If you want to join me on my new venture, come this way. Or on this old school Le Tigre photo I took from the front row:

~ Daniela

I recently led a workshop for our Street Team ’08 members. These 51 state-based citizen journalists will be covering election ’08 from a youth perspective. They will submit weekly reports online and via mobile, which should lead to some interesting and hyper-local reporting. They are using Adobe Creative Suite CS3 to edit/produce their packages, podcasts and animations.

It will be interesting to see how the team members work out all the issues that will arise in the fun and often aggravating world of multi platform production. For many, this will be there first time working as mobile producers… When I say mobile, I mean it in the context of working on or near the location they are covering, creating content for several screens. Armed with their laptops and portable hard drives (and wi-fi), they will have the ability to create and upload content wherever they happen to be. They can start and even finish projects on location – from tape to the web.

This won’t always be easy, but the truth is that what they are doing is what the next wave of young producers/journalists will be responsible for. They will need to know how to produce content for air and the web (and as the lines blur between what defines both, adapting will be required). They will need to create something timely and relevant within the concentric circles of related ongoing coverage (extended aired packages, blog follow up entries, photo galleries, podcasts, etc.). They will need to be able to think small picture (blog entry first) and bigger picture (follow up with clips, then cut package, then start thread on community page, etc.)

Obviously digital production skill requirements vary based on work environment need, but it is truly no longer a “nice to have” on your resume if your job has anything to do with media. More than ever, producers are required to script, shoot, blog, take photos and often edit their own packages. There are a lot of questions pertaining to pay grades and schedules/quality of life in the evolving world of ’360′ production, but ultimately it’s essential to create a balance between your on-air and digital production skills. One of the results of the evolving synergy between both “sides” of the production coin is a lot of work flow and content direction changes. No longer just an issue for the vlogger, these changes are affecting major networks and the people working for them, in good and not-so-good ways.

The bottom line is, job requirements are changing. The world is changing. And whether you are an aspiring media mogul or an established (up ’til now) on-air producer, it’s time to start thinking beyond the idiot box if you want to remain competitive.

In other news, a photo I took of my childhood ice cream parlor has ended up on Schmap!!, I’m addicted to giant avocados and I start school next week.

Filmmaker Michel Gondry will participate in a discussion and show scenes from his latest film, Be Kind Rewind, which stars Jack Black and Mos Def. When a man whose body accidentally becomes magnetized unintentionally erases every tape in his friend’s video store, the pair set out to remake the lost films, including Back to the Future and The Lion King. Be Kind Rewind was edited with Apple’s Final Cut Pro software. The event will be moderated by indieWIRE Editor-In-Chief, Eugene Hernandez.
January 11, 7:00 p.m., Apple Store in SoHo

Michel Gondry directed this video for The White Stripes, one of my favorites.

Alas, I will be working late that evening so I can’t go.

…Luckily there’s a neat screening happening this weekend that I can attend:

“I CAN SEE YOU” WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING
4:45 PM, SUNDAY, JANUARY 6th 2008
PIONEER THEATER, 155 East 3rd Street (Between Ave A and B) NYC

The mini-novelas are called Tu Voz, Tu Voto and were part of the “Como Se Dice…Como Se Llama (Obama, Obama)” media campaign that was launched by Nueva Vista Media in June of ’07. The campaign featured a website (Amigos de Obama) and reggaetón song.

- via Boston Globe

Tu Voz, Tu Voto is also being promoted and supported by Vote Hope California. In addition to hosting the series, they created a YouTube channel that contains the short political films inspired by the wildly popular telenovela genre of Latin American soap operas. The three-episode series, in English and Spanish, follow the journey of the Ortiz family and their burgeoning support for Presidential candidate Barack Obama. – via vivirlatino

The Amigos de Obama site doesn’t provide links to the videos beyond a single video promo, so it’s clear that Vote Hope is the responsible entity in terms of promotion and outreach for the series. The point of the videos seem to be that Latino voters need to focus on registering to vote and picking the correct candidate (Obama) in addition to marching for causes. I think the concept behind the series is really clever but after all the work involved, are people even watching the videos?

La Marcha (Episode 1: Tu Voz, Tu Voto) was added on YouTube on November 12th.

