Saturday, March 11, 2006

Niche Video Content: Panther's Burn Baby Burn Hot Sauce


Play Burn Baby Burn Panther Hot Sauce Video Story

So what are some Black Panthers doing today? Looks like some members are making hot sauce, no joke, their latest HOT ... VERY HOT new product. Burn Baby Burn Hot Sauce is being distributed by Everett and Jones Barbecue in San Francisco's East Bay, according to CBS5.com. Black Panther David Hillard and Fredrika Newton, widow of the former party leader, say their hot sauce is "going to have a label on this bottle that's going to explain the context of what we mean by Burn Baby Burn, and give people some education. " Their goal they say is not to make money but to target a whole new generation that may think that "Huey Newton is a cookie".


In a previous post on Rocketboom.com I wrote about the power of a Vlog to tell an interesting story to a niche audience. Here's an example with a video story I found while researching my last post. As an aside in my post on bird and audio content I asked " What are the Black Panthers doing today ?" After googling I found this great story. ( Sigh... already done) I didn't pay a cent to view the video because that is the biz model for now. But in the future, would I pay maybe 25 cents to view this report by a CBS affiliate? The text version would be the teaser. Probably. If it grabs my attention. And how will you grab my attention? By appealing to my "niche" interests.


But how do you bring people to your niche content like this video clip? Write provocative meta-tags for a clip like this including maybe " baby boomers, race relations, Hewey Newton, hot sauce, 1960's, revolution, armed revolt etc. and not only will NSA's search robots go crazy but Google's and Yahoo's as well. And if CBS5.com were charging 25 cents a play for this clip, with a teaser for free, they can count on collecting more than chump change over the long haul.


Hot sauce? You bet.


Publishing the content is in our own hands. Right now.


Making money doing so? Not yet. But it's coming.


Power to the people right on.

Netizen Ben Replies

In a recent post I wrote about how NBC Threatens Video Sharing Sites who have facilitated users posting copyright protected clips online. In a recent viral blitz, 5 million users downloaded, and then uploaded one Saturday Night Live ( SNL) clip called "Lazy Sunday". NBC would rather they pay $1.99 at the iTunes store to download the clip or view it for free exclusively at the NBC branded site.

Lazy Sunday Taken Down



So NBC's lawyers prevailed as you can see from the notice above which I just lifted from YouTube to see if Lazy Sunday was available for free playing. It's obvious that NBC lawyers made the decision that protecting their content was more important than any viral buzz the clip had generated. It was a tough call to make for NBC I am sure.

But maybe are they shooting themselves in the foot? Would anybody actually pay $1.99 to view this clip?

So What Does Netizen Ben Think?

In yesterday's postWho's Ben The Netizen? I wrote that I would ask Ben Kreeger, a 19-year-old college student who I found in Googled Land, if he would pay $1.99 to download this video clip if it weren't available for free.

Ben did not have his e-mail address posted to the profile section of his blog. Instead he had an AOL Instant Messenger address. I left a comment on Ben's blog instead. I also asked if he objected to my writing about him in this blog. He said " no problem" and sent this informative reply last night:

Ben's reply

As for your question, I don't think I'd be willing to pay for something like that. I'm a big fan of downloading
television shows through BitTorrent or IRC, or even recording them myself on my PC. If there's a show in the iTunes Music Store that's decent enough (The Office, Monk), and if I had a video iPod, I'd buy an episode for $2, sure. But I certainly wouldn't pay $2 for a short skit off SNL that's gonna be all over the internet already.

Who's Ben the Netizen?


Ben Kreeger, age 19, has staked his spot in cyberspace with a blog. He was one among 5 million other Netizens that downloaded the Sturday Night Live" Lazy Sunday" video clip and posted it online. In my last post NBC Threatens Video Sharing Sites I wrote about the viral buzz NBC's " Lazy Video" clip received, as reported by Boingboing on Friday and the The New York Times today. NBC lawyers are threatening video sharing services where the clip is hosted, uploaded by users. NBC wants people to buy the clip at iTunes for $1.99 or play it only at NBC's web-site where they will be branded on the rump by the NBC peacock.

