We got an early release of Motorola’s new Droid phone and took it for a quick test drive to see if it’s got what it takes to be a competitive camcorder.
Charlie Fulton, our Tech Guru had the chance to play with the phone and was surprisingly pleased with the quality of the video it recorded. The Droid can upload video directly to YouTube, so when you shoot it now, you can share it with the world in only seconds, a cool feature if you’re the first one to catch the return of Elvis from an extraterrestrial spaces-ship. Now that’s a video the world will want to engage in! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: android, cell phone, Droid, Google 2.0, iphone, mobile phone, Motorola, Motorola Droid, shooting
Posted in Apple, Online Video, Videomaker, shooting | No Comments »
On the surface, it certainly seems like you could put anything onto your favorite video sharing site. It seems like we’ve seen just about everything that could possibly be seen on video sharing sites over the past few years. The primary demarcation point, when it comes down to it, is whether a video being posted is a one-off production of a remarkable event, or something episodic.
We got a very nice mention from ReadWriteWeb a while back from regarding our just-completed Basic Production Techniques webinar. They reminded us of a few of the flagship episodic videos out there, including the venerable Ask a Ninja and iJustine, though there are a few that we’d add a few to that list too. Video sharing sites, at that point, do their best work in that they serve as a springboard to encourage viewers to subscribe to feeds in a somewhat more convenient way (though you can certainly subscribe via the sharing site itself, and that is certainly easy.) But it also lets you find new, related videos as well. And as we see it, the biggest coup one could hope to accomplish is to have an episode of an episodic series go viral, exposing viewers to a goldmine of previous episodes which might result in the clicking of the big golden “Subscribe” button. And that could mean ad revenue sharing…
It’s true, though, that YouTube comments are some of the most brutal things on the internet, right up there with having a comment disemvoweled on Boing Boing or any number of things that might appear on any political web site…
Tags: ask a ninja, ijustineboing boing, readwriteweb, webinar, Youtube
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We just got out of our Videomaker Lounge and conference room feeling the glow of our first webinar with our partnership with YouTube. We’ve watched webinars, but have never conducted one ourselves, so this was a new learning experience for us here at Videomaker. We feel everything went well, the only hitch was not enough time for the live Q&A session at the end of our seminar. But isn’t that always the case?!? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: audio techniques, Lighting, mics, shooting, training seminars, video produciton, Videomaker, webinar, Youtube
Posted in Camcorders, Editing, Lighting, Online Video, Producers, Videomaker, shooting | No Comments »


Don’t forget, sign-up for the joint event we’re producing with YouTube. We are going to give you some tips on shooting, lighting techniques, and the best way to record audio.
Tags: Add new tag, audio techniques, lighting techniques, shooting techniques, training, video training, Videomaker, Youtube
Posted in Audio Recording, Camcorders, Lighting, Online Video, Producers, Videomaker, shooting | No Comments »

Grab your camcorders and mics, (and maybe some zombie make-up!), and get ready to video-tape the first of what promises to be an annual event: the world’s largest “Thriller” dance!
In tribute to Michael Jackson, and because it’s good clean fun, someone started up the international Thriller dance-a-thon that is supposed to go on all over the world - at the same time.
A website, Thrill the World, was created just to organize this event, and you can find out there where the Thriller dance is going on in your neighborhood, or try to get one started… but hurry, the dance is happening this coming Saturday.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Camcorders, line dancing, Michael Jackson, shooting, synchronized dancing, Thrill the World, Thriller, Twitter, Video, video sharing, video shooting, Videomaker, Youtube
Posted in Camcorders, Online Video, Producers, contests, music, shooting | No Comments »
Can you get more people to take the stairs by making it fun to do? That’s the question asked in Piano Stairs, a new viral video that has reached well over 2.5 million views on YouTube in just under two weeks.
Piano Stairs is part of a Volkswagen viral video marketing campaign called “The Fun Theory.” Their theory? “Fun can change behavior for the better.” They set-forth to prove their theory by turning plain, old stairs into a fully functioning keyboard and filming the public’s reaction to it. Not only is the video an interesting approach to creating social change, but it’s fun to watch, as well.
With an abundance of internet video-sharing sites, such as YouTube and Vimeo, it’s becoming easier to share our own thought-provoking videos with the world. All it takes is one question, a camcorder and a little bit of work, and you, too, could have the next viral video.
Are you thinking about using the general public in your next video? Be sure you’re Keeping it Legal with Location and Artist Release Forms.
Tags: Piano Stairs, Social Change, The Fun Theory, Videomaker, Vimeo, viral video, Volkswagen, Youtube
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How many times have you heard or uttered the phrase “The Show Must Go On!” in your video-producing world? It gets our blood pumping to know we can make the impossible possible.
This weekend we hosted one of our Basic Production workshops, and launched our newest class as well: our 3-day intensive Lighting Workshop. Everything was going well until about 11:15 in the morning when everything… raced… to… a… complete… halt.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Lighting, teaching, Videomaker, workshop
Posted in Camcorders, Directing, Editing, Online Video, Producers, Videomaker, shooting | No Comments »

