As a new media producer and recent graduate of the UW MCDM program, I had been looking for Web video work and a means of applying the skills I had been developing as a graduate student. About a month ago, Kathy Gill, one of the MCDM’s most popular professors (and exceptionally well established in the Seattle social media sphere, I might add) connected me with Huh via Twitter. Huh has been in the process of hiring for various positions within his expanding Network and had been advertising such through his tweets. However, at the time, the need for a video to celebrate Cheezburger’s birthday and billion video views had not completely arisen. Only recently had the Cheezburger Network noted that they were approaching 1 billion video views, as the majority of their blogs’ entries have focused mainly on funny still images and memes. Huh came up with the idea to produce the anniversary video (as well as to expand their video presence) in part based on conversations with me, and, I am certain, simply by looking at his sites’ video numbers. As a fan of LOLcats, FAILs, and all things meme culture, I seemed like a really good fit for the project, and late one evening just before Christmas, we commenced work. Read more…
Watch the video of my entire Seattle Town Hall talk on January 13, 2010 (we’ll post the high-res version later). Here is my slide deck with notes (cross-posted from The Storyteller Uprising blog). Special thanks to MCDM’er Jay Al-Hashal who provided the design concept for the deck and advised me on structure. We covered everything last night — Iran, the Haiti Earthquake, Google’s stunning Chinese censorship decision, and as always, the future of journalism and the danger of echo chambers:
Animation is a very unique art form; it allows the filmmaker to control their story down to each individual frame. Each object, shadow, and line must be created and placed. The camera does not capture unintentional backgrounds, extra frames, or incidental light, there is only what the animator chooses to show.
The digital revolution in media production is dramatically changing the techniques, forms, content, and function of modern animation and is actively remixing it with other media forms so much that digitally-created animation is now nothing short of a new mode of cultural production and a totally unique form of motion-graphic storytelling of its own right.
The diversity of software tools available for creating moving images on a screen has contributed to the rise of a tremendous and diverse number of styles, techniques, and looks. The multitude of distribution channels further enforced the trend of convergence towards forms more suitable for display on multiple screen sizes and configurations.
As Manovich puts it in his review of Adobe’s AfterEffects, a popular suite for creating digital animations: “[A]s software remixes the techniques and working methods of various media they simulate, the result are new interfaces, tools and workflow with their own distinct logic. In the case of AfterEffects, the working method which it puts forward is neither animation, nor graphic design, nor cinematography, even though it draws from all these fields. It is a new way to make moving image media. Similarly, the visual language of media produced with this and similar software is also different from the languages of moving images which existed previously (Manovich, 2006).”
Nearly five years ago, my wife and I set out on a road trip across America, armed with a couple of cameras, laptops, and a burning need to tell a story about a growing insurgency against big box stores. What we didn’t have were jobs (I was determined never to work in TV news again), much money in the bank, or any clue what we were going to do with our footage when we got home — it was all “close, but no cigar” with networks like PBS and Discovery, which meant all our effort could conceivably lead to nothing.
But thanks to a pioneering social media strategy, grassroots interest in our film, and really good timing, a lot of people paid attention, and our documentary has been viewed around the world. We continue to get requests to attend community screenings — from Hyannis MA to Port Townsend WA, even as some of the issues have evolved (Wal-Mart has turned over a new leaf, Starbucks is in slow retreat, many Americans now truly mistrust their powerful institutions and believe in “local first.”). We’ve had broadcast deals, and we’ve sold DVD’s. It was probably one of the main reasons why the University of Washington hired me to lead its graduate degree program in digital media. So have we benefited enough? Is it now time to give it away, streaming it for free on Hulu, second only to YouTube when it comes to online video? Isn’t that what you do with your content in the multimedia age?
As a new addition to the MCDM family, I’d like to introduce myself by posting a story regarding my recent travels to South Africa. Looking forward to many great happenings as the Associate Director of the MCDM.
Scott Macklin participated in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Diversity Conference – BREAKING BOUNDARIES, EMBRACING DIFFERENCES in August. Featured in the week of events included a screeing of his film, “Masizakhe: Building Each Other” and follow up panel discussions. This was the film’s homecoming.
“No information is more valuable than experiencing an epiphany” – Epipheo Studios
Have you ever watched an online video that immediately compelled you to find the share tool? Thus born the viral video, a visual experience shared by millions within days.
Last month an entrepreneur, internet marketer and videographer, with a bond formed by shared childhood summers on Whidbey Island, Wash., banned together to introduce a new noun to the global network of shared online multimedia: epipheo (formed from the words “epiphany” and “video”).
Epipheo Studios (ES) launched a beta website epipheo.com to aggregate such works that are not only viral, but “turn a light on” and transform the way people think and live.
“It’s likely that a day will come when creating an epipheo for a new campaign will be as common as writing a press release,” said Jeremy Pryor, ES cofounder.
Pryor dropped out of graduate school in 2001 and put down $1000 to start his first ecommerce business TolkienTown (“store for the Lord of the Rings and other collectibles”), which reached more than $3 million in sales by 2003. In 2004 Pryor cofounded Marketplace Earth, search engine marketing Read more…
Seattle-based Pet Holdings, Inc., CEO Ben Huh (purveyor of beloved LOLcats and many other hilarious image macros) contracted with me to produce his Cheezburger Network’s 3rd Anniversary Video, an effort to celebrate the 3-year anniversary of icanhascheezburger.com and the 1 billionth collective view of the entire network’s user-generated video content.
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