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Jake & Amir at NYC Video Meetup

I’m very happy to announce that this month’s NYC video meet-up will host special guests, Jake and Amir:

http://www.jakeandamir.com  

 The dynamic duo will speak about their production process, technical flow, business and the history of how they got started.

From Wired: “The Setup: Real-life CollegeHumor.com employees Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld turn the cameras toward their desks, chronicling their sidesplittingly dysfunctional, partially fictional work relationship. Human’s Take: "Consistently funny,” Scheer says. “It just goes to show, you don’t need a big budget to make hilarious shorts." I’ve also written about them here.

 Everyone that attends the meet-up is invited to give a 2min introduction, then we will hear from the special guests for one hour, chat for about 15minutes afterwards and then migrate over to a bar on Spring Street.

To attend, please sign up on the website at: http://videoblog.meetup.com/8/

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Tron Guy at ROFLcon on Rocketboom

 

Jay Maynard the Tron Guy at the ROFLcon conference, MIT. The classic tron costume page that led everyone awry. Where The Hell Is Matt? Special music thanks to podington bear, ham radio by rtpalovich, Tron on ebay, Tron Arcade, Tron Trailer (redux), Tron (imdb)

 

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Podshow < Mevio

Podshow changes it’s name to Mevio, not Meivo.

I’ve always been disenchanted with this network and have said enough already so I’m not going to bring up the three outstanding cease and desist letters Ive sent to the company asking them to stop redistributing Rocketboom (especially as they do it with ads) but I would like to throw in a word of support for two awesome shows which in my opinion are the only reason why the network is even relevant, Dawn and Drew and GeekBreif.

Do you listen to Dawn and Drew? I consider them to be the first to successfully embrace the new medium of Podcasting. I’m not suggesting they were the first podcasters of course but I consider them the first *people* I came across, uninhibited by technology, money, and locale to captivate an audience online. If you didn’t experience it at the time, it would be difficult to understand that what they did was radical. A young liberal-minded, extremely fowl mouthed couple out on a farm in the middle of nowhere America, demonstrated the boundaries and implications of the anyone-can-take-hold-of-the-radio message with every word they spoke. Everyday they consistently released a new episode, you could just see everyone in gray pants at the National Association of Broadcasters convention fade before your eyes – still yet unbeknownst to most of them.

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Rocketboom Production Process Explained

 

This Tuesday the free NYC Videoblogging Meetup (which I just noticed is the largest videoblogging Meetup in the world (not sure if that statement is deserving of any clout but whateva)) will be held at the *new* Rocketboom office/studio in Soho.

We’re giving away our production process in a 2 hour overview. From coming up with ideas, to researching, writing, shooting, editing, and publishing, our crew will explain how we put together our daily episodes. Everything from methods, to software to workflow and procedures will be discussed. 

Must RSVP on the meet-up site to attend (we are getting close to capacity so you might want to do that soon to assure attendance).

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Video of Twitter Madness

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Understanding Flickr Video

Several people are reporting about the new Flickr video, but no one has quite articulated how to use it yet.

Covering certain events in video form for the net can be very challenging, especially when the idea is to boil it down to just a few minutes, and of course when conceptually, the work must be linear (think boring dry interviews and  conferences).

This is a challenge I’ve always faced. How can you get the info across in the most effective and precise way, without wasting the time of a jaded, snarky and very click-away-busy-like audience?

Even when the sights and sounds are as compelling as a Maker Fair, for example, its still a bit overwhelming to try and convey all the goodness in just a few minutes. 

Last year, I consequently came up with a method for covering events I called the Flickr Video Pool. Instead of a liner presentation, I tool a bunch of tiny clips – just enough in each case to get the point across – and put them up in the form of a Flickr pool set, as seen here:

It was effective, I think, because you could get a quick view of the still images and then decide which was worth drilling deeper. Each time you click on an image, a short clip pops up, usually raw and unedited. There is no complaining about production, or the 3 minuets of your life that you will never get back. Just keep on clicking.

I posted about the method to the Yahoo videoblogging group last year: “Much like a photo set, we set out to capture tiny little clips that, all together, stand as a fun little, self-paced video ride through the fair. I see it as somewhat of an evolution on the Flickr Set experience, in one baby step.”

So next time you find yourself at an event or a party, dont be afraid to capture 10 or 15 small little clips, anywhere from a few seocnds to a couple of minutes if its worth it. Put ‘em all up together in a flickr video pool, and there ya go, a new dimension will be added to your flickr pool experience, as seen here:

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Michelle Ma Bell

The Beatles performed correctly by Dictionary audio pronunciations. See also my fave, Martha My Dear. When you find yourself in the thick of it, more

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Jake & Amir

Have you seen Jake and Amir? It’s a comedy series with character development comprised of short absurd scenes that I really enjoy watching. Ive seen a few scenes here and there but last week, I actually found myself kicked back and watching the archives because I just wanted to. I was like, WTF am I doing?

I’ve pasted in an episode below, though I think you have to flip through several of the short 1-2 min scenes before making a call. Basically, Jake and Amir work at the same office and are thus coincidentally destined to work together. Amir is quite the hand-full and Jake is able to put up with it.

                 

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Veronica Belmont Has Been Freed!

World rejoice, Veronica Belmont is no longer behind bars in the Mahalo offices of Jason Calacanis. Today Veronica posted that she is moving on. 

The reason why I’m excited about this is because I think Veronica is awesome and that her stint at Mahalo has been hampering her potential.

A video on how to make grilled cheese sandwiches might be more Jason’s speed, but Veronica is a young bundle of depth just waiting to explode.

In a a couple of emails to Veronica today, she wouldn’t reveal what she has in store next, but it sounds like we’ll hear about it soon. I’m thinking this is her year to take the world by storm.

 

Photo by Scott Beale