Learning from the audience

Scott Kirsner recently wrote an interesting op-ed piece in the LA Times entitled ‘Digital technology and dollar signs’ The piece goes into some interesting uses of digital tech and how creatives are considering the consumption of their audiences / fans to inform new biz models. These are exciting times where experimentation is needed and welcome.

The piece mentions my experiments with film, mobile and gaming. Here’s a section from the article.

Many in Hollywood still deride the wacky, user-generated videos that occasionally turn into viral hits on YouTube, the top website for video viewing. And it’s true that one of the most-watched videos ever uploaded to the site is titled “Charlie bit my finger — again!”

But a number of young creators — many of them working outside of Hollywood’s orbit — have been feverishly experimenting with new ways to tell stories and generate revenue. An office worker in Connecticut created the catty entertainment commentary show “What the Buck” on YouTube, and suddenly found he was making more from the site’s “partner program,” which offers creators a cut of ad revenue, than he was at his desk job, which he promptly quit. Lance Weiler accents his suspense films with cellphone and Web-based “alternate reality games” that enable players to explore the story and interact with characters after they’ve left the theater. Robert Greenwald, a Culver City-based documentarian, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars online to support his left-leaning films and Internet videos on such topics as the mortgage crisis and the war in Afghanistan. READ MORE

Copyright in real-time

This post from BusinessWeek touches on some interesting issues regarding copyright and the emerging realities of a real-time web.

Copyright law wasn’t written with today’s content consumption in mind. The way online video copyright functions is based on a reading of the 10-year-old Digital Millennium Copyright Act that equates video hosting sites with Internet service providers. That law provides a “safe harbor” for hosts who respond to copyright claims by taking down infringing content “expeditiously.”

There doesn’t seem to be widespread motivation to modernize that process. Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion , claiming YouTube should take more responsibility than the current reading of DMCA requires — but that’s plodding along in the courts . Meanwhile, Internet users are sharing and consuming content at a furious rate. And what’s being called the “real-time web” is even less equipped to deal with copyright infringement. READ MORE

Open Video

Next month I’ll be attending the Open Video Conference in NYC. I’ll be speaking with producer Ted Hope about the “evolution of storytelling.” In other words how is technology and changes in media consumption impacting the art and craft of telling stories.

Today I posted a short interview with OVC organizers over at the Filmmaker Magazine blog.

If you’ll be attending the conference drop me a line. I’m going to try to attend both days but unfortunately won’t be able to attend the Open Hacker day on Sunday have to fly to Europe.

HOURS OF FUN

This is AWESOME! yooouuutuuube enables you to take ANY youTube vid and turn it into a moving film strip – you can also stop and pan thru all the frames.

Here’s a look at a music vid that was shot on law enforcement flashlights. Yep the cops have flashlights that can shoot vid with nightvision. I shot the following vid for Hail Social. CLICK the pic to play.

hat tip to yvynyl