Times Square Lights up a New Ball to Celebrate a New Year

The million or so people who will celebrate New Year's Eve here, and the billions watching it on the real tube - no offense, YouTube - will have a a real treat! The new, 100th birthday Times Square LED ball. Imagine - this is a tradition, that goes back a hundred years. Who would have though? Enough of me blabbing away - here is the star of the ceremonies, introduced to the world pre-hoisting.



This is from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850:

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

May all your wishes ring in true in 2008!

Cybercast credit: YouTube

Make YOUR Movie Happen in 2008

I goofed off for Christmas, but promise you a treat for the New Year - FilmRiot!



OK. Let's see what this is all about:

FOR FILMMAKERS

They make it their job to free up filmmakers to do what they do best: make movies. If you are one, online tools will help you collect funds from your current contacts, and help you make connections with film lovers internationally who want to help get your films made. They also give you an online store to sell your films via DVD or digital download with no setup fees and no inventory to buy. They even make your films available on Amazon.

There are tools to help you organize the production of your film. There are ways to find and recruit help within your region, ways to communicate with your production team through broadcast emails and private forums. They will be adding features to allow scripts to be broken down and shared, plus many other ways of making sure everybody is on the same frame (so to speak).

FOR FILM LOVERS

FilmRiot lets you get in the thick of filmmaking. Search through their filmmaker's upcoming projects; make comments and suggestions. If you really love a filmmaker and their ideas, you can buy Lots in their film project. All contributors receive a copy of the film when it's finished and share in the proceeds of every sale on the FilmRiot store.

They also provide opportunities for film lovers to network with others of similar interests. Write and read reviews of the latest FilmLot releases. Rank films, filmmakers, other film lovers or comments you find useful (or useless!). You can even find filmmakers in your area who are looking for volunteers! Lights, Camera, Action!

HOW THE FUNDING WORKS

Filmmakers post the details of their upcoming project including the required financing. Film lovers are encouraged to peruse the projects and contribute toward the ones they like. Film lovers buy credits in the form of Lots for $10 US each. Each Lot is fully transferable between projects, provided it is done before the project has reached its target. Lots can also be refunded if the member chooses. Any contribution in a film gives the film lover a credit for the digital download of the film once it is complete. Once the filmmaker's financing goal has been reached the funds are turned over.

And when the funds are on the way to you...that's when the real fun starts!

Happy Holiday Tidings from the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

From the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, Victoria's Secret, their georgeous models, Seal, The Spice Girls, and wil.i.am all wish you the happiest of holidays!

Feast your eyes on this medley of performances from the 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion show, even if your wallet is already empty....

Here is to wish you and your close ones a wonderful time this holiday season. May the New Year bring you health, happiness, and success. I do look forward to connect and collaborate with all of you in 2008.

Cybercast credit: CBS via Veoh

Ply Your Trade with PLYMedia

Whether you are a newbie or pro web video producer or publisher, you must know about Plymedia and its services.

Why? Because they promise to:

1. Increase user "stickiness" and engagement.
2. Provide for deeper interactivity and information on your video.
3. Enhance your community and your viewers’ media experience.

These applications expand the single dimension of "traditional" web video into the multi-layered experience of professional editing. I mean adding commentary, multilingual subtitles, hypervideo, in-video advertising, and rich-media. I further mean adding one or more of them right online, in a relatively easy and user-friendly manner.

This technology enables you to transform your standard web videos into interactive, multi-dimensional and personalized user experiences. By adding new layers or "PLYs" of contextual content such as a subtitles, pop-up bubbles, advertisements, and other layered content to your existing web videos, you can create exciting new revenue streams and expand your user base.

I've applied to their partner program and will follow-up with a post as we start working with them.

Jet-man: The Incredible Flying Man

See for yourself the incredible personal flying jet wings of Yves Rossy, as he takes off from a plane and does incredible fly-overs in the Swiss Alps. As he says - and you can see - "This is not a dream!" For five minutes you can become your own plane, slicing through the air at 150 miles/hour, climbing at a rate of 1000 ft/min. And the next version will allow you to take off on your own and fly up to 10 minutes.



I'm sold, ready, and willing - but would feel much warmer doing my aerial debut in Hawaii!

Cybercast credit; YouTube

Brightcove.tv Retreats into the Cove

The video sharing site, Brightcove.tv, is changing its focus to video distribution for its partners. Unfortunately. it was really late to this game. There are a horde of online video startups with variations on that theme - and I’ve covered most of them. Brightcove, which raised a huge $59 million round last January, stopped allowing users to upload videos on December 17.

You want to see what they carry now? How about the "Sopranos' creator in court” from MSN Video? Was the idea of a Mobbed up family from Jersey stolen from someone else? MSNBC's Susan Filan talks about the case against "Sopranos" creator David Chase.


'Sopranos' creator in court

Brightcove is focusing on being a specialized media platform for media companies, including some of its funders, such as the The New York Times, Hearst, CBS, and others.

Cybercast credit: MSN Video via Brightcove

Can TokBox’s video chat be a YouTube-sized business?

This browser-based video chat service allows you to chat either live or record your messages. It is set to take the world by storm, according to the New York Times.


Housed by famed venture firm Sequoia Capital in an old YouTube office, the company also announced today that it had accepted a $4 million funding round from Sequoia, alongside investors including Amidzad and execs from Netscape and Paypal — a slightly larger amount than YouTube’s first funding. Alumni from YouTube, as well as Cisco and Google, are advising the fledgling video startup.

