Shooting People » video

The Best Web Video Download Tools

ingrid — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:32:21 +0000

Finding useful tools for downloading video from the web can be very confusing.

Check out Liz Gannes’ article on newteevee.com about the different options, their perks and their pitfalls.

Another great site to upload your videos to

ingrid — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:53:52 +0000

Shooting People! Yes Shooting People! We’ve recently added a video component to our website so now members can upload their shorts, reels and trailers and anybody can watch them. Check it out, add your films, and rate other members’ films.

Shooting People Video – just in time for the Holidays!

ingrid — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:46:39 +0000

Shooting People recently launched a new section on our website called WATCH FILM where members can upload their shorts, reels and trailers and anybody can watch them. This is filmmaker-generated content and we’re really proud of it. It’s in Beta right now but it’s already rocking. Check it out, upload your films and let us know what you think.

Secret Strategies behind Viral Videos

ingrid — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:57:14 +0000

This post by Dan Ackerman Greenberg on TechCrunch has riled up quite a few people who object to the spammy, underhand methods he suggests for making your video truly viral. So much so that Dan contributed a follow-up post. Dan is talking about using viral videos for advertising (and a lot of this stuff does sound very sneaky indeed!) but there are some important lessons here for filmmakers too. If nothing else it’s a good wake up call about what’s happening on the web as advertisers try to reach consumers in new, obtuse ways. As a filmmaker it is good to be aware of things like the power of tags and the importance of tracking but don’t spam people. It’s annoying, often illegal, and it’s going to create ill-will. Use the tools but keep it honest and make sure your distribution strategies match the integrity of your film.

Making films for the internet

ingrid — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:55:40 +0000

The Participatory Culture Foundation are the forward-thinking people behind Miro (formerly Democracy), a great open-source internet TV platform. In the spirit of openness they have also created a very handy website called makeinternettv.org (does what it says on the tin!). The site covers everything from the equipment you should use to licensing issues to how to promote your work through RSS feeds. It’s not exhaustive but it’s a really good starting point if you’re dipping your feet into the water for the first time. There’s also lots more information on the Make Internet TV wiki page – which you can contribute to if you have resources to share.

Online Video Platforms

ingrid — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:45:09 +0000

There are so many online video platforms around at the moment it can get a little overwhelming for a filmmaker trying to work out where to get their film seen. There’s an interesting article on the MediaRights website by Shira Golding about different online video platforms including: Brightcove, DivX Stage6, Film Fresh, Jaman, Dovetail, Revver, and of course YouTube.

It’s also worth taking a look at Scott Kirsner’s book The Future of Web Video – check out Kirsner’s blog CinemaTech for more good stuff on all things digital and new.

And of course there are lots of great web resources in the latest Shooting People book Get Your Short Film Funded, Made and Seen.

Who I Am and What I Want

ingrid — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:45:09 +0000

I have loved David Shrigley ever since someone gave me a postcard that said “Sorry I painted the word TWAT on your garage wall.” That’s art, that is.

Oh my! Ola Podrida’s Lost and Found video

ingrid — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:13:27 +0000

Quite a few people have been blogging about this video recently and for good reason. It is utterly weird and just the right side of genius. Ola Podrida frontman David Wingo did the music for David Gordon Green’s wonderful films George Washington and All the Real Girls. He also did the music for Todd Rohal’s The Guatemalan Handshake and Todd is the director of this jaw-dropping masterpiece of surreal nuttiness. Enjoy.

Resources

ingrid — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:10:40 +0000

Have y’all checked out the Renew Media Resources blog? It’s packed with lots of really useful information for filmmakers from great writers and documentary cheerleaders like Agnes Varnum and Pamela Cohn and is definitely worth adding to your blog list. Pamela Cohn’s most recent entry is an interview with Brent Hoff of Wholphin. Now anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of Wholphin and that I nag and nag people until they subscribe but nobody holds it against me cos the films are that good! You can watch some films on their website right now, including David Lowery’s Some Analog Lines and David and Nathan Zellner’s hilarious Quasar Hernandez. You should also know that Kent Osborne features in at least two films I watched on the site recently but he has a mustache in one of them. True story.

Development and Destruction

ingrid — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:08:13 +0000

The Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg is right by my apartment and I love seeing it every day so I was very relieved to hear that it has been granted landmark status. Apparently the planned residential development will still go ahead but they will not be allowed to alter the existing exterior which pleases me no end. There are some terrifyingly ugly glass buildings going up in Williamsburg at the moment, with soulless and empty slogans to accompany them. I’ve been thinking a lot about development and community recently, I carry Jane Jacob’s magnificent The Death and Life of Great American Cities around with me, and spend a lot of time taking photographs of old buildings being demolished or new buildings going up. True/False’s David Wilson recently told me that he loved a short film called Grand Luncheonette by Peter Sillen and I just noticed that you can watch it online on Sillen’s website. It’s a beautiful film about what happened to Times Square and it makes a great double bill with Stefan Nadelman’s Terminal Bar, another poignant tribute to a lost era and a vanished neighborhood.