Online Video Trumps Film Festivals?

Creators of independent or short films often have to spend a year on the road showing, talking about, and promoting their work at the numerous film festivals that take place around the world. It’s often tricky to impress or get noticed at these events, purely because of the amount of other films being shown.

However, there could be an alternative that is becoming more and more viable by the day. Online video. Sure, there is even more competition out there on the Web, but with good timing, great contacts, and the ubiquitous dash of luck, it can work out very well indeed.

As the filmmaker behind The Thomas Beale Cypher recently discovered.

The Thomas Beale Cypher

In a revealing blog post, Allen details his experiences of promoting his latest short film The Thomas Beale Cypher online after having trolled it around film festivals for over eight months.

After choosing Vimeo over YouTube, Allen and his team posted the video online early in the week and promoted the hell out of it. By targeting interested websites and blogs, which then covered the video and the film itself, the views built up nicely.

In the end The Thomas Beale Cypher was watched 170,000 times, compared to the 3,000 people who had seen it at festivals. The interest came from a wider scope of people, and Allen ended up gaining both industry and distributor interest. And all for an outlay of exactly $0.

Here is The Thomas Beale Cypher in all its glory, thanks to Vimeo:

Conclusions

This once again shows the power of online video, with the Web delivering the goods in the space of a fortnight what film festivals couldn’t in eight months.

It does however also show the need to do your homework and make sensible decisions, because otherwise posting your labor of love online for the world to see could backfire. Thankfully for Allen that wasn’t the case.

And more power to him for that.

[Via NewTeeVee]

Organized YouTube

YouTube is rapidly changing the site so that it’s less about the sporadic, unfocused occasional video viewing and more about the consistent, organized viewing of content.

The UGC is still there in spades, obviously, but theres also more professional content than ever before. And this is being channeled in order to improve the way we use the site.

YouTube also does well from this change, with people more likely to watch more videos for longer thanks to the randomness of the site being superseded by organized and focused hubs.

YouTube Hubs

We’ve already got YouTube hubs dedicated to Shows and Movies, and now Music has found a new home as well. Music videos have always been a big part of the Google-owned site, ranking as some of the most-watched videos every month and of all time.

This led the music labels to come together in order to create Vevo. Which is doing well in its own right just a few months after launching. But that doesn’t mean YouTube has handed the control of music videos over to the labels altogether.

YouTube Music Hub

As announced on the Official YouTube blog, the new Music hub is now the place to go if you’re a fan of music videos.

The page contains music videos by category, with the ‘Most Viewed’ videos given a starring role. There are also feature playlists, the best of unsigned artists, and much more besides.

ReadWriteWeb describes it as “like getting a bit of MTV back from the 90s, when it actually played music.” Which is exactly what came to my mind when first browsing around the site.

Conclusions

It’s pretty amazing, when considering how YouTube was at the beginning of its life, that you can now watch movies, TV shows, and music videos on the site. And all for free. No wonder it’s become such a ubiquitous part of the Web.

YouTube Video

When you visit YouTube, which is something a great many of us do on a regular basis, you expect a certain type of video. Music videos, funny videos, videos with animals, that sort of thing.

YouTube has made an attempt at opening up its content in recent years. Deals with content creators have seen long-form video sit snugly alongside the more common user-generated video content.

Now comes another attempt to open YouTube up to a wider, more diverse audience.

YouTube Play

YouTube has today launched YouTube Play, a new biennial event in association with the Guggenheim Museum. It is, in essence, an attempt to bring creative video to the fore.

The Guggenheim Museum is known for offering a wide range of art in a multitude of different media. Video is one of these mediums, and what better way to pull in a wide range of creative videos offerings than to use YouTube, the most-popular video site on the Web.

The idea of YouTube Play is to expand what is possible with video, and YouTube is seeking submissions from the most creative people.

“We’re looking for animation, motion graphics, narrative, non-narrative, or documentary work, music videos and entirely new art forms—creations that really challenge the world’s perceptions of what’s possible with video.”

There are a few rules to stick to: one admission per person, and content created within the last two years which is no longer than 10 minutes. It must also not have been used commercially or taken from a longer video. The cutoff date for submissions is July 31.

All entries will be narrowed down to a best-of 200, all of which will appear on the YouTube Play website. 20 videos will then be chosen by a team of professionals and these will be displayed in the Guggenheim.

Conclusions

It’s refreshing to see YouTube venturing into the arts in this way. Rather than sit on its laurels with the wealth of videos already being uploaded, YouTube is seeking to head in another direction. Which should be applauded.

And I’m keen to see the videos created as a result of this effort.

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It has a platform that is connecting forward thinking companies wishing to utilize the reach of online video with various blogs, websites and social media platforms.