The obvious implication is that TokBox will be heir to YouTube’s good fortune. The simple fact that video is involved doesn’t mean that the two companies are similar, though.

The popularity of online video followed from a market created by movies. The internet’s progress from text, to sound and finally to video mirrors similar institutions from previous years: Newspapers, radio and television.

However, video communication has yet to catch on, outside of business. DimDim (free - see my previous post on my main site) and pay services like WebEx already cater to the videoconferencing market.

Then there is video chat offered by Skype or AIM. You can argue that TokBox, by making itself available in a web browser, is a far more attractive offering than those two services, the requirement for a webcam still makes it more complex.

Despite the inclusion of video cameras into most Apple computers, most people still don’t have their own webcam, yours truly included. As long as this remains the case, recording and sending videos will remain a much smaller market than watching them, me thinks.

BlowTorch! ... YouTorch?... iTorch?

With $50 million in funding, much of http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifwhich is slated to go to the production and marketing of eighteen feature-length movies over the next three years, isn't so much a tech startup. It's more of a Hollywood studio with "Web 2.0" features. And what's that?

It's something akin to what Sony-owned Crackle (see my previous post) is doing: It discovers, produces and features videos from its most talented audience members. A sort of minor league for Hollywood, already resulting in a traffic surge and millions in advertising revenue.

However, Blowtorch is more grandly conceived. It will offer feature-length films, professional-quality short films, a social network and a mobile site too. Movie and show ideas will be proposed by users and voted on by their peers. Users will also be able to vote on casting, music, wardrobes and other aspects of each film.

Their goal is to produce low-budget hits like Napoleon Dynamite, a movie that cost $5 million to make, then brought in $17 million at the box office and $90 million in video rentals and sales, says CEO Kelly Rodriquez. He wants people to say "I helped pick the cast," when they watch a Blowtorch movie.

Live events are another key to their plan. They will host movie nights on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at more than 600 movie theaters across the country, strategically chosen for proximity to and popularity with students at colleges and universities. During these movie nights, users' short films will run before feature films and audiences will be able to vote for their favorites on the company's social network, through the web or mobile devices.

Right now, the company is running a user-generated short-video contest on its site where the best video creators will get paid, go to LA, and get team of pros to re-shoot. It is still working out the details of how users will be paid for their work.

As feature films may not necessarily bubble up from Blowtorch's audiences, it will produce some on its own, or acquire the rights to others. First-off will be a feature film called "You Are Here," which will debut in theaters in spring 2008. The movie is being produced by veteran filmmaker and Blowtorch board member and advisor Paul Schiff. It will be directed by Henry Pincus, and features a cast that includes Bijou Phillips from "Almost Famous," Danny Masterson from "That 70's Show," Michael Biehn of "Grindhouse," and "Terminator," and Patrick Fleuger.

Let's see ... how grand is this?





For the longest video embed code I've EVER seen NOT working, I wouldn't have invested a penny....

Cybercast "credit:" BlowTorch

YuMe - Another Video-centric Ad Network at Your Service

YuMe is interesting because its technology works across multiple platforms: It can serve ads into downloaded video and video streamed on websites and mobile phones. This is in contrast to companies like Kiptronic, which focuses on downloaded video, or AdMob, which does only mobile.


YuMe’s chief executive and founder, Jayant Kadambi, says his company aims to place ads in videos from the “mid-tail” of online video, which he defines as “anyone that is not an NBC or CBS.” These include customers like Somagirls.tv, JoeCartoon.com, RedOrbit, Vuze and Pando — medium-size, professional producers and distributors. In this market the company already serves between 150-250 million ads a month.

Be a TubeMogul for Free!

For about a year now TubeMogul’s beta site has empowered online video publishers, advertisers, and the online video industry with its “Universal Upload” video distribution, publishing, and analytical tools.

While we signed up a good while ago, we have been waiting for them to shed the not-so-distinctive beta status before actually using the service. They seem to be getting close, so here is their pitch, in their own words:





There are a growing number of independent content producers like us, looking to build their brands on the path to stardom. Some you may already now: Average Betty, the comedy chef, magician Brian Brushwood, or Charles Trippy, one of the top video bloggers. Perhaps even more than the internet media companies producing content for the Web, we are hurt by the time spent with day-to-day "technology administration," such as file uploading and viewership measurement. Many of us spend up to 20% of our time in these activities, time away from the creative work needed to produce great content.

So what do you get with a free account?

• One-step upload to a growing number of sites: YouTube, Metacafe, Myspace, Yahoo, Revver, AOL Video, DailyMotion, and Brightcove at present.

• Increased reach: With your videos on more sites at no extra effort, your opportunity to gain viewers multiplies. TubeMogul claims that beta users of Universal Upload have witnessed up to 3x more views per video.

• Track Trends & Buzz: Create groups of videos important to you or your industry and track spikes in viewership to identify trends and monitor the pulse of online video viewers.

• Assess Marketing Efforts - assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts by analyzing spikes and trends in viewership across any range of time.

• Competitive Intelligence - see what's working for your counterparts and competition and compare and contrast viewership trends with your own.

• Share the Intelligence - send and share data and charts with colleagues or friends.

Cybercast credit: TubeMogul and YouTube