Remember LonelyGirl15? YouTube’s 5th birthday was last week and I’ve finally gotten around to watching the “YouTube Stories” series they produced– 2 minute interviews with select creators about their successes with the medium. The stories, and this interview with the director, contain interesting little insights about creating for YouTube that are worth checking out–

What kinds of techniques do you use to make these videos look so good and feel emotional?
When we all make YouTube videos, we’re creating for a screen size of about 630 by 350 pixels, so go in close. Use eyes, use foreheads, look at the way people move their mouths when they talk…all that says a lot, beyond just the words. Use that emotional power of the face to amplify what they are saying. Shoot as close to the face as possible, because we’re trained by thousand of years of evolution to respond to those movements of the face. And don’t forget hands, which can speak in the opposite way…or in sync…and reveal much. In the end, we want viewers to feel they’ve had a chance to meet these subjects over a cheeseburger or a beer and really feel them viscerally.

What is something about YouTube users you didn’t know before you started this project?
What I didn’t fully understand was how much the content creators have given their lives over to communicating with others. They’ve found their mission. Sharing their talent or passion with the world. Despite realities of family obligations, old jobs, the need to learn a bit more about technology, the people who shine come through because of sheer passion and faith. They believe that what they are doing on YouTube will change the world, and the effort that belief inspires in them usually gets to a positive outcome.

– Inside the Making Of “My YouTube Story,” interview with documentary filmmaker Stephen Higgins

The story behind LonelyGirl15

Everyone will find something to love in this treasure trove: voyeurs will enjoy peering into the luscious, hyper-intimate moments of others; travelers will relish in the whimsical journey across cities and landscapes; thinkers will find inspiration in the historical and philosophical aspects of the experiment–all the photos on the site were taken in a single day by individuals, then stacked according to geographic location.

The result is a monumental collection at once important and utterly fleeting.  I am, admittedly, a dreamer, but to me it is a unique artistic demonstration of power of the world wide web and its ability power to harness a wealth of information that is emotional, dynamic, populist, and individualistic.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this exhibit speaks volumes about global experience as we know it.

In an evermore complicated internet landscape of blogs, vlogs, networks, and languages, these sites will actually simplify your life.  Amen.

Check them out for yourself:

5. FreshDV

A nice cross-section of expert opinions, tutorials, tech news, etc.

4. IndieGoGo

A crowdfunding website for independent film and art projects.  Allows you to create a profile, upload content, and build a community around your film while letting the cash flow directly to your bank account.

3. Reboot.FCC.gov

We were all wondering the same thing–when will Obama finally grace the FCC with his magic political touch?  The time is now.  To enhance your government-regulated communications experience, check out the new FCC beta site: keep up with policy and news on the official blog, or get involved in one of the FCC’s important new initiatives: Broadband.gov, OpenInternet.gov, the Future of Media Project, and more.

2. Massify.com

Massify is the ideal social network for filmmakers wanting to move their online creative community offline.  Job listings meet content management meet production opps.  Start a project, upload a script, reach out to collaborators, and build your film’s community all on one site.

1. F.A.T.

According to its site/blog/webspace: The Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab is an organization dedicated to enriching the public domain through the research and development of creative technologies and media.

They run an open-source microblogging service called FuckTwitter, and are basically all about making art and technology as free and fun as possible.

The photographer has collaborated with his “super tech friend” Craig Swanson to launch creativeLIVE.com, which is hosting the first Live creative instruction on the ‘net.  Offering everything from Watercolor 101 to Adobe CS5, they claim that what keeps the classes free is that after they air you have to pay to download or re-visit them.  While I recall my BFA from NYU costing slightly more than the iTunes .mp3 of RBL Posse’s A Lesson to be Learned, I’m a sucker for making arts education more accessible.

So the next time you write off professional instruction due to budgetary concerns, remember–no more excuses.

Search Story Tutorial

Parisian Love

BrandKarma is an open forum to tell brands what you think of them. via PSFK

Universal Music Group is attempting to give music pirates (read: everyone and their moms) the piracy-kills-babies guilt treatment. via AgencySpy

NY Times dropped a phenomenally interesting story about the changing landscape of professional photography, what with crowdsourced stock libraries, digital amateurs and the death of print media. Discussion continues on their Media Decoder Blog

Old school giant agency, Ogilvy and Mather, is sourcing the world’s greatest salesman. via Ad Pulp, which reminded me of the classic Maysles Brothers verite doc, Salesman which needs to be added to your netflix queue immediately.

CrunchGear has a fun breakdown on rugged, waterproof still cameras

Classic (at least folks born between 78 and 85) sketch comedy group, The State, has dumped a bunch of unseen videos onto their vimeo page, from the days when they we’re shooting proof-of-concept sketches for an unseen, early-90s Jon Stewart show. via NewTeeVee

What are you linking to, today?

UC: How did you get into directing music videos?

IR: One summer, I was home from college, and my friend Sean asked me to do a video for his new band, 3oh!3, and their song “Holler Til You Pass Out.” When the band got signed, we did another video, and then I started doing some other work for their label.

