WebProNews

Tag: Videos

  • Vine Is Now a True Video Discovery Website

    Today, with the launch of their new vine.co web experience, the Twitter-owned six-second video app has finally become a fully realized video-sharing website.

    Vine launched its web presence back in January, but it was stripped down and in no way mimicked the Vine app experience. Users could browse their own home feed and scroll through feeds of specific users. There was an admittedly addictive, yet underwhelming functional TV mode that let users watch videos in sequence. At the time, Vine said that this was just the first step toward a “richer web experience,” and today they’ve delivered on that promise.

    “Up until now, the primary way to watch, share and discover Vine videos has been on your phone. We’ve heard from the Vine community that you sometimes want to explore Vine and view videos on your computer too. Today, we’re excited to introduce a brand-new version of vine.co, which adds a bunch of new features that will help you find and discover Vine videos on the web,” says Vine in a blog post.

    First off, Vine’s website now has a new search tool that lets you search keywords that will pull up results for people, hashtags, content, and even locations. If you’re looking for Vines about cats, it’s now easier to pull up millions of short videos about cats. Sounds like other video-sharing websites of note.

    The Explore page on the web features curated playlists, featured Vine videos, a “popular now” section, trending tags, featured Viners, and more.

    Most importantly, however, is the fact that you can do all of this without ever logging in.

    It’s this move that makes the new Vine site feel more like a resource for finding videos. Anyone can just go to Vine and search for all public Vine videos. Pretty neat.

    This is Vine’s move to go big, and go public. Earlly last month, Vine made a move to go small and private by unveiling private messaging to compete with the likes of Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

    Go check it out. Caution, it’s now really easy to lose an hour watching dumb Vine videos. You’ve been warned.

    Image via Vine.co screenshot

  • Dumb and Dumber Gets Unnerving Reworking

    Dumb and Dumber Gets Unnerving Reworking

    Dumb and Dumber, the movie that spawned a billion Big Gulps jokes, holds a special place in the hearts of many. The Farrelly brothers’ 1994 comedy is thought to be one of the funniest films of all time by some, and though I don’t really like superlatives, I will say that Dumb and Dumber has some of the best diner scenes of all time. It also has the best long-running gag about a parrot of all time. It also features the best comedic Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels roles of their respective careers.

    Ok, we all love Dumb and Dumber. Let’s move on.

    What if one of the most beloved comedies of the past 20 years wasn’t so serious anymore? What I’m saying, is what if someone spliced together some clips from the film, added an ominous soundtrack, and turned the whole thing into a strangely unnerving story of unrequited love and obsession called Love and Lover?

    What? Someone did? Awesome!

    Maybe that’s the direction this will take…

    Image via Vimeo

  • Google Gives Tips For Creating Inexpensive Videos For Your Business

    Google has released a new video about easy and inexpensive video creation tips for businesses. It’s a Hangout on Air with Ryan Park, who joined the Google Business Community, and answered questions from users about tips and tricks on the subject.

    It goes on for roughly 45 minutes, so if you’re looking to get some online video going, this will get you started. Or at least get you started starting.

    As a matter of fact, a recent Webmaster Help video from Google also gave some pointers on making video in an inexpensive way – videos like Google’s Webmaster Help videos themselves. You might consider giving that one a watch too if you haven’t yet.

    According to a new report from the IAB, most businesses see online video becoming more important than television advertising.

    Image via YouTube

  • Netflix Will Soon Be Raising Prices

    Netflix Will Soon Be Raising Prices

    Netflix is gearing up to make a move that may not sit well with its subscribers.

    On Monday, the Internet video service announced that the cost of monthly subscriptions would be going up within the next few months. They are estimating that the cost for new subscribers will increase by one to two dollars.

    The nearly 36 million current subscribers need not worry … yet. The company has explained that the current cusomters will continue to pay the $8.00 monthly subscription cost, that has been implemented since 2010, at least for the next year.

    The rising costs come as a measure for staying up-to-par with the competition. While Netflix currently has millions of subscribers, they are facing increased competition from cable networks such as HBO and Showtime, as well as other Internet video providers like Hulu.com and Amazon.com.