In my post I ask "But will Smart Mob users like benkreeger.blogspot.com pay to download video content when there's so much out there for free? Ben tells his fellow Netizens " I ripped this. It's at the address above...there's a link to it in a .zip file, in .mp4 format."

I found Ben in Googled Land. I'll ask him if he will pay to download content and tell you what I find. If he doesn't want to answer I'll take this post down.

Ben certainly sounds affable enough and he's cute too as you can see from his photo. Ben's Blogger profile has saved me a lot of work. Before I even contact Ben I have learned from his blog that Ben says he is a 19-year old college student. A Virgo, Ben says he's lovestruck, resilient, a photographer and music nut. He's writing his post while listening to the Rolling Stones, who he says, " Well, they're performing as best they can. Let's face it, they're aging poorly. "

He passed his microeconomics test with a score of (175/200) and says "I'm drinking less pop and coffee and whitening my teeth, because nobody likes a hideous smile (or a frown, for that matter)."

"Peace, love, and boredom. I'm out, " he tells us on his way to take a shower.

NBC Threatens Video Sharing Sites

Photo Coutesy NBC
I posted this report on February 20 on my other blog Crossing Media.

Underneath a lengthy New York Times headline , reporter John Biggs reports today that A Video Clip Goes Viral and a TV Network Wants to Be the Only One to Spread It. In a previous post I touched upon Smart Mobs, these groups of users that connect with each other on their own through email and instant messaging. The Forrester Group calls these emerging connections" Emotive Networks," which it defines as interconnected groups, "composed of individuals engaged in communication and support."

Some of us may prefer to forge our friendships in real time. But there's a whole new media-obsessed pack out there that thrives and communucates by passing along links to "cool" content. These connected buddies hang together in cyber-pace and can create a collective viral bllzzard overnight with just a few taps of their digits on the computer keyboard or phone pad and a cut and paste command.

You have heard about " talking drums" in Africa, used to spread the news? It works. I know. I have watched viral campaigns in action transmitted by drummers while I lived with the Dogon in Mali. Today's Smart Mobs don't use drums. Read my post about Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams: Text Message a Loved One Instead

Lazy Sunday Video Clip: 5 Million Views

"Lazy Sunday", a satiric rap video that stars Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg of "Saturday Night Live" was first broadcast by NBC on its website on Dec. 17, 2006. Since then a Smart Mob of netizens have watched this clip a total of five million times.
The clips is now hosted at YouTube.com one of the free video-sharing sites which posted the clip.

Most network chiefs would be thrilled to see their content promoted in such a viral fashion, building cool online chatter, notes Biggs in today's Times, "The online popularity of "Lazy Sunday" has been credited with reviving interest in "Saturday Night Live" at a time when it is in need of some buzz."

Not NBC.

Opening Salvos: No Creative Commons Here

No Creative Commons here. The opening salvo has been fired . NBC lawyers have threatened You Tube with legal action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The company would rather sell the clip online at iTunes for $1.99 or post it for free viewing on its branded site.

Some may call this short sighted, for publicity like this can't be bought. Smart Mobs are quirky and highly selective. "VH1 and other television and movie producers were increasingly putting their own clips, trailers and music videos on YouTube in hopes of jump-starting their own viral phenomena," says Julie Supan, senior director of marketing for YouTube.

No Chump Change

Do the math. NBC has. $1.99 paid 5 million times can quickly add up. As I wrote before, that's no chump change.

But will Smart Mob users like Ben who has his own blog, pay to download video content when there's so much out there for free? Ben, 19 years old, tells his fellow Netizens " I ripped this. It's at the address above...there's a link to it in a .zip file, in .mp4 format."

Flowers and Chocolates From NBC for YouTube ?

Boing Boing Blog says that NBC "should be sending flowers and chocolates to YouTube, not nasty-grams from lawyers. The free video on the NBC site can only be played But only Windows users can access the video on NBC.com -- the site in general is kinda buggy for non-Windows users."

Copyright Troubles Ahead for User-Posted Content ?

The New York Times article continues,

Julie Summersgill, a spokeswoman for NBC Universal, said the company meant no ill will toward fan sites but wanted to protect its copyrights."We're taking a long and careful look at how to protect our content," she said.

YouTube and others in the new wave of video-sharing sites have so far managed to avoid major legal problems even though they often carry copyrighted material without permission.

