If you need a way to make your movie available for purchase, CustomFlix is doing what they can to make it easy for you. Darren Giles, Co-Founder of CustomFlix Labs, Inc., has written an article on the process of creating a CustomFlix account, getting your movie package created and getting it listed on CustomFlix and Amazon.com. Once your movie is listed, you may have people find your work accidentally with searches, but if you hope to make any money you'll have to get the word out and drive some traffic to the sites. You can never get away from marketing.Distribution made easy: CustomFlix and Amazon how-to
If you need a way to make your movie available for purchase, CustomFlix is doing what they can to make it easy for you. Darren Giles, Co-Founder of CustomFlix Labs, Inc., has written an article on the process of creating a CustomFlix account, getting your movie package created and getting it listed on CustomFlix and Amazon.com. Once your movie is listed, you may have people find your work accidentally with searches, but if you hope to make any money you'll have to get the word out and drive some traffic to the sites. You can never get away from marketing.Freeware preset tuner for Canon XHA1 and XHG1
Tweaking the factory presets for a better image can be a pain in camera. Luckily for the owners of the XHA1 and XHG1, Canon had the foresight to include a way to edit the settings on your computer with all of the adjustments in front of you. Unfortunately, the software costs an extra $600 (Studio Daily review). This might be a bargain if you own a supported camera and plan to tweak the image controls to your heart's content, but what if you are just renting or borrowing the camera for the weekend? Sure there is a trial, but it is limited.
Lucky for you there is XH Tuner provided by slashCAM for free. Sure it's not as glitzy and glammy but if you wanna tweak, tweak, tweak away you will have to try this out. XH Tuner requires Windows, the .NET 2.0 framework (download here), and an SD card reader to read/write the settings to. Great work slashCAM!
Lucky for you there is XH Tuner provided by slashCAM for free. Sure it's not as glitzy and glammy but if you wanna tweak, tweak, tweak away you will have to try this out. XH Tuner requires Windows, the .NET 2.0 framework (download here), and an SD card reader to read/write the settings to. Great work slashCAM!
Remote camera controls
I posted a while back about the advantages of remote lens controllers. EventDV has a look at some more advanced (and more expensive) models of remote camera control systems. Some of these systems, like the Grizzly Pro, allow you to control up to 3 remote cameras and motion heads. I've covered several live events with 2 cameras and this system would've come in very handy. My current procedure is to use my feet to move between cameras, which is sometimes not easy to do without drawing attention. For me, assistants are the way to go. They have the added benefit of helping you carry all the gear.Doug Bressler of DoogToons shows you how he creates animation
I discovered a new internet TV show called Viral the other day which focuses on what TV shows are available on the internet and often takes a behind the scenes look at how the show is made and the video producers and actors behind it.
About 7 minutes into the first episode of Viral (see below) you get a quick lesson from Doug Bressler of the animated show DoogToons. Doug shows you how he records in voice and brings it to life in animated characters. He first records spoken audio using GarageBand on a Mac and then exports the audio as an aiff file. He then does a rough drawing of a cartoon bear and loads it up in flash to animate it taking you briefly through the tedious part of syncing up the characters mouth movements with the audio.
Here is the video, you'll need to get to about 7 minutes in to see Doug at work.
Stu Maschwitz interview on Filmmaking Central
Filmmaker Stu Maschwitz, author of the (should be) newly released book, The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap was recently interviewed on Filmmaking Central. Maschwitz discusses some of his own filmmaking background, and delves into inspiration for writing the guide itself, and what readers should expect. The book's obvious goal is to help producing polished action films (as is clear by the title), but the guide seems to focus more on elements of post-production and easily creating polished visual effects with After Effects. Anyone intrigued by the book should give this interview a listen.The Workbook Project shaping up
A bit over one month ago, I made mention of Lance Weiler's the Workbook Project, a new website promising to build a community-based resource for DIY filmmakers. Since then, the website has made a strong start in offering just what was promised, with a solid website framework in place and the beginning of a host of valuable resources, such as interviews with Scott Kirsner of CinemaTech, and Eric Bassett, who is working on distribution for Lynch's Inland Empire. Anyway, if you haven't made a visit, I'd recommend doing so and subscribing to their feed, since I expect a lot of good things coming down the line. Good stuff!