    Netflix also needs the added income to help pay for the rising costs of licensing the many videos and series they provide, such as their original series House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.

    “When we look at the shows and movies that we will be able to get if we have a bigger budget, it’s exciting,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told The Associated Press. “We want to make the service better and better so more people will join.”

    Hastings’ welcomes the competition and admitted that he is a subscriber to Amazon Prime. He described their services as “complementary to Netflix.” “We’re building this ecosystem together that’s about Internet video,” Hastings explained. “The more players there are in Internet video, the bigger that ecosystem gets…. and we’re all participating in that transformation.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • ‘World’s Toughest Job’ Ad Gets a Parody About Dads

    Someone on Facebook probably roped you into watching a video earlier this week called “World’s Toughest Job.” They probably shared it under the status “OMFG so true #blessed” or something like that. You probably watched it, and depending on your love/hatred for manipulative advertising, you probably re-shared it to your friends or threw your iPhone off a balcony.

    Anyway, I love my mom. You love your mom. We all love our moms. But that ad from American Greetings (the card company), just a couple weeks before Mother’s Day, is stupid. I hate it. I’m not the only one, but I’m positive I’m in the minority. Hate hate hate hate hate.

    So, Bud Light has responded to that viral travesty with a parody. It ain’t bad. A little tired, but it does its job of making the American Greetings ad look even dumber.

    Dads, right?

    Here’s the original ad about moms, if you feel like punching yourself in the brain for about four minutes.

    Image via YouTube

  • Rust Cohle Explains Time as a Flat Circle to Little Kids

    Rust Cohle Explains Time as a Flat Circle to Little Kids

    HBO’s True Detective ended its first season last month and when the credits rolled, it was clear that we had all just watched something singular–an experience that was going to have a profound effect on not only the future of scripted television, but pop culture.

    I mean, television just hasn’t ever had a character quite like Rust Cohle.

    If you watched the series (and even if you didn’t), you’re probably well-aware of Cohle’s philosophical musings. You’ve probably seen a grizzled Matthew McConaughey, sitting behind a table, drinking Lone Star beer and talking about how time is a flat circle.

    Ok, now imagine that table was tiny and Cohle was talking to kids instead of detectives.

    Comedian Ross Marquand makes this a reality in a spoof of those AT&T commercials–you know the ones. Watch out for a truly spectacular McConaughey impression.

    Image via Ross Marquand, YouTube

  • Johnny Cash Talks Long Hair And Dying In ‘Lost Interview’

    PBS Digital Studios’ Blank on Blank is highlighting a “lost interview” with the legendary Johnny Cash. He was interviewed by Barney Hoskyns in October of 1996.

    Blank on Blank takes obscure interviews with entertainment icons, and sets them to interesting animation. Here are a couple samples of what Cash had to say in his:

    “I’ve always hung out with long-hairs. I’ve always hung out with people of that ilk. I’m one of the originals. I had sideburns down to my chin…for a while there I did. When I started my own TV show in Nashville in ’69, I had a group called The Who on, and I forget which one of them said, ‘Thank God we’ve got somebody on television with long hair – talking about me, you know? Only it was’t all that long.”

    “My mother always told me that any talent is a gift of God, and I always believed it. If I quite, I would just live in front of the television, and then get fat and die pretty soon. So I don’t want to do that. You know, I just hope and pray I can die with my boots on. I’ve been in hospital beds, and I don’t want to end up there.”

    Check out the recent “lost interviews” Blank on Blank has featured with Kurt Cobain and Heath Ledger as well.

    Image via YouTube

  • Game of Thrones: Supercut of Every Death Reminds Us That All Men Must Die

    All men must die, and there’s been a lot to confirm that sentiment in the first three seasons of HBO’s Game of Thrones. If Game of Thrones weren’t such a fantastic show and actually needed to market itself to an unsure viewing audience, it could market itself as the only place, short of the internet, where you can see so many grisly deaths followed by boobs eyebleach. Sex and death–a classic combination so expertly exploited by Game of Thrones.

    We’ve discussed the sex before, and now here’s the death. Digg has compiled this awesome three-minute supercut of every single (on-screen) death in the first three seasons of Game of Thrones.