Put simply if you have a video that you want to get more exposure and views on YouTube then ShareThrough can help. It does this by getting your video on popular websites and apps to get it more exposure, for a price of course.

On the other side of the coin if you run a popular website, blog, facebook app, iPhone app etc. that could show sponsored videos to users to get more plays, then there’s the opportunity to partner with Sharethrough as an advertiser.

Does it Work?

I had the pleasure of visiting the ShareThrough offices in San Francisco where founder Dan Greenberg highlighted how the video campaigns work.

In addition to running webtvwire.com I occasionally consult on online video promotion. I was impressed with how ShareThrough works, and that it is actually effective, especially on large budget campaigns, although low budget campaigns might not see the benefit (more on this in a minute).

Examples of ShareThrough’s successful videos it has promoted on behalf of advertisers include a movie trailer, a fearlessweb video, and a Christmas themed Motorola ad. Between them they’ve had a few million views.

Sharethrough has managed to bridge the gap between those sites and apps able to give viral videos exposure, and advertisers that will pay for such exposure. Up until now it’s been difficult for a company to get guaranteed exposure for their video campaigns with a simple out of the box solution.

Hot Videos & Seeding

One of the strategies that is very important in making a video go viral is what I call ’seeding’. You plant the seeds for your video to blossom into a viral hit.

It doesn’t matter how good your video is if nobody sees it, so seeding ensures your video gets off the ground and sets the viral wheels in motion. Once a video reaches a ‘viral threshold’ it starts to get picked up by blogs, shared on Facebook, promoted on reddit and digg, emailed to friends etc. etc.

I use a variety of cost-effective techniques to ‘viralize’ a video, some of which are listed here, and using ShareThrough is one of those that could be added to the mix.

Expensive?

However, just to get a video off the ground you can need a lot of views. The viral threshold varies for each video depending on a few factors, namely how much people like it – the more they like it the more they share.

This can be anything from 5,000 views to 100,000 views depending on the video and where those views are from. So if your budget is limited then using ShareThrough can get expensive, and may not be effective at creating a viral hit if your budget runs short.

Prices per video play start at $0.05 for worldwide traffic, and $0.25 per play for U.S traffic. This can quickly add up with 10,000 U.S viewers costing you $2,500.

Expensive is a relative term though as it really depends on whether the campaign brings you a return on investment or not.

For a large company wishing to advertise its products and brand to a mass audience it could certainly be worthwhile, and would most likely be far more cost-effective than traditional TV advertising.

However, an independent video producer trying to get his YouTube comedy channel off the ground will seriously struggle to turn a profit. If your video is not the sort that will go truly viral then the ROI will be even lower.

My point of view on expense is slightly tainted though since I’ve run viral campaigns to generate hundreds of thousands of page views a day to my own websites, on miniscule budgets, but that is my profession.

If you compare ShareThrough to Google Adwords where traffic typically costs between $0.10 to $1.50 a click (and often higher) then the value of ShareThrough does begin to look better.

I should also mention that ShareThrough does provide tracking and statistics so you can measure how well your video campaign is doing.

Self Service

ShareThrough typically works with big brands and media agencies one-to-one offering consultation as well as a video distribution service.

However, it has recently released a self service product which allows anyone to purchase video views through their system. It will only charge for the views generated through its own system, so if your video goes viral or generates views from other sources you won’t pay for those.

Be careful not to burn through lots of cash by buying thousands of views if you are not sure on the ROI of your campaign, or only have a small budget.

Physical Vs. Digital

Physical media in the form of CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray is taking a battering at the hands of digital media. Whether by legal means or otherwise, people are increasingly downloading or streaming their favorite music, movies, and TV shows.

Has the horse bolted already or are there ways retailers and content creators can encourage the purchasing of physical media? Amazon thinks there are and is currently experimenting with a way to gently persuade consumers to buy DVDs.

Amazon Disc+ On Demand

Amazon Disc+ On Demand is a promotion which sees anyone purchasing a DVD getting a digital rental of that same movie thrown in. As soon as the purchase is complete then the stream or download will be available to watch.

There are only around 300 movies included in the promotion at present, which isn’t many considering Amazon sells about 330,000, according to NewTeeVee. And it’s limited to those with a U.S. address due to those ever-present international licensing restrictions.

Amazon is calling the digital copy “a gift” and targeting people buying DVDs as gifts for people. They can then give away the physical copy with its packaging intact while still getting to watch the movie they’ve purchased.

If Successful…

If the limited-time promotion is successful surely Amazon would consider rolling this out as a permanent offer. More titles would need to be added, and more countries included.

In the short-term it may harm Amazon’s bottom line on these purchases but if the result is more physical copies being sold then the retailer ends up winning big. As do the movie studios.

