Animoto and istockphoto join forces

I received an email earlier this week from animoto alerting customers that they've just entered an agreement with istockphoto.

For quite some time now I've been showing clients animoto, particularly when I'm out and about doing social media training, as it's a wonderful way of creating high-impact videos for your site without the costs normally associated with video production. I always suggest that clients use istockphoto to download good quality images, so I'm delighted to see the two companies pair up at last. See the animoto blog post for further information.

Online video is getting quicker and quicker

I've been playing around quite nicely with my new flipvideo camera recently, mostly for personal use though I'm sure it won't be long before it's put to good business use too.

Last week I attended a close friend's wedding in Ireland. I took the flipvideo camera along and within 12 hours of stumbling to bed after the festivities of an Irish wedding (I hit the sack at 3am and the bride, groom and Irish family were all still up singing in the bar), I had an edited version of the video online on facebook thanks to the excellent built-in software on the camera, instant usb connectivity and free wifi in the hotel.

I thought that was quick! Then this morning I received the latest updates from animoto and learn that they've now created an iPhone app so you can create animoto videos on your iPhone (or touch iPod) whilst still on the move. I haven't tested it yet (might steal my partner's touch iPod later to have a play around), but in theory this is a very cool idea and just speeds up even more the ability to go from a photo (or in the case of flipvideo a video clip) to a fairly polished looking video online in a matter of minutes - and at hardly any expense at all.

Rough and ready video can work

I do quite a lot of work with video, often overseeing video productions that cost upwards of four figure sums, resulting in beautifully crafted polished results. But we all know that there is a real thirst online for rough and ready video, generally speaking unedited or only roughly edited, and shot on someone's camcorder. YouTube has proven the point over and over again.

With this in mind, and for no other reason than the fact that I like to have a new techy toy to play with every so often, I bought a flipvideo handheld camcorder the other day. It cost about £90 or so, and is pocket sized so I can take it out and about with me. It'll record up to about an hour's worth of footage, and runs on bog standard batteries. The beauty of it though is that it's so quick to use. You whip it out of your bag, press the button on the side and in 2-3 seconds you're ready to record - fantastic for catching something that needs to be caught quick (though still not quick enough to catch footage of my snoozing rabbit laying stretched out on his side this other day, but then that's more testiment to my speed at grabbing the camera than the camera itself).

So, I'll be carrying this around with me from now on, grabbing the odd bit of footage here and there, and hopefully picking up some interesting interviews and think pieces. I'll start posting some examples soon - need to find some interesting people to speak with first - and keep reporting back on how I'm getting on.

Very useful visual guide for how Broadcast PR people need to rethink PR

I know I am always banging on about how PR people need to rethink this and rethink that, but today David Cushman has posted a really useful presentation on slideshare that really helps PR people to visualise the differences and challenges them to find ways to engage with what he calls 'P2PR' (I like this expression, might adopt it myself!). Seeing as the embed tag is available on his presentation, here it is:

From broadcast PR to P2PR

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: new networks)

Animoto

Thanks to Paul Bradshaw (twitter.com/paulbradshaw) who I follow on Twitter, I learned this morning about a new slideshow service called Animoto. This is amazing. It's a wonderful substitute for anyone that wants a video on their website but can't afford the thousands of pounds that a video will cost.

Basically all you do is upload a selection of still images to the site, select a music track (they have a library of licence-free tracks for you to choose from) and the site does the work for you. I had a little play around using my rabbit photos (why not?) and here is what it created. This took about 20 mins to upload the photos and about 10 mins for the video to be created. I hadn't edited the photos or anything, so this is a real rough-and-ready attempt. Imagine what you can do with a little more effort.



I was then very easily able to put it on facebook (just the click of a button takes you straight through) and get the html code for embedding it in this blog post.

I will certainly be buying the commercial licence for using this site to create a little promo real for Pickle Jar Communications, and perhaps even offering this as a service to our clients. It is just wonderful!

New Pickle Jar Communications Website Launched

We're delighted to announce that we launched our new website this week. As with any successful website, we aim for it to be an ever evolving project, but we're happy with the results so far. New features include a Twitter feed (anyone reading this blog for a while will know what a big fan I am!), a feed directly from this blog and a 'handy guides' section where we will be providing guides and resources for communications projects. Our guide to preparing for a broadcast media interview is aready there, as is our video project planning sheet. Do visit the website, take a look around and let us know what you thing. www.picklejarcommunications.com

Multimedia PR flying high

Scott Berinato's post, Delta-Northwest Create the Press Release of the Future, on the Harvard Conversation Starter blog highlights an exemplary use of a micro-site for PR purposes. In my mind this is a great example of a multimedia release. Clear thought has been given to the stakeholders and communicating direct with key groups (staff, customers, communities), but this is also coupled with an excellent news centre with extensive quotes, web videos available for use, broadcast-quality video clips available to access, audio clips for download, and a great selection of images too. This is a great example of best practice for such issues, and one that really isn't difficult to replicate by other organisations with a bit of foresight and a modest budget - it really need not cost a lot of money, and I expect many organisations would see significant return for investing in a site like this for certain issues.

Stitcher

This just might be genius.