Since then, it has only been viewed 684 times (last check). The 5 sites linking to the video are all Vote Hope URLs. I wish that YouTube also displayed snag counts, because I discovered this video as an embed on a blog.

What did the 684 people think about the videos? No one has commented, yet.

In contrast, over 20 thousand people have viewed Vote Hope’s most recent video featuring Common that was posted around the same time. It was linked to from several hiphop blogs and other sites. Obviously a video starring a name celebrity like Common is going to get more attention than a 3 part novela series targeted at Spanish speaking Latinos starring no name talent.

Clearly Vote Hope has some pull to get Common involved with their organization. So, what about the Novela series? The Hispanic vote is huge, giganto, enormous, and would be even bigger if even more of my peeps bothered to register. If the goal of the novela series is to effect change among Spanish speaking Latinos, there is still plenty of time to reach them. The point of this entry is not to identify holes in Vote Hope’s online outreach strategy for the series, but instead to use it as a case study for options in reaching your niche target audience through different partnerships.

If You Build It, They May Still Not Come So Take It To Their Houses

Some communication strategy ideas to reach Latino eyeballs and create some change…

~ Nueva Vista Media should have created an Amigos de Obama MySpace page that featured the videos. They can still do it, and should. Once created, it would be nice if they could get the Amigos de Obama profile in Obama’s top 8. He has everyone in there now. ..I am a little confused why this hasn’t happened already. The Amigos site launched back in May, and with it’s emphasis on music and young people (see Wonkette coverage here) I don’t get why this wasn’t part of their plan.

~ Partner with a progressive Spanish channel like V-Me and get these episodes aired as part of a feature on Latino grassroots election campaign coverage. Allow the videos to be accessed through the V-Me website as well as their online news source, Terra.

As far as I can tell, Terra hasn’t yet picked up on the Tu Voz, Tu Voto series. That’s pretty bad.

~ The videos are supposedly available on Univision’s website, but I can’t find them. Make them easier to find and get a feature on air that goes behind the scenes with Vote Hope.

~ Get the episodes screened as part of the NY International Latino Film Festival’s short program as well as accesible through their related site, cinedulce. (think beyond California)

~ Vote Hope’s MySpace page should provide a link to the videos as well as embeds. Currently they only have 299 friends, but every little bit helps.

~ Make Tu Voz, Tu Voto a featured profile on migente.com

~ Create a contest for young people to make their own series episodes. The three are ok on their own, but will quickly become less relevant and interesting when election time rolls around. Keep the concept fresh by giving access to student filmmakers/video makers. Partner with some sweet youth oriented sites like the very YouTube you are using to host your videos to establish the contest, and get the contest page featured on the YouTube main page.

These are just some examples of how Vote Hope could draw more attention to Tu Voz, Tu Voto. I’ve already watched the three videos several times and even I am now kind of bored by them. Without proper context and the ability to allow community interaction, no one is going to remember these.

Amigos de Obama is inspired by Barack Obama, but not funded by the Obama for America Presidential Campaign. Relatedly, Vote Hope is also not funded by the Obama Campaign. Normally, federal law prohibits political action committees, or PACs, from spending more than $5,000 in support of a candidate. But since Vote Hope’s founders argue that this restriction doesn’t apply to them since they don’t coordinate their spending with Obama’s campaign, there’s no limit to what they can spend promoting him (via Boston Globe).

This may be a factor in why the Tu Voz, Tu Voto series is not currently promoted on Obama’s official site, but I don’t see what the problem is in having a campaign hub area that lists all positive independent campaign efforts by supportive organizations. It seems a shame that the Barack TV En Espanol page doesn’t offer the series… It also really bugs me that there isn’t a search option on barackobama.com’s main page.

More info here: HispanicTips

I am in California visiting family and friends until December 26th. Right now I’m waiting for my brother to get dressed so we can go shopping, so I decided to share something from inside the walls of the lair…

A few weeks ago I was attempting to watch a movie and relax after a long day, but The Stinky Cat would not stop attacking my face with his paws (playfully). I decided to beat him at his own game, so the battle for “most annoying couch game” was on.

I won.

