Christmas Spirit Tree

Watch live streaming video from canadiantire at livestream.com

The Christmas Spirit Tree is a cool idea to track and spread Christmas spirit on the Internet.

SantaCon 2011

Yesterday was SantaCon 2011 in New York.  Here is my video from the event.

Road Trip Facebook App

This past Fall, I've taken many trips (at one time I was  out of NYC for 7 out of 8 weekends).  With planning and coordinating the trips, I've had to utilize various websites, applications, and communication platforms.  Often times, it becomes disorganized not having everything in one place and having to relay the information to friends who are accompanying me or who I am visiting.  I've spoken with others who have had to use Google Maps, Kayak, and Zipcar to plan the trip, then set up a Facebook group or message thread to share all the information.
Wouldn't it be cool if you could collaboratively plan a trip in an organized and social way?
I'm working on a Road Trip Facebook application that will allow users to share itinerary and invite friends to join a trip where all the information will live in one place.  Once the trip is set up, a live blog will be launched (similar to New Livestream) that will allow the trip to be documented in real time, and act as a digital journal once the trip is over.
It is currently still in development, but check out the mock up here.

New Livestream - New York Tech Meetup

Here is the archive of the New York Tech Meetup's New Livestream that took place last night.

Announcing the New Livestream. Live. Redefined.

Or, watch the video here.

Message from the Livestream blog: "The Livestream product and engineering teams have been designing and developing the platform from the ground up for the best part of this year and we are excited to unveil it today and share the product and vision first with our passionate community of users and producers.

We hope that once you have a chance to experience the New Livestream and learn about all the features and strategic vision, you will agree that we are delivering on this mission and leaping forward the live streaming experience.

I would like to invite you to experience it yourself now by visiting http://new.livestream.com/"

Amsterdam Bike Trip

A couple weeks ago, a friend and I took a trip to London and Amsterdam.  In Amsterdam, we rented bikes, and I attached a video camera to my handlebars.  Here's the video edited with trippy effects, filters, and music.
I recommend upgrading the quality to 720p (bottom right of player) to watch.

New York Fashion Week

This past week was New York Fashion Week.  Below are a couple shows I produced from Milk Made Studios.

Watch live streaming video from waynefashionweek at livestream.com

sophietheallet on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Breaking Bad

AP Live broadcast an interview with Bryan Cranston in July in which he pitched his show on AMC, Breaking Bad.

Season 4 Poster

I encoded the broadcast, and was reeled in by Cranston's description of the show.  I was convinced to check it out.  I watched a few episodes and was hooked.

Brief Synopsis: High school chemistry teacher in New Mexico learns he has lung cancer, instead of leaving his family with no money, decides to cook and sell crystal meth and make a fortune. 

That was enough to get me to watch an episode.

The main character, Walter White is a pure-hearted family man, but after he learns of his diagnoses he changes. The show weaves around Walter and his family's and acquaintance's lives as they straddle and cross ethical boundaries.  It challenges the viewer to decide what is morally acceptable, and allows he or she to sympathize with murderous drug addicts.  The juxtapositions between the mundane domestic lives of the characters and the suspense filled drug trade are often humorous, and give incredible depth to the characters and the story.  The cinematography often makes use of time-lapse photography and unique camera angles/POVs, which allow for the dynamic story to be interpreted visually.  The shots in and around Albuquerque, NM show a part of the country that is rarely seen in cinema, and it's a refreshingly new setting.

The show is addictive, but not desperate.  It tempts you to watch, but isn't forceful. Once you get hooked, it's impossible to stop watching.

Breaking Bad is on Sundays at 10pm on AMC.

Times Square Yoga

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice.  In Times Square, Mind Over Madness Yoga allowed for thousands of participants to lay down their yoga mats and "find tranquility and transcendence in the midst of the world's most commercial and frenetic place".

The event was broadcast live to multiple big screens in Times Square, as well as on Livestream.com (player below).

Watch live streaming video from timessquare at livestream.com

Video Resume (from August 2010)

Ad Age Digital Conference - Coca Cola

This morning I was watching a live stream from the Adage Digital Conference (on-demand embed below).

Watch live streaming video from adage at livestream.com

One of the speakers at the conference was Wendy Clark from Coca Cola.

One thing Wendy spoke about in regards to the evolving digital landscape, is the fact that an advertising message should be liquid and linked. This means that a message needs to be liquid in so that it can trickle down to all communication mediums and outlets, while at the same time remaining linked to the original brand concepts and the people that interact with it.

As a case study, Wendy ended her presentation with a video about the Coca Cola "wavin flag" campaign that was done in response to the Fifa World Cup in South Africa.  The campaign was able to reach 1 billion minutes of user engagement, and was able to connect with 64% of the world's population at one time. 