I’ve been having an interesting conversation with school instructor Dylan Bennett over a blog post I made on Monday about a viral video on YouTube.
The video is a well choreographed piece by film students in Montreal using a popular song.
Mr. Bennett was commenting about how, as a video production instructor, he strives to teach his students not only the video producing skills and techniques but also the rules and ethics that go along with being a video producer.
We often write in Videomaker about how legally and ethically one shouldn’t use copyright music without permission, and how, even recently, YouTube has taken down people’s fun videos because they used 10-seconds of a song without permission from the copyright holder. But, apparently, the rules are changing.
Mr. Bennett sent me this blog post that Google put up this week, saying it’s OK to use copyright music, TV shows, or other approved media on YouTube… “if”… and it’s a big IF. If the record company/TV network/copyright holder sees a financial benefit to them.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Brian & Katie's Evolution of Wedding Dance, copyright music, Google, JK Wedding Entrance Dance, Thriller, Video, video sharing, viral video, Wedding music, Weddings, Youtube
Posted in Online Video, Producers, Videomaker, music | No Comments »
Here’s a well-choreographed fun video you gotta see. A one-take music video to the tune “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas. The camera begins outside a building on the University Montreal Quebec’s campus, and then travels through out the building, hovering down hallways, peeking into classrooms, gliding up stairs and down, finally finishing in the TV/film department’s studio… with more than 170 students performing and lip-syncing… all in just one take. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Black Eyed PEas, Camcorder, Editing, I gotta feeling, Music Video, PBS, University Montreal Quebec, Video, Yosemite
Posted in Online Video, Producers, Videomaker, music, shooting | 5 Comments »
A group of Canadian amateur radio enthusiasts experimenting with using a balloon as a radio repeater (think very low-earth orbit satellite without active transponders) has posted YouTube video taken onboard the balloon.
The video of the BEAR-4 mission, taken in HD, is visually compelling and suggests a new way to get aerial photographs. The only drawback? At 107,145′, the conditions around the balloon basically constituted a vacuum, at least as long as electronics go. This means that the air pressure was so low that all the camcorder’s buttons were pressed at once. But considering the fact that most camcorders are only rated to operated in elevations up to 25,000′, this is not bad at all.
And, as a tribute to the remarkable capabilities of flash memory-based camcorders, the camcorder recorded almost the entire voyage:
“The balloon and camera were launched at 7:44 AM, the balloon burst at 10:51 AM at 107,145 ft. and the camera landed via parachute at 11:40 AM, 89 miles from the launch site after a 3 hr. & 56 min. flight. The camera recorded a total of 4 hrs. & 22 min. of Hi-Def Video before it stopped recording 53 secs after landing, when its 32GB of memory was full. The only thing better would have been if the camera had recorded for several minutes more to captured the sound of us approaching and video of us opening its container.”
Tags: aerial video, amateur radio, bear mission
Posted in Camcorders, Online Video | No Comments »
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