"This is an example of the copyright troubles that are waiting for YouTube, Google Video and all the other video hosting services that rely on user-posted content,"said Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.

Vlogging:AKA Video Blogging

Rocket Boom Vlog

Vlogging? No it's not the latest Winter sport at the Turin Olympics. It's video blogging. "V" for video and "blog" jammmed together to form a new word that is also the web's newest evolution. So far there almost 10,000 Vloggers out there. But how about the quality of the content? Well, for now kind of mediorcre on the whole. Remember Hemmingway's homily to the effect that giving someone a typewriter doesn't turn them into a writer?

But that will change. Remember Kevin Kostner building his baseball field amidst cornstalks in the movie " field of dreams?" He said " build a field they will come." And they did.



Click here to listen to this excellent Webmonkey Radio Podcast on Vlogging reported at Mac World.



This great Vlog, Rocket Boom, was brought to my attention in a newsletter on Internet marketing published by Ken McCarthy . To subscibe you can contact @ Ken McCarthy .


Vlogs: The Boom Heard Round the Internet:


According to McCarthy, Andrew Baron is behind the camera and Amanda Congdon, 24, is the host at RocketBoom. McCarthy says already 100,000 visitors click in each day to view this Vlog. Rocket Boom's studio? A living room in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where out-of-pocket costs top a dizzying $25/day. Today's story for instance is filed from Kenya by one of Rocketboom's " Field" correspondents, Ruud Elmendorp. It's an interview illustrated with B-Roll of a political folk artist, Joseph Bertiers, who works in Kenya, a fascinating "niche" story that sadly might never find its way to broadcast media.

In addition to shooting this clip, Elmendorp probably cut it as well and then compressed it for streaming. Rocket Book didn't have to spend thousands booking time on a " bird" (satellite) to transmit the clip back. It was probably sent by FTP by Elemdorp with a click or two of a mouse.


You can play these clips on your computer or on the latest i pod, Just remember to turn the sound down at work or your boss won't wonder why you have so much time on your hands.


That's certainly one of the ways futurists say online video content will go, providing niche content such as this. Humor helps too. After all most Net content is about "infotainment", not education. People have shorter attention spans online. So make it short and sweet and if you can throw in a chuckle or two...even better.


Undoubtedly the money will follow soon after for these pod-casters. If they don't get tsunnami-ed by the BIG Players. Already I-Tunes licenses video content for parters. $1 a pop to play a clip may seem like peanuts but those micro-payments add up quickly.


Prodigem: Personal Broadcasting Freedom?


Comgdon and Barton host ther VLOG at Prodigem whose home page states they use BitTorrent technology.


Intrigued? So am I. I don't have time to produce and edit daily video Vlogs but others will. Hmm.


Or maybe I do?


Thinking aloud here...How about doing a daily post on Sal, that gifted woodcarver at the South Street Seaport Museum? Maybe uploading daily reports as he shows paid subscribers how to carve a ship's nameboard? Promote them with a message at forums for woodcarving and classified ads in woodcarving journals.


Or how about a dog training Vlog?


Not. At least for now. Too busy with other work. But it is intoxicating, thinking of all the possibilities.


More later.

Tom Bettag, Nightline & Cold Calls


, originally uploaded by .
Click here to play Nightline Clip in Quicktime QT

This is the first of several posts on encoding video both on the Mac or PC for playing over the Internet. I encoded this clip for streaming over high bandwidth.In the next posting I will encode for a progressive download so you can view the clips and compare. I will also encode using Flip 4 Mac, the codec that allows a Mac user to encode for Windows Media Player.

I produced this story as a one person team on assignment for Nightline in 2000. I shot the story with a PD150, a wireless and shotgun Sennheiser mike. I wrote the script with the kind mentoring and assistance of former Nightline Executive Producer Tom Bettag. In Nightline's Washington studio I recorded the voiceover and worked with a talented Nightline editor as we crashed on this story.


...A Little Shoptalk. Tom Bettag, Ted Koppel


Ted Koppel and his longtime producer, Tom Bettag, left ABC's "Nightline" in November, not to retire, but to forge on mightily. Not long after Koppel departed, he became managing editor over Discovery Channel's news documentaries, with Bettag remaining at his side as executive producer. In a Broadcasting & Cable interview, Koppel On His Jump to Discovery, Ted Koppel talks about this next Big Leap Forward for the most talented duo in broadcast news.