__________________

PS: I haven’t written an update on Joost since July, mostly because that was the last time I noticed anything interesting that wasn’t just another “we added another channel!” update. Last week I decided that now that 2007 is almost over, I should pop by and see what else has happened…

Well, they added another channel. A quick scan of the Joost press area informed me that the NBA has just joined the ranks of networks and entities taking their slice of P2P video as far as it can go. The new channel will provide fans around the world with viewing access to “Instant Classic” NBA games and video highlight packages for the remainder of the 2007-08 NBA season.

Personally, I was more interested in finding out if Squidbillies is now available on Joost, because I still haven’t set up cable in my apartment and can only (right now) watch Adult Swim content on YouTube (it is available - yay!) …My whole issue with Adult Swim not offering ad supported full length episodes of Squidbillies on their official site is a rant for another day. Talk about missing a huge opportunity! Anyway. Back to Joost.

I pulled some screenshots as I went through my personal test in Joost and mentally noted all of my complaints. The Watching Joost Pool on Flickr is pretty inactive, but I added my shots there anyway. I’ll share what I uncovered and my thoughts on specific features later in the week.

“What else am I supposed to do?” you may be wondering. Do you have a blog? check. You even uploaded that zany company picnic video to YouTube. You thought it demonstrated how creative and fun spirited your team was, but really it just looks like a lot of boring crap intermixed with people eating. What you’re thinking is right – transparency for transparency’s sake (without strategy) is lame. What methods of disclosure can help you/your business? What are your options and how do you measure what works?

Dude, I don’t know – it’s your company, not mine. Research the methods used by others (now and before the 2.0 boom). Cool example? Mahalo is the first people powered search results site to also host it’s own daily web show, Mahalo Daily. It’s also unique in that besides offering informative “how to” segments, you are often brought behind the scenes of the company, into the lives of the people who make the site tick. It’s a source of info-tainment and a daily press release at the same time, without seeming like one. So the good news is, there is a legitimate way to use transparency successfully as a means to promote and further your business… You just haven’t found it yet.

But don’t lose heart! Take inspiration from a page in the life of Walt Disney.

- via andylatham82

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first Disney feature and the film that initiated the the Golden Age of Animation for Disney, had a lot riding on it’s success. the Disney Company was doing something no one had done before – the first full-length animated feature with sound, and the first to be filmed in Technicolor. Disney knew that there was big money and a legacy to be had by cornering the market on animated features. How did he know this? He listened to his fans.

Scores of people wrote to the studio all the time, expressing how much they wished that the Disney shorts weren’t so…well, short. There was definitely a need to fill, a market to be had. Disney was a risk taker so in 1934, he announced the production of his first feature to the New York Times.

It’s documented that many people in Hollywood thought it was all a big joke – an inevitable failure. Who would want to sit through a feature length film starring cartoons? How would people connect with pen and ink characters dancing around? Who would pay for that? Walt ignored the haters and kept moving forward.

Besides holding rough screenings of the film for investors, Walt Disney decided that in order to sell a never-before-marketed product to the masses he needed every advantage he could get. So, he decided to pull the curtain back even further on the inner workings of his production methods by creating a creative and informative “behind-the-scenes” film for their distributer, RKO Radio Pictures. (This is available on the 2-disc Walt Disney Treasures: Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studio DVD) No studio had ever done this before for a distributer. He had a mission – help those involved with selling the product to better understand the product – by providing a step by step visual tour through the process of creating a feature length animated film.

The result was huge success for both parties: Disney gave RKO its biggest hit of the era, and in 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was Hollywood’s biggest box-office hit of the decade, thanks in part to RKO’s in depth understanding of the creative process

Disney was also one of the first in Hollywood to experience the backlash of transparency. In 1941 Disney released The Reluctant Dragon, a behind-the-scenes look at the studio (similar to the RKO industrial) combined with animated segments, in the midst of the Disney animators’ strike. This film was not profitable, in part because strikers picketed the film’s premiere with signs that attacked Disney for unfair business practices, low pay, lack of recognition, and favoritism.

Kind of hard to swallow the scenes of smiling Disney employees when real ones are outside the theater marching and yelling… Oops!

