Viddler

The Deal’s (subscribe) Mary Kathleen Flynn catches up with David Karp — founder of Tumblr — and discusses recent changes to make the free service better than ever before!

David also mentions Tumblr’s most recent round of funding and how investors approached him for this second round before he had even given much thought to the idea. More conversation on income ensues as Mary asks how Tumblr plans to monetize the service.

What is Tumblr?

Tumblr is the most popular service for tumblelogging — the act in which simple multimedia posts are displayed in chronological order on a web page.

It’s the easiest way to share anything and everything can be customized from importing a theme to editing the CSS yourself. Thus why Tumblr is the easiest way to express yourself. You can get started in less than 10 seconds. I’m timing you!

Most recently, Tumblr has launched a free and official Tumblr application (opens iTunes) for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Remember, at any time you may send me message with a video you’d like to see featured. If you like it, then I’ll most likely love it!

Acting, entertainment, and gossip is all fun and games until someone lip syncs on stage and ruins it for everyone. “Web 1.0″ was all about hiding behind text in a chatroom and feeling safe. In contrast, “Web 2.0″ is about being transparent, putting everything out there, and no doubt you’ll find people that genuinely enjoy who your are.

Shows like Jame Lipton’s The Actors Studio and Larry King Live have been enlightening viewers with a personal expose of their guests for years. Now, Samantha Ettus and Gary Vaynerchuk have created a first-of-its-kind web talk show featuring the most intriguing personalities of our time.

It’s called Obsessed TV (subscribe) and it’s going to be your go-to place for discovering everything you want to know about your favorite personalities online and offline.

If you or someone you know are really awesome at life? Then make sure you contact Sam about being a guest on Obsessed TV. I’m serious. If you’re reading this, you’re probably pretty awesome! Go send Sam a message!

Are you obsessed? I’m obsessed and the first episode hasn’t been released yet. Make sure you subscribe to Obsessed TV to be notified of new episodes!

The name of this organization, The Black Hills Badlands & Lake Assocation, is a mouthful (which is why they go by bhbl here on Viddler). If you take a look at their site they are a travel site for the Black Hills region in South Dakota. Having spent some time in South Dakota as a youth, I was really happy to see that they used Viddler to promotion their attractions.

Below their video is a short interview we had with them.

1. What is BlackHillsBadlands.com?

BlackHillsBadlands.com provides comprehensive information on the Black Hills of South Dakota. South Dakota is famous for Mount Rushmore, but there is so much more to see-and-do in South Dakota. We take great pride in our position to give the public a complete look at the Black Hills of South Dakota.

2. The production quality of the videos on your site is excellent. Why were the videos created and how were they produced?

The videos we display on our site and our Viddler channel were created by a combined Black Hills partnership and The South Dakota Department of Tourism.

Editor’s note: They also messaged me to let me know that they enjoyed our “How to: Encode high quality video for Viddler” document.

3. Having lived in South Dakota for a very short time in the late-90s I can say from experience that it is a beautiful state. Photos can never seem to do the state justice. Was this why video was chosen to show off some of the attractions?

In late 2008, we had a selection of 21 different vignettes produced that set out to highlight various aspects of the Black Hills, some well known and others that we consider “gems.”

You are correct, photos do no fully do justice to the beauty of the Black Hills. South Dakota is best experienced in person!

4. It seems like a lot of care and thought has gone into the design of the site. Was Viddler having a customizable player, which allows you to make the player fit right into your site, a factor in your choosing Viddler as your player of choice?

Viddler was recommended to us by a local area photography studio. A couple of factors made Viddler an easy choice to promote our videos on our site and on the Viddler site.

• High Quality Video
• Player Customization
• Clickable logo
• High Quality Video (Yes, we’re so impressed we want to mention it twice.)
• Video length does not have a pre-defined limit
• Ability to incorporate Flickr and Twitter streams
• Friendly / helpful staff and user base. I love how comments from staff is visible.
• Video length does not have a pre-defined limit.

5. What is next for BlackHillsBadlands.com?

Our site was redesigned in the spring of 2008. Our new site gives us the opportunity to stay with current internet technology and trends. It is our goal to position ourselves as a digital leader for Black Hills tourism. Our focus for the near future is definitely more multimedia. I’ll plug Viddler again, when it comes to online video, we’ll continue to use and recommend Viddler!

Thanks so much to bhbl for doing this interview and for using Viddler to share South Dakota with the world.