Excerpted Ted Koppel Interview, Broadcasting and Cable



These folks are serious. While Tom Bettag and I are a couple of grueling greybeards who can probably afford to go off and retire, the rest of our team are not. They are being very generously compensated.

What are you going to get out of Discovery that you wouldn't get elsewhere?

An environment that is conducive to doing the kind of programming that we want to do. And a relationship with people of integrity and talent that is consistent with the kind of relationship Tom and I have had at Nightline over the years. The great joy of Nightline was, we could always do what we thought was important. The great joy of Discovery is that we can expand beyond even what we have done in the past.

The Power of a Cold Call


In fact, if you think " knowing someone" is the only way to get cross media assignments, here's a story to chew on. It was a "cold call" letter to Tom Bettag that set me out on my quest as a cross-media maven. I wrote a letter to Tom at Nightline. In it I expressed my interest to work with his team, as a " reforming" photographer who hoped to break in to TV news. I was then 40 something. Good luck you say.


Tom Leads to VNI...


This was before e-mail. Tom thoughtfully answered my letter on ABC letterhead that was typed. ( Those of you born after 1990 might refer to this archaic form of comunications a " hard copy.") In his reply Tom suggested that I contact Michael Rosenblum, who was then doing a start-up called VNI ( Video News International ). Michael believed that the next new thing was videojournalists equipped with Hi-8 video cameras, working as a one person team.


This is another long story I will delve into later... But to finish up on the Tom Bettag story. I did sign on to VNI and learned to write, shoot, report and track stories as a one person team.


...And then VNI Leads to The Digital Journalist...


Michael and his co-venture partner eventually sold VNI to the The New York Times. By that time I had graduated to shooting and producing stories on my own for CNN, WTN and CBS TeleNoticias. Shortly after, I founded The Digital Journalist along with my VNI colleague Dirck Halstead as partner.


After a story on our partnership appeared in Photo District News, Dirck told me he had trademarked our company name in his own and went off by himself. But that's fine. Come all ye. He's done a great job and built up The Digital Journalist as the go-to site for all involved in creating cross-media. He also conducts " Playtypus" workshops. I also hear he is an adjunct professor at University of Texas at Austin, the perfect venue for him to empower and incite the next generation of cross-media story tellers.


And back to Nightline. The Circle Comes Round


But to get to the end of the story. In 2000 I finally worked with Tom Bettag at Nightline. And it just goes to show you the power of a single cold-call, well-timed, thoughtful and properly executed without perstering. And my hat goes off with deepest gratitude to Michael Rosenblum as well who trained me to shoot video in the first place and write scripts. Two Pros


Proof of Lateral Thinking In Action


Only twenty mintes ago I began to write this post about encoding video and now find myself crafting a post instead that ends with an annecdote about the power of cold calls. What gives?


Check on my earlier post Big Bang Thinking and the earlier post on hyperlinks. No I'm not a Big Banger. Only in my dreams. But I certainly enjoy writing and thinking in a lateral manner although I also perform fine in the linear world.


Which is why I do cross-media.


How about you? Send us your thoughts to Send Comments To "Crossing Media"

Christos Gates and Video Encoding

How to encode video ? Yikes so many not always delicious options. It makes you wish that all these competitors in the player wars would decide like in that 60's song,to try " to smile on your brothers," and " get along with each other right now," with one set of specs. But hey, Woodstock's peace and love wavey gravy days are long past as the player wars heat up. Sigh says this aging hippie trying to adjust.

Full Disclosure

A full disclosure is maybe in order here. I sang Kumbaya but didn't do drugs.


Christo's Gates Encoded for Quicktime using reference movies

Above you'll see a " Streaming Message" (TM) clip I produced last year in a few hours after seeing Christo's Gates in the snow up in Harlem. I compressed it for three bandwidths and then created a reference script. I guess how it works is it pings your computer to see your bandwidth before playing. It doesn't seem to work if you have a Firewall however. And it looks funky in places. Tonight I will re-encode the clip using QT 7 and post the results for you to compare.

iTunes:One Billionth Download

Suddenly there's money in the arena of downloaded content. When big bucks are at stake the kids in the sandbox start duke it out in earnest rather than share toys. They're looking at Apple which just announced that music fans to their iTunes Music Store

" have legally downloaded one billion songs from the iTunes Music Store since it launched less than three years ago. The billionth song “Speed of Sound” was purchased as part of Coldplay’s “X&Y” album by Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan."



