HUGE factor. The hardcore Mac Geeks can consider this Apples final statement… “You damn Mac Hippies better grow up and move on cause we have out grown you.”
Well this proactive Mac Hippie has something precious that Apple may wish to archive someday, Macworld Video Footage. These videos were created in 2006 at the dawn of Podcasting and Video Sharing, which makes them meaningful and relevant to the Mac community, Apple, Inc., and the growing Apple public. I promise the Mac faithful one thing, this is not an indulgence - the videos below are fairly short, somewhat entertaining, and informative. They will forever be part of the historical memory of the Macworld consciousness. They are my gift to all those who have been to Macworld and to those of you who never got the opportunity to attend a Macworld Expo. They are also my tribute to Apple and their ability to engage and empower people worldwide.
I am an 18 year mac veteran, I have attended 11 Macworld conferences, I am that guy that used to be in line at 3AM in the morning waiting for the 9AM Keynote. I am that guy who first posted Macworld footage on video sharing sites when these outlets were practically in beta. I am that Mac Hippie that Apple speaks of, but I have gone through enough major Apple, Inc. heartache for these last 18 years so I am at the point where I simply say… “yeah whatever Apple, Inc. dude, I expected this from you.” As a consumer I have adjusted to the decision and with this post I am saying don’t forget where you come from Apple Inc.
The following are basic tips, ideas, and solutions discussed in Carmina’s Small Business Internet Marketing Workshop on Tuesday September 30, 2008. The topic was on: “Online Video Basics - Part 1“.
We were going on the basis that there is minimal budget for this project. We were limited to the use of cell phones, digital cameras, webcams and a computer with an internet connection. In part II, we will discuss video editing and more video distribution options. So the question is how do we create an online video presence on a shoestring budget?
I. Whats the Purpose For Shooting the Video?
A. Tell us your story!
- distinguish if its for a business, a hobby, or if its personal
- know the audience and the tone of the story
- decide how often you will produce the video
- people have short attention spans, decide on a length below 10 minutes
B. Shoot your story!
- use an embedded computer cam, a webcam or a connected digital camera
- go mobile using a personal cell phone or digital camera
II. Once you know the story, figure out how you will produce it: What Is your Video Recording Tool?
A. Using a cell phone?
- Quality: be aware that the quality is generally of poor resolution.
- Record: the length of clip depends on the size of the memory car
D. Ask for memory upgrade
- Format: file format is usually 3GP.
- Audio: not very good but under minimal noise conditions you can capture it ok
- Examples: LG Vu CU920, Samsung SLM a747, T-Mobile Wing, Motorola RAZR2 V8
- Price: range from
B. Using a digital camera
- Quality: be aware that the quality is decent to superb depends on the camera’s sensor
- Record: the length of clip depends on the size of the memory car
D. 4GB is great
- Format: file format is usually AVI, MOV, MPG
- Audio: its solid as long as you are close enough to the subject with minimal background noise
- Examples: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS, Canon PowerShot SD20, Casio Exilim EX-Z750
- Price: range from
C. Using a webcam?
- Quality: anything over a 2-megapixel sensor is acceptable quality.
- Record: the amount of time you can record depends on the size of desktop or external hard drive
- Format: file format is only limited to the computers’ software usually its a native DV format
- Audio: some of the cheaper webcams do not have mic’s, if the internal mic is poor buy a USB mic
- Editing: comes with editing software out of the box
- Examples: Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, The HP Elite Autofocus, Creative Live! Cam Optia AF
- Price: range from $20 to $130
SHOOTING TIP: Be conscious of color contrasts, Lighting too much or little (dark-light) and minimize motion
III. Now that you have recorded the story, where do you put it?
A. Choose a web service and create a profile
- Youtube: its America’s most popular video sharing service the worlds fast growing site ever
- Blip: is a versatile video sharing service that has a huge google ranking and very flexible
B. Get the image from the recording device to the computer
- cellphone: message direct to online service or email to theself and download to the desktop.