Audiences were also disappointed that this follow up to the successful Snow White seemed like a “short cut” and a “cheat”, absent of a traditional plot and with a more stylized, improvised feel.

Did this painful experience with transparency deter Disney? No way! He explored and mastered more unchartered waters with The Wonderful World of Disney, a TV series that premiered on ABC on October 27, 1954. It was truly significant in the history of transparency in that not only did Walt Disney originally host it (providing shrewdly candid insights into behind-the-scenes production processes) but the series was the first one from a major movie studio in a time when many in the industry thought TV would be the death of them.

Walt Disney embraced technology and innovation. At crucial points in the evolution of the Disney empire, the decision to air on the side of transparency reaped huge rewards – monetarily and creatively.

So to sum it up, it’s not about slicing open your guts and showing everyone your entrails. That’s just weird (and dangerous). If there’s a reason to keep a product launch hush hush for a while, then do so. But if there’s an opportunity to educate your consumer base, to revive their interest in your brand, to forge a stronger connection in the community surrounding your content, well by all means – figure out what that is and do it.

And seriously, stop uploading those company picnic videos. Inside jokes are exactly that and don’t work virally without some sort of context. Sorry!

Some sources used for this entry:

- Ladytink’s Neverland, Ken Polsson, Wikipedia , Time, Just Disney, and the Walt Disney Treasures: Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studio DVD

Netflix is (content-wise) superior to Blockbuster. They are already offering instant streaming of available titles from their site – why not take the leap and allow DRM protected movie downloads to partner/sanctioned mobile devices? Netflix titles on your ipod/crackberry? I can say with confidence that all of my friends who are Netflix members would use this service.

Netflix – partner with itunes.  Let us movie fans/crackberry & ipod users sync our devices to itunes and/or some sort of blackberry/netflicks platform and load up on movies for on the go stimulation.

We won’t care that we can only watch them on the devices/not be able to share them. Do you know how much I would rather watch a movie on the subway than face the fact that I am stuck in a silver tube with Captain Coppafeel? I can pretend I’m answering an email, but really secretly catching up on all the Fassbinder works I haven’t seen yet.

Come on! GIT-R-DONE!

Hey GreenCine – If Netflix won’t do this, will you? Please. Thank you. You already offer  DVD sales, rentals and Video-on-Demand streams and downloads-to-own. I would renew my membership if you would also offered automatic downloads to my mobile device.

Oh, how time flies! Just a year ago I directed Pistolera‘s first music video and since then they have been all over the place. It’s been great fun to watch one of my favorite bands progress.

They’ve done a European and Mexico tour, were featured in Rolling Stone Mexico, Sandra had a baby, etc. – so much has happened!

Pistolera is shooting their second music video on Sunday December 9th for the new song “Policia” and they need 25-30 people for their performance scene.

“Policia” is a new song that tells the tale of when singer Sandra Velásquez was arrested at the airport for her guitar strap which was decorated with empty bullet casings. The song will be on Pistolera’s next album due out in the spring. This video will be the first to support the album.

The video will be shot in DUMBO, Brooklyn at their rehearsal space. I would offer to be an extra but I am already working that weekend. But you should do it – sounds like fun!

First 30 people to reply are in (email pistoleramusicATgmail.com) You must have Dec 9 avail.

Their last video, “Cazador,” aired on stations nationwide as well as 2 documentaries and included my footage from the Spring ’06 immigration rights marches in NYC.

Here’s a somewhat grainy but still entertaining ^_^ youtube version of their first video:

– via jwilly’s flickr

According to the Hollywood Reporter story, Spotlight Live is a 22,000-square-foot karaoke restaurant and bar in the heart of Times Square that allows anyone with a fantasy of insta-fame the opportunity to be streamed singing their butchered Phil Collins repertoire online and on a Times Square video display board. There are regular contests, one that happened this week where some lucky patron had a shot at a recording deal with Epic Records….

Spotlight Live is really capitalizing on the current demand for more pairing of UGC and professional content. The lure of being able to dine in a club setting while watching performances from both wannabe and top artists like Jennifer Lopez and Alicia Keys appears to be a winning formula. Many more artists have performed at Spotlight Live since it’s opening in April, which can only nurture wannabe starlets hopes of reaching the upper echelons of the karaoke circuit – and possibly, your itunes playlists.