Interview solutions, greenscreen it
If you shoot lots of interviews you know that each one comes with its own set of challenges. If you travel to the subjects location you have to worry about how you will present the interviewers questions, getting shots of both parties, lighting, surroundings, audio, etc. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's a nightmare. Well one solution might be to do all your interviews with greenscreens then make them look however you want in post. In this article that's just what they end up doing. Heck, the interviewer isn't even required to be on location because they setup iChat so he can ask the questions while the subject answers into the camera. The interviewers part is all shot at another time and tweaked in post. The article is interesting and with everyone so busy these days it's certainly hard to get everyone in the same room at the same time. This is definitely something to keep in your hat to pull out when you need it.The making of Kenya
Here's a great story about the making of the documentary film Kenya. Production started in 2003 and the film was first screened earlier this year. The story discusses how they approached the filming in Kenya, the decision to shoot HDV (keep in mind shooting took place in 2003), and the massive undertaking of logging over 80 hours of footage and 110 hours of audio. There's also a good lesson about the importance of good audio. It's a great read and a testimony to the hard work that goes into creating a documentary.
Podaddies new video advertising startup
Podaddies is a new video advertising internet startup that, according to founder and CEO Nigel Pagel, wants to "support independents by providing targeted dynamic ads that are maximized based on a cost basis."This sounds great for small time video producers bringing more possible ways to make money from videos that are broadcast over the internet. The company is looking for customized solutions rather than automated ones, which still leaves the video advertising industry open to an automatic contextual video advertising platform comparable to Google Adsense.
Pagel also believes that pre-roll adverts are too much of a deterrent, and I have to agree that they are too intrusive and often stop me watching a video altogether, whereas I will quite often sit through a short advert at the end of a video.
Dabble.com video playlist competition
Dabble.com is a central hub that aggregates content from a variety of video sharing sites to allow sharing and organization of video. The website is currently running a competition where it will ask participants organize videos into playlists based on a daily theme announced on its blog. The playlists will then be reviewed by the Dabble community. The competition will be run on a daily basis up until the end of the month. The overall winner of the whole month will win $500 with the runner-up taking a new video iPod.
Video blogger gets Google Video ad revenue
Google Video adverts are now making their way into user generated videos. NewTeeVee said that Andy Plesser of Beet TV has tied up one of the first arrangements with Google for sharing revenue from the video adverts. This now provides another revenue stream for video creators and video bloggers. Plesser says the adverts are bringing $15 per 1000 views which is split 50/50 with Google. I personally think this is quite a decent amount for 1000 video views compared to other options such as Metacafe which offers $5 a video. When mixed in with other advertising this is a reliable revenue source for small time video producers.Four-Eyed Monsters earns award
Arin Crumley and Susan Buice's Four Eyed Monsters recently took home the Sundance Channel Audience Award for indieWIRE's Undiscovered Gems Series. The prize earns the filmmaker duo the opportunity for a theatrical release through Emerging Pictures and a television premiere on Sundance Channel, with a total prize value of $100,000. The Undiscovered Gems Series is based on indieWIRE's annual list of the top films from major festivals around the world that have no official theatrical distribution. Notably, the film was also nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards for Best Cinematography and the John Cassavetes Award for Best Feature under $500K. Pretty awesome news. Hopefully Crumley and Buice will earn some much-deserved additional exposure and distribution with this recent attention!Time Magazine names you person of the year
2006 has really been the year for user generated content. In recognition Time Magazine has named you the "Person of the Year" for the explosive growth and influence of user-generated. While user generated content is not just video the main focus is of course all those clips that have exploded onto video sharing sites such as YouTube.Time Magazine's Lev Grossman wrote.
"For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, Time's Person of the Year for 2006 is you."
Internet TV Puppet Show | DotBoom
Brian Hogg of DotBoom has created an online TV comedy featuring some "The Muppets-esque" puppets. The comedy is strangely about web startup employees but with puppets, so in a way it's like the MojoPages startup documentary but a little furrier and less serious. The series has been created by a team of five or six people with minimal costs. The main costs are the tape and simply feeding the crew. DotBoom has a few small sets and is shot with a Sony HD camera and edited with Premiere Pro on a Dell Laptop.[Via NewTeeVee]
Daily Reel signs up web celebrity for original video content
Daily Reel, a site which prides itself at bringing you the best of online video, has signed an independent web video celebrity to produce original content for the site. No it's not Amanda Congdon (who seems to be everywhere lately), it's Lisa Nova who has become a star on video sharing sites for her popular comedy clips which have received in excess of 6.7 million views.Daily Reel will be working with Lisa to generate revenue for her videos which will then be shared with Daily Reel. Revenue will come from paid syndication partnerships and through yet to be finalized advertising arrangements. These arrangements will unlikely feature pre roll adverts (I recently touched on the use of pre-roll adverts for web based amateur content creators), but may make use of some form of product placement.
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