GoPro HD Pro Kit - DP Osvaldo Silvera

Here is another video on the GoPro HD Hero camera. This is the personal kit by Diretor of Photography Osvaldo Silvera. He's used this kit on many TV shows including two shows on BET and Syfy. His kit consists of (2) GoPro HD cameras, (2) additional housings, and an assortment of camera supports: Suction cups with articulated arms, and a variety clamps.

We recently used this kit on a commercial job and the client was blown away with the results of the camera and the perspectives you can get by being able to position these cameras in places where a standard type HD would never fit, and if it did it would probably be destroyed.

You can see my other GoPro HD review video here.



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Google TV = Biggest, Best, Brightest Video

Google had some kind of a big announcement for an audience of Tech nerds called Google I/O. TV meets Web Web meets TV or something like that. Look, "Video should be consumed on the biggest, best, and brightest screen in your house" so says Google. Blah Blah Blah. Its a new box that you hook up to your TV, it can be controlled by Android phones, and its gonna make it easier to search programming and therefore improve the viewing experience because you will have better access to personalized content. Great. Of course the bottom line here, and because its Google, is ad sales. How can Google sell more ads? One easy way is to get onto your TV in your living room. Since these conferences are usually for stock holders and boards, the focus was on Hollywood partnerships and big money content aimed at global audience appeal. But like that tard Lee Corso say's Not so fast my friend. Buried in the story is a feature called Youtube Leanback. Integrated Youtube on your TV. Sure we already have that but I'll gladly take more. Google announced partnerships with OEM like Sony and Dish Network you can read all about it on Techcrunch.

So what does this all mean to us? It means keeping making videos! Seriously. Hollywood doesnt get it. Sure they can spend hundreds of Millions to make Avatard or Iron Woman but they can only make so many of those every year. And since they swing for the fence with everything they have on those tent pole pictures, they assume a pantload of risk making them. Then they make a bunch of movies that cost between 30 and 60 million which basically suck, and finally they make small 20 million dollar genre pictures like Teen Horror and Gross Out Comedy that can cash in big time if the movie is good. As far as television goes, Charlie Sheen is the highest paid actor on Television. The end.

Thats great news for all us of that make cheap content. Because, when someone is watching one of my videos, that means they aren't watching the crap that the Studios make. Youtube Leanback is a gift to all of us. Its puting our content in direct competition with the crap they spend millions of dollars to make. I can't believe the Networks and Studios are this stupid. Google doesn't care because they just care about ads, they really dont care if their ads are being watched on a Studio produced piece of television or on one of my videos. Critics are saying its Web TV all over again, maybe, we'll see. This thing is supposed to drop sometime in 2011.

My You Tube - Captain Jeff 5 Years on Youtube

Has it really been 5 years already for Youtube? I guess so its hard for me to get my head around it because i have been making films and videos and TV shows for almost 20 years. All of that changed when Youtube started. Seriously. We had been making longer form fishing videos since around 2000. We would show them to our friends, give away DVD's and that was pretty much it. Once Youtube opened its servers to the public we had to be involved so we started making short form videos and uploading them to Youtube. The gear was a snap. I had a G4 iBook, and Panasonic camcorder and a 3ft Firewire cable, and thats it.

On March 19th of 2006 we uploaded Seawall Lunker Snook. Captain Jeff went down to a well known fishing spot and caught a respectable 15lb snook from land. That video launched pretty well, and the video has 67,362 views 3 Months later we had another video go Viral. Tarpon Jumps in Boat. We were fishing in Fort Lauderdale with good friend Justin Brown from the TLC Show In A Fix, well the fish Captain Jeff was fighting jumped out of the water and into the boat. That video currently sits at 89,719 views.

Our videos that went Viral on Youtube:

Shark Attacks Snook - 72,720 Views


Tarpon Fishing With Captain Jeff - 86,348 Views

Big Tarpon Fishing - 115,653 Views

Check out the Channel to see more.

Happy Birthday Youtube you are only 5 and we are only just getting started. The video embedded below is for My You Tube, a celebration gallery of videos uploaded by Youtubers talking about their Youtube story.

Happy Birthday YouTube You're 5

Can you believe its been 5 years? Crazy. 10 years ago I was still cutting 16mm motion picture films and trying to get into film festivals, and failing. And even if you did get in, you were gonna get at the most a dozen film nerds to maybe look at what you shot. Thankfully that system died. Youtube changed all of that. Now anybody could get thousands, even millions of views. Be sure to check out the 5 Year Youtube page and see some of the videos of the SuperTubers. Those arent the only stories. Make your story and upload it.

GO PRO HERO HD Camera Review

One of the coolest HD cameras out there right now has to be the Go Pro HD Hero camera, and I was fortunate enough to get Osvaldo Silvera to do a video review of his Go Pro kit that he has used on several national TV shows including The Michael Vick project for B.E.T. as well as un upcoming series for the SyFy channel. Ozzie Silvera is one the top DP's working in television today and has as many as a half dozen TV series on the air at any given moment. That means if the Go Pro camera is good enough for him and the demands of Network engineers, its definitely more than enough for those of us working on online videos.

