Success: Youtubers vs Vimeo Users

With all the sites out there that provide services for you to upload videos and pictures to, it's sometimes hard to decide where you want to plant your feet. Let's take a look at some of the differences between the two as seen from a candid viewer like myself.

Youtube for me is a place to watch wacky clips of animals, viral videos, crazy people doing crazy stuff. But there are also quite a few Youtubers who have become quite a success. The first and possibly biggest as of late is Freddie and Brandon from freddiew and their friends Sam and Niko from Corridor Digital. These guys started off with nothing and built what is now a huge following. If you go back to some of their earliest work, you can see how well they've progressed through the years. They are visual effects masters but are always kind enough to run through tutorials on their second channels so that people like you and me can have a go at it. Their clips are short and entertaining. But now with a combined following of almost 3.5 million people (A majority going to the freddiew channel) they managed to get to a point where companies as big as EA (Electronic Arts), are impressed enough to ask them to make paid national commercials for them. The commercial is only going to add to their popularity and possible revenue to make more movies.

And speaking of movies, freddiew managed to get an insane amount of support on their Kickstarter campaign to produce what they believe to be (We'll have to wait and see) a great feature. Youtube fans have shown their appreciation for the art they've created so much so that they managed to make $273,725 in contributions when their goal was only $75,000. That's 4 times more than they asked for, give or take. Compare that to indie film DP Phillip Bloom's Kickstarter campaign which fell short almost $18,000 short of their $48,000 goal.

Which brings me to Vimeo. I like putting up my artsy stuff where someone might appreciate a little technical information or where some might be offered up concerning the video. To be honest, if I made a feature, I would like to see it up on Vimeo. For some reason the community there is far more constructive and appreciative of what you put up, as far as the comments go. The lack of trolls that are all over Youtube is what makes Vimeo very appealing to some. It's also less cluttered and simply a nicer viewing experience. Unfortunately, Vimeo does not have a system in place to monetize videos...and I don't know why with so many wonderful pieces there to watch. I admit, a different crowd would be watching, but still a great way for filmmakers to continue making more of what people like to see would be to offer a way for them to make money to budget for future videos. The limits set for regular, Plus and Pro users is either good or bad depending on who you are. Without going into too much detail, I've stayed a regular user and will upgrade to a Plus user when I am able to make better contributions to the channel I have. So who are the stars of Vimeo? Well, it's hard to say. There are some wonderfully talented people doing all sorts of creative and informative stuff. Phillip Bloom is someone I've followed. He likes to put his gear to the test and then share his experiences, and I'm glad for that. He does have a great following and I believe is very popular in the indie film world. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, the Kickstarter campaign he was part of didn't do well at all when you compare it to freddiew and friends. That's not to say they are poor. Phillip and others like Vincent LaForet, Tom Lowe, the Stillmotion crew and others still make plenty of money doing what they love.

I'll end it like this: A friend of mine who is also a lover of films told me that his Youtube watching is like partying with a bunch of friends, eating pizza and drinking beer. Whereas Vimeo is like sitting down by yourself with a bottle of wine (Or whiskey) and enjoying the flavor in a quiet room alone and content. What do you think? Where would you put your feature? What would like Youtube or Vimeo to do to make it 'better'?

Galaxy Nexus: My change over from Blackberry

I'm going to make this short and sweet:

When I bought my Blackberry, I had decided I wanted it because of the QWERTY keyboard and because quite a few of my friends back home were using it. I has heard good things about it. But as time went by and with so many people buying iPhones (Not available with my carrier), I was feeling a bit green with envy. I wanted to take pictures and instantly upload them to my site or Facebook or any other social network. Unfortunately, the Blackberry camera is CRAP!

Then along comes the iPhone 4S and rumors that my carrier would be accepting transfers. I'm not sure how it works in other countries, or even here in Japan really, but from what I heard my carrier NTT Docomo, could technically allow the use of a Docomo SIM card in the iPhones. This was not something that Softbank (The official carrier) or NTT Docomo would confirm.

Next thing I know I have a friend talking to me about Android phones. I had never paid much attention to Android phones but when I saw the announcement of Android 4.0 for the Galaxy Nexus and it's camera functionality, I was sold.

Have it for barely 2 weeks now, I'm still getting use to things. I had a problem with it initially as it wouldn't show my contacts in order and Google Earth seemed to be missing altogether, even though it was installed. NTT Docomo advised a backup of my contacts and a factory reset. That did the trick.

Now I'm able to shoot video, take pictures and have some serious fun with my social networks...the kind I couldn't have with my Blackberry. As I am writing this I realize I should have some video and pictures to share but I don't, I'm still having a little too much fun with the other apps. I will however update this entry with content as soon as possible. I just need to get my shiznit together.

A word of advice: Turn off your Wifi and GPS as it drains the power. Also, understand that this massive screen takes a lot of juice so if you're watching videos or playing games, it's not likely to last you as long as your other phones. My wife was kind enough to supply me with a charger just in case.

