I shot some video a while ago of one on my favorite Portland Oregon bands rocking out at a cute little produce market called Cherry Sprout Produce co-owned by my good pal Lana Rebel. A few months later I finally had a bit of time to edit one of the better songs and post it. The audio was really loud and chewed up my on camera mic, but I think it actually adds a nice low fi feeling, which is in line with the Rock n’ Roll sound of Thee Headliners.
As a design professional and an artist I’ve always been fascinated with medical illustration, and these great paintings are really remarkable documents that transcend above the ordinary. They are really beautiful and grotesque, created in 1819 by Kyoto-area physician/artist Yasukazu Minagaki (1784-1825). The paintings were studies created from actual corpses which were actually the remains of recently beheaded criminals, and it is the grotesque expressions which really makes them stand out in this time period. There are two scrolls of 83 paintings currently hosted at the Keio University Library. Check out the rest of the images here (there is a link to page navigation in the bottom left corner of the page).
So I have been meaning to post a comparison of some of the major players in the online video publishing and sharing industry, and finally I have found time. This is some footage I shot shortly before leaving Tucson AZ of a demolition derby slash monster truck event at night. The video I am hosting and serving up with the great JW Player was compressed using the basic medium settings in the Flash encoder on2 VP6 codec. The original SD miniDV file for uploading to the online services was edited in FCP and exported using the h.264 codec, high quality, multi-pass. The file is about 2 minutes long and was 50 megs or so. FYI at the time of this post most of the Upload services will only allow you to upload 100megs. I had no problems uploading to any of these sites, the process was smooth and pretty much the same for all of them.
First off this is the source video, hosted by me, not from a flash streaming server. The .flv video source is being played using the JW Player (and a wordpress plugin FLV embed). ALSO of note I am using the embed code from each site as provided, and the window size they put in there. This code in some instances breaks standards acceptability. For a good article on that check out this post from Bernie Zimmermann and read the comments, there is some better code in there to use if you want to stay standards compliant.
Ok! let’s move on to the free hosted video options
Youtube-
They are the Google powered heavyweight, everyone knows them, and everyone has seen at least some Youtube videos. They have added some interesting options to their player recently, so you can now add multiple videos from your same account. In my opinion their compression is considerably poorer compared to these others, however they have a HUGE network of users, so if your main concern is to get your video seen…Youtube is probably the place to start.
Vimeo-
Vimeo is a newer challenger to Youtube, they have a great looking stylish player, and also offer to host and serve up higher quality HD video. Their compression looks great.
Blip.tv-
Another new challenger to Youtube is Blip.tv, they have a nice simple clean player, and their compression looks good.
Jumpcut-
Jumpcut offers the ability to do simple edits to your own video online, which may come in handy if you are away from the editing machine and need a small change made.
In conclusion there are some really good quality challengers to Youtube now, and the better quality of these players means Youtube might need to revisit their compression options. However, many people viewing videos online simply don’t care too much, and are more concerned with speed so it will be interesting to see how it plays out. As far as your choice between using a service like Youtube, or hosting your own videos? The things you need to consider are mostly branding, bandwidth and access to a social network. Youtube type sites have their own branded players, and they link off to their sites…they are “free” obviously. You might end up sending your visitor offsite, by the same token these networks have large numbers of users everyday, so you can take advantage of some built in marketing by posting your video there.
Apple has really made some inroads with their pro applications. Final Cut Pro has developed into a real contender for high end professional editing. The proof behind this statement is backed up by this article which talks to the Coen brothers about their use of FCP for editing their excellent film No Country for Old Men.
So earlier in the year before we packed up and left Tucson AZ for the greener pastures of Oregon, we were fortunate enough to attend a screening of the film Heart of an Empire which chronicles the development of the Fighting 501rst, a group of self created Stormtroopers (and other Star Wars themed characters) who attend fundraisers, and visit children in hospitals, and are all around really decent people. We shot some footage of them promoting the film outside on the streets, which was pretty funny. Here’s a quick edit using a song from the sci-fi themed band SPOCK.
Learn more about these special people and their work- Fighting 501
It’s always cool when someone melds modern technology with traditional art style. Here is a great “thesis” animation from RIT which does just that. Watch as a Monk learns the style of one of my favorite bugs (bug or alien life form? the verdict still has to be out on that one), the Praying Mantis.
Chances are you’ve heard something about this “iPhone”. If you have not, you are either deaf, blind or so in love with Microsoft you have enabled your sensory filters to block out anything Apple related. All the hype aside this is really going to be an amazing gadget. It’s certainly more than “just a phone”, and it will really raise the bar for the portable market. It runs a slimmed down version of Apple’s operating system, which makes it quite a powerful little device capable of running your itunes, playing video, surfing the web, etc etc. What we are all really excited about of course is the touch screen, and it remains to be seen how easy it is to use, initial reports have been very positive. Apple has just released this informative..rather lengthy 20 minute video that goes through all the features and apps included with the phone. It’s a good place to start if you want to familiarize yourself with just what all the hype is about. A “revolution” maybe not, but an evolution for mobile phones, and devices it certainly is.
Watch as the Copper Queens are brutally devirginized by the ruthless posse of Tucson police known as the Vice Squad! Welcome to the league. They do look awful charming in those copper shorts, and this was a damn good first showing for the newest team in the league. Good job gals.
Hello TRD Roller Derby fans! I finally had time to edit the first Season 4 bout trailer. Sit back sip a spiked lemonade or a frothy PBR, enjoy the sounds of Tucson’s own Al Foul, and watch the gals knock the heck out of each other! Ahh yeah another season of Roller Derby gets under way.
