January 3, 2008

Dance Videos Created Specifically for the Internet

In 2008, it would be nice to see more dance videos created specifically for the Internet, videos whose purpose is solely artistic and not marketing in nature.

I know of few examples of such videos except the ones I include below. If you know of other videos along these lines, please share.

You could say that dance on camera productions are the same as or similar to the dance videos specifically created for the Internet. But I don't think that this is usually the case. For example, the online video dance series produced by Boris Willis and Clare Byrne create on-going relationships between creator and viewer that would not be anticipated at dance film festivals. Plus, the approach to shooting and editing is significantly different as well.

Clare Byrne's Weekly Rites

Clare Byrne's Weekly Rites is an experimental dance video blog that features the dancemaking of New York City choreographer Clare Byrne. Here's a December 13th video "All My Love Come Down." You can read the corresponding text and comments.

Click To Play

Dance-A-Day

Washington, DC-based choreographer and dancer Boris Willis produces the Dance-A-Day video blog that features his daily video creations that either feature solo performances by himself or dances with him and others. You can also visit Boris Willis Moves Blog to see his videos.

In yesterday's video, Shallom and Boris, Boris dances with Shallom, a Vancouver dancer who is heading back home after being in DC for four months. You can visit Shallom's Moving Space and Time blog.

Click To Play

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's Offsite & Insight

Members of Takoma Park, Maryland-based Liz Lerman Dance Exchange created an Internet video, "Offsite & Insight" for their participation in last September's 13th DC Improvisation Festival. Dance Exchange was on the road during the festival, so they decided to participate virtually, via an Internet video.

Click To Play

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December 20, 2007

How Do You Generate a Video Dance Craze?

Here's the Soulja Boy "Crank That" instructional video - 21 million views and 25 thousand comments:

And maybe more interesting from a participation standpoint is that there are 223 video responses - most of them variations of Crank That Soulja Boy.

At the ITP 2007 Winter showcase here in NYC earlier this week where students from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program presented their research and creations, Robert Moon demonstrated his Dance Dance Evolution.

Starting with the Crank That Soulja Boy:

Robert had viewers (people visiting his booth at showcase) watch and dance the routine, which he videotaped. Then this video of the first set of viewers dancing to Crank That become what the next set of viewers watched as they began to dance. So essentially a game of telephone where you see what types of changes take place over time as people dancing the routine become farther and farther removed from the original.

I'm also curious about a related topic: What makes a new dance a dance craze? Why does something catch like fire and everybody wants to know the dance? What than motivates some of these people to post videos of themselves doing the dance? Is there some kind of formula? Probably not or everybody would be replicating the formula and there would be too many dance crazes to count.

In Chicago Tribune, there's story about Art Institute of Chicago student and teacher of children's dance classes Sarah Febbraro who wants to get people around the world dancing [via ArtsJournal]. She created this video, "Global Dancing: Learn This Routine," that she wants others to do:

So far, there are 14 video responses.

Do you know of similar dance routines/crazes on YouTube? Are you planning to create one? Would a dance routine be a good way to market an upcoming dance performance?

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December 18, 2007

The Power of Historical Dance Retrospective Videos

Why is the the Evolution of Dance video so popular? Now watched by 68 million YouTube visitors:

You could say that dancer Judson Laipply is funny, which he is. But there is also something inherently comforting in understanding how pieces of our past fit together and influence each other, in this case recent popular dance fads and crazes.

There's a similar famous bit that Robin Williams does in The Birdcage (1996). At the 2:50 minute mark of the following clip, he does his rapid-fire impersonations of the dance styles of famous choreographers. "You do an eclectic celebration of the dance - you do Fosse, Fosse, Fosse. You do Martha Graham, Martha Graham, Martha Graham. You do Twyla, Twyla, Twyla..." and he continues:

And here is a clip from Chita Rivera's Broadway show the Dancer's Life, a retrospective of the jazz legends she's worked with over the years. In this clip, she pays tribute to Jack Cole, Peter Gennaro, Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins. (Here's NPR interview with her about this show).

I think that a good number of people come to all three of the above videos with at least some familiarity with the dance moves and styles, and the names of the choreographers. It might not be a lot of familiarity, but just enough for the viewer experience to be fun and engaging and for each of the videos to provide more historical context than the viewer had before watching them. My point might be a stretch with the Robbin Williams short sequence, but I think it definitely works for the other clips.

I would very much enjoy seeing more of these types of videos. Besides being educational and fun, I think that they are great marketing tools for choreographers, dancers and instructors.

- Choreographers/dancers could create videos showing which choreographers/dance traditions have influenced them.

- Dance instructors could demonstrate different ways of dancing, say, Salsa or Swing and also discuss the different cultural and regional influences.

- Dancers could link to online videos that showcase different styles of dance, create their own videos with additional examples, and integrate the two to provide additional historical context.

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December 17, 2007

Ellen DeGeneres Visits Alvin Ailey in Two Hilarious Videos

These two videos feature Ellen DeGeneres visiting the Alvin Ailey studios here in Manhattan on 55th street and 9th avenue and working with the Ailey dancers. These clips are from her TV show.

I really didn't appreciate how funny she is. I saw her host the Oscars one or two years ago and I thought the program was terrible. But I started watching this first video and couldn't stop laughing. It probably helps that I've taken classes in the first-floor studio where Ellen teaches the Ailey dancers a routine:

And here Ellen helps fix-up the choreography:

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December 12, 2007

How Did Modern Dance Get So Serious?