Time 4 Timelapse

The idea: I had to go to Umeda this day for work, but it would only be for about an hour. It felt like such a waste to go there and just come back home. I decided to bring my gear with me and do a little time lapse of the area. Many of my friends who live in Osaka will instantly recognize all these spots. Originally I wanted to get more train shots at both JR Osaka Station and Hankyu Umeda Station but found myself getting lost in some of the other areas of Umeda. This is an 'incomplete' project as I would like to add far more to it.

The Gear: Canon 1Dm4, Canon 17-40 4L lens, a cheap (light weight) tripod and the Canon TC80N3 Timer Remote Control.

The Settings: In manual at f4, I first focused the lens with auto-focus on and then set the focus to manual (So that it would try and focus while doing the time lapse), I set the white balance to what I liked (Avoid Auto-White balance as this can change the colors with clouds moving overhead and the sun going up or down). I took a couple of test shots to make sure it was composed properly. Before starting the time lapse I turned off the preview picture option so as to save on battery power. I set the controller to take a picture every 2 seconds. I shot in jpeg because I was really just looking to have a bit of fun. I would shoot RAW but I only had 1 of my CF card with me and no spare batteries.

I decided to take about 700-800 jpegs per location. I took out my ipod and listened to music while the camera snapped away. The most boring part of the job. I would then move the camera and repeat all the above steps. Once I ran out of power (The camera and myself) I packed it all up and went home.

The Edit: I imported all my jpeg files into Lightroom and did a batch color correction on the images in their respective sequences. Doing this is easy in Lightroom: Simply make the necessary changes to your first image in the sequence, then select all your images with the color corrected image highlighted and hit the sync button in the lower right-hand corner of Lightroom. This should then apply all the changes made from your first image to all the other images. Then export them to a new folder.

Import the images in After Effects to create the 'almost' equivalent 4K project. From here you can re-size the sequence to fit your 1080p or 720p timeline. Or you can do some fancy zooms and pans as I did with this video without losing any quality/detail. The zooms and pans are done using key frames. I set a key frame at point A (The start) and then pan or zoom and set a key frame at point B (The end) over a desired length of time. Do a quick Google search on key frames in Adobe After Effects and there are plenty of easy to follow tutorials on this.

Since this is more of a test video than an actual project, I am not too worried about all the details (read: flaws) in the video...with the exception of 2. The first is a brief moment of black between the last scenes, even though it was for just a split second. I had already deleted the project and really couldn't be bothered to go in and edit that out. The second, something that was really out of my control, was the second to last scene where I wanted trains coming in and out of the station to be the subject, but a couple decided that they would stand right there. I thought they would move out of frame eventually, but they never did.

Music: Crash OTS

Bye Bye Yoko

View on ExposureRoom

A farewell video...need I say more. The poor video quality in the middle is because I was using the GoPro HD in very low light.

The Maestro

This is a favorite film of mine. They do an incredible job of incorporating time-lapse in their video. I just love this and had to share.

Tomoyuki // Rena

Shot on the Canon 1Dm4 with the Canon 100mm f2.8L and Canon 70-200mm f4L. This was a difficult shoot. I was the minister at their wedding and had to setup cameras as well. I brought my HV20 and GoPro for some B-Roll but didn't have time to set everything up. During the wedding I had a guest 'point' the camera down the aisle. Unfortunately, with the lighting and lack of time, the footage was not as high-quality as I would have liked it to be. Of course, I wasn't sure what the quality would be until I actually got home and put on the footage on my computer.

I joined the party and with beer in one hand and a shaky hand on my the Canon 1Dm4, I shot little bits and pieces. This was all done for fun of course. It was only AFTER the wedding that I thought 'Well, I could've put THIS camera THERE and THAT camera HERE'

Some Great Talent

It's always nice to work with talented people, it makes my job a whole lot easier. On this day, knowing that I would have very little time to set anything up (We were working), I brought my 1DM4, Rode Stereo/Video mic and Zoom H4n. I knew Kawasaki kun would be there that day and as far as tenors go, he's one of the most talented I've had the pleasure of working with. I'm constantly asking him to do the 'higher' version of Nessun Dorma. Usually, in order to keep his voice clear and 'safe' for work, he doesn't perform it that high, but he did on this day. The violinist, another amazing talent, was kind enough to play a variety of musical scores, my favorite one being the theme song to Totoro. A great animation and must see, if you haven't already. Once we got some of the 'main' stuff down, the two did a bit of Mario Brothers for me.

I wasn't able to get everything on the Zoom, and I was going hand-held on everything. Exposure was hard to get right because it's basically a small chapel on the 23rd floor with window walls. It can go from blindingly sunny to dark (Literally takes a couple of clouds to make a world of difference).

Here are the videos I've edited so far and will add the rest as they are processed.

Tonari no Tottoro // となりのトトロ from Jason McDonald on Vimeo.

Nessun Dorma // Kawasaki Kun from Jason McDonald on Vimeo.