Posts tagged 'Video'

Alice In Wonderland Mashup Is Music To My Ears

Alice on yooouuutuuube.com

I discovered yooouuutuuube.com this past Sunday which plays every frame of a YouTube video individually in a fullscreen wall of video. It’s a little hard to explain, so take a gander to see what I mean. This Alice in Wonderland Mashup makes a perfect example.

Speaking of the mashup, the song is so good. It’s an electronic piece of which 90% is composed using sounds recorded from the Disney film ‘Alice In Wonderland’. The creator was nice enough to share a free MP3 download of the song which has gained over 2 million views on YouTube. I must have listened to the song 100 times since Sunday! It reminds me of Singin’ In The Rain by Mint Royale which was featured in a sweet VW car commercial.

(via Booooooom)

Twouble In The Twitterverse

If you’ve heard of Twitter and haven’t seen this video I pity you.

Now go follow me.

YouTube Brings Choose-Your-Own Adventure Videos To The Web

NewTeeVee ran a post over the weekend about choose-your-own adventure videos on YouTube. The creators used the Video Annotation feature allowing them to place a link over a certain part of the video in order to string multiple clips together in a unique sequence. Through careful planning, an engaging, interactive experience can be created just like those old choose-your-own adventure books that were all the rage when you were a kid. Bboy Joker, a stop-motion animation film, is my favorite example of this genre.

Annotations make it possible to link multiple YouTube videos together creating interactive experiences.

I had a similiar idea for a DVD just before I went to college. I failed to act on it however due to the less than stellar experience navigating a DVD menu and the sheer idea of planning a comprehensive story with multiple plot branches. I’m more of a techno wizard than a storyteller. I vaguely remember reading about a professional DVD that pushed the boundaries of DVD interaction by including transparent cut-outs over live video so when you clicked one of them it would take you to a video glossary. I can’t seem to find the link, but it sounded like a ton of work just to author it back in the day.

Adding a bit of interactivity to video is better suited to the Internet, which is considered a lean-forward or engaging experience, as opposed to the traditional TV which is a lean-back or passive experience. While this format isn’t applicable to most of the videos published on the web, for the ones where it does work, it takes the experience to a whole new level.

Willis McGahee Gets Hit Hard Vs. Steelers

This tackle was nuts. The Ravens player needed to be carted off the field in a stretcher. In other news it looks like the Steelers and Cardinals will be in the Super Bowl.

Graphic Blandishment? What’s That?

A Charlie Brown Christmas was on TV tonight and I noticed the term “Graphic Blandishment” in the credit. Turning to the trusty Internets I found out

“Graphic Blandishment is a term also known as “Animation”. Charles M. Schultz used that term in his Peanuts/Charlie Brown Animation Credits to credit the Animators.” – WikiAnswers

It seems Mr. Schultz wasn’t a fan of hand-drawn motion pictures.

A frame from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special

After the 1965 version there was a newer version which was downright-lame. So instead I went to YouTube and found this NSFW remix. And when they say NSFW, they really mean NSFW.

Huge Line At Foggy Bottom Metro Station

I was dumbfounded at the number of people waiting in line to enter the Foggy Bottom Metro Station in Georgetown this evening. Only one of three escalators was open causing the people who wanted to come up to share with the people trying to walk down. The line went around the block from both sides as you’ll see in this video taken by my fellow co-worker, Paulo.

This isn’t the first time escalators have plagued Foggy Bottom. I skipped the ridiculous lines and instead walked to Farragut North a mere 8 blocks away.

The New RED Cameras Are Ridiculous

Today RED camera announced the follow ups to it’s industry-changing RED One camera. As expected the Scarlet and Epic offer higher super high-definition resolutions. What wasn’t expected was the fact that the cameras are completely modular allowing for 2,251,799,813,685,248 possible configurations according to the company.

Configure Your RED Epic or RED Scarlet Camera

But what might be more impressive number is the CPU/hard-drive devastating 28K resolution of the Epic sensor. That’s right, the images off of this sensor will be 28,000 pixels wide by 9,334 pixels high… at up to 25 frames per second. For the non high definition geek this means a camera with this sensor will be able to shoot video that is 8 times bigger than the 30″ Apple Cinema display you see all over Apple Stores in your local high-end mall. You know all of those fancy flat-panel TVs you see in electronics stores? They max out at 1920×1080 video. IMAX is about 10,000 pixels wide by 7,000 pixels tall. If you need a visual, Stu Maschwitz put together what the 28K sensor would look like (in gray) compared to a full HD frame size (in red). A single 28K image takes up about 768 MB of space. Holy Crap!

RED Epic and RED Scarlet Cameras

Ironically, the announcement was made with a 1020 x 18,320 JPEG image posted to the RED User forums. This did make it easy to grab these images which I used in this post though.

Revision3 Not Immune From Bad Economy

Internet video may be in the midst of a boom, but the Tech-TV haven Revision3 canceled 3 (how ironic) shows and laid off several well-known production staff today. If you were a fan of the shows PixelPerfect, popSiren, or Internet Superstar you’ll be disappointed to hear the shows have been canned, or more appropriate for the Internet medium, 404’d. Apparently the shows don’t fit in the long-term plan for Revision3 (grow a large audience and make a gazillion dollars.)

Revision3 Cancels Shows

Part of the staffers let go today are producers/talent Jay Speiden, Sarah Lane, and Martin Sargent, and Diggnation cameraman Glenn “Hippie” McElhose who is now freelancing for Revision3. Even though Glenn makes an appearance in nearly every episode, I figured Diggnation would be excluded from cuts due to the popularity/revenue of the show and the low cost of production. After all, how hard could it be to film two guys on a couch who frequently plug sponsors for 45 minutes every week?

I’m sad to hear that Martin is getting the boot. His show Web Drifter was a personal favorite of mine. Seeing the wacky, kooky individuals behind some of the strangest sites on the net always brought a smile to my face on my morning commute. They were supposed to start the series up this fall but it appears that won’t be happening anymore. I wonder what they will do with any unreleased episodes they’re sitting on. I’m interested to see what Martin and Jay will be doing next.

Martin Seargent and Sarah Lane Bricked By Revision3

So while Internet video may be gaining large audiences, they sure aren’t getting enough advertisers to join them. Most of the ads I’ve seen on the shows I watch are for GoDaddy.com and Audible. I’m guessing the core audience for Revision3 shows is a techie crowd. If Revision3 wants to succeed they’ll need to move more into the mainstream and/or support shows that cost a lot less to make. They are starting to do this with their Revision3 Beta program which has many shows taking cue from the couch-centric Diggnation. Maybe they should adopt a donation model like NPR or the TWiT network. Leo Laporte seems to be doing ok for himself.

Printer Vs. Cat

Printer = 1, Cat = 0.

Animatronic Animatronic Band Plays Usher

The Rock-afire Explosion was specifically manufactured and created for Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants from 1980 to 1991. Now Chris Thrash will program the band of animals to perform to any modern song for a mere $100. Check out the list of songs that are currently being bid on and throw a couple of dollars their way. Below is Ushers “Love In This Club” as performed by The Rock-afire Explosion

(via Ryan Dudek via blog.suchmann.com)