Jack Daniel’s Does Letterpress from Aggrodesign on Vimeo.

Made by Hand / No 2 The Knife Maker from Made by Hand on Vimeo.

TL/DR: A few videos about handmade design work and a few dubstep videos.

For the most part, I’m fine with that. We don’t have to worry about bandwidth and storage, we get decent analytics and get the added bonus of YouTube users stumbling across our videos.

That being said, I’m seeing a trend lately that’s been bothering me – and it’s one that can potentially make our institutions look bad.

People – when you’re embedding a video from YouTube, for the love of crackers turn off “Show related videos.” It’s a simple checkbox. It looks like this:

Checking that box can save you quite a bit of embarrassment. Case in point:

Georgetown University is about to launch a major capital campaign. It’s an amazing video – it’s beautifully shot, beautifully edited and is just really compelling. Here it is:

I guarantee you that video was not cheap to produce. I was watching it on their campaign site, where it was embedded, and was really engrossed in it. I was good until it ended and the YouTube player showed me related videos that it thought was relevant to the launch of Georgetown’s capital campaign. Front and center: one showing off the fact that rapper Wiz Khalifa spends $10,000 a month on weed.

I’m serious. Here’s what it looked like:

I can pretty surely say that Georgetown doesn’t want to promote Wiz Khalifa’s drug habit. I’m sure it doesn’t fit in with their mission (the embalming process video that also shows up is a bit creepy too.) I’m sure they don’t want people to leave their campaign site and videos confused why they’re linking to drug videos.

For something that’s critical to a university, such as a campaign video, I would probably host the video on my own, or use JW Player to grab it from YouTube directly.

If you can’t do that, and have to use a YouTube embed, you really should turn off the related videos. Don’t play poker with your career.

Update: Looks like it was oversight and is on its way to being fixed.

There are free services, such as uStream and Justin.tv, but the quality they offer can be erratic and, if you are using one of the free tiers of service, your content will have pre-roll and/or pop-up ads. This is annoying.

In a perfect world, we’d all have our own Flash media streaming setups we could push a button and start using. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the time to manage all that stuff.

Enter Amazon, naturally.

They’ve announced today a new service and framework to get up and running doing live Flash media streaming. They’ve combined several of their services, including DNS, servers on demand and their content delivery network to offer an interesting on-demand Flash streaming rig.

The actual setup looks like this, but don’t be scared by all the pieces.

With their CloudFormation service, much of the work of setup only needs to be done once. Instances can be created from that template as needed.

Let’s look at costs for this type of setup. According to Amazon, they say this about costs:

In addition to the $5.00 monthly subscription fee for Flash Media Server on Amazon EC2, you pay for only for the AWS resources you consume.

Let’s examine those costs for a moment. After the $5 monthly charge, you’ll pay $0.44 USD for a server in Virginia that can support 100 simultaneous connections. Prices go up from there. Streaming to 1,000 users would run you $1.30 USD per hour. Prices are higher in Asia and Japan.

The big unknown here is bandwidth usage. I’m having a hard time trying to estimate the amount of bandwidth needed for an event, such as graduation. 20GB? 50GB? 100GB? If you have a number you’ve seen in the past, let me know so I can correct the numbers.

Let’s use 100 as our basis here – that bandwidth would cost you $15.00 USD.

So let’s say you are streaming two hours of Commencement. That would be:

• Flash: $5
• 1000 streams at $1.30 per hour: $2.50
• 100GB of Bandwidth: $15.00

Under $25 for a platform you have full control over? That’s not too shabby.

Let’s compare that to some other services out there:

uStream offers ad-free streams, and you can get 100 hours for $99 per month. 4,000 ad-free hours per month will run you $500 a month. LiveStream.com offers 3,000 ad-free hours and HD quality for $350 per month.

Looks like an interesting offering from Amazon. As we start to plan our graduation streaming, it will definitely be in the mix. If you’d like to read a tutorial from Amazon on live Flash streaming, you can check it out here.

