Coming Soon to Movies: Starter for 10

Starter for 10, which has not yet been released has a sountrack featuring Kate Bush. It was produced by Tom Hanks. It sounds great. Set in England and meant for people who grew up in the 80s. Me!

Good News for Magnify.net

I am pleased to read "Magnify.net raises $1.2 Million". I have found the people at Magnify to be really helpful and I love what they are doing. It is great to be able to create your own channel and they just keep adding features. It is fun to use and the team are supportive and helpful if you have any issues. What more can users ask for?

Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks

My daughter introduced the Dixie Chicks to me. They are great. A good clip too. Enjoy!

Three Dollars

I watched 'Three Dollars' for the second time this week. I love this film. The central character, Eddie, is such a compassionate person and his suffering hurts. I cried during the railway station scene, knowing this is how we behave in public as humans, inhumanely. I love the way Eddie treats others.

Another great Australian film that many have never heard of!

Snowy River Road via Suggan Buggan

Click to Play

Picturesque road to Jindabyne along Snowy River, via Suggan Buggan.        

Formats available: Microsoft Video (.avi)

Tags: road, travel, australia, mountains, view, suggan buggan, snowy river, jindabyne

Aussie Film/Media Blogs to check out

I am always looking for interesting blogs to read about the topics I am interested in so I though others may similarly enjoy a list to check out. I have added these to my feeds and will watch them for a month or so in my to read folder. If they are generally good, I will move them to a more permanent position. Let me know if I am missing anything good.

Graeme Watson
Inside Film
Stale Popcorn
R-Views
What I watched today

That will do for today.

My Favourite Magnify Channels

I have some of my own, but there are some great channels.

Here is a selection from Magnify:

All about Tesla

Amnesty International

world history

Organic gardening

Backpackers Stories

Magnify is really taking off. The number of channels grows daily. There is good traffic on these sites. I am pleased because all my interactions with the Magnify team have been pleasant and I am confident they are going to be a great success.

Revenue Sharing coming soon to YouTube

I have never uploaded a clip to YouTube. I have committed to Revver to house my collections and I am more than happy with this arrangement.
This latest news that I have read on Nalt's blog is interesting though. I wonder how this will change the online video world?
I have used YouTube to find videos to use on my blogs on occasion and imagine this could improve the quality of the video's.
I wonder if they will be able to continue to allow people without the rights to continue that if they are revenue sharing?
In the BBC version of this news:

"The offer applies only to people who own the full copyright of the videos that they are uploading to the YouTube website."

Interesting....

Legacy of Blogging and Online Video

One of the reasons I blog and make my little clips for revver is to keep a journal for my family. I have a great, great grandmother who wrote a couple of small novels and pamphlet’s that are housed in the State Library of Victoria and I loved discovering this. I have diaries that were my grandmothers and I treasure her handwriting and her little observations of life. I hope to have grandchildren and I imagine they could be as interested as I am.
Some of the videos I have made are of places that will change in the future. Climate will change the landscape. Increasing populations will develop places and they won’t be recognisable. It is a historic legacy as well to see little glimpses of places.
I know my clips aren’t highly entertaining right now and it could seem like a waste of time, yet I imagine some of them could have value for others at some time. I video things that take my attention for now and I don’t edit or think too much about them. I expect I will improve over time, I will get better equipment and become better at capturing things. I learn more about the technology and I enjoy learning this.
The learning about the technology and tools of the Internet is another motivating force for me. I find I can’t spend the time to learn something if it has no purpose for me and I read this post from Beet.tv with interest this morning. It is true. All the videos that are being archived on the Internet will make a rich resource for future generations.

The future of Video shops

I guess they are more DVD shops now, but anyway, last night I went to my local video shop to hire some DVD's and it was really challenging to find something I hadn't seen or wanted to watch. I looked around and noticed that the library had shrunk. There was a pile of used DVDs at the front of the shop. It felt like an unannounced closing down sale and I felt pretty sad.
I know this has been predicted and discussed by many and I remember when I was in a shop nearly 20 years ago, saying to my business partner, we have to get out of this shop. Shops are going to be gone. I was way ahead of myself at the time. We sold that business and I was really happy with the profit we made, and to be free of having to go to the shop everyday. However, that aside, the business is still successfully running, exactly where it was when I left it.
I think though that music and video shops might be in trouble though. It certainly looks like it. I guess the only thing keeping them going are all those people who don't really understand or want to know about computers.