Here's a YouTube video of the "The Rich Man's Frug" from Bob Fosse-choreographed show and movie "Sweet Charity." (This clip is on the "Fosse" DVD):

Why are so many modern/contemporary dance performances so serious? Why isn't there a better balance between deep, meaningful works and performances that are just meant to be watched for the sheer joy of seeing dance?

In September, Danciti wrote a review of The Chase Brock Experience at Dance New Amsterdam:

The Chase Brock Experience is a refreshingly unpretentious one. In a world where everyone is concerned with meeting their quota of 'deep art' in their dance, Brock just creates dance that he likes. You can tell by the profound lack of unexplained screaming...With the exception of Tossing and Yearning, most of the dances seemed like musical style choreography; either comical characterizations or continual leaping. What's sad is that that sounds like a slight. There is nothing wrong with musical style choreography or light-hearted dance; we just don't see much of that around here.

.

Are contemporary choreographers simply drawn to the deep, meaningful and serious? Do they feel trapped in between dance reviewers and grantmakers who have set notions of what dance is supposed to be about?

Shirley MacLaine in the 1969 movie "Sweet Charity." And once again here's "The Rich Man's Frug" - dubbed in Spanish:

Would audiences be larger for dance performances? Would there be longer runs if there was a little more unadulterated fun?

This post may sound like I'm attacking "deep art" to use Danciti's term above. I'm not. I'd just like a better balance. What happened?

"The Rich Man's Frug" from the Sweet Charity movie with French subtitles:

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December 10, 2007

New York City Ballet's Damian Woetzel on State of the Art and West Side Story

Watch the following video to see New York City Ballet's Damian Woetzel discuss the state of ballet and art in America. This presentation was conducted at The Aspen Institute this past summer.

[via State Street Ballet and Quodlibet]

During his talk, Damian Woetzel promises he'll teach audience members how to be Jets - go to 43:30 minute mark on above video to see his discussion about West Side Story. Here's clip from West Side Story.

While on the topic of Jerome Robbins, take a look at website for "Jerome Robbins' NY Export: Opus Jazz the Film." This is new film that offers reinterpretation of Robbins' 1958 "NY Export: Opus Jazz." [via Swan Lake Samba Girl].

I enjoyed watching the Opus Jazz documentary and teaser videos.

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December 5, 2007

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet's Compelling Dance Video

I often complain about the quality of dance videos. So here's one I like. This short video clip is of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet's "Rite," a work-in-progress choreographed by Stijn Celis that will be performed as part of the company's 2008 Winter Season at their Cedar Lake Theater here in New York City. (January 10-19, 2008)

This is one of the few times that I've watched an Internet video and actually wanted to see the dance performance as a result of seeing the clip. I like the music, the dancing and the voice-over narrations by Artistic Director Benoit-Swan Pouffer and Stijn Celis.

The video is also timely. It was uploaded to YouTube two days ago and incorporated into an email marketing blast that went out on the same day.

Rehearsal Videos on NYC Dance Performance Blog

I also posted the above video to the new NYC Dance Performances Blog. My goal is not just to link to reviews. I would like to give audiences multiple ways of learning about and previewing dance performances they are thinking of attending. And one of the best resources that dancegoers can have access to are videos directly from the dance-makers themselves.

So if you have videos of rehearsals, works-in-progress or, or course, performances that you will soon be performing in the New York City area, I encourage you to submit them.

Bloggers at Cedar Lake

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet is also doing something innovative for dance bloggers.

At the dress rehearsal on January 9th, they have invited dance bloggers for drinks and mingling. As Caleb Custer of the ballet company wrote in the invitation to bloggers:

"It would be a chance for all the New York dance bloggers to see the show the day before it opens, meet and talk and even give some feedback."

So far 11 dance bloggers will be attending. I, of course, like this idea. And I think it's invaluable for a dance company. Here you have 11 people at a dress rehearsal who may write about your performance. And bloggers turn around reviews very quickly. This means that dancegoers can actually read the reviews while there are still performances to see. How do you top that?

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September 12, 2007

Jonah Bokaer Video Interview

This morning I went to Chez Bushwick, a Brooklyn-based, artist-run organization that offers low-cost rehearsal space, supports the creation of new work and offers monthly programs with a strong emphasis on experimental dance.

I met with Chez Bushwick founder Jonah Bokaer who is a dancer, choreographer and new media artist and is a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

I conducted a video interview with Jonah about Chez Bushwich as well as an upcoming dance community picture shoot.

Click To Play

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July 12, 2007

"Slow Dancing" Internet Videos Don't Do David Michalek's Project Justice

After a two-day delay, photographer David Michalek's "Slow Dancing" installation opens tonight at Lincoln Center. This exhibit consists of stunning 40-feet high video projections featuring a roster of internationally known dancers. Each super-high-definition video, which lasts about 10 minutes, is a very slowed down version of a 5-second movement sequence performed by each dancer. So you get to see the most minute details as a dancer transitions from one move to the next.

While I thought seeing the actual videos that Michalek produced was a stunning experience (see my earlier post), the online promotional videos that have so far been made available are real let downs. The beauty of "Slow Dancing" is that yet get a very concrete sense and detailed understanding of how dancers make movement happen -- and until this project, I don't think this was really possible given the speed at which dancers move. The three elements of this exhibit that give viewers these new insights are the use of very high-definition video, the slow speed of the playback and the large size of the video images.

All three of these elements are lost with the available online videos.