- digital camera: download direct to the desktop using USB cable or memory card slot or device
- webcam: record direct to the online service or download direct to the desktop
C. Be aware of the mandatory video upload requirements
- the web video formats .avi, .qt, .dv, .mov, .mpeg, .mp4, H.264, .3gp, .asf, .wmv, .flv, .mpg
- the final video must be under 10 min and 100 MB
- make sure that the video is original content and not someone else’s copyright
D. Upload or Record the video clip up to the web-service
- make sure you provide a strong eye catchy title
- provide a detailed description about the video clip and make sure you type in the website URL
- when you tag the video clip, make sure you type in as many key words associated with the clip
- select the video category best associated with the video
- upload or record (if the site has recording capabilities) the video to the website
NOTE: even though its smart to test with Youtube and Blip first, it harms nothing to sign up for as many video sharing sites as possible. The more video sharing websites at you become a part of the better. Lastly after joining all the sites you can find, and exploiting them the best way possible, join Tubemogul.com. I suggest that this be your primary upload location. Tubemogul is the single most important video sharing submitter tool online today. Whatever sites that Tubmogul has on its list are the sites you must join to increase visibility.
These are the very bare very basic guidelines to creating an online video presence on a shoestring budget. Please go to my delicious bookmarks to find a list of more video sharing, online tools and resources. Also if you review the right side of the blog you will see the “Tools We Use” and the “Books We Use”. Every single item is a tool or a book that we have in our arsenal to get the job done. We highly recommend and stand by each of these products.
You may have heard of the power that viral videos can have on brands. The “Will it Blend?” and Smirnoff’s “Tea Partay” clips have received unbelievable traffic - (5.4 and 4.5 mill page views respectively!). And the good news is you don’t have to be a Hollywood producer to create a rockin’ 3-minute message for your business, whether it’s client testimonials, or product demos, or company news. Take advantage of free video applications that give your site’s visitors a much richer experience. It’s time to move from the printed word to the moving image!
Come to the Online Video Basics 2-part workshop and learn how to shoot & edit videos from your cellphone, camera or web cam to easily create compelling content for your website. Give your products and services added exposure on YouTube and other video sharing sites.
My guest speaker will be Ben Williams, aka Bendrix, a 9-year veteran of the media/advertising world and expert video producer/podcaster. Here’s what we’ll cover:
1- How to use hardware - webcams, digital cameras and cellphones - and download tape
2- Basic video editing
3- Downloading and promoting your clips on YouTube
4- Podcasting
5- Case Studies: How companies are using viral video to promote their business
There will be hands-on instruction with take-home assignments. In Part II we’ll be giving feedback on videos created by class participants.
Details:
What: Online Video Basics: 2-Part Series
When: Part I - Tuesday, Sept. 30
Part II - Tuesday, Oct. 7
And not just Youtube, you can go to Myspace Video, Crackle, Veoh, Revver or a host of any FLV video sharing websites. This particular post is for Mac users. There are four installations needed.
5. Once it downloads and unzips double click the “Perian.prefPane” file. This is the application that will allow you to view FLV in Quicktime.
6. Once it downloads and unzips double click “MPEG Streamclip” file. This is the application that you will use to convert it to a MOV. (see recommended settings below)
7. Put converted MOV file in iMovie or Final Cut Pro.
I must sincerely apologize to the readers of this blog. For over 11 months I had not updated a single entry on this blog dating back at the end of September 2007. During that time I was trying not to jinx myself because I was preparing for a life altering experience working abroad in China. For all of October and November I studied the Chinese market, I learned about Chinese history and I desperately was trying to figure out the Chinese language, the culture and all of the do’s and don’ts in China.
Because the 2008 Olympics are hosted in China, Nike saw an opportunity to capitalize on an initiative to increase Chinese youth awareness in sports. Nike wantsto be the catalyst for a new generation of Chinese by using television, the web and offline events to rally China’s competitive athletic spirit.
On December 13, 2007, I was flown to Shanghai, China to work on a 6 month project addressing this Nike ambition. I was recruited by W+K (Wieden+Kennedy) to help develop an online strategy and to produce video for the first stage of an ongoing national Nike+China campaign. The campaign was centered around NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and 400 boys from all over China. It was a 6 part reality television series, where 24 out of the 400 boys were selected to go to America to train with US coaches and Kobe. Out of the 24 boys 16 were selected to go to Beijing to play in a championship game.
This groundbreaking national campaign aired all over China on CCTV (China Central Television). The project was an enormous undertaking and when the dust settled I had done the following: I helped to port Kobe’s likeness and the campaigns branding to an established video game. I helped to design and provide strategy for the Kobe website. I had edited 90+ videos out of the 200+ total videos hosted on all the Nike Branded properties. Most importantly I drafted the original strategy blueprint to a Nike branded basketball social network, titled the Ballers Network.