Comcast provides all the technology which means that beyond plastering your crooning mug on SpotlightLive.com, customers can upload performances online from the restaurant’s recording booths or their home computers. To top it off, Comcast’s relationship with Ziddio means that anyone (essentially) in the world can also watch your performance on its user-generated Ziddio VOD channel from their living rooms. “Look mom, I’m singing badly in front of millions of people and you can’t stop me!”

Meanwhile in meatspace, patrons can enjoy gourmet meals at their tables while voting on their favorite performances, instant message other tables, and post their votes and comments online using touch-screens at each table. The Cool Hunter reports that vistors get the full star treatment - complete with fake paparazzi waiting at the door, your record contract waiting to be signed inside, getting whisked to the VIP green room, access to a professional band and back-up singers, etc.

How much you want to bet we see a “Spotlight Live” reality show in the near future?

And yes, of course Spotlight Live has a MySpace page so feel free to get to know your fellow fame seekers.

Why mention both? Well besides obsessively patrolling the web all day and browsing through random web show archives, I remembered that the host of Mahalo Daily is Veronica Belmont, who was once a guest on the show formerly known as Jet Set. You can read Veronica’s Mahalo Daily announcement on her blog.

Mahalo & Google: A Relationship To Ponder

I wrote about Mahalo back in September, feeling it would be a great place for my web savvy/obsessed brother to work.

So far, as a user, I have mixed feelings about Mahalo. Initially, I wondered what the difference would be between Mahalo and community curated/moderated search sites like Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a source for information about *almost* every topic in *almost* every language imaginable, presented as continuously updated articles with reference links…

Mahalo is a human powered aggregator of primarily English based search results comprised of relevant links, not articles. It lacks the editorial element that Wikipedia provides, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (it does offer limited Guide notes). But what makes Mahalo a stopping point for me as I go from Google to Wikipedia?At this stage, Mahalo works as a (if I can remember it) middle ground for me between Google and Wikipedia. If Mahalo doesn’t have results created for my topic, it points me to Google, where I would go anyway. It’s another layer of work that I am not yet sure I am willing to deal with.

The relationship between Google and Mahalo is a little perplexing for me. By partnering with Mahalo, Google is acknowledging that their search result don’t ALWAYS bring you what you want. That’s cool, there are pretty obscure links out there defy all algorithms. But if you are already in bed with each other, why not provide all Google search results along with the producer curated Mahalo result pages? Why make me do one search with you, and then another on Google to make sure you (Mahalo) didn’t miss anything?

What I like about the Mahalo search pages is that although it’s just a bunch of links, they are broken into categories. All the video links/embeds are in one area, and so on. One of the many things that annoy me about Google searches is that sometimes getting the most relevant/linked to search results at top isn’t what you want. You should have the options of seeing all results broken into categories. If I search for “figs”, I want to see all results as images, videos, links, etc. broken into categories. Mahalo is providing this manually, but I want it dynamically, and I don’t want to have to go to both Mahalo and Google to get what I want.

Aside from that, Here Are Some Things I Like About Mahalo:

Current and Relevant Search Results: Mahalo employs full time producers who create and update specific search terms/categories, including links that (for whatever reasons) aren’t normally found in most search results. Besides niche interests, they stay abreast of popular topics as they happen and provide great relevant links. EX: Donda West (not to be morbid, but a good example)

Harnessing the power of community: (Mahalo Greenhouse Guides)

…Some people really like discussing/researching links on Triads. Why not let them get paid to do it while contributing to quality search results?

Transparency/Accountability!: (I hate this word but it applies) EX: Ability to see all search result progress on producer profiles. If the search results suck, I know who to contact!

Again, the emphasis on community oriented search is pretty cool. If you join their Facebook group you’ll get a better sense of what I mean.

Back to brooding.

Wait… Here:

Notable Mahalo Linkage

Man Vs. Machine – Fast Company

New ‘Mahalo’ search engine uses people power – USA Today

Interesting thread on TechChrunch post – TechChrunch

Mahalo, an SEO’s Worst Enemy – ProNet Advertising (I don’t necessarily agree with this, but it’s interesting)