Be a Filmaka

So you've made something decent but you're looking to develop some momentum for a bigger project? Check out Filmaka.
Watch talented videos by real artists and interact with peers and like-minded cinephiles. And to make it even more interesting, you can win money for more films. Enter one of filmaka's monthly short film competitions and you can qualify for the next round, with additional funding for your new entry. To date, Filmaka has given away over half a million dollars to aspiring filmmakers!

Talent is in abundance at Filmaka. Check out recent finalist Parliament of Rooks by Matthew Collins:

Everybody does it

Pennyreel laments the dearth of dramatic content online, but that is not to say we are not appreciative of the wealth of great comedy. Especially when its creative and catchy and incorporates the many online video and dating sites out there, as is the case with Erik Weiner's video below.
Ultimately, internet experiences are most often an endeavor in self-indulgence. We go online to seek out what or who we are looking for. We comment, post and interact, but when the screen inevitably turns back to flying toasters, we are once again alone. No single act epitomizes online vanity more so than a search of oneself. A look in the online mirror, we see what others see when they look for us online, and we all do it; we will all probably do it again after watching this vid.
Be proud of it, dammit! No one's watching, no one's around, you know you want to, so just google yourself for a little. It doesn't hurt anybody. In fact, it feels pretty good.

7 Tips for Success in Online Video Podcast

This is a podcast of 7 Tips for Success in Online Video from an interview with Yaron Samid.

Giving Back in Online Video Podcast

This is a podcast of Yaron Samid talking about the value of giving back to online video community.

7 Tips for Success in Online Video

7 Tips for Success in Online Video
Advice to the Online Video Community--
During the interview with the wizard of web video, Yaron Samid, he had some great advice for the online video community. It has been arranged into 7 Tips.

Online video producers, independent filmmakers, programmers and entrepreneurs, listen up! Pennyreel presents . . . Yaron Samid.



Tip 1: Give Back.
I believe in giving back as a principle of not only your life but [also] your business. If you are in the process of helping others you’re going to make money. Make that the filter of everything you do and it guides you in the right direction. [See the full post on Yaron Giving Back]

Tip 2: Get a Mentor
A lot of budding entrepreneurs simply don't have the experience that, now after 12 years of doing this on my own, I have learned the hard knocks way. As a budding entrepreneur you really need some mentorship, from some fellow serial entrepreneurs who have done it before. [They] can tell you here's step A, B, C, D and, by the way, it might be mundane stuff you should do, but there is a checklist of stuff [you need to complete] in order to move forward.

Most start-ups fail early on because most entrepreneurs can't get the first steps under their belt. A lot of that has to do with who you know that can mentor you. I faced that [problem], as a budding entrepreneur.

Tip 3: Pick the Right People
[Picking the right people] is probably the most important decision you will make as an entrepreneur. Who are your partners? In other words, [. . .] your cofounders. It is single handedly the most critical factor that will dictate whether you make it, or break it. Are you going to work well with these people? Can you navigate all the different dynamics that come down the road? Your business plan will change, your idea will change, the market will change and that you have the right team that can navigate that appropriately, is the most important thing to success of a start-up.

The good investors know that, and they invest in teams, they don't invest in ideas.

Tip 4: Don't Worry About the Money
Its very difficult to sell subscription content online as an independent producer, its almost impossible. So you're really limited to advertising and even that is difficult because you need a critical mass of viewers in order to even start selling any ads. You can put some Google Adwords on your site, but that’s not going to generate a lot of revenue until you get some traffic. The big money is in "in-stream video advertising" or "brought to you by" sponsored content, but that’s very hard to get.

The way you get that is, first of all, not worrying about it, first of all, focus on your content. Make great content for a high value audience [ . . .] advertisers care about your viewers, they don't so much care about your content. They want to sell their product and they want to sell their product to the type of audience that buys their product.

I would not focus on trying to sell your content whatsoever. If you are in the independent video content online, you're not going to make money selling it, its pretty much the standard today that content is free online. Focus on building great content for a high value viewer and you will be able to sell advertising when you get critical mass.

