If you want to download films from YouTube or other supported sites try KeepVid. Be aware of rights issues but if the films have a Creative Commons license that allows you to use them in your own creative endeavors then go ahead and mix and mash.
RSS (really simple syndication) feeds let you syndicate your online content - blogs and podcasts for example - by allowing people to subscribe to the feed which means that they don’t have to keep checking back to see if you have posted something new. This is a great way to make it easy for people to stay involved and interested in what you are doing and it also increases the chances of new people discovering you and your work.
If you have a blog or other content you would like to syndicate you can control, optimize and track your feeds with a tool like Feedburner (some of their services are free and others cost money).
If you want to read somebody’s blog or keep tabs on their latest podcasts, you can aggregate all the feeds you are interested in following in a number of ways. I personally use Google Reader to keep tabs on all my favorite blogs and iTunes to download podcasts. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds through an email client like Thunderbird or embed them on your website or blog.
The joy of RSS if you are a content creator is that your content is embedding and spreading and you don’t have to do all the work!
Read more on this in the Lessons in DIY article in Filmmaker Magazine.
TubeMogul is a free service that allows you to upload your film to the top video sharing sites and then track who is watching it. Sounds like a good idea to me. Has anyone tried it? Feedback?
Wanna keep track of your Google presence on the web? Need to track what people are saying about your film where? Sign up for Google Alerts and you’ll get the relevant Google updates emailed to you.
Now stop Googling yourself and do some work!
The Producer’s Institute for New Media Technologies is 10-day residency run by BAVC in San Francisco that teaches documentary filmmakers how to adapt their socially relevant work for delivery across different digital platforms from web to video. The institute will take place from May 29th to June 8th 2008 and the application deadline is February 1st 2008 so check it out now as it sounds like a great way to learn more about harnessing emerging technologies to tell your stories and reach people in new ways.
There are some online resources from this year’s institute that you may find useful if you are developing your own website and want to learn more about design and authoring.
And they’re having a party to celebrate on December 15th if you’re in the Bay Area. Happy Birthday CC!
If you haven’t heard of Creative Commons go to the website right now because they are doing some really important work that filmmakers should be aware of. Creative Commons is pioneering new ways for you to license your work so that you can control the rights that are available - across the spectrum from all rights reserved to public domain. This is great for content creators who want to share their work without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.
If you need to convert a media file fast and don’t want to download software then Media Convert is a really nifty online solution. Just upload your file, select the output format, and bob’s your uncle! And it’s free.
Recommended by Cath Le Couteur:
VideoLAN and the VLC Media Player
As a media player it plays absolutely everything, it’s cross platform, it’s open source/free and now with the latest version you can export your files into a myriad of other formats, including the very good .mp4. For people with HUGE file sizes who need to reduce the size but keep quality, I’d definitely vote VLC as one of the best options around. Simply go to File/Wizard in VLC.
More info and reviews here:
http://sol4.net/reviews/dvd2.shtml
Made a short film that you would like to be more than a calling card? Listen to this edition of This Conference Is Being Recorded from the Workbook Project with Tiffany Shlain (who also happens to be a founder of the Webby Awards). Shlain’s short film The Tribe was one of the top 5 iTune downloads and has made enough money to support a small distribution/outreach staff.
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.