    What more do I need to say? Get to watching.

    Remember, folks, it’s Game of Thrones weekend! The season four premiere airs on Sunday night. You ready?

    Image via Game of Thrones, Facebook

  • A Montage Of Media Personalities Talking About Yelp

    Yelp recently released this montage of its service being talked about and referenced in the media. It includes clips from everything from Ellen to Tosh.0.

    I couldn’t help but notice that The People’s Court was absent from the video:

    Image via YouTube

  • Here’s Larry Page’s TED Talk

    Here’s Larry Page’s TED Talk

    Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page participated in a TED talk by way of interview by Charlie Rose last week at TED2014. He discusses his vision for the company, which includes things like Internet balloons (which it already has) and aerial bikeways. He talks about the company’s acquisition of artificial intelligence company DeepMind, and why he’d consider giving his money to Elon Musk.

    “He wants to go to Mars,” Page says. “That’s a worthy goal. We have a lot of employees at Google who’ve become pretty wealthy. You’re working because you want to change the world and make it better; if the company you work for is worthy of your time, why not your money as well? We just don’t think about that. I’d like for us to help out more than we are.”

    The video page has the transcript if you’d rather consume it that way.

    Image via YouTube

  • Here’s A Quick Tip About Google’s Remarketing Ads

    Google just posted this “AdWords Quick Tip” about remarketing ads. The general gist is: make sure you have enough ad formats in your remarketing campaign to ensure you have more chances to have your ads shown to your target audience.

  • SXSW Hipsters Pretend to Know Bands So Obscure They Don’t Even Exist

    If you ask the crowd at SXSW about some hot new bands like “DJ Heavy Flow” and “What the Fuck Bruce Jenner,” they’ll probably tell you that they not only know of their music, but are pretty into it too. In fact, What the Fuck Bruce Jenner is even on the same level as “Neil Patrick Harassment”–which is surely saying something.

    The only problem here is that these bands don’t exist (yet), and are simply the creations of big fat liar exposer Jimmy Kimmel and his awesome Lie Witness News segment.

    Usually, Kimmel takes to Hollywood Blvd to prove why most people shouldn’t breed–but this week he’s been doing his show live from Austin, Texas at the SXSW festival so he figured that hipsters were an easy target.

    At SXSW, there’s apparently nothing worse than not knowing some obscure band. Hasn’t anyone ever heard of the words “nope, never heard of them–I should check them out though!”

  • Facebook’s Video Ads Are Here: 15 Seconds, Autoplay, and Silent Unless Clicked

    They’re heeeeeere.

    Actually, they’ve been here for a while, but today Facebook has announced that their long-awaited (and long-bemoaned) video ad product is going wide, with a limited group of advertisers. The company first started testing the autoplay ads back in September, and made the first big push in December with a video ad campaign for the new film Divergent. We’d known that Facebook was planning on rolling these out since 2012, but they were delayed so that Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team could figure out how to make them less-intrusive, or at least tolerable to the average Facebook user.

    So, will they be tolerable? Probably. The video ad you’ll see in your news feeds over the next few months (that’s the rollout timeframe) will be 15 seconds long and yes, they’ll autoplay–but they’ll autoplay without sound. If a user clicks on the ad, the video will go fullscreen and the sound will kick in.

    If you scroll by the ads, they’ll stop playing.

    “Premium Video Ads are designed for advertisers who want to reach a large audience with high-quality sight, sound and motion,” says Facebook’s Susan Buckner. “With Premium Video Ads, brands now have another way of engaging people on Facebook with compelling video experiences…this limited introduction allows us to concentrate our efforts on a smaller number of advertisers with high-quality campaigns to create the best possible experience on Facebook.”

    Basically, Facebook says that the videos will be of the highest quality, and therefore shouldn’t disrupt your normal Facebook experience. Now, whether that’s true or not is a question we’ll have to answer down the road. To me, it’ll have everything to do with clutter. Too many news feed video ads, even if they’re silent and ignorable via scrolling, will piss off a lot of people.

    Then again, everyone always seems pissed with Facebook, but 1+ billion strong keep coming back.

