Making the Seesmic twitter video yesterday was a pretty great experience. The video itself was not all that difficult to put together, but for a same day turn around i’m pretty proud of it. Vinvin came up with the concept and the 2 of us came up with a few of the jokes. What i’m particularly proud of though is the twitter background with the counter and the text.
I’d like to talk about the Seesmic videos a bit more from an editor/film makers prospective. These videos are being produced in a single day. Usually shot after 1pm and finished around 5:30 with the goal to have them online by 6pm (usually 7pm). Put into account the uploading of the video from camera to computer and we’re talking about a 4 hour edit with cutaways to photos, chroma keying, Text overlays, putting in peoples names and information, which can take some google searching, and we’re talking about a decent undertaking each day.
The pro’s and con’s
The pro to this method is the feeling of transparency we are giving our viewers. You see that a video is being made every day , you’re able to be a part of it every day. In fact can even send in questions for the CEO, CTO or anyone else to answer, and in theory could have an answer that is in one of the videos, online by the end of the night. The immediacy that the web provides is being accomplished with these video’s.
The con of course is the amount of time that can be put into each video. Mind you if we were more organized we would be able shoot a few hours earlier and more post production would be able to go into each show. The problem with this is that you would never fully be seeing what happened that day, you would just see what happened that morning.
So should we move onto a next day format, or is it more important to people to see what is happening on a daily basis? hmmm…
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10 responses so far ↓
1 ledretch // Dec 5, 2007 at 9:11 am
One video per day is a hell of a rythm, and you’re doing it since the beginning…
the content : I thought it was the last 24 hours from lunch time to lunch time
in fact, I guess we just enjoy to see the most important thing happened in your day (like Veronica, like twitter, Jeff Clavier…)
You all are doing a great work, I just turn off TV to watch seesmic daily now
Thank you for that
2 Vince // Dec 5, 2007 at 9:45 am
I agree with ledretch.. I mean this is a hell of a job to produce daily those 3 to 10 minutes edited and everything… Never knew the due time each day was 7pm… but i’m on the other side of the ocean, so for me it’s really no big deal u know…
Change format? everything is possible of course.. but with the daily basis, it allows “special” episodes like the “twitter” or “the office” one… whereas with something more like “weekly” it would have been hard in practice…
But once again congrats on all the work ur doing to show us, seesmicers, non seesmicers, blogers or not what’s happening for the last week and dat’s we’re enjoying seeing being build everyday
3 darius // Dec 5, 2007 at 9:59 am
It’s an amazing pace, for sure. But I’m really looking forward to more from you about what you’re learning in the process and how you manage to make it happen!
4 Phil // Dec 5, 2007 at 10:35 am
Hmm… very interesting Whit!
And indeed, you can be proud of you. The last editing for the Twitter day was just awesome. You catch completely the idea, very funny joke and nice editing which catch you until the end of the video…
Great job, again!
The question of the format now? Hmm, I think it doesn’t hurt if the publishing is the next day. Let’s say, you shoot the day, and you can edit the next morning (when you arrived to the office) to be able to put on line for noon.
In all case, it will never be the daily video with the different timezone… So, if with another way to shoot/edit you can catch some great stuff to reflect what happened a day, I personally think you should do it…
Long story short:
- Always keep the idea to show what’s going on each day
- Publish it when it’s ready, not when it’s time (but never exceed an half day because you could lost the spontaneity)
Good work in all case…
Bye,
Phil
5 seesmic blog » Blog Archive » Great Twitter video // Dec 5, 2007 at 12:28 pm
[...] sure most of you have seen it already, so I wasn’t going to blog it, but then I found this video commentary by Whit Scott, the cameraman in the video, and the video editor for the [...]
6 drew // Dec 5, 2007 at 4:36 pm
It’s great to read about your work process, Whit, and to know that you’re so invested in the future of Seesmic.
Do you know for what length of time you are planning to maintain this pace of videos? Will it change when you start producing shows in the Seesmic studios?
7 Cheryl Colan // Dec 5, 2007 at 9:38 pm
I know it’s a tough pace, but I really love seeing a new video every day. I think you could relax your production values a bit. I would be interested even if the end product is more raw. I don’t care about the chroma keying at all, or any effects. But I love the transparency – feeling like I get to see what is happening at seesmic every day. That’s the best part for me. Having the perfect edit with photo cutaways and text overlays isn’t so important. I’d rather see the personalities of the people and just know what they’re up to, what good things are coming. That’s the best. Congratulations on what you’ve accomplished so far.
8 Whit Scott // Dec 6, 2007 at 11:32 am
Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone. Drew, i’ll be working on this for a while longer, i’d give the studio another month, but we should see it developing pretty quick here. Cheryl, I agree with you, we’re getting better with some of the Keying, and once we actually own lights it should be a lot easier. Darius we miss your posts on Seesmic.
9 Aunt Kathy // Dec 6, 2007 at 7:59 pm
I really like watching the videos every day. I think that Loic picked the right guy because the humor, spontaneity and immediacy of all that’s happening are enhanced by your professional touches. I think it probably helps to have a short time frame for production. Production can go on forever if you let it! – The spontaneity is important! you’ll make the right decision though cause you’re in it, you know what you want to accomplish, you’re dedicated and you have to do what works!
10 Brian "attitude" on Seesmic // Dec 18, 2007 at 7:41 am
Whit, I know this is a late response but I wanted to express my appreciation for your “wit,” style, energy, and talent. Glad you are a part of Seesmic.
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