Ok back to my apology… I wanted my audience to be aware that I spent a sum of 8 months in China and China has a habit of blocking websites like Wikipedia, Youtube, Wordpress and Godaddy. As a result I could not access this blog which is hosted on my Godaddy server. Though I was devastated for the first few months I found it to be a minuscule price to pay for a life altering experience. I mean how many people can actually say they helped craft an online/offline social network for Nike? Again how many westerners can say they worked on an initiative to spark a national sports movement in China using both traditional and grassroots media?
When I worked for JWT I worked with this experimental hybrid department. “The Nursery” was established in 2005 as a unit of JWTwo Entertainment. An edgy animation group composed of talented, young and irreverent artists — filmmakers, animators, illustrators — The Nursery was initiated as an experimental vehicle for creating original content that could draw an online following. It has served as a testing ground for innovative online campaigning.
In 2004 I got my first DVD project for WildAid, the international wildlife conservation organization launched its first U.S.-based public information campaign starring gold medal-winning Olympic athletes including Maurice Greene (100m gold medalist), Allen Johnson (110m Hurdles) Cathy Freeman (400m), Dwight Philips (Athens gold medal long jump), Hailie Gebreselassie (mid distance) and featuring a resonant message: “When we all come together, we can do anything.” Eric Steinhauser, Executive Vice President for J. Walter Thompson in New York was the lead Creative on the project. JWT called in favors to secure the highest possible production values from some of the best directors, special effects teams, and film crews, who all donated to this cause. I worked on the DVD distributed with this campaign.
HTTP Echoes is about insightful blog posts and web related ventures. We echo these insights and offer our thoughts on how it relates to web culture.
Two days ago I went to the Video 2.0 Meetup group hosted at For Your Imagination Studio on 27th and Broadway NYC. It was the first time we met in that space something like 200+ members attended, a great turn out. As far as I can tell its the largest tech related meetup group in NYC. The topic of discussion was on Web 2.0 start up companies. This is great because I’m always looking for new web technologies to make my world a lil easier and efficient. Plus I love spreading the word about whats up and coming.
The first presenter Ben Weinberger CEO of Digitalsmiths in Durham, N.C. You can call them an ad insertion company or “digital deal makers,” but the goal of Digitalsmiths is to be the Google AdSense for video. I watched the presentation and thought it reminded me of those MTV pop up trivia videos. In theory pop up ad insertion is an interesting idea and I can see how it could be very useful in some niche markets. For mass video consumption I think it would be intrusive and annoy the hell out of people. I have a bunch of ideas on how they could proceed with this, but this is not consultant corner … Those of you looking to bring in advertising dollars its worth a look
Next up was Rami Rinot visionary of Chic.tv. The company was created to address the needs of the “chic and savvy consumer who wishes to access lifestyle information in a new form of media, primarily, video on the internet, iPod and cellphone.” Basically its a 24-7 lifestyle video magazine focused on recipe’s, dining, art, books … in New York City. The presentation was quite incoherent and I was having a hard time following; however, I did learn a lot by going to the site. It appears to have a bunch of content that will be interesting to the chic and hip minded individuals.
Max Haot, Founder and CEO of Mogulus gave one of the most outstanding and efficient 10 minute tech presentations I’ve ever seen. Mogulus provides users with the “power to create live, original television programming, all done on their own broadcasting channel.” Its like a virtual TV station based on the .flv video spec. You can do real-time collaborative remote video publishing or mashups using hard media (like DVD’s or tape), Youtube, or other video sources. I really thought the remote collaborative was an excellent feature, I can see a lot of potential with this.
The last presentation was by Yuxt, a video bookmarking widget based application. Yuxt is an indexing service like delicious but exclusively for video. You can call up Youtube, Metacafe, Crackle (formally known as Grouper) … videos by typing in the search field for whatever you are seeking and it will pull up the video files. From there you can drag the video files into a custom folder that you create and drag it to the specified folder. Actually, sites like delicious could learn a thing or two from Yuxt with regards to organization and ease of use. This site is primarily for people seeking a user friendly solution for video bookmarking.