Dude, where’s my car? Actually, a car probably isn’t something I’d want access to after playing a game of Burnout. Several years ago I got Burnout 3 for my Xbox and it was the first time in years that I’d used my Xbox for hours on end. Attempting to create the largest car crash you’ve ever seen is oddly fun. This is why it’s a video game, and hence why access to a real life car would not be as fun.

In early 2008 Burnout Paradise was released for the PS3 and Xbox 360. I don’t follow gaming that much, so I wasn’t aware of this. The Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store have grown games like these immensely because of the ability to download new cars, tracks, and challenges without having to go and purchase a whole new game. Although, new games are released every year or so, and at this current time games are available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and as downloads. I see everything as being downloads in a few years.

Just released for download in Burnout Paradise is the Hunter Manhattan Spirit — a car based on the limo-style Ecto-1 from the Ghostbusters films. The awesome dudes at Joystiq (subscribe) have a sweet preview of this new car. Check it!

Burnout Paradise was also recently released on Windows (PC), so you can download this giddy new car there too!

If you launch the Hunter Manhattan Spirit off a bridge in to an intersection full of cars, please please show me a video of that! Send me a message or leave a comment below to it. I’d LOVE to see that! Boom!

When I was younger I collected all kinds of things. Marbles, Pokemon cards, Tazos, stamps. They’re still hanging around in my cupboard. These days I feel like I’m collecting Apple products. No doubt you collected something at some point in your life. Perhaps comics like Chris? What are you doing to do with that collect? Grow it? Sell it? Hand it down to your children?

Collectibles Corner TV (subscribe) is a show for savvy collectors that features practical tips and valuable information about collecting all kinds of neat things! The show is hosted by Tammy Kahn Fennell. Her co-star, Skoda G. Fennell, is a border collie mix. Tammy’s husband — Matthew Fennell — and father — Lou Kahn — help out with production on the show. It’s quite the family show!

Together, they also all help operate Bakertowne Valley, Inc. — a successful company that buys and sells collections on eBay.

Episode 3 of Collectibles Corner TV features the terms daguerreotype & art deco, a user submitted question, and a call with John Delaney about antique clocks.

If you have a collection of items and you’re not sure if they’re worth anything, then be sure to send Tammy a question on her Ask Tammy page.

Now, where’s that collection of Oddbodz cards I have?

Today I have the privilege of interviewing Raffi Asdourian from ZAFFI Pictures (subscribe:
ZAFFI). Raffi is both the writer and director for ZAFFI Pictures’ latest short film Ai. Ai is about “a young woman, haunted by the memories of her parents being murdered, discovers the truth about herself and her sensei.” Principle photography for Ai was shot only a few miles from Viddler HQ in Pennsylvania. We’re really happy that Zaffi has shared the film and the movie-making-magic behind it with the Viddler community.

Following the video is my interview with Raffi Asdourian.

1. Tell us a little bit about the short film Ai.

Ai is the third film, in a trilogy of short films I’ve made, which comprise the main body of my work as a filmmaker. They are not connected through story but rather a common theme of emotions that arise when thinking about the concept of Death and share imagery and symbolism. Those are fear (Kuragannon), detachment (Stranger) and ultimately love (Ai) or embracing Death. I therefore lovingly refer to these films as the Death trilogy.

My particular motivation for Ai came from my sincere love of foreign films, in particular films from Japan and Korea. So in a sense, this was my way of paying homage to all those amazing films that have influenced me. On the other hand, I also had a clear intent to challenge myself as a filmmaker and make a unique action film that would stay true to the source material that inspired me.

The result is Ai, a labor of love, which in my opinion is my strongest short film as both a writer and director.

Ai was chosen as part of the first ever From Here to Awesome online distribution festival (created by Arin Crumley, Lance Weiler and M Dot Stranger) which emphasizes DIY distribution for your film and while offering advice about the readily available tools that exist online.

2. You have a few videos related to Ai here on Viddler including the trailer, behind-the-scenes footage, and the storyboards and rehearsals videos. These are sort of like DVD extras and I think it is great that you’ve shared this part of the process with the community. How long did the production of Ai take?

Both production and post-production were pretty intense. We had a 3 day shoot in the Poconos in Pennsylvania at a golf/hotel resort called the Shawnee Inn. We had about 4 months of pre-production including extensive rehearsals for the fight choreography. As you mentioned, I posted all those “DVD extras” on Viddler because I feel it is a necessary step in building your audience and giving them access to every aspect of the film. If someone watches the film, enjoys it, and wants to learn more then I want to give that insight into the process of how it was created. It also creates an intimacy for the viewer to connect with the film on a more substantial level.