Karine describes the series as:

“Professional Photos, Videos and Live Streams 101″ is a 3-webinar series that will help you learn (or train your campus content contributors on) how to take photos, shoot videos and live stream events like a pro. With tighter budgets and the increasing need for multimedia content, more and more communication, marketing, publication and web professionals are asked to take photos, shoot videos or live stream events without any formal training. This series is designed to offer winning strategies and practical tips to improve the quality of your photos, videos or live streaming events on a shoestring for teams who can’t rely on a professional photographer, videographer or live streaming expert.

I’m just one of three speakers this week, including a great tutorial on campus photography by Judson Copland, Director of Creative Services at Oklahoma Christian University and how to do live streaming by Seth Odell, Communications Associate at the UCLA School of Public Affairs and the host of Higher Ed Live.

If you work with video or photography, there will be a lot to learn. The HigherEdExperts webinars are well-run and the presenters are top-notch (well, Judson and Seth are, for sure.) The prices are affordable, and in addition to the live show, you get access to a recording and handout materials. It’s a good deal, especially if you aren’t able to travel to conferences in this tight budget environment.

The departments and I have been very happy with them. I think people are going to respond to them.

A professor here mentioned that they’ve heard that online videos should never be longer than 90 seconds. These graduate pieces are pushing 3 minutes.

I agree that videos made for mass consumption by anyone, let alone colleges, should be as short as humanly possible. In our YouTube-era of 10 second attention spans, I get that. But, I’ve watched 4,5, even 10 minute videos about a subject that I’m interested in – much like I think a student researching graduate programs would be.

I think you’re less apt to bounce when the video you’re watching is:

• Well produced
• Has interesting content
• Covers a subject of interest to you

I’m interested in what you think – what length do you aim for when producing videos for your institution? Does audience matter?

Video is something that we were doing quite a bit at the end of my tenure at Allegheny, and it’s something that John Carroll hasn’t been doing nearly enough of, especially on the marketing and communications side. We needed a cost-effective solution that would allow us to quickly go out and grab photos and video and share them on our website(s).

The idea of consolidating those two very different functions into 1 piece of gear was compelling. After consulting with some folks, whose opinions I value, professionals who shoot video all the time, and a ton of web reviews, I went with the Canon EOS Rebel T2i.

First, a few specs on the camera. Here’s the marketing blurb on it straight from Canon:

The new flagship of the EOS Rebel line, Canon EOS Rebel T2i brings professional EOS features into an easy to use, lightweight digital SLR that’s a joy to use. Featuring a class-leading 18.0 Megapixel CMOS Image Sensor and increased light sensitivity for low light photography, the EOS Rebel T2i also has an advanced HD Movie mode for gorgeous Full HD movies. Able to capture up to 3.7 frames per second, it’s ready to go the minute it’s picked up. Advanced Live View, a new wide-area screen, plus features like Canon’s brilliant Auto Lighting Optimizer and Highlight Tone features ensure brilliant photos and movies, easily. With some of the most advanced features of any digital SLR, it’s simply the best Rebel Canon has ever created.

After just a week of shooting with it, it’s delivered and then some. The T2i shoots 1080p HD video, which is nice, but the ability to shoot at 24,30 and 60 frames per second is especially nice, especially for a lower level camera like the T2i.

If you’re not sure why 24 and 30 FPS is important, here’s a quick primer. Video you see on TV, for example, and most videos you see at places like YouTube are shot at 30 frames per second. It looks like, well, video. I’m not saying that’s bad. Movies (and anything shot on film) is shot at 24 frames a second. It looks and feels smoother and more like, honestly, film and less like the camcorder video you shoot a family reunion. This wikipedia article really breaks this down.

Our first video project – a video about parking changes on campus. I know that’s not terribly exciting, but it was a good chance to get our feet wet and get the equipment figured out. We shot outside in very bright sunlight which was a little tough to deal with, but I think the video came out ok.