Go Pro markets their cameras as "wearable" cameras for the extreme sports world. You can attach the small cameras to surfboards or helmets and or anything else to get unique point of views recorded. Check out their website to see some amazing stuff people are doing with the little cameras.

Since these cameras shoot in full 1920 x 1080 HD Ozzie has modified his to kit eliminate the use for a big standard broadcast camera in situations where a full sized camera just wont fit. Like in the front seat of a car when shooting footage of the driver and passanger talking. Check out the video to see what he has to say about the camera and different methods of supporting the camera for production.

This is a small series and there will be more videos with Ozzie Silvera. If you are a camer person or videographer or even just a person that is thinking about buying one of these amazing cameras you will want to check these videos out.

GoPro Camera

Osvaldo Silvera S.O.C.

Youtube Update - Unlisted Videos

This week Youtube rolled a small update to the Privacy control of users uploaded videos. The new feature is called Unlisted Videos. In the check box where you used to just be able to designate a video for public or private distribution, users can now opt into Unlisted Videos. Basically it means that viewers need a direct link to watch a particular video. The old way Youtube did this was to allow up to 25 people to be invited to watch a video. Now its link based meaning you can send the video to anyone and anyone that has the link can watch the video. Youtube cautions users to share Unlisted Video links only with people that they trust.

I see a huge possibility for generating Viral momentum via the link sharing. Unlisted Videos have the ability to create a demand for links beyong just stumbling onto someone's Youtube channel. You actually need the link. I predict the big power will use the Unlisted Video links like a ticket to exclusivity and these valuable video links will be in high demand. I already have a few videos that I will probably change to Unlisted. Got links?

Netflix App on the iPad: The Woods

I finally got a chance to watch Lucky McKee's The Woods and I watched it on iPad through the Netflix App. The experience was awesome. I will easily admit to being a movie junkie on the iPhone, it works and I have watched alot of movies on the device. I got the iPad as an additional device to watch content on. Stuff like Youtube, TV.com, and iTunes downloads works perfectly, and I can fill the iPad with content just like I used to do with my Ipods and the iPhone. I'm not so much a fanboy of apple as I am a person that must consume movies and shows all the time.

As for The Woods I thought it was fabulous. I'm a huge fan of Giallo, and Dario Argento, and his trilogy of witches movies like Suspiria, Tennebre, and Mother of Tears. The Woods is heavily influenced by Suspiria, and McKee uses atmosphere and dread to evoke a nightmare like experience of horror instead of the boo-gotcha techniques used by so many post Slasher filmmakers. Agnes Bruckner is superb in the role of troubled teen Heather Fasulo sent to an all girls boarding school. Of course we all stand and applaud whenever Bruce Campbell is on screen and he is superb as Heather's Mad Men era father. Other notable parts are Patricia Clarkson as the headmistress and Rachel Nichols plays Samantha, Heather tormentor to prefection and steals every scene she is in.

As for watching the film on the iPad, its a great experience. I will take full advantage of the Netflix Unlimited plan and I expect alot more titles to open up to Instant View on the iPad Netflix App as competition for eyeballs increases. If you already have an iPad and Netflix unlimited, check out The Woods, and oh yeah...Dont Drink The Milk.

Youtube Email Subscrition Alerts

Reading the Youtube Blog I found buried in last weeks posting a little note on Youtube Email Subscription Alerts. The posting doesn't really go into detail but basically it gives the subscriber the option of receiving an email alerting the subscriber that a YouTube channel has uploaded a new video.

From the YouTube Blog

Email Alerts: We're experimenting with a new form of subscription alerts. Now, when you subscribe to a channel (or edit your subscription to an existing channel), you can elect to receive an email the instant the person you're subscribed to uploads a new video. This will appeal to people who check their email more frequently than they log in to YouTube (though we've never heard of such people *wink*) but who also want to know immediately when their favorite content creators upload new work.

Thats it, no link to give further details. The keyword in the paragraph has to be the word "experimenting" YouTube like to do soft roll outs or limited releases on some features so it may just be a beta test, but I kinda like the idea as long as it is easily managed and easy to uncheck either on the homepage or within a click away from that. I sub around 200 channels, and some of those channels are power users that upload several new videos every day. I dont want my email box filling up with alerts from channels that I know update daily or almost daily. So lets hope that YouTube takes that into consideration when and if they roll out the new Alert model as a usable feature.

Lets face it YouTube hasn't made it the easiest way to find videos or follow or subscribe if you will to the smaller channels and filmmakers, vloggers, and videomakers that aren't power users or often featured on the front page. Its still hard for viewers new to YouTube to find buried content beyond the featured and front page videos. I would like to see YouTube open up a simple follow system like Facebook or Twitter that allowed viewers to show more or even hide channels or playlists with a small check box.