Here's a screen shot of the two videos now available on the "Slow Dancing" site of Herman Cornejo and Wendy Whelan - click for larger image:

I found no value in watching either of the two above videos. You get none of the insight or sense of wonder that you get - or, at least, that I got - compared to seeing the real thing. The detail is just not accessible with such a small video frame. And why is the Wendy Whelan video so short?

And the New York Times has a video of Herman Cornejo from this project - click for larger image:

The NY Times screen shot is especially grainy because I took the frame grab in full-screen mode. But even in the default screen size, the NY Times video is even less helpful than the two above videos.

Here's my question: Why would a project devoted to the idea of making the beauty of movement accessible to the naked eye through high-definition video do such a poor job of delivering this video experience online?

There are a number of possibilities:

- From a technical standpoint, maybe they thought it was not worth the effort of uploading very large high-definition videos that users would have to download to watch on their computers or transfer to a hi-definition TV.

- From a marketing perspective, they may have wanted to provide only a glimpse of what this project was about in order to motivate lots of people to see the actual Lincoln Center installation and future exhibits. Or,

- They might not have put much thought into how they would use online video in the first place.

From my perspective, I think that they missed a golden opportunity. I would have made the videos of 2-4 dancers available in many different formats - including top quality high-definition formats that would dazzle viewers when watched on a Hi-Def TV. I would have posted these videos on popular sites such as YouTube (obviously lower-quality versions) as well as on emerging hi-def video hosting sites. I would also have encouraged Apple TV owners to download these videos for viewing on their wide-screen TVs. Finally, I would have targeted online technology publications and given them embedable videos so that they could feature videos on their site and write behind-the-scenes articles about the technology used for this project.

The end result would be more people would come to see these exhibits live and when the producers started to sell a HD-DVD or Blue-Ray versions of this project, a large audience would be ready to buy them.

And in terms of the overall connection that the general public has with dance - or does not have with dance - a better presentation of this material online would serve as a fun and engaging way for people to think about the experience of movement in new ways.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:23 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

July 11, 2007

The Art of Real-Time Digital Choreography

Misnomer Dance Theater shows how it uses digital video in real-time to enhance the process of creating dance. Read their blog post, "Rehearsals at The Yard," and watch this video:

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July 8, 2007

Article19 on Shooting Dance Videos

While on the topic of Article19 (see previous post), Martin French has good piece on shooting videos of dance performances. The article covers camera positions and ideal number of cameras, the importance of full-frame shooting and avoiding close-ups for the most part, lighting, sound and other topics.

One thought about lighting. Martin writes:

Lighting for dance, for the most part, is rubbish. It's too dark, too murky or at the other end of the scale, to harsh and over saturated with colour.

No question that lighting is a major obstacle for shooting good dance videos.

And he suggests:

If you are shooting during a tech run then ask your lighting designer to adjust the light to compensate for the cameras if any of the above issues are present when you are setting up. Making the light as even as possible will ensure a good shoot and you can simply reset the lighting levels back to their theatrical requirements for the show.

Two questions:

Wouldn't it be better to work with director/choreographer well before tech rehearsal or performance to encourage a lighting design that is more accommodating to the needs of digital video? By the time a tech rehearsal comes around, doesn't the lighting designer want to work on perfecting the lighting and getting the cues right for the performance that is just hours away?

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June 28, 2007

One More Post Before Class...

Matt Gough linked to this YouTube video:

Here's video caption:

Draft video material as part of a collaborative process. Expect a response up here sometime soonish. Real-time choreography, performance and editing by David Corbet.

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June 24, 2007

I Want to Dance Like William Forsythe

I just want to dance like William Forsythe - is that too much to ask?

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June 15, 2007

Babelgum TV, New Distribution Channel for Quality Dance Videos

Babelgum is another contender in the battle to deliver full-screen, streaming video over the Internet. I've written previously about Joost, which offers a similar service.

Babelgum, which is now in open beta, uses peer-to-peer technology to deliver video to its users. My initial experience was good. Streaming video worked smoothly without hiccups. And the required free video player download for Windows PCs was more or less easy to use once I experimented with the control buttons for a few minutes. I don't believe a Mac version is available at this time. (You do not have to have a beta account to download the video player).

In this post I will give an overview of Babelgum with a focus on its currently small dance offerings. Then I will explain why I think that the Babelgum offering is of particular value to dancers and dance companies that are seeking new ways to generate online revenue for their videos.

Babelgum Video and Dance

Once you launch the Babelgum video player, you can choose content from different channels or search for specific types of video programming. I did a search for dance and found a small number of ballet and bellydance instruction videos along with flamenco dancing.

Here's a screen shot of the New York City Ballet Workout program. Click on the following image to see a larger image and the screen controls for this video application:

As you'll see in above image, whether you are viewing in a window or full-screen mode, there are video controls for jumping from one video to the next, pausing, viewing the channel guide and searching for videos. You cannot fast forward or backwards while watching a movie clip.

