AOL is “shutting down the AOL Video Uploads service starting this week.” techcrunch

YouTube announces its intention to concentrate on high-quality specialty niche programming.

The problem: anyone can make them, no-one can monetize them, not even Google.

That is a darn shame.

But is it really a surprise?

If anyone can produce X, with no significant talent, training, commitment or resources, then how can X possibly have any economic value?

In the short term all sorts of market anomalies appear. But with no barriers to entry the short term is very short indeed.

“…about the “head” and the “tail” of Chris Anderson’s “long tail” model. He said that in between the two (basically, between big hits and narrowly-focused content that appeals to a tiny audience), there’s a “torso”: high-quality specialty niche programming. “That’s what drove cable TV,” Eun said, “and that will be a sweet spot for Internet video.”

- Eun urged the audience to try not to define what “good” is. Viewers don’t care what professional programmers and cable execs think is good; sometimes they’re happy to watch dogs on skateboards. Thinking narrowly about what “good” programming is can be limiting.” cinematech

Further proof that with 25c and killer content, you’re only $3 short of the price of a tall latte. This time from the Digital Publishing and Advertising Conference: (more…)

PR people must pitch stories differently. Specifically, she said we need to offer fully formed four minute segments, with visuals, spokespeople and news hook all conceived. “Don’t just send me a pitch letter or a book which requires me to put together the piece. Economic pressures mean we are short staffed so we will respond better to something that is fully formed.” 6 a.m

Great news for commercial video producers. 

The 3 rules: Simplicity, Authenticity, Currency.

And the greatest of these is Authenticity: The BBC know this, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to be reminded.

(more…)

“The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting”

The second from me:

“If they don’t like the message, change the medium.”

More bandwidth, faster connections are obsoleting the 320×240 frame - so the original justification for more close-ups on the web is disappearing. But the close-ups are not.

This has nothing to do with aesthetics - Videographers are become lazy! (Joyce).

Close-ups are easier to shoot: auto-exposure, auto-focus, AWB are all you need when the subject fills the frame. The effects of camera shake are minimized (Big Issue for the anti-tripod brigade), and all but the most basic rules of composition can be ignored.

Close-ups are easier to edit: you can switch back and forth between close-ups with abandon -  wide shots you require careful sequencing so as to avoid disconcerting jump cuts.

Close-ups create the visual impact, wide-shots tell the visual story.

Ignore them unless you are entering a competition of some sort. For everyone else just go with whatever improves your confidence, flexibility, confidence, efficiency and confidence.

- Number 3 in 7 things Videojournalists can learn from Musicians: never allow hesitation, indecision or lack of preparation to affect your performance.

washingtonpost.com has extended the Talking Heads gestalt with its Voices series. The subjects featured in Voices don’t answer questions, they don’t respond to comments, they justsit in front of a white background and talk directly to camera.

Basically it’s a series of infomercials promoting various corporations/causes by allowing the principals to pontificate without interruption or comment. “What are these types of video doing on a newspaper website?” You may ask. That’s simple: they are generating a lot of hits. Wapo claims a huge increase in web videos watched since the series appeared in June: 1.4 million video views in September.

The videos (several dozen in all) are advertised heavily on the WaPo front page - four large link boxes on today’s wapo.com lead to the series. The only other video linked on the front page is a clip featuring Sarah Palin’s wardrobe.

Associated with avoid talking heads is the notion that videographers should avoid information-intensive presentations. Information is more efficiently conveyed in text and pictures - it doesn’t need video.

But many thousands of viewers would rather watch David Pogue than crack a manual….

As the information density goes up, and the age of the target audience goes down - the preference for video over text increases exponentially. Absorbing even mildly technical detail from a book is a chore. That same information repackaged as visual media is digested effortlessly.