Okay, enough of that rant. I don’t actually remember the names of some of the torrent clients I started playing with years ago, but for my tastes none of them were what I was after. Hulu was a fresh new approach and with my Xbox 360 and Media Mall’s Playon software I could stream their large but often limited library to my home theater projector. It was good. That was until the annoyance of the Playon software losing the connection and failing during the middle of shows outweighed the novelty of it.

Enter Boxee. I’m just beginning to experiment seriously with TV alternatives since I ditched cable for tv this month. Last night’s experiment was my MacBook Pro running Boxee software hooked up to my Sony XBR 32″ tv (amazing picture by the way Sony) and using my iPhone remote for controlling the MBP.

I have to say, it was very impressive. The only disappointments were the lack of subtitles being available (we have a deaf friend staying with us right now) and again, though a large library, big chunks of seasons of shows we wanted to watch missing.

I’ll keep poking around with Boxee and see how it performs. Wish it would hook up through my Xbox 360 to my home theater projector though. (hint hint hint folks at Boxee or some clever media software developer).

I’ll keep recording thoughts from my experiments here on the blog. Please feel free to share your experiences as well as we all work together to foster TV 2.0.

While visiting with them putting together their video we learned that Jeff had been paying $430/month for Yellow Pages advertising and had determined it brought them little business, and definitely not $430/month of business, in the last year. So they bravely made the decision to dump the Yellow Book ads altogether in 2010 and apply more effort to taking advantage of the new advertising avenues that the Internet had birthed.

He explained that they had set up a Facebook fan page and in the first week it was live they had two customer purchases from the effort. We were obviously there shooting a video which has been posted to the COVIDCO channel on YouTube and was posted to their Facebook page, will eventually be on their web site and posted to their Google Local Business Ad.

This morning visiting their Facebook page I saw a great use of the fan page:

In this case they are sharing some interesting trivia and giving a great related-to-the-fact discount to anyone who brings in something specific to ask for the special pricing.

What are some of the reasons I think the efforts of The Optical Centre are so brilliant?

1. Jeff and crew know their target client demographic is most likely going to be on Facebook over the Yellow Pages or other traditional print media
2. They have not only embraced the new media, they are working regularly, although not spending all day plugged into it, to build their fan base and to stay in touch with them as more than just a static ad on a page
3. They are not paying premium dollar to be compared side by side on the same page to all their local and national competitors (something you are doing if you are still pouring top dollar into the Yellow Pages btw)
4. Their Friday Fun Facts are interesting AND totally trackable… they know exactly who came into the store because of their efforts
5. In a traditional advertising model they would have spent some significant money to have a catchy ad designed which then got printed once or twice to a set circulation and maybe only offered one single special for the duration of the ads life – I could go on about details of this, but that might need to be another article altogether
6. Jeff and crew are doing more than advertising, they are investing in developing relationships with their customers

I just have to give Jeff and crew props for bravely going where few even timidly are going before them. Now, Jeff and crew… where’s that OpticalCentreLongmont (or Great-Glasses) twitter account?

Colorado Video Cooperative

I teach part time at a local community college here in Longmont CO. In the summer I taught a videography course and have also been teaching web design/development related courses. Right after the director of the department I teach in recruited me for the videography course I got a second email from her inquiring if I was okay with going down what she saw as two paths… video and web. My answer was pretty simple, “Have you seen YouTube lately?” Well, that may not be exactly what I said, but it was the simplified essence of my answer.

While many people have not made the connection between web design/development and video, there are a number of organizations and individuals who are waking up to this simple reality. In response to this exploding convergence of technologies, inspired (and convened) by Craig Kendall of Kendall Media Group, several videographers/filmmakers in the Northern Colorado area, put their heads together to form the Colorado Video Cooperative, or COVIDCO. “The initial primary purpose for the gathering of my peers,” says Kendall, “was really to just get folks together who ‘did what I did’.” At that first gathering the name COVIDCO emerged and some ideas for what the group could become.

For about two years Kendall had already been envisioning a group of independent video gurus who could leverage their expertise and equipment to assist small and local businesses achieve their business goals and take advantage of the explosion of video on the Internet. In October Kendall shared his thoughts, dreams, and ideas with Brian Brown, a fellow video professional and videographer in Longmont, and also one of the original COVIDCO participants. In December the two invited Todd Geer of Video Facets based in Loveland CO to sit down and get serious about the idea. Kendall had shared the idea with Geer in 2008 while the two were lamenting the weaknesses in a similar model of a national organization doing something similar to Kendall’s own idea, but missing the local connection and not valuing the work of the video professionals who produced, shot, and edited the actual videos.

