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YouTube was founded in February of 2005. This became slightly significant to me as I was unearthing video samples that I created and came across the first short films that I wrote and directed from, you guessed it, February 2005.

Five years ago what did New Media mean to us? I'm guessing not a whole lot. Blogs existed but not everyone on the planet had three of them. How many podcasts did you download in 2005? I listened to more this week than I did that year. We didn't tag photos on Facebook, we didn't converse in tweets, and we certainly didn't upload high quality videos that could be played back in real time on every computer in the world.

On a personal note these videos are also the first collaboration between Elise and I production-wise. She produced three shorts that I wrote and directed. Now in 2010, every day of our lives involves Elise producing video that I write, direct or edit. The emergence of YouTube and New Media/Social Media has essentially allowed us to be in business and had things not progressed how they did, Big Teeth Productions might not be around today - perish the thought of course.

Here's one of the videos that I'm referring to titled, "All In."
(full disclosure, this one was actually done in March 2005, not February):

Not exactly a cinematic masterpiece but in terms of story and production value right up there with most of what you see on YouTube. Had there been a YouTube like it is today in 2005, its possible that I would have been able to show these videos to more than the few friends and mentors that actually saw it. Then maybe some of those people would have embedded it into their blogs or Facebook pages and thousands more might have seen it. Maybe PETA would have insisted I take it down because I encouraged dogs to gamble, which would have led to some PR for me and more eyes on the video. Then I would have been signed to a 3 picture deal at Dreamworks and become a filmmaking superstar... Then again, maybe I'd be right here where I am. Either way, my life is a totally different one thanks to the New Media Revolution.

Has the New Media Revolution effected what you do in your personal life or your career? Do you think we are better off with YouTube and other New Media outlets or worse?

In 2008 HBO lined up some dough for a couple of dudes to build a website filled with funny videos. Wow, where can I get that deal, you ask? Well, if you're names are Ferrell and McKay and you are responsible for the film "Anchorman" its a lot easier to grab that slice of the pie. Now, two years later, according to Web TV News Warehouse Tubefilter, HBO is using "Funny or Die" to launch new content for their TV network.

Well, what good is that for me? I didn't play George W. Bush on SNL, who's gonna buy my show? Wrong-o buster, take this as a good sign for you, the small but plucky Web TV wannabee.

The more stories that emerge of those with the cash (a la HBO) spending any of their precious pennies on video for the web, and better yet having success with it, the likelier these honchos will be more inclined to find new talent.

So what should you do if you're an aspiring Web TV Creator?

1. Keep Creating

Hone your skills, discover your voice, sweep the leg (only applies to Kobra Kai's). Do whatever you're doing to build up a following but also just to get to know what works and doesn't work for your own Web TV goals.

2. Support Others

Find people creating Web TV shows that you like and show them support. Watch their show and share it with your friends who might like it as well. The whole viral/social media thing is real and it's a great way to get your product out to people.

3. Join the Community

Find those people who are doing it too and reach out to them. Offer to help them and they'll help you too. Most of us trying to create original content for the web don't have "Talladega Nights" money lying around so we need to help each other create.

In Chicago, I am working with other likeminded souls to create an actual community who meet, network, hang out and get to know each other's projects. If you're in Chicago, ask me about "Let's Create". If you're not, find those people in your area and do the same.

Stay vigilant friends, and keep doing your thing. We won't all get rich and famous with our Web TV shows, but then again, maybe we will.

Should Web TV follow the British Sitcom Model?

Through the magic of a Netflix subscription, my laptop and an HDMI to Mini-display port converter, I watched an entire British series (The IT Crowd) - from start to finish, every episode - in about 4 days time. Now before you accuse me of being a potato of the couch variety, keep in mind a few determining factors of this amazing feat.

1. My wife was out of town and left to my own devices very little happens.
2. British sitcoms tend to be only six episode seasons, and last about 3 seasons total. That's 18 episodes. In the early years, "The Simpsons" would knock that out before Thanksgiving.


So, right here on this very blog I am advocating the British Sitcom Model for the advent of the Web TV Age. As the medium matures and the inevitable mixing of regular TV with web TV takes place, this seems to make the most sense. What has made Web TV so intriguing so far is the experimental nature of it. The fact that you can produce a program by yourself, with little to no money, and distribute it as far as your Facebook friends will take you, truly lends itself to the short and unsentimental style of our former masters (oh I hate that King George III).

By developing an idea that you can play around with, get a feel for what the characters are like, but remain experimental, this could free up people to constantly come up with new material and challenge the network structure that would rather try out an unfunny, large chinned hack in prime-time over an interesting scripted show.

This is just a theory I'm playing with, and in trying to develop a few series of my own I decided to throw it out there and see how the rest of you feel. So, let me know what you would like to see from the shows coming out on the Internet.

