Tag Archives: screen

Future of Online Video

Yahoo Video Out-YouTubes YouTube

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Yahoo Video: Better aggregation of my kinda video

The latest version of Yahoo Video arguably out-YouTubes YouTube itself. There are just two problems with Yahoo Video, using this Butterfinger Comedy section as an example. First, I’m not a fan of auto-roll videos (especially the jabba the hut neck dude, which hits too close to home). Second, YouTube is still better at customizing videos based on my preference.

Otherwise I’d give Yahoo Video a like and thumb’s up for finding good content. Clearly a number of people are curating content, and Yahoo Screen is very 3.0ish… looks like it’s making that critical leap from web to TV.

Now let’s identify what we need from online video:

  1. Ability to toggle between short and long form content (for different types of sessions).
  2. Toss to TV… allow longer videos to be saved, and automatically cued on TV.
  3. Better predictive recommendations.
  4. We like current, so current videos should get primacy (and they don’t sufficiently on YouTube or Yahoo).
  5. More intuitive user experience tools
  6. Less clutter
  7. Separation between vloggers/amateurs and pro content
  8. Integration with social network (YouTube should have done more of this with Google Plus launch)
Yahoo Screen
I’ve always wondered why Yahoo, who is more about content, slept through the online-video revolution… snubbing amateur content. Now it seems to be taking a more YouTube approach. The trick, however, is that out-YouTubing YouTube doesn’t mean customers will flock. Yahoo needs to create a Yahoo edge that takes online-video to 2012-2015. What’s it gonna be, Yahoooooooo?
Hey I just realized Yahoo Video called me a year or so ago to discuss a program like YouTube Partners, and then dropped the ball. Bastahds.
YouTube: Better at recommendations still (but it has more data on us)

 

Online Video

Annoying Orange on a Budget

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Annoying Orange: The Low-Budget Version

I was searching recently for the cost of making a reality show. It seems per episode, the cost can range from $100,000 to a million dollars. Then I wondered if that model needs some desperate “belt tightening.”

Heck even Annoying Orange can be created for less than $100,000. In the satire I did with my kids, you’ll see it can be done for less than $1. Below is the script in case you’d like to read along…

AO: Hey. Hey. Hey Apple.
Apple: What?
AO: What’s wrong with your mouth?
Apple: It’s green screen, dude. We’re on a budget.
AO: Bean jeans? Is it casual Friday?
Apple: Green screen! We can’t afford Adobe Final Premier Cut, so your mouth is green screened.
AO: Oh green. Well Your mama’s so fat when she wears green she looks like a pool table.
Apple: Your mama’s so fat her scale says “to be continued.”
Pineapple: Yo mama’s so fat she wakes up in sections.
AO: Woah- check out your fake mouth Pain Apple. Or should I say poser-Apple?
Pineapple: PINEapple. And Your mama’s so stupid I caught her sticking food stamps in a Coke machine.
Avocado: Hahahaha. Fakest mouth in the kitchen. Fakest mouth in the kitchen. Hey Calvin Kleinapple. Spongebob called. He wants his house back.
AO: Ewww. Half-eaten avocado smells. Sniff. Stinky! What happened to our kitchen? Are we really poor?
Apple: Yes. Your mama’s so poor I saw a pigeon toss her a piece of bread.
AO: Your mama’s so poor people rob her house to practice.
Mini Marshmellow: Well your mama’s so fat she can’t fit in her pants.
AO: (Stares).
AO: Your mama’s so poor, the rainbows in her backyard are black and white.
Cabbage: Black? Why can’t you racists do a poor skit without a black reference? I’m going go back to the food shelter with my shawty and-commodities.
AO: Don’t be a sauerkraut, Cabbage. Hahahaha.
Cabbage: Sauer? Your mama’s so nasty her breast milk is sour.
Leftover Pizza (Laughs with chattered teeth)
Apple: Check it. leftover pizza and chicken wing liked that one.
Cabbage: Hey- You like that pizza and wing boy? I’m a talking cabbage. You’ve seen a red-cabbage. And a winter cabbage. But I bet you aint never seen a talking cabbage.
Apple: Dreamworks called. It wants its lines from Shrek back.
Jalapeno: Did you call me a wet back? Yo mama’s so old when she farted dust came out.
Apple: Oh, Senior Jalapeño. That’s gross and mean.
Jalapeño: Beaner? You call me beaner again and I’ll shiv you.
Mini Marshmellow: What’s a shiv?
Rotton Banana: Hahahaha. Senior Jalapeno’s getting hot.
Jalapeno: Hey Rotton Banana- don’t
Rotton Banana: How do you starve a Mexican? Put their food stamps in their work boots. Ha ha ha ha.
AO: Hey Rotten Banana. Knife!
Jalapeno: Pincho pinto pendadas. Ahhhh!
AO: You hurt his peelings, Jalapeno. Now he’s split.
Mini Marshmellow: What did the banana say to the elephent? Nothing. Elephants can’t talk!
Leftover Pizza (Laughs with chattered teeth)
AO: Look- smelly half eaten avocado’s seed fell out. Let’s plant it and grow a smelly half of an avacado plant!