I also came across flamenco dance with Joaquin Cortes (click for larger images):

And belly dance with Jillina:

To learn more about the Babelgum technology, you can view a comprehensive introduction on WebTVWire: "BabelGum | Internet TV Start-Up to Contend With Joost." This post included the following video, which I found informative. You have to watch some non-related introductory material and then a representative from Babelgum talks about this new video offering and the peer-to-peer technology that supports it:

Babelgum Seeks Independent Video Producers and Distributors

What differentiates Babelgum from Joost is the type of video programming each company is looking to line-up for their streaming video offerings. While Joost is signing-up branded video content from the largest and best known TV, cable and documentary producers, Babelgum is seeking out independent video producers and distributors. The new Babelgum market is thus potentially of much greater interest to dance companies, dancers, dance instructors, dance-on-camera producers and others in this market segment. Unlike sites like YouTube that focus largely on user-generated, amateur content, Babelgum wants professional quality videos that serve many different niche audiences including dance. Although at this point, the only way to find dance videos on Babelgum is through its search engine. I couldn't find "dance" videos by browsing the channel directory - maybe this will change once there are more dance videos.

To learn more about the types of videos that Babelgum is seeking and their revenue model, you can visit their "Content Owners" section.

At this point, Babelgum says that for its initial testing it will pay video producers US$5 for each 1,000 unique views of a video. That would be $50 for 10k views, $500 for 100k views and $5,000 for 1 million views. As Anaheim Ballet has shown with its videos on YouTube, getting a million views is not out of the range of possibilities. Once Babelgum's advertising program is fully operational, video producers will receive 50% of advertising revenue connected with each of their videos.

Assuming that Babelgum is successful moving forward, an unanswered question is how dance videos would be distributed via Babelgum. Would dance companies upload their videos directly or would dance companies and other dancers work in conjunction with video producers and distributors?

For another comparison of Babelgum and Joost, you can read this TechCrunch post.

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June 3, 2007

Suzanne Farrell Video and Audio Guide for Upcoming Performances at Kennedy Center

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet performs two mixed repertory programs this week at the Kennedy Center from June 6-10th.

Suzanne Farrell, George Balanchine and Arthur Mitchell during
rehearsal for "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" in 1968
(© Martha Swope, Life Magazine)

Program A

Scotch Symphony (Balanchine/Mendelssohn)
Adagio from Concierto de Mozart (Balanchine/Mozart)
Scène d'amour from Romeo and Juliet (Béjart/Berlioz)
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (Balanchine/Rodgers, orch. Kay)

Program B
Mozartiana (Balanchine/Tchaikovsky)
Scène d'amour from Romeo and Juliet (Béjart/Berlioz)
Divertimento Brillante (Balanchine/Glinka)
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (Balanchine/Rodgers, orch. Kay)

In "Notes from the Ballet," Farrell writes about Scène d'amour from Romeo and Juliet and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.

Online Multimedia Guide to Suzanne Farrell

Here are online video and audio programs about Suzanne Farrell:

- Kennedy Center bio of Suzanne Farrell with three videos:

*Suzanne Farrell discusses what is on the 2003 program and why it was selected.
* A brief history of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet.
* Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell: a 3 week intensive program for young people.

- "Legendary ballerina, FSU dance professor Suzanne Farrell to receive 2005 Kennedy Center honors" - article and audio program.

- Video profile of Suzanne Farrell on CBS News.

- "'Don Quixote' Ballet Restaged" on NPR about Suzanne Farrell Ballet's 2005 performance of this Balanchine work at Kennedy Center.

- Extensive audio/video interviews with Suzanne Farrell on Academy of Achievement website.

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May 30, 2007

Watching Video Interviews on Great Dance

A few people have emailed me saying that the video interviews I've uploaded are choppy and difficult to watch.

Below I provide background about this problem, but here's how to solve this issue first:

Click on the picture to start any of the video interviews I've done. The video will start. On the bottom left of video player, you'll see a pause button. Click the pause button to stop the video. Now, you'll see a dark gray line moving horizontally to the right indicating that the video is loading. Wait a few seconds or more to let the video download. Then, push what is now a play button.

If this doesn't work, please let me know.

Background

I've been uploading my videos to Blip.tv and then embedding the videos into my blog. At first, I uploaded an AVI file and let Blip.tv automatically created a Flash file. But I didn't like the quality of the Flash file that was generated.

So I've been experimenting with generating my own Flash files. I bought Flash Video MX to convert my videos to Flash format. This software program is very flexible and offers a number of settings for optimizing Flash videos. I've been using the medium-quality pre-set for Flash files, which is, the software program says, optimal for Internet streaming.

But I'm going to have to lower the bit rate so that less data is transmitted over the Internet at any given point. I'm also going to experiment with audio quality and other settings so that the resulting file is smaller.

My initial objective is to generate as high-quality a video file as possible, which usually means a larger file size, and this may cause difficulties for some Internet connections. So I'm going to re-encode these files so that nobody has any trouble viewing the video interviews I'm conducting.

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May 16, 2007

Live Mixing of Dance Videos

The torrent of new video tools for the Web continues unabated.

Mogulus, currently in private beta, is a video application that lets you mix live and recorded video feeds in real-time. The resulting mix is then broadcast over your own channel, which can be embedded into your own site or blog. [via Mashable]

Essentially Mogulus is offering the same tools used by producers of TV news shows. A TV anchor in the studio will switch live to a reporter in the field. The reporter will recap the news piece and then a pre-recorded news segment follows.

With Mogulus you start by creating your own storyboard by adding all of the video sources you'll be using. For example, you might be pulling feeds from 3 different webcams and 4 pre-recorded video clips. Then, once you are broadcasting live, you simply push a button to determine which of the videos gets distributed through your video channel. Here's image of broadcasting tools - click for larger image:

You can also add screen graphic overlays in real-time. And remote producers can collaborate on the same video broadcast.