I just sent an e-mail to the film maker Marshall Curry asking for advice re encoding. Marshall filmed, produced, wrote and cut his great epic doc " Street Fight" which has been nominated for an Academy Award. I am cutting a video clip for my blog that I shot of his Q & A session at Saturday's DocuFest NYC. It's the first of several reports I will include on this blog with film makers talking about their craft. So far I have cut about 15 minutes and will post it here at www.crossingmedia.blogspot.com. Inshallah.

Encode For All Three Players?

For the moment, I believe the short answer is " encode for all three" players...Flash, QT and Windows Media if you want to reach the largest number of folks. Take a look at this player skin Aquent uses for messages from one of its recruiters. They have encoded for Flash, Windows & Flash.


I will also post a video I encoded using Flip 4 Mac, a great tool . Granted the video doesn't look as great as Quicktime but you can bet more people will play it and you will reach the largest amount of users with your video content. On my website the clip is encoded for both players and the Windows users far out number the QT users. In fact after looking at Aquent's player skin here, I have decided this is the way to go, all three.

Some say Flash indeed is the way to go, even if perhaps it's not as great as QT. I'll write about that later.

Ken McCarthy Weighs In

Remember Gomer Pyle saying " surprise, surprise, surprise" ? ( If you're too young to rememeber, you can catch him in re-runs) Right after sending my query to Marshall I opened up Ken McCarthy's always informative newsletter next. He was trying to answer this query. I had asked him the same question earlier, as have others in what he calls a real " horse race"...

Every format has enthusiastic fans who claim their way is THE way to encode video for the Internet.

If only it were that simple.

Flash and Apple have made impressive strides, but according to Jan Ozer, the author of a recent detailed study comparing online video formats, "rumors of the demise of other codecs have been greatly exaggerated. Here's his answer Jan Ozer's Press Release for Streaming Video Report


You can subscribe to Ken's great newsletter " Looking at Video On the Web" at his blog.

DocuDay NYC Videos Coming Soon...

Stay Tuned. Videos With Doc-Makers Coming Later This Week
Marshall Curry, Director of Street Fight, Photo/Hollyman c. 2006

As soon as I find time to edit the video I shot I will upload these reports from the IDA on:

Marshall Curry filmed, produced, wrote and cut his great epic doc Street Fight as a one person team, a terrific tale about the 32-year-old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law School grad Cory Booker who ran for mayor of Newark. Marshall's quest to tell the story of one man's fight against an entenched political machine is especially relevant today. More on Marshall later...

And also more on the film making team of Dana Adam Shapiro, Jeff Mandel and Henry-Alex Rubin who brought us Murderball, a terrfic sports story about quad rugby, played by quadriplegics in armored wheelchairs.

Praise be to the International Documentary Association (IDA)

Thanks to IDA, AKA International Documentary Association and its Executive Director, Sandra Ruch, along with her capable team of volunteers, New Yorkers were treated to a day-long feast of documentary films yesterday at the DGA's elegant Florence Gould Theater at 57th Street. The Zulu have a word called " Indaba" that stands for a forum in which share ideas and collaborate. Sounds like DocuDay NYC. The Sundance Channel provided much-needed funding to make this all possible.

Over this next week I will be uploading some videos I shot at the fest during some Q&A sessions which Ruch conducted with film makers whose works have been nominated for Academy Awards. I will try to encode the audio track as MP3 files that you can play on your computer or download and listen to in your iPod on your way to work. Inshallah. God willing. And my time willing.

Join the IDA

If you are still reading this post you should join the IDA too , a wonderful community devoted to documentary film-makers. You get a magazine subscrition too.

Quicktime 7



View the IMAX Deep Sea 3D Trailer with Quicktime 7

Spin through the deep with your small screen for now, watching the IMAX Deep Sea Trailer here after downloading the Quicktime 7 player for Mac or Quicktime 7 player for Windows free. Let the ocean's surf sweep onto your screen while your fingers stay dry on your keyboard.