    Here’s the relevant part of Facebook’s announcement for those on the other side of the equation, the advertisers:

    Premium Video Ads are bought and measured in a way that’s similar to how advertisers already buy and measure ads on TV. The ads are bought based on Targeted Gross Rating Points to reach a specific audience over a short period of time. Delivery is measured by an independent third party, Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings (OCR), and advertisers only pay based on what Nielsen OCR measures.

    To make sure Premium Video Ads are as good as other content people see in their News Feeds, we’re working with a company called Ace Metrix to help us review and assess how engaging the creative is for each ad — before it appears on Facebook. Ace Metrix will allow us to objectively measure the creative quality of the video in the Facebook environment, and highlight performance indicators for advertisers such as watchability, meaningfulness and emotional resonance. We’re taking this step in order to maintain high-quality ads on Facebook and help advertisers understand what’s working to maximize their return on investment.

    Like most Facebook products, these videos ads will come in a slow rollout.

    Image via Facebook

  • Heath Ledger Talks Acting And Michelle Williams In ‘Lost Interview’

    Blank on Blank, the PBS Digital Studios project, which takes obscure interviews from entertainment icons, and sets them to interesting animation, has a new video out featuring the late Heath Ledger talking about role playing and about Michelle Williams, who is also featured throughout the visuals.

    The “lost interview” was conducted by Christine Spines in 2005. Her profile appeared in Entertainment Weekly.

    Ledger recalls he and Williams living in a trailer with Williams, saying, “It was really beautiful. Yeah it was very romantic. We were suddenly thrown into a little husband-wife situation. Our bed, honestly, was no bigger than that little round table there. My legs would hang off this far at the end. But it was worth it. And it was comfortable, somehow…Yeah, it was sweet. It was very, very sweet. I could have stayed like that for years. It was very, very, very sweet.”

    He also talks about his nervous energy, his dislike for rehearsals, and Ang Lee.

    Also, check out the lost Kurt Cobain interview Blank on Blank did a while back if you missed it.

    Image via YouTube

  • Netflix Releases ‘Best Of Frank Underwood’ Supercut

    We’re less than 24 hours away from the debut of House of Cards: Season 2. Meanwhile, Netflix is squeezing in just a little more promotional material.

    Today, the company uploaded a supercut video of “The Best of Frank Underwood” for your viewing pleasure.

    Underwood’s famous dog murder scene did not make the cut, nor did this wonderful gem:

    Image via Twitter

  • Let AsapSCIENCE Tackle Some Olympics-Related Scientific Queries

    Our favorite science illustrators AsapSCIENCE usually take a couple-week break between uploading some of the finest 2-minute animated science videos on the internet. Basically, AsapSCIENCE takes complicated topics and boils them down to their most salient points, and then presents them to your average YouTube user in a clear an concise manner.

    What’s not to love?

    Well, here’s a treat. AsapSCIENCE has decided to tackle a bunch of topics that are related to the Olympics–performing in the Olympics, and general athletics in general. As the action in Sochi heats up (cools down?), take a look at some interesting scientific concepts that impact The Games like the actual advantage of stretching, talent vs. training, why we get nervous, and how music can improve athletic performance.

    Enjoy!

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Facebook’s Look Back Videos See 100M Shares

    If you thought that the only reason you’ve been seeing so many of those “look back” videos in your Facebook news feed was that Facebook has been bumping their visibility or something–well, that’s not entirely accurate.

    Ok, it could be part of it. But according to Sheryl Sandberg, the 1-minute trips down Facebook memory lane that the company debuted earlier this month were actually just super duper popular.

    Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference on Tuesday, Sandberg shared some numbers about those ubiquitous videos: Nearly 200 million people watched their own “look back” video and half of those who watched their own video shared it with friends (via CNET).

    Take Facebook’s 1.23 billion monthly active users, subtract the 65 million or so fake account that are believed to exist, and you find that over 10% of all Facebook users, worldwide, shared one of those videos on their Timelines.

    I think we can call them a hit.

    The look back videos were so popular that parodies started popping up – a couple which were truly hilarious.