What Live Video Broadcasts Mean for Dance

Last March I wrote about two examples of multi-site dance performances that were connected in real-time via hi-speed Internet connections:

- Listen to audio interview with James Oliverio of Digital Worlds Institute.

Multiple Video Feeds at Digital Worlds
Click image for larger picture

- Listen to audio interview with Beth Miklavcic and Jimmy Miklavcic of Another Language.

In both of the above performances, the Internet2, a very high performance Internet infrastructure which is used by research organizations and academic institutions, brought together dancers and musicians at multiple locations. And, in the case of Another Language, the video feeds from the different sites were mixed along the lines of what you can do with Mogulus.

But there is a major drawback with Internet2, it's very expensive and can't be used by people outside of academia and research.

With Mogulus and the new crop of live broadcasting applications, the entry price is very, very low. So just about anybody who wants to experiment with live video dance broadcasts can go ahead and do it.

A 24-hour Global Dance Channel

Why not create a real-time broadcast channel for the global dance community? Every day at say 12 noon (EST), I could do a daily show featuring news, commentary and dancing from around the globe. I'd start off with a live webcam feed with the highlights. Then I'd switch to my London correspondent to share late breaking dance news from across the pound. Then we'd jump live to our correspondent in California who is in the studio with Merce Cunningham Dance Company as they rehearse for their Saturday performance at Orange County Performing Arts Center. And in a final segment, one of our dance newscasters is doing live audience interviews as they leave a dance performance in NY. No limit to the possibilities. And you only need to line-up a moderate number of sponsors to make this work.

Real Time Feedback and Commentary

Two weeks ago in "Video Headcams and the First Person Dance Experience," I wrote about how webcams worn by dancers could be used to broadcast video from the dancer's perspective over the Internet. Now with the ability to mix video feeds, the choreographer and dancers can receive real-time video feedback during rehearsals and performances. Choreographers, dancers and critics around the world with a webcam connected to their computers would be asked to participate. The live video feed of each webcam participant could be projected in the studio or theater so that the dancers could get live commentary from many perspectives. Actually, this might drive people crazy, but it would be interesting to see what happened.

Global Dance Competitions

Why not invite dancers to participate in weekly dance competitions that are broadcast live? All dancers would need would be a webcam and a way to connect their webcam to a high-speed Internet connection. Each week would feature a different style of dance. Dancers would apply to participate by submitting audition videos. The top 10-15 would be selected. And the show would consist of switching the video feed from one webcam to another. Viewers would vote on their favorite and the winner would receive thousands of dollars in cash.

The Creative Process at Work

Or a less competitive approach could be taken by featuring a behind-the-scenes look at how different dance companies create choreography. Maybe during an hour broadcast, four different choreographers with very different approaches to contemporary ballet could be featured.

Then during those times of the day when live broadcasts aren't being created, the recorded versions of previously created programs could be broadcast over this 24/7 dance channel.

Mogulus Has Glitches

As I was learning about Mogulus, I was watching their introductory video. The video was very choppy, which is odd for a company that wants to be a player in broadcasting live video feeds. Plus, the video player doesn't even have start, stop and pause buttons. Hopefully these are short term problems. But I don't care so much about the specific Mogulus application. What I find intriguing is that video production tools which used to cost a fortune to use are now accessible to a huge global audience.

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:33 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

May 8, 2007

Joost Needs Some More Juice

The much hyped upcoming video service Joost is now in beta mode. I gave this video service a spin this morning to see what the full-screen video quality was like.

Here's a screen shot I took of MTV's "Laguna Beach" - click for larger image:

While the streaming video delivered over this P2P network loaded quickly, the video quality was not as good as I anticipated. Some of the videos I watched in full-screen mode during my 15 minutes of experimentation were pretty choppy - I've seen better quality Flash and QuickTime videos, although in smaller windows. And I don't think that the Joost videos are as good as the streaming DivX-encoded videos I've seen - take a look at this post from April where I embedded a DivX video of Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie". Right-click on this video and you can watch in full-screen mode.

So I'm disappointed with Joost because after all the promotional buzz, I thought they would be offering a new delivery mechanism that would offer high-quality video to huge audiences.

That said, I think community-enhanced video services like Joost hold promise for reshaping how video is consumed by the general public. In the screen shot below (click on image for full-screen view), you can see the interactive features that Joost offers. You can chat with friends and send instant messages while watching a video. You can also read screen text about the videos and rate them as well. More of these interactive tools will be added over the coming months.

I'm very interested in seeing what will happen when you integrate real-time community tools with high-quality, streaming dance videos. But it looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer until that happens.

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:10 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

April 26, 2007

Video Headcams and the First Person Dance Experience

One of the hottest and sometimes inane crazes on the Internet these days is Justin.tv. Justin Kan has strapped a small video headcam to the side of his head and records everything he sees and hears 24/7. The video feed is streamed in real-time to Justin.tv where you can watch the feed. (Here's a video from San Francisco Chronicle that shows Justin in action.)

Photo credit: Cnet via Webware

Justin's video camera is connected to a notebook PC in his backpack. And the video stream is transmitted by a wireless broadband EV-DO card - such as the one offered by Verizon. All of this equipment is widely available and relatively easy to set-up.

There are a number of streaming video services that you can use to
transmit your live video feed in real-time. In a recent post from Robin Good's excellent Master New Media video-focused blog, you can learn how to "Broadcast Yourself Live on the Web." In particular, take a look at video applications UStream and Stickam, which you can use for live broadcasts from video-cams.