Audio for this shoot was also a new area for me. In addition to the camera, we picked up a RODE VideoMic. It attaches to the top of the T2i in the shoe (but doesn’t take power from the camera.) In tests I’ve done, it provides much better audio than the on-board mic.

After the shoot, I edited in Final Cut Express. It had been a while since I’d used any of the Final Cut programs, but its like riding a bike. After a few hours, I was rocking keyboard shortcuts like nobody’s business.

So, before I get to my conclusions, here’s the video. I know the content isn’t very exciting, but watch it in HD.

Takeaways:

1. I need to keep a better eye on exposure when shooting
When shooting video, the LCD screen on the back of the camera is the only spot you can see what you’re shooting. In bright light, this is very difficult to monitor to make sure exposure and other settings are correct. You can get a loupe for the LCD screen that may be a necessity if we’re going to be shooting more outdoors.

2. Put the mic closer to the subject
I was pleased with the audio the RODE mic picked up. It was attached to the top of the camera and placed a few feet away from the subjects. In the future, I’d like to get a mic stand and place the mic closer to the subject to get better, cleaner sound. I can hear the sprinklers going in one of the shots.

3. Get a longer lens
This video (and all the photos you see in it) were shot with the lens that came with the camera kit – an 18-55mm lens. A longer lens will give us more flexibility and better depth of field where needed.

Fast forward to today, and Old Spice is killing it when it comes to advertising and social media. Their campaign this week featuring their spokesman (without a shirt, of course) has been great and will likely be the new definition of how to integrate social media into your mainstream advertising. Go and search YouTube for the video responses they posted to questions from Digg, Fark and Reddit users, not to mention dozens of Twitter celebrities driving traffic to them.

Much as we saw Glee-esque parodies by higher ed institutions and their departments appear this Spring, it was just a matter of time until we saw our first Old Spice parody. First out of the gate is the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University.

Here’s the original Old Spice spot, which is actually a well-produced one-take commercial. Swan dive!

And here’s the parody from BYU:

Good production values, well-written, nicely shot. A very nice promotional spot. It’s nice to see the library have a sense of humor.

What’s remarkable about this video is the sheer scale of it – over 900 people participated in it. That’s pretty astonishing.

I’m going to substract 2 points because there was a cut in the middle, but other than that, nicely done.

Unless a group releases a video that features more than 900 people, or does a lipdub to a song by Slayer or Wu-Tang Clan, I’m not posting it from here on out.

This video, done by two seniors at John Carroll University, where I work, has been making the rounds on campus this week. The two students, Franco and JJ, made a video of themselves dancing in the fall of their freshman year, and to cap off their experience here, made an answer to their own video.

Before I break down the video, here it is.

Did you spot both our college’s president as well as NBA star Shaquille O’Neal in it? Seriously, that was really Shaq, who recently filmed a commercial here on campus with Ben Stein. How students got him to dance with them in a video is a mystery.

This video, when it comes down to it, is a compelling tour of our campus. From a marketing perspective, it’s great because it’s well produced, has no questionable content and speaks to multiple audiences. Alumni get a kick out of seeing how the campus has changed (and stayed the same) and it’s a nice, quick introduction to the campus for students interesting in coming to school here.

We’ve posted it to our fan page, and are debating how we can use it beyond that. Any suggestions?

This one was created by students in Dr. Caroline Kaltefleiter’s New Media Communication at SUNY Cortland. Students in the course took on various roles for the video, including writing and producing the song in the video, writing, PR, choreography, shooing and editing – so start to finish this is all student work. Students in the class are encouraged to analyze the theories surrounding participatory culture and apply them to the lip dub project.

Great to see projects like this being integrated into the curriculum. In my new media class back in college, we learned Corel Paint. Seriously.

Nice job to everyone in this course at SUNY Cortland.