Why Vimeo Is the Web Video Platform to Watch

drewvigal:

Vimeo’s world revolves around videomakers, not advertisers.

and

Vimeo continues to be the destination for content creators and viewers looking for cutting-edge videos, beautiful playback, and a remarkably positive community.

User-centric focus.

A small production company called Stillmotion led a workshop, “Proactive Storytelling Instead of Reactive Coverage,” with tips and advice for documentary filmmakers, but their backstory was its own lesson. They started out shooting wedding videos (sometimes considered a just day job by snobbish filmmakers) with basic tools and a small team. Their vignettes caught the eye of ESPN, who hired them to film The Season, a TV series about the NFL. Now, they’re producing a feature-length documentary, A Game of Honor, about the Army-Navy football rivalry, for CBS. And they’re still making wedding videos.

Just fantastic.

Isabella Rosselini dresses like a bee (and an old man) to explain how pollination works. There’s something very charming about this online video series.

(via @BrainPickings)

This, I assume, is the result of TED founder Chris Anderson’s inspiring 2010 talk about online video and education.

TedEd, which is in beta, has got some fantastic ways to enable teachers to create lessons using TED talks but also any video on Youtube. 

Their aim: “to create a free and remarkable library of lessons worth sharing.” I think it’s got great potential.

No-one watches online video for the sake of it…

…do they?

I mean, if you were thinking about starting a business (a digital magazine, app etc) around the idea of getting people to pay for video content, it wouldn’t work.

It could be amazing, innovative video, exceptional storytelling, but that doesn’t pull in a crowd, unless, perhaps you’re a famous filmmaker.

Instead, is it more the case, that people watch for the content itself (regardless of the fact it’s in video). The video has to have meaning, it has to say something. The video is just the messenger.

The only exception I can think of (in a different medium) is This American Life, which people listen to to hear what amazing radio sounds like. And even then, you wouldn’t get people to hand over cash for it, without asking nicely. 

Just some thoughts…..

Sexy popcorn. Yesterday I tried my hand at Mozilla’s Popcorn library at a learning lab at their London HQ, which is trying to redefine how video is presented on the web. Still very nascent, I think its got great potential to make online video much more interactive and could even affect how it’s made. At the moment it requires knowledge of Javascript which is beyond my means, although @alexwoodcreates and I did manage to make the words ‘sexy popcorn’ appear on cue…
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Sexy popcorn. Yesterday I tried my hand at Mozilla’s Popcorn library at a learning lab at their London HQ, which is trying to redefine how video is presented on the web. Still very nascent, I think its got great potential to make online video much more interactive and could even affect how it’s made.

At the moment it requires knowledge of Javascript which is beyond my means, although @alexwoodcreates and I did manage to make the words ‘sexy popcorn’ appear on cue…

Here’s your ‘upside-down rhino’ video of the day - a remarkable routine using light and movement to create a digital-like experience in the real world. 

Robin Sloan argues art like this is only possible thanks to video, and its ability to let you record human movement and slow it down to study and replicate it. 

His ideas on flip-flopping media (create something digitally, make it physical, making it digital again, and so on) has got me thinking, and naturally, as with all cool ideas I read, I wonder how it might be implemented in my work. 

For example, you can make video physical by projecting onto a wall…can you then make that digital, by photographing the reactions of the audience? 

Source: robinsloan.com

Work in Progress: I’ve been finishing up two more videos for Kingston University, where I’ve been interviewing recent graduates, as part of a recruitment campaign. I’ve purposely made the videos extremely simple: they usually just comprise of a two-minute interview, a motion graphic title card and a time-compressed portrait shot. Despite not being particularly visual I think they’ve developed a nice visual style to them: they’re quite fast paced, with bright colours on the title slates and quirky music…it all adds to a sense of personality. Because I’m shooting on my Canon550D, they require a little bit of grading (see above); the trick with grading is to make sure you don’t go over the top. I’ve now finished four of them - the first two are online here.
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Work in Progress: I’ve been finishing up two more videos for Kingston University, where I’ve been interviewing recent graduates, as part of a recruitment campaign.

I’ve purposely made the videos extremely simple: they usually just comprise of a two-minute interview, a motion graphic title card and a time-compressed portrait shot.

Despite not being particularly visual I think they’ve developed a nice visual style to them: they’re quite fast paced, with bright colours on the title slates and quirky music…it all adds to a sense of personality.

Because I’m shooting on my Canon550D, they require a little bit of grading (see above); the trick with grading is to make sure you don’t go over the top.

I’ve now finished four of them - the first two are online here.

Good use of video to explain the most complicated thing ever. I got 4 minutes in before it lost me…

jtotheizzoe:

jessicarohde:

How do you imagine something in 10 dimensions? Like this. Sometimes I wish I was a physicist…

Having trouble with reconciling nine or ten dimensions when you read this post?

Let this video help your mediocre brain visualize life beyond meatspace.

(I should say that I do not at all agree with some of the more “woo-y” explorations on this subject by the guy who made this video, Rob Bryanton. But this video standing alone is worth considering to imagine beyond three dimensions)

Source: jessicarohde

A good original piece of video storytelling here, about Martin Luther King and his influence today.

Sharp voice over, slick graphics and a strong narrative make this worth a watch.

h/t Casper ter Kuile

Source: wp.me

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