 

Online Video

Learn What the “Wilhelm Scream” Is, Noob

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With apologies to you seasoned film enthusiasts, I’d like to introduce the Wilhelm Scream to those still left oblivious to it. You see, I used the sound effect in a recent YouTube video and was again reminded that it’s not as widely appreciated as I should think.

Klaxoncow said it best:

The scream, which originated in a 1951 film called Distant Drums, has appeared in countless movies since. You’ve heard it in Star Wars, Indiana Jones, King Kong (Jack Black’s version), The Family Guy, and many films you may know by heart. Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas have celebrated the sound effect, originally dubbed “man getting bit by alligator and he screams” (source: Wikipedia so it must be accurate).

My sister, who sent me this clip, became aware of it when her son began to notice its repetition (a remarkable feat for a child who was 7 at the time).

I would like to challenge all video creators to find a special place for it in coming months, and make it an Internet meme that is abhorred by Anonymous and 4Chan.

Now enjoy some classic film moments, and listen for it in your movie and Internet-video watching.

Online Video

Auto-Tune The News (Favorite Video of the Year)

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This absolutely is my favorite video of 2009. I’ve watched it at least 25 times, and my family is going crazy. Meet “Auto-Tune the News,” and this recent clip: “Murdered with a Spoon.” (Lot of details about the creators below).

Isn’t it just so perfectly imperfect!? Do you walk away singing the intro melody over and over? Do you just savor the 7 seconds of ambiance before the beat? The singing is practically perfect (that’s the Gregory Brothers, who can be found on YouTube’s Schmoyoho‘s channel or via Barely Political). The Bronx-based gang uses autotune to create singing news anchors, and then lays down beautiful beats and vocals to accompany them. Visit their websites and you’ll find a cool and fresh sound that’s not what you’d expect from the voices behind the clips.

The clips are quirky and repetitive, and the musicians are plopped into the news clip with a wonderfully amateur use of green screen. I hope they NEVER lose that touch: the glowing green hues, the chopped graphics, the deliciously low-budget glory. But don’t assume production was rushed. Little treats are hidden for faithful viewers… the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the recurring “shawty” references, the weathered monkey suit (passed from the Gregory brothers grandfather), funny titles, and Katie Couric’s regular cameos. Best of all, the hands that appear awkwardly in front of the victims… featuring cowbells. Honestly- I want to bear hug the brain that conceived this.

Hats off to the Gregory Brothers and the soulful Sarah Fullen Gregory. The crew has amazing and diverse musical talents, and the commentary on current events is playful and quirky. We see the odd media circus parodied without an apparent left or right-wing agenda or even mild sarcasm. Absurdity is celebrated not criticized.

Thanks to Barely Political, NextNewNetwork and Ben Relles for helping me find these cats. Please don’t teach these guys how to use Green Screen any better, because the rough edges make it quirkier and accessible. Five big-ass stars, and I’m crossing my fingers for a Balloon-Boy melody. And I’m counting down the seconds for when this channel jolts past me and others on YouTube!