Tip 5: Wait to Get Funding
The whole venture capital market is fundamentally broken. I'm actually trying to do something about that in my latest venture but we won't talk about that today.

I made quite a few mistakes in the past, going way too early to investors, trusting people that they would take care of my interests . . .when really, its a business, right? Investors are going to try to get a return on their investment. From my own personal experience, I can tell you that one of the critical mistakes is going a little bit too early to the investors. You have to get it self-funded to the point where it has more concrete value [to investors and you can] keep more control in [your] pocket.

Sometimes you can't get away with doing it any other way because you don't have any money and your living on ramen noodles [. . .] so you got to take money wherever you can.

Tip 6: Promote Yourself
I would say that is critical for distribution to be a part of the communities where your audiences are hanging out online. You should definitely be blogging, you should be commenting on other people's blogs, you should have a Facebook page, you should have a Myspace page, [and] you should be in every social network expanding your social graph as far as you can. You are now part of a community; you’re not just trying to manipulate people to watch your content, but rather your offering some cool content into a community.

You have to be a certain type of person to be OK with [self promotion], but it is very important to grow the overall exposure to what you do. It is to grow the exposure of who you are. You definitely have to be out there selling yourself as a content producer because that’s really part of your business. Your putting something out there that's part of yourself. . . a self-expression. . . art that you create. The more people can go beyond the facade of just the content and see the actual producer and know a little bit about them, the more it becomes an emotional investment for the viewer. It’s very, very important.

[For content producers] there are several sites where you can cross post to as many end points as possible. One I would recommend is Tubemogul. On Tubemogul.com you can publish once and post to all the typical video sharing sites. Blip.tv is the hands down gold standard platform for independent content producers who want to get their content hosted and seen. Those are two sites that I would recommend right off the bat.

Then there is the general principle, which is to be in as many places as possible. Don't limit yourself to distribution channels. If you can get everywhere, be everywhere. Do the legwork to be everywhere. There are several different sites where you can go one by one and get your content up there and you should. Because the whole principle of video online is that it’s available when and where the consumers want to interact with it, not where you want to interact with it. Forget the whole destination site model where [you say] "I'm going to bring everyone to my website," because you don't need that. You need your content viewed.

Tip 7: Get Started
I'd say one of the biggest challenges is just taking that first step. You have an idea, your excited, you believe in this thing, its going to change the world, but now you have to take that very first step."

So get out there and take it!

The Veoh Ruling Comes Down in Favor of Distribution

Is a website liable for infringing on copyrights if it distributes (unwittingly and without intent) copyrighted material without consent of the owner? A recent ruling in the veoh case by a federal court in Northern California has decided in favor of the websites.

Here's the summary of the decision: The sites must...

• Provide adequate notice to users that uploading copyrighted material is prohibited
• Swiftly comply with DMCA takedown notices “on the same day the notice is received (or within a few days thereafter).”
• Use fingerprinting and other technology to detect copyrighted material, even if the methods are flawed.
• Take measures to control infringing users. Specifically, infringing accounts need to be terminated and the email banned from any new accounts. The court held that IP address banning was not necessary: “…Io has presented no evidence suggesting that tracking (or verifying) users’ actual identity or that blocking their IP addresses is a more effective reasonable means of implementation.”
• Transcoding files to Flash format does not put the files in the site’s control; they are still protected by the DMCA safe harbor.
• Sites are encouraged to spot check videos, and if they do, to remove content that is likely infringing.
• Sites are NOT required to check every video. The court said “this court finds no reasonable juror could conclude that a comprehensive review of every file would be feasible. Even if such a review were feasible, there is no assurance that Veoh could have accurately identified the infringing content in question.”
• It’s important to have lots of non-infringing content. The court noted that Veoh had received DMCA notices on only about 7% of its content. This helped its argument that it was different than Napster, which “existed solely to provide the site and facilities for copyright infringement…the sole purpose of the Napster program was to provide a forum for easy copyright infringement.”

Yaron Samid: the Wizard of NY Web Video

An Interview with Yaron Samid:
The Wizard of NY Web Video

This is a two part interview with the founder of the NY Video 2.0 Meetup and serial entrepreneur. In part one he discusses the Web Video community, and giving back.