Conclusions

Amazon Disc+ On Demand is a genius yet very sensible method of enticing people into purchasing movies on physical formats. Sure, in the end both retailers and Hollywood will have to embrace digital formats as the future and let go of their old business models, but it’s a good start along that road.

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Citizen Journalists

There was a time when news coverage was strictly professional, delivered by paid reporters, photographers, and cameramen. And then everything changed with digital cameras and video cameras standard on cellphones.

Now, any Tom, Dick, or Harry can be a citizen journalist, reporting the news as it happens in front of them. Twitter and social networks are an important facet of this trend, as is online video and in particular YouTube.

YouTube Direct

Google has this week unveiled YouTube Direct, which is designed to be a meeting place for citizen journalists and the news media organizations increasingly using this amateur footage as the basis, or to embellish, news stories.

YouTube Direct is an API tweak that allows news organizations to set up a virtual assignment desk. Requests for video can be placed on the site, and citizen journalists who want to see their footage reach a bigger audience can respond.

At that point, editors from the news organization can vet the videos sent in and pick the ones most suitable. The Washington Post, ABC News, Huffington Post, Politico, the San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR are already testing out the product.

Conclusions

This is good news for Google as it helps smooth over the search giant’s relationship with the news media. It’s also good news for the news media organizations as they get access to up-to-date amateur footage which won’t cost them a penny.

However, I can’t quite see what’s in it for the citizen journalists themselves. Apart from the five minutes of fame achieved by their video footage being picked up by major news channel or Web site, there’s little reason to participate in this.

[Via TechNewsWorld]

Torrent Sites

What are torrent sites used for? Many of you would have answered that it’s pretty much all pirated content being shared via torrents. And while there is a lot of copyrighted material being shared illegally on them, there is also much that is legal and copyright-free.

There are very few companies and organizations who have taken advantage of the technology as a way to distribute content thus far. But VODO is one of these, allowing and encouraging filmmakers to use torrent sites to seed their features and get them out there being watched.

NRK and Blank

In January 2008 we looked at how the Norwegian broadcaster NRK was utilizing torrent sites to distribute a show called Nordkalotten 365. The experiment worked, with multi-platform distribution making the show a success outside of its native Norway.

Earlier this year we saw filmmaker Rick L. Winters and his company Annodam Productions choose to distribute Blank via torrent sites at the same time as releasing it on DVD. Donations were asked for but not mandatory.

VODO

VODO, a British organization which endeavors to help budding content creators find an audience, is taking a similar approach. It releases features on torrent sites such as Mininova, The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, Miro, and Vuze and lets the rest fall into place.

VODO requests a donation (VODO stands or VOluntary DOnations) if you download a feature from a torrent site. There’s also the option to subscribe to the site itself in order to gain access to more films and fund new projects which will end up being made available for free on torrent sites.

VODO’s founder is Jamie King, who enjoys a certain amount of notoriety for his pro-piracy Steal This Film documentaries. Us Now and In Guantanamo are the two features currently being promoted via torrent sites.

Conclusions

This kind of effort isn’t going to either interest or affect Hollywood but independent filmmakers are a whole other kettle of fish. And VODO, along with NRK, Annodam, and the like are proving that torrent sites aren’t the bid, bad wolves they’ve been painted as.

Tech Dirt said it best with its reason for why VODO is such a good idea, suggesting it’s because it helps “filmmakers who recognize that obscurity is a much bigger threat to their efforts than piracy.”

[Via NewTeeVee]

However, navigating the breadth of choice now out there and filtering the available content is getting harder as a result. Enter Magma, which acts like a Billboard Hot 100 for online video.

Online Video Growth

Online video has grown, and continues to grow, in popularity and breadth of content. The choice of sites, portals, content, and video clips now available is breathtaking.

There are the long-form video destinations such as Hulu and the BBC iPlayer, and short-form video factories such as YouTube and Dailymotion. Between all of them the range of content available to your average viewer is simply astonishing. It would take years to watch it all.

Online Video Filter

As it gets harder for the discerning Internet user to filter out the chaff and only watch the wheat, ways of doing the filtering are going to become more and more important.

There are already ways of doing this. Our sister site, Web TV Hub offers a daily dose of the most timely and viral videos doing the rounds. Then there is Digg, which shows which videos are creating enough of a buzz to get featured on the site. Then there is, of course, word of mouth.

Magma – Online Video Charts

Magma is a new video portal that has been in private beta for the last few months. But this week has seen it opened up to the public for the first time.

Magma acts as a filter for online video from all across the Web. It organizes videos into charts based on the number of views, comments, related videos, and social media activity each receives.

You can see a Billboard-style Hot 100 from all corners of the Web or view the top videos on a number of different sites, including YouTube, Hulu, Facebook, and Twitter.

Magma – Other Features

If you sign up for a user account then there are additional features. Everyone has their own channel which they can add videos to, and you can see what other people are adding to theirs, adding a good sense of community.social networking to the whole thing.