    Well, at least we now know why these things were everywhere for about two weeks – a lot of people took a look back and a lot of people decided that their friends should take that trip with them. Sandberg said it was a success in “showing the power of the Facebook brand.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Tip: Clear Your Phone Browser of Porn Sites Before Using Said Phone in News Segment

    That’s just a simple tip, guys. If you’re going to use your iPhone to film stock video for a local news segment, it might be wise to make sure your bookmarks and history list doesn’t read “Pornhub Mobile.”

    Or, I guess, if you truly don’t care – well, power to you.

    A WGN (Chicago) report on a new app called Expunge.io needed some nice stock video of someone accessing the app on their mobile device. The app, which helps people expunge minor offenses from their records, is the work of local high school students.

    If only someone would have found an app that automatically clears your browser history for you.

    As you can see in the image above, an eagle-eyed redditor caught the errant link, which only flashes on screen for about a half of a second. We found the video and sure enough, this is real. The magic happens at about 48 seconds in. Don’t blink, you might miss it. Just proof that there’s always somebody watching, ready to take a screenshot. If you mess up, you’re going to wind up internet famous for it. Sorry.

    To be honest, I’m more intrigued by that other link. What the hell are we all trying to expose? Based on the Pornhub link, I have a few ideas.

    Image via GIANTclouds, reddit (hosted via Imgur)

  • Facebook’s Look Back Videos, If They Were At All Genuine

    Well this is pretty funny.

    Like most things on Facebook, those packaged “Look Back” videos that everybody has been sharing in honor of Facebook’s 10th anniversary are annoyingly ubiquitous. Sure, it might be interesting to you to see your most-liked posts and how you were 25 pounds lighter back in 2005 – you. Interesting to you.

    Anyway, the real problem with the look back videos is that they are in no way an accurate representation of the average person’s Facebook history.

    You know what is? This. This is perfect.

    Image, Video via Stephen Parkhurst

  • Awesome Uncle Turns Kid’s First Points into SportsCenter Highlight

    If you really want a kid to get into sports, you have to make them excited about playing. Editing a kid’s first-ever bucket and overlaying the SportsCenter top 10 graphics is a damn fine way to start.

    Via reddit, one uncle decided to do just that. “My nephew just made his first shot in little league basketball last night. I tried to make it memorable for him,” says the poster.

    “I can only imagine what he is going to think when he sees this…he wouldn’t stop watching when i first showed it to him and that was when the video only had 10 views!” says the proud uncle.

    I really hope this kid becomes a star one day and we can all look back at this and smile. A lot.

    NOT POSSIBLE!

    Image & video via Taylor Stephens, YouTube

  • First Ever ‘Magic Eye’ Music Video Hits YouTube, Is Awesome

    Canadian indie band Young Rival has just released a truly kickass music video for their track “Black Is Good.”

    Y’all remember Magic Eye pictures, right? You know, “relax you eyes…” The book series, which featured autostereograms, first debuted in the States in 1993. If you had trouble seeing Magic Eyes, well, you weren’t one of the cool kids. You could cheat, cross your eyes, and see the 3D image in reverse.

    Well, Young Rival has just made a “Magic Eye” music video and they’re touting it as the first of its kind.

    Here’s an explanation of the process by the video’s director, Jared Raab:

    This is where it gets technical. To make your own autostereogram, one must first create a thing called a “depth map” which is a 2D representation of 3D depth information. We collected real-time depth data of Young Rival performing the song using an X-Box Kinect hooked up to a computer. The computer was running software called RGBD toolkit, designed for capturing the depth information from the Kinect using its built-in infrared system. Once we had our depth information, we unpacked it into image sequences and edited these sequences as if they were regular video.

    The only difference in the editing process was that depth was represented by luminosity. With much trial and error, we then ran the data through an algorithm which took each frame of depth information, converted it into a random dot stereogram image, and repacked it into the final video. Lastly, there was one more colour pass at the end, and voila.

    Young Rival isn’t a stranger to viral success. Back in 2012, their video for the song “Two Reasons” garnered over 800,000 views on YouTube. With this new magic eye video, it looks like they have another sure hit on their hands.

    Image via YouTube