Pamm Productions Main Site

http://mynmi.net/rpamm/pammpro/flash.swf

Music Video: Cisco Adler "Song for All the Girls"

Here's a music video that my friend Wes Arnold worked on for Cisco Adler.  The song is called "Song for All the Girls".  It premiered at the Oakley tent at Sundance.  Check it out:

Song For All The Girls from TalkboyTV.com on Vimeo.

Why Live Matters

The Internet allows for content producers to distribute their digital content in ways that are cheaper, quicker, and more effective than ever before (see previous blog post). 
  In order to get viewers to take action in regards to your KPI or to share the content to generate views there needs to be something special.  The content needs to be relevant.

As content becomes more easily available, relevancy becomes more and more important.  An easy way to ensure that content is relevant (and therefore valuable) is to make it timely.  Distribute it as it happens.
Social media allows for users to interact with current events as they take place, and to have a say (or at least feel like they do) in the outcome of events.  As digital interactivity becomes more mainstream, more and more people will come to expect it.

Watch live streaming video from democracynow at livestream.com

 Above is a live (most of the time at least) feed from the rallies and protests taking place near and around Tahrir square. 

Recently in Cairo, the importance of timeliness in regards to social media and digital content has become apparent.  If content is produced and distributed as it happens, then this timeliness makes it relevant, and can allow for Egyptians to organize and communicate more effectively, as well as share their stories with the rest of the world.
Live content is relevant and relevant content is essential.

College Cooking with JP - Blooper

Here's a blooper. Check out the site.

How Niche Can You Go?

Internet distribution allows for niche content (content tailored to a specific demographic) to find an audience. I've found that as more and more producers come to realize this, digital content becomes more specialized and less mainstream. Sites like Livestream, which make it easy for independent producers to distribute their content, allow for more content to be created and a wider audience to be reached. College Cooking (see below) is one example of a show almost exclusively targeting a niche demographic (college students that want to cook). Recently, I came across a site for Circle Maker's TV. This site targets the niche demographic of "people that make crop circle art in their spare time".
It is true that you can find anything on the internet, and it seems like you can find an audience for almost anything too.

The next steps to monetization are engaging your audience so that they will put up with advertising or pay a subscription fee for the content.

Here is an episode from Circle Makers TV:

Watch live streaming video from circlemakerstv at livestream.com

College Cooking with JP

College Cooking with JP is a cooking web site geared towards college-aged people that have beginner-level cooking experience.  The video on the site (also posted below) is tailgate themed, and JP, a typical college bro, walks his viewers through a few simple recipes for a tailgate party.  What makes the site unique is that it is almost exclusively targeted at a niche demographic-a college student that wants to cook.  The site is social and provides the opportunity to "like" on Facebook or share on multiple other social networking sites.  It also provides links to a blog, Facebook fan page, and Youtube channel for the site.  Check it out.

Web Series - Valdean Entertainment

This evening I got to hear Al Thompson speak about his production company Valdean Entertainment and some of the new web series projects they were working on.  Recently, Valdean produced Johnny B. Homeless, an award winning web series about a guy who couch surfs from place to place and never knows where he will wake up. 


Promo for Johnny B. Homeless

Tonight, they showed the trailer for a new web series that is being shopped called Lenox Avenue that is being pitched as the "sexy dramatic web series".

When answering a question about whether to try and get funding from a sponsor or finance a web series yourself, the VP of Production Brian Rolling noted that distribution used to be the hardest thing to get...but now it's free.
The Internet takes what used to be the hardest part (getting eyes to view your content) and makes it a lot easier.  Despite the accessibility of viral distribution, the content still needs to be entertaining, and there needs to be some model for monetization, but with the hardest step out of the way there is no excuse not to make content.

Catfish

As the independent film industry gears up for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, it brings me back to last year’s festival, which I attended and blogged about (see blog posts from there). 

Last year, one of the films that received a lot of buzz was Catfish.  I never go to see the film during the festival, probably because the title was kind of a turn off.   But if it had been “Man Falls in Love with Girl On Facebook, Tracks Her Down, and is in for a Big Surprise” I would have been there.

I recently viewed Catfish (it is now available on iTunes) and I must say it is well deserving of the buzz it received.  The film is a documentary that is stylized to look as if your two friends picked up some flip cams and just started rolling.  This is one of the reasons the film is so amazing; it is so real, and so true.  

When the friends click record, we watch as a gritty adventure unfolds before them.  As the characters in the film take us on their adventure, we experience the same suspense and raw emotions as they do.  We feel the same desperation, manipulation, and hope. 

The story of the film is amazing, but even more amazing is the accessibility of the characters.   

As cinema becomes more accessible to filmmakers (the prices of equipment drop, knowledge becomes more available, and distribution via the Internet becomes more widespread) I imagine we will see a lot more films that exhibit a casual and realistic tone.  This type of tone will allow audiences to create a deeper connection with the characters-a connection that is, or seems, more realistic.  However, as always, the most important part will always be the story.