Latest Revver News

I was delighted to read in the Revver forum today that they are looking at the accounts. I have felt that my stats aren't being properly recorded and I was astonished when I returned from holidays and found that although I had received over a hundred views a day on Magnify on just one of my channels, which is almost exclusively revver videos, my balance had not shifted! I was paid over $200 in the last payment for a months earnings. My next payment will be only $50ish and the way this month is shaping up, there would have to be something massive occur for me to make it to $20. I know I had 3 weeks of not uploading. I was under the impression that whenever clips were viewed they would have ads on them, no matter how old they were. I wonder if this is not so. Perhaps I need to ask that on the forum. I won't bother them though until I hear the outcome of their current investigations.
I love Revver and think it is such a great idea and such a great service for video producers that I hate to complain to them. In the past I have found them to be fair and transparent in their communications with me, so I just trust that order will be restored. I guess also if they were experiencing a difficulty, I wouldn't want to add pressure.
I have finally got a widget of clips on this blog, but I would prefer it not to be above the header of my blog. It's the best I can do right now. The one on this blog is of my clips that have received over a hundred views. I have also added a widget to Joh Blogs of the clips from our holiday if you are interested. I have also written on that blog about the films I have seen lately.

Whilst I've been away on Holidays......

Magnify has announced it's launch of .09. I love this site. If you make videos and want to create a channel I would recommend Magnify. If you like watching videos and want to create a channel to share your video's, again Magnify. The possibilities are endless. It is a really useful site. I look forward to seeing the changes that are coming. They have over 1800 channels now.
They are supportive and encouraging. It is getting quite good traffic also for some of my videos. My videos are not really viral, but more sharing sights I've seen on my little trips, so the traffic I get would be small compared to those who are intentionally going for the audiences. You can create a channel based on any topic that interests you. I encourage you to check it out.
You can share the revenue they earn through revver accounts and google adsense, which makes life simple.
Revver has been very quiet for me whilst I was away. In saying that I have not earnt a cent until I put a couple of new clips up when I returned. I have received over a hundred views per day on one of my magnify channels but this hasn't translated into any revenue from Revver, so I am surprised by that.
Both Magnify and Revver have forums and I have noticed in the forums that others have also seen a slowdown in their revenue from Revver, so I guess the Christmas/New Year period has been a quiet one. Those forums are a great way to stay in touch and lesson the panic when things don't seem to be right. It always seems better when others are experiencing the same thing, don't you think?

Goanna at Cape Conron

Click to Play

This big reptile joined us for our picnic lunch at Cape Conran during the holidays. After Mr Magnificent attempted a conversation with it, it scampered off, slowly.

Formats available: Microsoft Video (.avi)

Tags: goanna, australia, cape conron, travel

Imperfections = magic

Sometimes the magic is in the imperfections writes Kathy Sierra. Creating Passionate Users is one of my favourite blogs. I especially love the graphs and this post is no exception.
Those flaws that come from having a low budget, or not enough time, tend to keep things real. It keeps us conscious of the human behind the creation and that's a good thing. Check it out.

Bushfire sky

Click to Play

The sky in the afternoon in Latrobe Valley. The fires are at Toongabbie which is about 10kms away.? It was windy and the light was eerie

Formats available: Microsoft Video (.avi)

Tags: sky, wind, tree, smoke, fires

Magnify.net

I have just noticed that my channel on Magnify also called Falling Brick is featured on their page at present. This has led to a wonderful surge in stats that I am really pleased about.

I spent some time last night tweaking my sites and have found there have been a lot of improvements to the Magnify site since I last spent a lot of time there. There are so many more ways that you can tailor your channel to serve your purposes. I love it.

There are now over 1500 channels to watch. Most of them allow participants to submit videos also, so it is a great way to get some more exposure for your clips.

If you want to create your own channel it is really quite easy and they are very supportive. You can put videos from a number of places on there such as Revver,Yahoo,Blip TV, Youtube,or Google. Other video site users such as Videoegg have also submitted clips to my sites, so I imagine that almost any could be included. Even if you don't make channels it can be a great way to share with your friends what video's you like.

Blogger can put a widget on their site that will feature a selection of the videos you have on your channel.

If you want to make money, they share the proceeds from the Google Ads and the Revver videos with you via your existing Google or Revver accounts. I don't have a Google account, but I can benefit from the affiliate income from Revver.

Outdoor Cinema

In Melbourne there is an outdoor cinema. The current program looks really good. Many of my favourite films are listed as showing.
What could be better than to be outside watching a film on a warm summer night?
There was an article in the Age about it on the weekend that I posted to my newsvine. There is one in Sydney as well.

Make Money With Revver

Peter Gabriel on TED Talks

The following clip is a must view. Peter Gabriel, who is after all a wonderful musician, is also a human rights activist. In this clip he explains about the Witness organisation. Their motto is: See It, Film It, Change it. What a great way to use your camera.

Revver 1.1

It's good. The guys at Revver keep getting better. I can't say enough to praise their efforts. Check out these little clips to learn more;


But Wait, there is more.......

How entertaining was that!
Well maybe there is a little bit of advertising/promotion in there, but fair dinkum, if you want to make and share video's, Revver is your guy!