Holler Til You Pass Out – 3oh!3

UC: How has producing videos for music labels, as opposed to unsigned bands, changed the process for you?

IR: In general, its just more people, more opinions – which I actually really like. The best part of the process is the collaboration. So I enjoy working with everyone’s opinions, and/or trying to convince people of mine.

I think I’ve been pretty lucky, as a new director, in that my first major label video (again for 3oh!3) did well and was nominated for an MTV VMA. So even though I’m just getting going, everyone has been really supportive and trusting.

Sometimes, despite creativity and lower production costs allowed by new technology, many visual ideas still require a certain amount of financing. In this way, I think labels still allow for certain projects to be realized that wouldn’t be otherwise.

Don’t Trust Me – 3oh!3 – nominee for Best New Artist at the MTV VMAs

UC: What are your thoughts on the recent discussion of distribution of music videos online? (see Damian Kulash of Ok Go’s NY Times op-ed “WhoseTube?”)

IR: I think Damian Kulash is pretty spot-on. The tricky thing with music videos, these days, is that they are very amorphous as far as their purpose is concerned. On one hand, music videos are still, largely, commercials for the band and song. This was the model that launched videos in the first place.

However, I think there are two other important things to consider. One is that YouTube has emerged as one of the most prevalent ways that people listen to music. If you want your friend to listen to “Here It Goes Again”, and you don’t have it on iTunes, you just Google the track and it pops up on Youtube. That video, of course, has the song playing under it. And so whether or not you watch Damian and OK Go dance for 3 minutes on treadmills, you’re listening.

Because of YouTube, when a band doesn’t have a video out for a track people want to hear, the fans will make the video themselves. There are a mind-boggling amount of lyric-videos or photo-montage videos out there just to fill the void and provide YouTube with musical content to LISTEN to (not to mention the much more elaborate, and often amazing, fan-made videos out there).

A personal example-

After a few months of being out and many million plays on YouTube, Warner Music Group pulled the 3oh!3 videos offline, including their hit – Don’t Trust Me. In the downtime, three fan-made videos (all of people wearing “Kanye shades”) subsequently took its place. Each of these amassed at least 4 million views. So currently, the official Don’t Trust Me video, back online now, is the third most viewed version of the video.

UC: You recently started shooting videos on a DSLR.  How has it changed production/post?

IR: I’m wouldn’t say I’m “part of the DSLR revolution” or anything – its just a really good tool. We’ve used the Canon 7D a few times now for different reasons. For one video, it was to sneak some plate backgrounds that would have been impossible to get with the RED, which we used for principle photography. Another video, though, was shot entirely at night, using only a 35W LED panel shoe-mounted on the 7D and a car for a backlight (and some practical lights). I knew we were doing something special when we were shooting things the behind-the-scenes guy couldn’t capture on his HVX-200.

Never Shout Never – “I Love You 5″ from Isaac Ravishankara on Vimeo.

On the downside, the form-factor makes handheld tough and particularly shaky if you aren’t using a rig. Lens availability is great, but photo lenses aren’t manufactured to be doing the type of focus pulling I usually want. And the DSLR’s compress in-camera to h.264, which isn’t nice to an NLE program like Final Cut.

Another thing that I’ve found, is that there’s a certain mentality on set when shooting film vs. large camera HD (Red, etc) vs. DSLR. It’s as if the larger and more expensive the gear, the more care needs to be taken with what is in front of the lens. This though, is something that is likely to dissipate as people get used to shooting with smaller digital cameras.

All videos directed by Isaac Ravishankara – http://gotisaac.com/

*Brandon and Henry will call me out on this.

“You should follow me cuz I’m friends with Ashton” raps the New Dork, waving a copy of Fast Company with Ashton Kutcher on the cover (the same issue that floated around our old office for months). This viral Empire State of Mind parody nails pretty much every San Francisco tech entrepreneur cliché– it’s like bingo for people like us.

I swear I had the idea to do something alnog the lines of CR, and that it would be speed video dating, i know i know it exists, but CR has been masterful in it’s simplicity.

I try to get people in the office to play along and partake in just prankserism on it, but alas, people aren’t interested.  Anyway, I’ve turned it into a dinner activity.  Play CR while eating home cooked meal as opposed to read The New Yorker for example. I’m gonna get better at capturing these interactions, and do one to post on a weekly. (thanks to @bjstein for the video link below, dude in it sounds like @dannygreene)

“You’re laughing at me, aren’t you?” she said.
“Err, uh, huh?”
“You’ve seen my video, and you’re laughing…”
“I’m sorry, I have no clue what you’re talking about.”  I really didn’t.
“Goto YouTube, type 3 words… ‘3 times platinum’”

I couldn’t wait to get back from my bike ride to see what awesomeness was in store for me.  God was I intrigued.  Only in this day and age can your mail lady be on her way to Internet famous.  I fucking love the internet…. and Sassy Kool.