The first batch of election videos have come to my attention and the next 5 months promises to be fun for Web video watchers. 

Below are two videos.  One portrays Bain, Romney's old firm, as a destroyer of lives.  The other portrays Bain as a Capitalist do gooder.  The reality and the intricacies of the issue are much more complex and subtle than what you will find here. This, remember, is election season and emotions are fair game, in fact they are the only game.  AND thus video is likely to play a huge part.  It is a medium that works so well at the emotional level. 

First, the Romney video.  I can say one good thing about it, at one minute it is the right length.  Otherwise, I find it very sloppy, especially with the money these guys have allotted for this type of stuff.  The audio at the beginning is a bit garbled.  The edits are irregular and the camera movement often confused.   My guess is be that they shot it really quickly, and didn't get all the shots they needed.  Take a second look at it to see what I mean.  The script is disjointed.  There isn't really any structure (beginning, middle and end).  There are some good sound bites from real people, but they don't seem to all fit together that well.  Then there is a narrator who seems to fill in with the message they want us to hear.  He claims that Mitt Romney's firm, Bain, made this possible.  But none of the "real" people mention Bain or Romney.  They are just proud of their company.   I like that, but there are some "American Dream" references that are a bit over the top. 

Contrast this to the Obama video.  First, the length - at 6 minutes it is too long.  However the slow, documentary style makes it possible to view in its entirety.  This video tells a story with a definite structure to it.  Unlike the sound bites of the Romney video, this one paints a picture of employees, of a community, of real lives and like many stories there is a bad guy...Romney.  There is no narrator to fill in the gaps and tell us what to think.  The "real people" here are more convincing, their story more heartfelt.  The construction of the video, the fade to black between shots, the music (check out the 47 seconds mark, nice!), the pace, all work really well. 

The bottom line, is that there is much more to the issue than these two videos can offer.  However, the Romney video comes across like a manipulative election piece (which it is).  The Obama video appears more real, more heartfelt, and a much better piece of video (and it also is a manipulative election video!).

The Romney video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q2w7iXazNso

The Obama video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZMndjLIQUFw#!

I love this video and I don't like it.  First, why I love it. 

It's beautiful to watch.  The colours, the light, the mood are all just wonderful.  The editing is very good - it is slow at the beginning, for good reason, and then very fast at the end.  Overall it tells a very emotional story, one that naturally touches all of us.  I love the message about mothers, who wouldn't?  And the video is very international and I like that.  Finally at 2 minutes, the length is just perfect.  In fact it feels like a lot more than 2 minutes.

Why I don't like it?

It's way too manipulative.  P&G is selling Tide, Pampers, Gillette and Duracell by celebrating mothers around the world for raising Olympic athletes. I don't buy it and I don't like it.  What about all the other mothers?

The video must have cost a fortune to make...and that bothers me as well.  Why not just make a great video about mothers that doesn't cost a fortune and isn't about Olympics champions?  I would have really enjoyed that more. 

Basically, I hate being manipulated emotionally by people with huge budgets in order to sell me products.

Here is the video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NScs_qX2Okk

This REI video is short (under one minute) and totally achieves what it sets out to do....get people to become members.  In less than one minute we find out how much it costs and what all the benefits are.  We also get a lot of positive energy from the clients who are portrayed.  They love being members, and so I guess that I would too.  Well done. 

By the way, REI have a channel on YouTube that is wonderful as well.  Hundreds of videos, about bikes, surfing, camping, etc.  Providing tips and showing new ways to enjoy the outdoors.  And all the videos are really well done.  They all seem to share a common style...the REI style I suppose.  Really worth spending a bit of time on this, especially if you are thinking of doing a channel for your company.  These guys did it well.

http://www.rei.com/popUps/videos/fancybox.jsp?ooid=NtaWF2MjoyrvNhWfSR0oo_XSrD4yr_df&height=288&width=512&autoplay=1

Yes, the title of this blog is likely to be popular.  However, while the video is all about sex, it's not what you think.

The video, "Why Sex?", is from the Sci Show, a Youtube channel that covers all things science.  And I think they do a great job.  And I learned a lot about SEX.

1. Starting with the host, a young, nerdy type of guy, who ends up being quite likeable and a good communicator. 
2. The graphics are simple, fun and work to speed the video along. 
3. The videos are filmed in front of a green screen (simple) and are edited in a quick style.  Again I like it, no pretensions.
4. The titles are all good:  Other than "Why Sex?", there is "Brain vs Computer", "Space Mining", "Yellowstone Super Volcano", etc.  These are easy, interesting topics.
5. It's educational in a no nonsense kind of way.  Who said kids can't learn from the Internet? 

These guys have a lot of subscribers, 172k and over 7 million views.  And this points to, once again, what I love about the Internet.  Creating a channel is now something that is within everyone's reach.  It just takes a small investment, a bit of knowledge and creativity. 

Here it is, enjoy and sign up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRpEt61XM4M&list=UUZYTClx2T1of7BRZ86-8fow&index=2&feature=plcp

OK to change things around for once, I will ask you to watch the video first.  While you do, think about what is the most amazing thing about this video?  Then come back to this blog, read on and see if you agree with me (probably not...but I tried!).  Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=316AzLYfAzw

OK, I hope you did what I asked you to do.  Now answer this question: how long was that video?  Honestly!