It was at a December 2009 breakfast that the trio got serious about putting some resources behind the idea. In weeks, the trio were shooting video, creating a website, exploring partnership ideas, and building momentum toward an exciting new option for local businesses to get their word out to potential customers. By the end of January two videos were posted to the COVIDCO YouTube channel and available to appear on the client’s websites.

If you are a local Colorado business owner check out the COVIDCO website and read more about why you should be considering adding or diverting funds in your 2010 marketing budget to adding video to your website.

There’s an old song the Smothers brothers did on their show (I know, dating myself here) called The Cowboy’s Lament. The lyrics the Smothers Brothers sang are:

As I walked out on the streets of Laredo.

As I walked out on Laredo one day,

I spied a young cowboy all dressed in white linen,

Dressed in white linen as cold as the clay.

“I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy.”

“I see by your outfit you are a cowboy too.”

“We see by our outfits that we are both cowboys.

If you get an outfit, you can be a cowboy too.”

The humor of course is that merely wearing a cowboy outfit does not make you a cowboy (seen City Slickers?) any more than having a killer video camera makes someone a videographer (worth entrusting your project to).

Producing a quality video product is more than a great camera is the point here. There are many more elements to telling a digital story well than just setting up a great camera and capturing the images and sound.

So here’s the conundrum. Most clients who enlist the services of a “videographer in uniform only” are often so enamored with anything created that they feel ownership, or creative ownership, of that they cannot truly view it with a critical eye. As videographers of course we view every moving image creation with a more critical eye than the consumer, but it’s not this one that I’m speaking of here… it’s the beautiful baby syndrome I’m speaking of here. I’ve seen some really ugly babies before that parents just can’t admit are, well, not the most beautiful kid in the nursery.

So the point of my rant is not so much about who you should hire to do your video project as much as a plea to all those who have cameras, promote themselves as videographers, but have not taken the time to truly learn the craft so your clients will get the best product for their money.

Teaching videography at local schools has helped me realize how many truly great resources are out there in printed form and online for those of you willing to step it up a notch. Here’s a couple of great online resources that can provide some of the most basic, or advanced tips to help anyone shoot and edit better video:

Metacafe’s Production School

The Robert Rodriguez Ten Minute Film School

Izzy Video’s Facebook page

YouTube (just search on film making)

So, if you are going to get out there and make use of your camera to help other folks make great digital stories… PLEASE, learn some of the really simple basic techniques that will provide the value your clients should have.

(If someone ever finds it only, please tell me where and I’ll give more precise credit where credit is due)

Adobe Standard Aspect Ratio Sizes (PDF)

Come join in the fun!

… but what about video that gets results and doesn’t take a Hollywood production budget and crew to pull it off?

I’m really excited to have been asked to be part of the Learn About Web Denver conference taking place at the Curtis Hotel September 14th and 15th. The goal of LAW-D is to help small business owners who want to utilize the best resources in social media, web design, and search marketing to attract more customers to their websites. I’ll be speaking on creating great video on a shoestring budget. I know, I know… it’s kind of like cutting off your own arm since video is part of how I pay the bills. But I have a soft place for small business owners who can’t even afford my reasonable prices so Craig Sutton and Deb Robinson found me an easy pushover to get to jump in with both feet.

I’ll be covering some simple but profound (I think so anyways) ways anyone with a video camera can shoot better video and compile them into more effective tools that can get results on your web site… and all that using tools readily available to you already with no additional expense. So come join me! Let’s have some video fun!

As you can see, he’s quite a guy. I’m delighted I got to do the project, but more delighted I got to learn more about Brad and the influence he, and others through his inspiration have been able to do in this exciting area.

Organizations all over the world could learn a lot from what I observed the night of the awards. While a number of highly respected and influential people were in the room that night, there was also a league of young entrepreneurs floating around the room taking it all in. It appears the leadership for the event, knowing the audience created a great environment where the two subcultures could meet and “play well” together picked a unique venue in The Dairy Center for the Arts to host the event, and, they facilitated some interaction between folks by, among other things, assigning every attendee to a team for a Rock Band tournament. It was an awesome way to see merging of two generations who love the same thing… starting businesses.

Props to the folks at Silicon Flatirons, to those who have inspired them (like Brad, Jason Mendelson, Brad Bernthal, and Phil Weiser). It’s special what’s happening in what used to be lazy little Boulder.

Because it would reduce paperwork and time if they could pay by credit card, I had a client recently indicate a desire to pay via PayPal and a willingness to pay the additional PayPal fees to have that convenience. Not sure of the PayPal balance required to offset that I entered “calculate PayPal fees” in Google and discovered this great little tool online:

http://www.rolbe.com/paypal.htm