Sunshine Suites is a sponsor of NY Video 2.0, and one of the few places outside of coffee shops that NYC web start-ups can afford office space. Their offices in Tribeca – adorned in minimalist white stools and retro padded eggshell chairs – are trendy, cheap, well run and altogether quite impressive. Yaron hosted this interview in one of their well appointed conference rooms.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your values?

"My name is Yaron Samid. I am the organizer of NY Video 2.0.

"NY Video 2.0 is a monthly gathering of peers in the online video space in NY city. Made up of everyone from start-ups to DVD companies to tv companies to networks, investors people in the web video space. and we get together once a month and we have anywhere from 2200 members usually 500 members who show up. We meet at Webster hall.”

"I got into this space simply because I am one of the peers, I am a serial entrepreneur, I have been in the space for about 12 years. Most recently started a company called Pando Networks about 4 years ago. Pando is a p2p company that enables people and companies to move large media online in a very very cost effective manner. I also did a few other media based start-ups so I've been in the startup scene for quite some time and really gotten my hands dirty in figuring out the business of video online.”

"Regarding my values, I guess I’ll speak to that as it pertains to the group. We started a group, NY Video 2.0, 2 years ago with the spirit of just hanging out with fellow entrepreneurs who are trying to figure out the video game, you know? The video business--which, we still have yet to figure out, by the way.”

"So 2 years ago I got about 30 buddies of mine who were also starting up companies in NY and rented out a screening room in Tribeca Film Center. 4 or 5 companies got up and showed their product and then we talked about it and we tried to figure out how we're going to make this thing work and help each other out as fellow NYers." It was interesting, I noted, that in talking about himself, he hardly mentioned himself at all.”

"The spirit of that very much speaks to my personal values which is, I believe in giving back as a principle of not only your life but of your business. If you make that your filter--of everything you do--I think it guides you in the right direction.

"I've been given back so much, by organizing this community--10 fold what I give to it. I spend a few hours a month basically organizing the event, the venue, the presenters and as a result I have become something of a connector in the community. I see a lot of startups, I talk to a lot of media companies and investors who want to pair up and I am able to broker a lot of relationships, just as a labor of love--I enjoy helping people out."

"You know the conservation of energy law in physics? I believe there is a conservation of good energy law. If you put out good vibes and good energy and you give to people--you get back. Thats really what the community is about. Its a free group, its about helping other people out.

"Thats really been the most rewarding part, at least for me personally, and I think for people who attend as well."

You seem to really believe in giving back, was this a goal of yours from the start or did it evolve somehow from the Internet work you do?

Naturally upbeat and gregarious, Samid’s genuine enthusiasm shines through as he discusses his passion.

"I think this has more to do with the individual DNA of a person. I've been involved with a lot of volunteer type of stuff that just--its something that might not fill your wallet, but it will fill your soul. If your that kind of person than it permeates into everything you do. I might not have consciously set out on my career to be a community leader and organizer, but I think it happened because thats kind of the person that I am. So it wasn't a conscious decision.

"Two years ago when I started the NY Video 2.0 community, it very much stemmed from an after-work, non-profit-motivated type of thought and it became something way beyond."
"I really thought it would be a few people getting together and talking about the business of video. When I think of 2200 people getting together and all the business development, all the hires, and all the connections, that happen from it . . . its really very rewarding."

"By the way, I have to give a big shout-out to meetup.com and Scott Heifermen who is the CEO there. Meetup really facilitates the gathering of people offline, thats the goal of the site. Without meetup.com as the platform, I wouldn't have been able to grow the group to where it is today. The site handles a lot of the administrative stuff, the RSVPs, the calenders, the emails and so forth."

"It was born on that very value [giving back], Scot Heifermen who started meetup.com, started it on 9/11. I saw your tattoo there. On 9/11 he said, 'you know, I'm a serial entrepreneur, I've been doing stuff, but I want to do something more substantial, how do I give back to my community?' and he built meetup.com to get people off of the web and meeting face to face as a community. Very much the same spirit."

Indeed it is.

Next post will be some lessons Yaron learned the "hard knocks way" for web video entrepreneurs.