Should we go with 6 episodes a season, 3 seasons max; or should we keep going and going and going until we get to the "Facts of Life Down Under" episode in Season 10?

 

I get asked all the time how to do certain tasks pertaining to video by people who dabble but haven't dedicated their lives to the dizzying world of video production like I have.

So, in our continuing series of helpful tips on video for the web, today I'll introduce you to a free piece of software that does some pretty heavy lifting in terms of converting, compressing and even simple editing of video files. Ladies and gentlemen, please say hello to MPEG Streamclip.

MPEG Streamclip is put out by an Italian company called Squared 5 (http://www.squared5.com) and thats as much as I know about them. According to their site, "MPEG Streamclip is a powerful free video converter, player, editor for Mac and Windows. It can play many movie files ... encode movies to many formats, [and] can cut, trim and join movies. MPEG Streamclip can also download videos from YouTube and Google by entering the page URL."

Thats a useful little gadget there. Let's look a little deeper.

CONVERT AND COMPRESS

• Sometimes you're given a Windows Media file (.wmv) and need it to be a Quicktime (.mov), just drag and drop it into MPEG Streamclip's simple interface and export away.
• Maybe, you have a video recording with a great song that you want to put on your ipod - you can export just the audio and be in earbud heaven.
• You've got your wedding video on a DVD and want to put it on the web for your Aunt and Uncle to watch online - take that giant file and bring it down to a web-friendly size.
• You need a frame grab of a video to put on a website or send to the press. You can scrub frame by frame and find the one you need, export and you've got your picture.

EDIT, JOIN AND TRIM VIDEO

Sometimes you want to do a little editing and don't have the time or money to hire a professional, such as yours truly - you guessed it MPEG Streamclip is the answer. You can set an in and out point of your video and delete the bit you no longer want.

Or, say you've got two clips that you want to bring together - drag them both in and export out. Voila!

CAN'T BEAT FREE AND USEFUL

This just scratches the surface and I'm sure there are tons of other uses that I don't partake in since I have my fancy editing software, but I just wanted to share this little gem with those in need.

There are many programs that can do similar things but at a much greater price than free. The happy price tag comes with a few drawbacks - an ugly interface with a bunch of extra drop down menus you don't need; a terrible name (nobody uses MPEGs anymore); the accompanying help document is nearly impossible to read.

All in all, MPEG Streamclip is a valuable tool to add to your box. Any questions on the above or to delve further into what it can do, feel free to drop me a line.

Web video is exploding like crazy and I'll do my best to keep you up with what's happening, and how you can use online video for your own needs.

We're a video company, right? So the brain trust got together and realized that our previous sites lacked videos in prominent spots - not a good idea when trying to sell them. Thats why with the recent redesign of bigteeth.tv we made sure that you would be able to see lots of videos - and with ease. Knowing how important the video samples were, we thought long and hard about the best way to host 'em and post 'em based on the following criteria:

1. Do you upload and host the video yourself, or host it on the web and embed it?
2. Will it take up lots of bandwidth and server space?
3. Will the video player integrate with the design of your site?
4. Can you track the number of plays that your video gets?

Using the above as a guide, we decided to host our videos on the video hosting site http://www.viddler.com. Viddler is similar to YouTube mainly in that its a place where you house the videos separate from your own site. This frees up space for other files and pages and takes away a lot of the hassle of worrying if people can view your videos in Quicktime or Windows Media or Flash. Unlike YouTube, Viddler allows much more control over how your videos on the web are seen. How so?

- Customizable Player - You can design your video player to be branded with your colors, and even add a watermark of your logo to the bottom of every video.

Here's an example of extremely popular web show Wine Library TV's viddler player.

- Easily embeddable - This is true not only of Viddler. Most video hosting sites you've heard of (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) will do this. Viddler lets you choose your video size and type of player and then you just copy and paste the code into your page.

 
-  SEO Friendly - Viddler videos allow you to upload your own thumbnail so you can choose what people see before they click. Also, you can enter tags and descriptions that if chosen wisely will bring the right audiences to your site (This is also true of YouTube and the others).
- Analytics Friendly - Viddler has its own tracking but is also tied in very well with Tubemogul, a video distribution and tracking site (more on this one in a later post). With viddler and Tubemogul you can see how many people are watching your video, and even for how long - you'll know if that 12 minute video is only getting 16 seconds of play it might be time to edit.

There are many other cool things you can do with Viddler that involve tagging and commenting in specific places of the video, but for our purposes we just want to be able to play them for you.

I hope you find this helpful if you're looking to put videos on your own page or blog and if you want to dig further by all means give me a shout and I can dispense more of my homespun good ol' fashioned web video wisdom. Also, if you use Viddler or another hosting site, or host your own videos, we'd love to hear how and why you came to that decision.