It would have been nice to have found a video of a dancer wearing a headcam so you could see an example of a dancer transmitting video from a first person perspective. But I couldn't find one. So if you haven't seen other examples of first-person videos, here's a video of a snowboarder wearing a headcam - it's nothing too exciting, but it gives you a general idea:

Headcams for Choreographers and Dancers in the Studio

What would be possible applications for video headcams in the dance world?

I think it would be fascinating to watch choreographers and dancers creating a new work from the first-person point of view.

Imagine a choreographer wearing a headcam similar to the one used by Justin. As the choreographer works with dancers to create a new work, the Internet audience gets to watch the process unfold in the exact same way that the choreographer does. I think that this type of real-time video would be captivating. Even the slow parts would be fascinating to see - a completely unedited, authentic behind-the-scenes look at how dances are created.

In addition, one or more dancers could have headcams of their own. So that way Internet viewers could watch the rehearsal process from both the choreographer's and the dancer's perspective.

I believe that this type of video programming would capture a large audience and sponsors would underwrite this initiative. This would especially be the case if big name choreographers participated in this project.

The real-time streaming video applications also have tools for community feedback. So as the dance-making process continues, the global Internet community would be sharing their feedback in text - or, for that matter, in audio or video formats. "Mr. Morris, I don't agree with your approach here, I just shot a video a few seconds ago that shows you how the dancers ought to perform this movement phrase." Mark Morris would then review my clip, and IM me back to tell me that my recommendation is right on the money!

Headcams for Dance Performances

One or more dancers equipped with video headcams during a performance would also be intriguing. Last year I wrote a post "Video Cams for Contact Improvisation, which addresses the same topic without the live Internet feed component.

Tomorrow I'm attending Daniel Burkholder's "My Ocean is never blue" performance at Dance Place.

I think it would be fun if a couple of the dancers wore video headcams that transmitted their feeds directly to the Internet for a global audience to watch. In addition, two monitors could be set-up on each side of the stage. This way the audience could watch the performance and simultaneously see two different first-person perspectives as experienced by the dancers.

Here's a brief section with a much smaller cast of "My Ocean is never blue" which was performed at the super-small Transformer gallery in DC last month. You can briefly see me in the back in the red shirt in the opening seconds:

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:05 AM - Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

April 18, 2007

Request for Dance Videos for Testing Purposes

I'm in the process of experimenting with a number of video sharing sites such as YouTube, Blip.tv and many others.

As part of this testing, I'm uploading short dance videos in order to figure out the best way to prepare videos for each site. If you've spent time looking at dance videos on YouTube, you've probably seen that some of the videos look great and others look terrible. For videos to look their best, they have to be prepared (encoded and compressed) in specific ways for each video sharing site.

To conduct these tests, I could use some help. I'm looking for specific types of dance videos that I can use for these experiments. If you have a video that I can use, please email me to let me know. Please do not email me the video files.

If you can provide me with the following types of videos, I'd appreciate it:

1) I'm looking for about 30 seconds of video in either Apple QuickTime or AVI formats. The files should be uncompressed - and will thus be very large. Preferably the dancer or dancers will take up 50% or more of the video screen. And the lighting will be very good so that all of the dancers are well illuminated.

2) Also, if you happen to have shot dance with a high-definition video camera, I would also like to experiment with a 30-second (or shorter) hi-definition uncompressed video file.

So please email me to let me know if you have video that I can use - thanks!

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:18 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

April 17, 2007

Over Half a Million Viewers for Anaheim Ballet YouTube Video

In what I think is a wonderful development that shows that there is a huge, enthusiastic audience for ballet, one of the Anaheim Ballet's YouTube videos has now been viewed 670,000 times.

Here's the video titled "Dancers":

On Saturday Evan Rosenberg, the producer of the Anaheim Ballet video series, emailed me saying that one of their videos was featured on YouTube's home page. I took this screen shot on Saturday that shows that at the time, the "Dancers" video had been viewed 3,736 times. Click for larger image:

Obviously placement on YouTube's home page makes a huge difference and without that positioning, the Anaheim Ballet's video would have never gotten such a large audience. So should we write-off this incredible traffic for a ballet video because of YouTube's huge audience?

Definitely not. Look at the numbers for the other videos on the YouTube home page, and then toward the bottom of the page click "See More Featured Videos." You'll notice that the views for the Anaheim Ballet video are significantly higher than almost all of the other featured videos.

So I think it's fair to say that both the non-dancing and dancing public was intrigued by this video. On top of that, this video has 796 comments - just about all very favorable. And 2,491 users have made this video a favorite.

One of the reasons for the success of this ballet video and the others in this series is because of the approach that was taken in producing these clips. They're fun, engaging, accessible and intentionally anti-elitist. Here's what I first wrote about these videos in March.

I'm always reading these depressing stories about the state of ballet and modern dance, the difficulty of raising money and the obstacles to building audiences - all real challenges. But at the same time, I think that it's time for all involved in the concert dance community - dance companies, presenters, associations, funders and writers to break out of their traditional view of the dance world and start looking at the future of dance in new ways.

The Internet offers compelling ways to reach out to huge audiences, to generate revenue in new ways and, overall, to help dancers and dance companies to be financially successful and sustainable. (I'll continue to write about specific ways that dancers and dance companies can generate revenue directly and indirectly by leveraging the Internet.)