Magma uses video embeds to enable you to watch the videos right from the site itself. Meaning you haven’t got to follow links to watch recommended content as you do with other social networking sites.

Conclusions

Magma is a brilliant yet simple idea which should aid most people’s video viewing habits. The one word of warning is how addictive it is – you’re suddenly faced with a mountain of content you know other people are enjoying. And that begs you to want to watch it too.

Social Networking Features

Recent months have brought news of a couple of innovations in the field of matching up online video and social networking. The new Xbox 360 Sky Player will allow fans to watch football matches together using on-screen avatars. While both Joost and Hulu have recently unveiled new elements to their services which are designed to increase user interaction during programs. And CBS Interactive introduced Social Viewing Rooms to bring the idea of sitting around watching TV together in a living room to the Web.

Live Stream Box

Now comes a new feature which brings a similar concept to Facebook, the world’s largest social network with in excess of 200 million members. It’s called Live Stream Box and it enables Facebook users to watch a streaming video event, comment and chat while it is happening, and see their messages appearing both alongside the video and on their Facebook profile.

The feature was first tested during CNN’s streaming coverage of Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration earlier this year. Since then it has been used for Jonas Brothers concerts, some of the sites covering the Oscars, and the NBA All-Star game. With these tests proving successful, the feature is now being rolled out to anyone who wants in.

Open To All

According to the Facebook Developers Blog, any Web site owner can use the feature to enable Facebook users to share in a video event. This can be any “live streaming” occasion including “concerts, speeches, sporting events, webcasts, TV shows, presentations, or webinars.

The Live Stream Box is built to handle millions of viewers at a time, which is a good thing seeing as 1.5 million unique posts were made using the feature during the aforementioned Jonas Brothers concert. The dual posting on the Live Stream Box and Facebook itself means video events can go viral really quickly.

Ustream

All content owners are welcome to participate but Ustream is the first video site to take advantage of the feature. Ustream is expecting high demand, however, and so has set some limits on who can get involved. People who think they can benefit from the functionality of the new Ustream Live Stream Box have to apply to have it turned on. There is a free, ad-supported version with limited slots available, and a white-label version which requires a one-time development fee of $15,000.

Conclusions

Social networking is big business, as the success of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other sites shows. It’s good to see online video embracing social networking features to give it an added advantage over traditional television. The idea of watching the goggle box with a large group of people may be quite old-fashioned but it’s now helping a new generation of content providers connect with their audience.

Multimedia Maneuver

I like Reddit for many reasons. It may not be as huge or well-populated as Digg, be as clever as StumbleUpon, or have the glitzy new Web 2.0 elements Mixx has, but it’s simple and very easy-to-use. The clean lines and no-fuss interface is fine but it does mean multimedia such as photos and video are kind of shunned to the background.

But no longer. Today saw Reddit launch Reddit.tv, a separate entity from the main site which shows videos being voted for in a continuous stream. It’s an idea that isn’t particularly original, having already been done by Stumble Video and Twitmatic, but it’s great nonetheless.

Reddit.tv Demonstration

How It Works

As you can see from the video embedded above, Reddit.tv pulls the video content from the host site and embeds it. There are thumbnails and previews available for other videos, as well as a big ‘Show me more’ button so that should you get bored you can easily switch to a new recommended video clip.

There are a host of different categories which you can use to filter your selection of clips. Videos cannot currently be voted up or down from Reddit.tv, instead you are directed back to the main page. However, there is a nice bit of Twitter integration, with a click on the bluebird taking you to your Twitter account and auto-generating a tweet recommending the video you were last watching.

Sorting The Wheat From The Chaff

As Alexis on the Reddit blog suggests, “there’s no shortage of new video content online.” The problem, however, is trying to organize this video content and sort the wheat from the chaff. My first port of call for this would obviously be Web TV Hub, which has real people, including myself, choosing the clips which we feel deserve a bigger audience. But Reddit.tv also does a fine job of achieving the same thing.

I cannot work out why Digg hasn’t done something similar to this before now. The StumbleUpon method of finding and recommending sites means Stumble Video would always work, but Reddit.tv proves a similar style of video content organization and delivery can also work for text-based social bookmarking sites as well. Digg has been left wanting on this occasion.

Conclusions

There are some early technical difficulties. ReadWriteWeb reports that Safari is having trouble accessing the site, and I personally am having similar problems using Firefox. But issues such as these are to be expected on launch day, and so long as they are fixed in good time it shouldn’t harm the site too much.

As video content grows, these kinds of sites will become invaluable to those of us only interested in the very best of the Web. The only problem being, of course, that the recommendations are only ever as good as the people doing the voting. It would seem that if you’re a fan of the Reddit homepage, Reddit.tv will do just nicely.