3. Do you have any photos from the production that you can share with the Viddler community?

You can view more photos from the Ai film shoot.

4. The storyboards are fantastic. Who did those?

The storyboards were done in collaboration with my good friend Gabriel Pages. You can contact him directly via his website about freelance storyboard work.

I’d also like to refer you to Jon Chen, my Director of Photography, as he is also is immensely talented.

5. What is next for ZAFFI Pictures?

ZAFFI Pictures will continue to provide unique content for all to view including music videos, short films and eventually a feature film. I’m also working on a TV pilot and a graphic novel adaptation of the feature film version of Ai. It is my personal belief that sharing media and art on the Internet is the first step to solidify a new independent movement for self distribution of not just film, but music and all other forms of media and art.

Raffi has done two recent interviews besides this one about Ai for Independent Films Direct and on Independent Film United radio.

Thanks to Raffi and all of ZAFFI Pictures for sharing their great art here on Viddler. We’re looking forward to seeing all of their future projects and the process behind them.

Many people are making video for the web these days. Most of the time creating and putting the video one is free — as with Viddler. An online audience is much larger than that of older media like television and DVDs, thus any form of content — no matter how small the niche — will have people interested.

Award-winning director Clay Olsen from Advent Creative (subscribe) has 9 fundamental tips for anyone — even those whom consider themselves professional — to improve the video content that they create and publish online.

9 essential tips for improving the production quality of your online video from award-winning director Clay Olsen of Advent Creative.

Here are those 9 tips again so you can refer to them:

1. Avoid Tunnel Vision
2. Easy on the Zoom
3. Use a Tripod
4. Find the Action First
5. Let there be Light
6. Don’t cut your shot short
7. Label your media
8. Check your audio
9. Be personal

Did these tips help you out with your video content? Has it improved your production quality? Let us know in the comments below.

Long-time Viddlerer, Kaysha (subscribe), is a French music artist chillin’ in the West Indies. Although, as one of the most important artists of modern African musicians he travels areas of the globe spreading his beats.

He is the creator and CEO of his record label Sushiraw Life — a label that has shaped a new way to create independent music where all aspects of the art are equally important. The label offers everything from cover art & artist direction to beautifully crafted music videos.

Kaysha can flash many awards he’s won in front of us, but music videos such as his one for Glorious Beautiful (download on iTunes – opens iTunes) will always be winners in our minds!

Kaysha wrote, performed, produced, recorded, and uploaded this music video. Thierry Cordier assisted with directing it. Joe Bondo edited it. And casting was by Joe Walha. It was shot in Brussels, Belgium, using those sexy RED cameras.

Did you think Kaysha’s video was giddy? Send him some love in the comments below or on his website. You can also find more of Kaysha’s music at his digital store.

If you find a music video you’d absolutely love to be featured on Music Video Monday, then just send me a message and tell me all about it.

Back in July Brandice featured episode 3 of The Social Web TV in which the hosts discussed the announcement of Facebook Connect and how it will act with other open platforms such as OpenID.

Now that Facebook Connect has been integrated on sites such as CNN Live and Ustream.tv, The Social Web TV (subscribe) invited Facebook developers Dave Morin and Luke Shepard on the show to discuss how the open web is benefiting the end user; you.

This is a very interesting discussion!

Have you logged in to a website that asks you if you want to sign in using Facebook Connect, lately? Share the websites you Facebook Connect with in the comments below.

Engadget (subscribe) recently had an in-depth look at the Amazon Kindle 2 which is due to be released on February 24th, 2009.

The original model of the Amazon Kindle was the first successful e-book reader due to Amazon’s Whispernet using the Sprint EVDO network. This allowed users of the Kindle to download books wirelessly anywhere rather than just in Wi-Fi hotspots.

Previous e-book readers by manufacturers such as Sony have failed to reach a market saturation as much as the Kindle has. This has been due to relatively poor readability and

The size of the latest model has been reduced to a thickness of 0.36 inches (9.1 millimetres), and is 20 percent faster at page-refreshing, now features a text-to-speech option to read the text aloud, and has an improved dictionary function. It also now has 1.4GB of user storage — enough to hold over 1,500 e-books.

Are you user of the Amazon Kindle? Are you pre-ordering the Kindle 2? Be sure to make a video review and link it up below when it’s on Viddler.