But, I believe, that there is a real need for more experimentation and risk-taking on the part of everybody involved in dance. Which Internet initiatives work and don't work? What are low-cost online marketing projects that dancers can pursue now that have a high probability of success? And how can dancers and dance companies from around the world share their online experiences - both the good and the bad - with others?

Many questions and challenges ahead. But one thing is certain: There are a lot of people who are enthusiastic about dance - even ballet as the Anaheim Ballet has shown. The question is how can this Internet audience be tapped into in successful and profitable ways.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:25 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

April 16, 2007

Directory of Video Resources for Dancers

In this post, I've put together a large list of categorized links to a wide-range of video resources for dancers.

VIDEO SHARING

You can upload your dance videos to the following video sharing websites:

Blip.tv
Dailymotion
Google Video
Grouper
Guba
ifilm
Metacafe
MySpace
Ourmedia
Photobucket
Revver
Veoh
Viddler
Vmix
vSocial
Yahoo Video
YouTube

Hi-Definition/High-Quality Video Sites:

Stage6 (DivX)
Vuze

Upcoming:

Article 19 - The Film Room
Babelgum
Joost

VIDEO CHANNELS AND DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS

There are many different approaches you can take to building customized video content, channels and distribution networks:

Apple iTunes
Brightcove
Dabble
Magnify.net
Mefeedia
Vidavee
VodPod

VIDEO EDITING APPLICATIONS

Web-Based Video Editing Applications:

Cuts
EyeSpot
JumpCut

PC-Based Video Editing Applications:

- Windows:

Windows Movie Maker
Pinnacle Studio
Adobe Premiere

- Mac:

iMovie
Final Cut Pro

MASHUP (MIX) YOUR VIDEOS

The following web-based applications can be used to let others create mashups (remixes) your dance videos:

Cuts
EyeSpot
JumpCut
Photobucket

VIDEO ANNOTATION

The following web-based applications allow you and your users to highlight sections within a video; add notes and graphics; and tag and link to specific video sections:

Bubbleply
ClickTV
Gotuit - SceneMaker
Mojiti
Motionbox
Veotag
Vidavee
Viddler
vSocial

HOW-TO VIDOES

The following websites host and aggregate how-to videos. Dancers can upload or list their dance instruction videos on these sites:

5min
Expert Village
SuTree
VideoJug

SELL YOUR VIDEOS

Sell your videos through online video services:

Amazon Unbox with CutomFlix
Guba

MONETIZE VIDEOS WITH VIDEO ADS

Different types of ad delivery systems and networks are being developed to incorporate video and ofther ad types in to or along side your videos. Here are three applications to explore:

AdBrite
Brightroll.com
VideoEgg

INTERNET CONNECTED SET-TOP BOXES

We are in the early stages of connecting broadband Internet connections with both PCs and TVs. This development will offer new video distribution opportunities for dancers:

Akimbo
Apple TV
TiVo
TiVo and Amazon Unbox
TiVo and OneTrueMedia

SENDING LARGE VIDEO FILES

Video files can be very large and sending them by email is usually not a good option. Here are different services that let you send large video files to others:

AllPeers
DropSend
MoveDigital
Pando
SendThisFile
YouSendIt

VIDEO PLAYERS

The following video players can be used to watch videos in different formats:

Apple QuickTime Player
Adobe Flash Player
Democracy Player
DivX Player
FireAnt
Microsoft Windows Media Player
Move Networks (Used by ABC)
RealPlayer

VIDEO SEARCH SITES

Search for videos across the Internet:

Blinkx
ClipBlast
Pixsy
PureVideo
Search for Videos
Search Video (AOL)
Vdoogle
Yahoo Video

VIDEO CONVERSION AND ENCODING

In addition to using video editing software programs, you may need additional software to convert and encode your video files into specific formats for video sharing sites and online distribution. Here are some options:

Flash:

Riva FLV Encoder 2 (Windows)

Universal/Multiple Formats:

AVS Video (Windows)
Super (Windows)
MPEG Streamclip (Mac/Windows)
QuickTime Pro (Mac/Windows)
VisualHub (Mac)

(See following article on Robin Good's site for more encoding options.)

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:53 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

April 11, 2007

Subscribe to Blip Videos with Democracy Player

In my continuing quest to figure out how dancers can spread their videos online and get lots of people to watch them...

I experimented yesterday with two applications: Blip.tv and Democracy video player.

Blip.tv is another video sharing site to which you can upload your videos - and monetize them through ads if you wish.

Kristin Sloan, creator of the behind-the-scenes video series to NYC Ballet's upcoming production of Romeo + Juliet, has just posted the first four video episodes to Blip.tv. I like the way that Blip.tv lets you create a comprehensive profile for each of your video channels. Plus, in the case of the Romeo + Juliet videos, you can watch them in either Flash or QuickTime format in a small or full screen.

On the Blip.tv page for Romeo + Juliet, you'll see that there are tabs under the large graphic for this series. If you select the "Subscribe" tab, you will see different ways that you can sign-up for current and upcoming videos in this ballet series. Here's a screen shot of these different subscription options - click for larger view:

The third subscription option - I slightly cut it off on the graphic above - is for the Democracy video player, a free, open-source video player that supports many different file formats.

If you click on the "Subscribe" link for the Democracy player, this channel will be added to Democracy and you will be able to automatically download the Romeo + Juliet videos as they are published to Blip.tv. Here's a screen shot of the Democracy player that shows my NYC Ballet channel. So far I've downloaded the 4th episode, which was just posted, and I still have to download the other videos. The files are large - the second episode is half a gigabyte.