This past weekend I met my brother Marc Williams, in Springfield Massachusetts. We were there to work with his client Bayette Gordon, the NBA hopeful, 5′6” point guard with the talent, heart and discipline to make it pro. Mark’s company Demarc Entertainment arranged a shoot at Spalding’s headquarters, where I kept my camera trained on Bayette as he showcased his amazing ball handling skills. The NBA was there, as was the local paper, which ran a front page article in its Sunday Edition (Springfield Republican, July 23).
Two weeks ago, we entered Miller Lite’s Go Pro Challenge. The rules were to create a 3 minute video testimonial showcasing your skills. Our video got a lot of buzz, from the NBA camp because it featured Rick Barry and Nate Thurmond, 2 of the NBA’s top 50 legends speaking on Bayete’s behalf. Aside from the star appearances and his dribbling dynamics, the story about the 5′6” point guard has peaked some interest from some undisclosed media outlets. Out of 400+ entries, ours was one of the 30 selected, winning Bayette a chance to try out for the NBA’s Pre-Draft Camp at Arlington, Texas, July 28-29.
The second part of the contest judges the 3 most popular videos. The top prize is $30,000; $15,000 for second ,and $7,500 for third. Today, July 23rd, Bayete is in first place. I think voting ends this Thursday. Please go to the following link below, watch the video, vote for “Bayete Gordon” and make sure to tell your friends. Vote at this NBA Go Pro Link
Bendrix is the founder and Digital Media (Brand) Strategist for Codedsignal; a portable media network featuring; 1. Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop, 2. Beneath the Beat: Electronica, 3. Digital Media Tips N Tricks.
Webbiz reviews and spotlights stuff related to online entertainment and web culture. This is part of the Beneath the Beat Webbiz Podcast.
On Monday July 1st, I was sending a clip to Zadi Diaz to show her the madness over at the 5th Avenue Mac Store in Manhattan, and she wrote back… “that’s insane! Hey — if you’d like, we can probably feature a part of it on Jetset this Monday.”
Actually its no longer called The Jetset Show, its now called Epic-Fu, but in the spirit of preserving an archived memory lets just refer to it as The Jetset Show. Jetset happens to be one of the few shows that I check out regularly. For those of you who do not know, Jetset is a show created by Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf. They conduct interviews and showcase whats hip and cool on both online and offline. For me I watch to see coverage of the newest online applications and to see what is interesting on the web. They also touch on the music scene and there are some very funny skits throughout the 5 min episodes. Oh did I mention that Zadi is a real hottie, (oh and yeah Steve is a dashing young devil as well). But Jetset is so much more because they are an “Internet and pop culture show for young adults featuring cool, weird, fun, geeky, underground, true-to-life, curious, quirky things and people found online and off.” I also wanted to mention that Jetset has accumulated rave reviews from the online community by winning Vloggie and a Webby awards and they just have a growing number of fans world wide.
I highly recommend the Jetset Show and hope you will watch the clip below and go to the following links to support the Jetset movement: website, youtube, mix.jetset
May 1, 2007 Bendrix speaks at the Podcast Meetup. Its the New York City Podcasters monthly meetup hosted at Ariel Publicity 325 West 38 Street - Suite 505.
Its called “Using Video to Expand Your Audience!” This talk takes a look at the What, When, How and Where of video and portable media.
- Fun and effective uses.
- The various media outlets
- How to engage your audience read more…
Bendrix is the founder and Digital Media (Brand) Strategist for Codedsignal; a portable media network featuring; 1. Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop, 2. Beneath the Beat: Electronica, 3. Digital Media Tips N Tricks.
There is this competition over on Youtube – “Why I should be the “Official Voice at the New York Comic and Anime Con.” Please go to this Youtube Link and leave a comment expressing your support.
Bendrix is the founder and Digital Media (Brand) Strategist for Codedsignal; a portable media network featuring; 1. Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop, 2. Beneath the Beat: Electronica, 3. Digital Media Tips N Tricks.
I worked with NAB (The National Association for Broadcasters) in Las Vegas NABs annual Las Vegas conferences are the world’s largest electronic media events, drawing attendance from around the globe. For their 2006 conference, NAB launched a major interactive initiative, delivering HD video content to interactive, television and mobile platforms. As part of the launch of the NAB Interactive, HD video content was produced and distributed over multiple-platforms. An interactive microsite, HDTV broadcast throughout the Vegas Strip and was also made available via mobile video DVB-H standard mobile devices, via a partnership with Verizon and Microsoft.
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January 10, 2009 5:49 pm | 
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