This truly immersive and submersive movie experience was shot with the world's largest camera, weighing in at 1,300 pounds in its underwater housing. Big Bertha, billed by Deep Sea 3D director Howard Hall as " almost totally impractical," needs two people for its operation and costs $60 a second to use.

Quicktime 7 Player

So you thought I had become a movie review site? No way. I actually wrote this post to entice my readers to download the free Quicktime 7 player. In a previous post Christos Gates and Video Encoding, I suggested that you encode video for all players, not just the one that is clearly superior. Not everyone has downloaded the latest-state-of-the-art player or has blazing band width.

In subsequent posts I will demonstrate encoding with the incredible H.264 codec which among many other features, Apple says, delivers the ability to make everyone a movie producer.

Whoah...Nelly....

But does everyone has something to say? Maybe not. But at least they can try. Remember watching your friends' home movies and slideshows? Quicktime and iMovie now make it easier to share your experiences than ever before. Whether somebody else wants to view this content is a story for another post perhaps.

Quicktime 7 for Pros : A Real Steal

You can also fork out an $29.99 to download Quicktime 7 for Pros which is a steal.

Full Disclosure
I receive no money for click-throughs for any editorial content on this blog. I do receive some small change for the ads embedded in clearly defined boxes by Google Ad Sense.

Back to QT.

But just don't forget one thing. If you encode with this new codec only people who have downloaded the free QT7 player can see it in full glory. Earlier QT players won't work. So by encoding for QT7 alone you're forcing people to take time to download yet another plug-in. So maybe you want to think about also encoding for Windows Media Player and Real, as well. You can read my earlier post where I recommend also encoding for other players as well.

Apple says that QT7 is,

The perfect companion for your Windows PC, QuickTime 7 Pro will convert you from a video watcher to a video maker. Harness the power of QuickTime 7 Pro for everything from creating podcasts to transcoding media in more than a dozen formats.

...Surround audio. Create a rich multimedia experience by adding multichannel audio to your movie. QuickTime automatically mixes the audio to work with the speaker setup of each user.

AAC constant-quality and constant-bit rate encoding. Create AAC audio files optimized for constant quality for a consistently high-quality listening experience, or for constant bit rate for bandwidth-constrained scenarios.

Totally Submersive IMAX Big Screen Experience




Photo Courtesy www.boingboing.net

IMAX beckons us to head out to our nearest large screen theater to enjoy their latest 3D extravaganza, IMAX Deep Sea 3D, which Imax co-CEO Brad Wechsler says is
" giving the consumer a reason to get off the couch." On the same web page a Netflix ad tells us that we can enjoy movies in our home. What's a person to do with so many choices at hand?

Are you asking ME? If so I would say, take a look at this trailer and then head for the nearest IMAX theater with your favorite squeeze. Put on your cool sexy 3D shades and go retro like bloggers at Boing Boing did. Movies at home are for rainy nights and take-out Chinese food. Nothing rivals the Big Screen for the ulimate sensory experience.



View the IMAX Deep Sea 3D Trailer with Quicktime 7

Spin through the deep with your small screen for now, watching the IMAX Deep Sea Trailer here after downloading the Quicktime 7 player for Mac or Quicktime 7 player for Windows free. Let the ocean's surf sweep onto your screen while your fingers stay dry on your keyboard.

This truly immersive and submersive movie experience was shot with the world's largest camera, weighing in at 1,300 pounds in its underwater housing. Big Bertha, billed by Deep Sea 3D director Howard Hall as " almost totally impractical," needs two people for its operation and costs $60 a second to use.

No small screens here, as in Little Screens, Little People,my previous post. Nestle together with your friends and listen to the stirring surround-sound musicial score. Hear Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet narrate this ode to the marvels of Big Blue life down under. Feel yourself flinch with real fear ...into your date's arms... while jelly fish seems to swim one foot away from your popcorn.

Feel your spirit and soul soar as you float through current and tide with turtles, little and BIG fishies, manta rays... just a few of the many deep-sea denizens that share this planet with us. But if you don't believe me, read all about it at Wired or www.boingboing.net.