I've justed started to use the Democracy player - so far I like its ease of use, its support for multiple file formats and its ability to subscribe to updated video content.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:26 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

April 10, 2007

High-Quality Streaming Dance Videos in DivX Format

I've been experimenting with different approaches to delivering high-quality dance videos over the Internet.

This morning I took a look at the DivX video format and the Stage6 video sharing site devoted to DivX-formatted videos.

The DivX video format lets you create high-quality and wide-screen compressed video files that can be streamed over the Internet. You can see examples of dance videos in this format on Stage6.

But to watch these videos, you'll need to download the DivX video player software, which appears to be available only for Windows PCs.

If you click the link right below to continue reading this story, you can watch a DivX dance video that I've embedded in this post. I strongly encourage you to install the software so you can see how good the video quality is.

Here is a DivX-formatted dance video

Shakira "Hips Don't Lie"

I'm also going to experiment with the software programs for saving videos in DivX format and then upload videos to Stage6. I'll write more about this video format when I do this.

Posted by Doug Fox at 2:01 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

April 9, 2007

Create Customized Dance Video Channel with Magnify.net

I've been experimenting with Magnify.net, a new site that lets users create customized video content for their audiences. This new application is very versatile and not only allows you to select which videos to include, but also allows your users to add and rate videos. Plus, you can generate revenue from text and video ads.

For dancers the obvious application for Magnify.net is to create dance-focused video content. I created a sample video channel on Magnify.net for Great Dance Videos.

For a more elaborate video setup, you can visit the TechCrunch Magnify.net channel as well as read this post about this new service on TechCrunch.

How Magnify.net Works

Here's an overview of the feature set and functionality of Magnify.net. You can click on any of the below images for larger screen shots. Or for a more hands-on approach, just sign-up for a free account and set-up your own video dance channel.

When you create a video channel, you control who has the right to upload and add videos. Plus, you can specify a specific rating that a video must have before it is publicly viewable by your channel's visitors:

During the set-up process you can select a template for your video channel. You can also access the design tools to create a completely customized look for your content. If you go back to the TechCrunch channel, you'll see that the headers and footers are completely customized and the latest blog entries are in the left-hand column. Here's the initial template-selection screen:

I added one of the Anaheim Ballet's podcast videos to my video channel by adding its web address from YouTube. You can change the video's title and description as well as add any tags that you wish.

One of the intriguing features of Magnify.net is that you can monetize your video content. You'll see in this screen capture that there are a lot of Google ads:

And in the following screen shot, you see that there are a number of ways to configure how you generate revenue and configure the display of text and video ads. Revenue is based on a split with Magnify.net from either Google AdSense and/or Revver:

Finally, here's a screen shot of a public view of a dedicated video within your Magnify.net channel. I just clicked on the rating button and you can see the different ways that viewers can rate each video. Plus, users can comment on, share and tag videos as well:

Conclusion

I've just started experimenting with Magnify.net and I'm not certain about how to use all of the features and I was confused a couple of times about how to implement different capabilities. But overall, this application looks worthwhile and could be a good way to build a community-oriented video site focused on specific types of dance videos.

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:32 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

March 30, 2007

Annotate Top Dance Videos from YouTube

The YouTube Video Awards were just announced and the most creative video is OK Go's "Here it Goes Again" - the very popular music video featuring band members dancing on treadmills.

The second most creative video on the list is also dance-inspired - sort of - "Where the Hell is Matt?" Definitely not one of my favorite videos.

Annotating Dance Videos

What can you do with the most popular dance videos?

Take a look at video annotation tool Mojiti. Here is a user-annotated version of "Here it Goes Again":

In the above video, a user has added text notes and highlighted sections of this music video to provide background and information about the band and music. You can access the "Here it Goes Again" video on Mojiti to watch all 25 of the annotated versions of this video. Mojiti refers to each annotation as a "spot."

If you don't see the "spots," click on the "+" button to the right of the video where it says "Spot Organizer."

Mojiti Adds New Features

According to post in Yesterday's Mashable, "Mojiti Lets You Edit YouTube Videos, on YouTube!", you'll soon be able to add audio and video annotations to videos as well.

With these multimedia additions, dancers, writers, educators, students and others will be able to add their thoughts, feedback and critiques to any video. I think this is great, but I can see some people having mixed feelings about these annotation tools.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:56 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

March 16, 2007

"Trouble with Turnout" Performance Video

Watch this dance video about the history of turnout in ballet:

Title: "Trouble with Turnout" from "Intersections"
Choreographer: Suzanne Oliver, San Jacinto College, Houston, Texas
Dancer: Leah Bauer
Date: Spring 2006

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:02 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

March 7, 2007

Needed: A Better Way to Visualize Dance Videos

The number of dance videos on the Internet is proliferating like crazy - this is a great development. But there is, for the most part, no convenient or easy way to find:

1) the dance videos that are of interest to you (e.g., show me specific types of Flamenco dance videos),

2) good quality dance videos, and

3) links to similar or related dance videos

Yes, you can go to YouTube and search for videos and link to similar videos. But how often do you really find what you're looking for? Most of the videos you'll find through this type of search won't be that good or interesting - at least that's what happens to me.

And even when I do find interesting videos on blogs and other sources, there's no easy way to find related videos that I'll find worth watching.

So I think that the dance community needs a better way to rate, organize and visualize dance videos for all styles and forms of dance.

Here are some initial thoughts on how we might create such a visualization framework:

I came across this online brainstorming applicat