Now scroll down to get my answer...
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I think it's the length in time of this video that is amazing.  I watched this last week, and over the weekend I was driving with a mate to Paris and I described the video to him.  At that point I told him it was about 4 to 5 minutes long.  Just now I watched it again and was surprised to see that it was 1 minute and 46 seconds long.  Wow!  It's amazing how much you can fit into 1 minute and 46 seconds. 

Look at it again.  8 second before we see anything (they start with text on the screen and dramatic music).  27 seconds before the man on the bike pushes the button.  And then...well all hell breaks loose.  Those 27 seconds create the mood, one of anticipation, they draw you in, slowly, dramatically...and when the sh...t hits the fan the viewer just gets lost and and time seems to elongate. 

The shortest webvideos are often the best. 

Brilliant!

The video below reviews the iPhone 4s Siri.  Siri, if you don't yet know, is Apple’s new intelligent software voice-recognition assistant that answers your questions and does things like set up appointments for you.  This video displays its abilities quite well, albeit in a slow and boring kind of way...until the end of the video, where suddenly the producers decide to through in some funny stuff. 

Why wait until the end?  This video would be tons better served by introducing the humour up front and keeping it going with some of the serious Siri demonstration stuff.  And I don't think it would ave taken long to do. 

But this is the thing with humour, it is very difficult to achieve on video (and elsewhere).  Perhaps the producers of this short video didn't trust their sense of humour and thus threw this jokes in at the end.  I don't know, but I certainly laughed at the end, while the remainder of the video is just info related and a bit boring.

Think about how you might introduce the jokes up front....and enjoy the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glOk6LplTww&feature=player_embedded

More incredible stuff from NASA.  I could watch this kind of stuff for ever.

However, I wonder about the music.  Why is it that space footage always has this kind of music with it?  This started with "2001 A Space Odessy", where Kubrick played classical music over the endless vision of a futuristic spaceship.  At the time it blew us away.  (I've re-watched it recently and I think it has aged poorly!)  Mankind had never seen the earth from space and the vision was mind blowing and spiritual for many.  It kind of put a different perspective on lots of things.  (If you are a fan of Tintin, take a look at the "Destination Moon" and "Explorers on the Moon" books - Herge didn't think that clouds could be seen from space, earth looks pretty much cloudless).

But why are we (or rather NASA) still using this kind of music with space footage?  Is this still a spiritual experience for us? 

I didn't like the music with this video...at all.  It really took away from the footage.  The latter is time lapsed, so actually sped up, contrary to Kubrick's slow motion pan over the spaceship.  But the music has the effect of slowing down the footage.  I think it's time we found a new genre of music to go with out of space experiences.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=141042671

OK, this was just sent to me by my brother in Ithica NY.  This time none of my usual comments on length of video or on the music. 

This folks is a live feed of a mother bird on her nest waiting for the eggs to hatch.  And it is happening NOW!  In Ithica NY (OK my brother doesn't have much to do.  But, yes they are hatching any day now.  One already has hatched, I haven't seen it (his big mother is on top of him/her) but the commentary says he is fluffy and cute.  I believe it. 

What I love about this is that is is intimate and real.  The kids and parents checking in on it on the side dialogue bar are all excited.  OK, only 7,400 but that's OK.  There are folks from Australia checking in regularly.

Don't miss this. 

Man, I love video on the internet.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=2422

I love this video....definitely for the message, but also for the style. 

It is fast paced and furious.  At a perfect 2 minutes 10 it feels like more yet goes by faster than 2 min 10 secs.  How did they do that?

It is informative, but in a way that makes you sit up.  I always love interesting information that makes me see the world in a slightly different way, this does.

It is hard hitting.  Make no mistake about it, this vilifies the media and tells young girls to stand up a be leaders.  Go girl go.  

The music is relevant and inspirational.  I love the fast beats, this says to girls you can rock and it does. 

Hopefully this video will make a change in many girl's lives. 

Pass this one along!

http://www.upworthy.com/what-happens-to-3-out-of-4-girls-after-leafing-through-a-fashion-mag-for-3-minut?c=nm4

As promised in yesterday's blog, I want to say a few words about being afraid of your clients.  Below is a video that we prepared for a C&A presentation.  We were offering to do a series of Videocials for them around their stores in Belgium.  A big marketing push for them into the young generation that is Internet and social media savvy. 

They declined.  In their words, "Our clients come in quickly to get one or two items and we don't want to bother them in that time." 

Well there you go, so much for customer engagement and client relationships.  To be honest, we have encountered this with more than one company in Belgium.  Even when we do have a Videocials project in with a company, they do not dare ask the customer to take part.  They are afraid of their customer. 

We beg to differ.  Their customers are their best source of information to find out what is going wrong with their business and thus to improve their offer.

Videocials are a fun way into this.  Set up a project where you offer the client the opportunity to film their interaction with your products or stores, then create video out of that footage and get the client to put it on their Facebook page, "Hey I went to C&A the other day and they asked me to film a video for them, here it is...."

Granted, not all clients will want to participate.  But even those clients will think, "Hey there is something different going on here. These guys are pretty cool."  And chances are they will pass the message along.

The filming of the interaction with your products will also give you important information.  I can't believe that C&A cannot learn something from the choice of clothing in the video.  These three customers were students, tow of them art students.  At first they were a bit dismissive of C&A. 

However afterwards they agreed that there were tons of good clothing hidden in the racks and one of them even bought a pair of jeans.   

Videocials and video in general is quite a direct and intimate way to connect. Try it!

http://videocial.weebly.com/ca.html