Friday, March 30, 2007

A year with Revver

Today when I logged in to check my stats on Revver, I was delighted to find the new accounting stats are working well. I can clearly see now, which of my videos are being watched and how many clicks they are receiving. I haven't been uploading many clips on Revver for a while. I have been busy elsewhere in my life. My results have reflected this lack of activity. I have uploaded a few in the past few days to get to a rounded off number of 410. I think I may delete 10 at some stage later.

I uploaded my first Revver video on 31/3/06. A year ago tomorrow. There have been a lot of changes since that time. I have $894.80 total earnings to date, yet I think I earnt a hundred or so before the site changed and the stats were restarted. I am delighted with this result. My clips are not very popular and they haven't been edited, as I have said before. I began as an experiment to familiarise myself with the technology. The ease with which the results came in the beginning has stunted my growth. I haven't continued to do what I intended in the beginning, which was to create short edited clips to share places and stories with the world.

The Revver staff have been helpful and have made so many improvements to the site that I couldn't begin to mention them all. There have been times when things have changed more than I wanted them to, yet in reflecting on the year that's been, the majority of changes have been improvements. I really like Revver and those involved with it. I appreciate the helpfulness of the staff and their patience with complaints and requests. I appreciate that they have allowed people from all over the world to participate, even though it means extra paperwork for them.

I intend this next year to go back to my original goal. It will mean that I don't upload as many clips. I have uploaded 410 clips this first year. I don't expect there will be anywhere near as many in the next year, but who knows.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Free Hugs

Today I have read about the disgraceful threats made to Kathy Sierra: Creating Passionate Users, who is one of my favourite bloggers. I am not linking to the post because I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It is quite horrible and saddening. It would be great if by bringing this to light, as Kathy has done, that we can somehow change the way people behave, or take more responsibility about what we tolerate. I guess I see bullying every day in the school yard, but adults are extreme and horrific in comparison.

I hope that I see more inspiration, hope and joy online rather than the shadowy dark side of human nature. It worries me because I guess up to this point I have been thinking that on the Internet, you can hit delete, or close a window if you come across you don't tolerate.

I want to see more of this Free Hugs Wins Youtube Award: The Age

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Emu Crossing

In a creek bed a few kms out of Broken Hill, these two emu's crossed the road. They make a distinctive noise.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

The Gift of Nothing

A much under-rated and utilised gift. I have been sharing this gift with you for the last few days.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Weekend Viewing

I watched 'The Jacket'today. Adrien Brody is lovely. It was tense in the beginning, but got lovelier.
On Friday night I watched 'A Good Woman' and found it delightful. Oscar Wilde is a great writer.
I haven't watched many films lately or have began watching only to be dissappointed.

Echidna

    This prickly little echidna shuffled past.
Formats available: Microsoft Video (.avi)

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Tropfest Deadline Day



This little clip is about the deadline for Tropfest. It's on Revver.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Nadia Tass News

One of my favourite filmmakers Nadia Tass is mentioned in IF News today as being chosen for Aurora. I'm pleased. I love many of her films, especially Amy, Malcolm and Rikki and Pete. Love them!

"Nadia Tass, who has made many iconic Australian films including Amy, Malcolm, Mr Reliable and The Big Steal as well as several US productions including Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story, is to direct Six Weeks of Heaven. Writer is Chris Philips and Producer is Dennis Kiely. The film tells of a nine year old girl who seeks to fulfil the dying wish of her brother for one last summer holiday."


Something to look forward to.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Blog Hunt

Blogs I am adding to my feed to watch for a month or so are:

Media Researcher
I like the way he lists his blogroll as influencers. He doesn't post very frequently though, so I may lose interest, we'll see!

Melbourne Film Blog
Melbourne Photo Blog
Love the photos of Melbourne, reviews of films are interesting.

Random Brainwave
Not sure really other than its kind of raw and interesting.

Cape Conran 2005

Formats available: Microsoft Video (.avi)

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Mashable : Poll

Mashable have an interesting post on which sites pay the best. I have to say that from trying Metacafe, Revver and Blip TV, Revver has paid me over $800US. My clips aren't popular. I haven't received a cent from Metacafe and have only earnt .90c from Blip TV and obviously haven't received that.
In fairness to the above sites, I have only uploaded 5 videos to Metacafe and currently have only 3 on the site that are crawling along. I doubt that I will make it to their minimum views though, so am not bothering with it. I have 13 clips on Blip and haven't really put much time into it. I am intending to though, so I guess it will be fairer to assess Blip, when or if I put more effort into it.
I have put over 400 clips on Revver but very few of them have received more than 100 views. I have also been using Revver since March last year, but only tried Metacafe and Blip later in the year.
What the poll says about it being difficult to assess apples for apples as we used to say about quotes for curtains, is true. I guess it depends very much on individual needs. Their assessment is possibly only useful for a clip that is likely to get 10 000 views. Oh I wish!

Friday, March 09, 2007

Teenagers on Film

Watching "Little Miss Sunshine" tonight, the teenage son enters, Andy says "Why are there no pleasant teenagers in films?"

Fair comment. They are not represented well in the media. Teenagers that is. It is not accurate. Teenagers are great and I am obviously not one of them when I say that. Why is this? The stereotype of teenagers is not fair.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Overheard Conversation at School

Teacher: I saw this great poetry reading on Youtube last night and wish I could show you but Youtube is banned.
Student: Why don't you download it?
Teacher: You can't download from Youtube.
Student: Yes, you can, I'll show you.
Students walks over to teachers laptop, types in Keepvid then types in a file conversion site to convert from flv to playable files.
Teacher: Wow!
Student: So tomorrow you can show us the poem.
Teacher: Is it hard to come to school, drag yourself away from the Internet, when you are possibly learning less here.
Many Students Loudly: YES!

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Clever

Imagine a world where healthy food was marketed as agressively as sugary and fattening rubbish food.
Imagine if creators could come from anywhere and be anyone and were invited directly to create and were selected by popularity on merit.
Imagine that!


The National Sunflower Association, and when I say National, I think it's American National we're talking about, is having a competition for video makers. The prize is $10 000 for the winning video.

More details at the website: Grab Em By The Sack

Monday, March 05, 2007

Tropfest - My Favourites

My favourite Tropfest film was "Between the Flags". I loved the humour of it and the underlying messages. It embraced Australian culture in good ways. The other film that made an impression was "Road Rage". It was too sad and then too funny. The one that haunted me was "Bad Yoghurt". It was gross, but the image remains.
Tropfest was good this year, even though I only saw it on a TV screen. "An Imaginary Life" was ok, but I wouldn't have given it the winner.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Best Part

I confess, I don't watch awards. I imagine this was the best part for anyone else who is like me. I am confident others will correct me if I am wrong.
It's like sport, I want to play it or leave it. I don't really want to watch, unless someone I dearly love is playing.
I'm not really interested in what other people award or think is great. I want to watch things for myself. I do seriously like this though.



"Precious Images by Chuck Workman. Oscar Winning Short. This is the greatest short film of all time. 7 minutes long - it's a movie montage of the greatest movies by Chuck Workman. It features 500 movie clips. At one point, it was the most seen short film in history"

Thursday, March 01, 2007