US-based company Stitcher are launching a customisable radio facility for use on mobile phones. Initially being rolled out on the iPhone, the player will allow you to syndicate audio content that you want to listen to - a bit like an RSS reader for audio, I guess. Quite rightly so they're pitching this at commuters, offering them a way of getting digests from their favorite audio content sources back to back while on the move. Check out the 'about' section on their site, and also read the Mashable blog article about this.

Be Patient

Do 'patients' exist any more in the UK health and social care sector? I've been out of the office for most of this week working on a video project for the health, social and child care sector and not one of the people working in health care were allowed to refer to the people that they work with (or on behalf of) as 'patients'. Instead, they are referred to as 'service users', 'clients' and 'customers'. Yes, I appreciate that the NHS wants to foster a culture of 'customer service', and rightly so too, but what's so wrong with the word 'patient'?

Digital Media for Business

As part of the work we've been doing for Ideas for Life TV, we were recently involved in a conference on digital media for business hosted at Alton Towers (18 March). Working with Ember Regis, we interviewed the key speakers from the event. Two of them were specifically speaking about how digital media can be used to communicate science and can be used by business. Both videos are available below. The first features Magic Lantern Chief Executive, Anthony Lilley, while the second is an interview with Adam Rutherford, online editor for Nature.

Video production for PARD programme at WMG

Pickle Jar Communications was contracted earlier this year by WMG at the University of Warwick to oversee the production of a video promoting the successes of the various projects within the Premium Automotive Research and Development (PARD) programme. We worked with @Warblefly Productions, Eight Eyed Sea Bass and Mustard Design to co-ordinate the final package - a 20 minute video and DVD packaging with 2000 copies supplied. Our colleagues at Eight Eyed Sea Bass have kindly popped the video online, and we are able to embed it here:

WMG Innovative Solutions
Uploaded by EESB

Pickle Jar Communications worked with the team at PARD to develop the video brief, then worked closely with the production team to develop the concept. We were responsible for organising all filming, scheduling a very tight 3-day shoot, then overseeing the edit process for delivery of the final DVDs in time for a conference that the PARD team had organised where the DVDs were to be distributed. The entire project was turned around in just 6 weeks from proposal to final delivery.

Where have all the ties gone?

I think my partner might be getting a little suspicious about where all of his ties keep disappearing to. You see, without him knowing, I have been secretly stealing them (not such a secret once he sees this) for a training session that I am delivering in a couple of weeks time. The session is entitled "Working with Broadcast Media" and is designed for a small group of academics not as media training, but to get them thinking about how they might work with various types of broadcast media to communicate (or dare I say it, publicise) their research. Whenever I deliver presentations or training on this particular subject I love doing a turn on what not to wear (or what to wear), but this time I've decided that it really needs props. As such I am currently hunting down the following items:

- a classic white lab coat (preferably one bearing a University logo): the staple attire of all scientists on TV (and they never bother to iron out the creases of that lab coat that the press officer has just handed them!)

- a bright bold jumper: I have just the one in mind but the academic that I saw wearing it on TV once probably wouldn't lend it to me for this purpose. I don't remember what his research was about but, boy, do I remember that jumper!

- ties with tiny detailed patterns (particularly where the weave of the fabric is made obvious to look nice): particularly hard on the eye on video watched online

- anything in tweed: looks great for an autumn-winter season ladies suit, but not friendly to the camera

- small pin-stripes: again, not so good for online video

- a big pair of earrings: hmmm, might have some of these in my own jewellery box!

Online on TV, and TV Online ...

I read somewhere (wish I could remember where so I could be an efficient blogger and provide the link!) that someone predicts that 2008 will be the year for online video to stop being overrun by naff home-movies and kids doing starwars impressions in their bedrooms or falling off their skateboards, and move towards the more polished production standards that we expect of TV. How funny, then, that one of the first programmes I watch on television in 2008 is Lenny Henry.tv - the BBC show that basically shows back to back online video clips - mostly shot on somone's home camera and edited (if edited at all!) in a bedroom somewhere. I wonder what way it will really go. I'm an advocate for good quality online video productions (but then I'm biased!). Maybe instead of online video standards aligning themselves more with television production standards, it just might (just!) go the other way if this programme is anything to go by.

Dealing with the Media Session for PhD Students

Here are the slides used at our recent session for University of Warwick students on "Dealing with the Media". There isn't a great deal of detail in here as I'm not a great believer of putting everything you say in a presentation onto the slides itself, but I thought it worth publishing them anyway. There is a click through link on the Warwick iCast story slide too so you can see the example.

| View | Upload your own

Kent TV

Congratulations to Kent County Council who have become the first county council in the UK to fund the creation of their own internet TV channel for the local community - Kent TV. The quality of production is excellent and the concept is a great example of how internet TV can be used as a catalyst for effective 2-way communications between a public sector body and the community it serves. Let's keep our finger's crossed that it really works and the public do submit their own video comments and text comments as the site encourages them to. Such sites need not be unachieveably expensive to create, as Ten Alps Digital, the company behind Kent TV knows very well. Having worked with them in a previous role on the launch of their Public TV site, I know their committment, vision and ability to draw content in from other sources is a good recipe for success.