See What’s Out There

We’re in India. Actually, I’m not. But our Executive Producer, Danny Alpert, is there with our top camera/sound crew. The trip is for the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and they will be traveling all around India to document AJWS’s work on the ground. This is the first of several trips that will also take us to Africa and Central America.

In India, almost two years after the tsunami hit, there is still rebuilding to do. Not just rebuilding of property, but social and community building as well. And while AJWS has responded to the tsunami through support of long-term rebuilding efforts, their mission is much broader than disaster response. AJWS works in other parts of India, helping empower women and fighting poverty. They make grants to support grassroots programs and they have a well-developed volunteer corp that places senior professionals in NGOs for 3-12 months. The combination of money and skill multiplies the impact of either alone. AJWS also knows that advocacy and education are important for social change – there is only so much you can do with only so much grant money. AJWS is advocating for action both in the US and abroad to address the kinds of structural or legal issues only government action can solve. (For example, they are leading the way to pressure the UN and US on Darfur.)

So, our office has been abuzz with activity in preparation for the trip and now we are waiting for the first reports from the team on the ground. I hope we will be able to upload some short raw footage to the blog here while they are still in India.

Here’s some samples from the itinerary. Go to the AJWS site to learn more about their work in these places.

Tamil Nadu
25th
Late night arrival in Chennai. Stay at airport hotel

26th
Morning: Fly to Tiruvananthapuram,
Afternoon: drive to Nagercoil

27th
Location: Nagercoil

Setting: teaching tribal nursing students.
Classroom setting teaching English
Film interview with volunteers at end of day

28th
Morning: Drive to Thirukadayur (5-6 hours) Arrive @ 1pm

General Notes about work in Thirukadayur
- Peak of Monsoon season, it is going to be raining for the majority of the time we are in the Tamil region.

29th
Morning: ROSE – disaster response drill #1
- Actual Drill takes 30- 45 min
- 5 groups to follow (warning group, evacuation group, first aid group)

Setting: Oceanside, 50-60 people. Lots of motion, chaos – people carrying stretchers, running back and forth from the ocean, sitting in first aid section, etc.

30th
Morning: ROSE
Afternoon: Drive to Chennai (5hrs.)

1st
Early morning – drive to Chennai airport
Fly to Bombay
Arrive in Bombay at 11pm

Maharashtra at 2pm
Full sun 7-10am - 5pm

Morning: Udaan (10-3)
Setting: Discussion with support group members, interview about HIV status…
Late Afternoon: Fly to Vadodara leave at 3:30 flight at 5pm arrive 7pm
- World Aids Day

As long as there has been film, there have been film reviews. When I was younger, Tom Shales wrote for the Washington Post (on film, not TV) and he could be brutal, which I loved. Stephen Hunter from the Post is not too shabby in his review of “Deck the Halls” the latest Christmas crap to be pushed on us. Here’s a sample:

So anyway, “Dreck the Halls” . . . ” Deck the Halls” watches as the two men go all territorial on the Christmas zeitgeist, with the vicious little rodent Broderick calling in the cops, while the bloated if tiny psychopath DeVito keeps upping the wattage. Whenever the director, John Whitesell, doesn’t know what to do, he throws in some absurdist action sequence, such as a runaway sleigh pulled by 145-year-old horses that yank Broderick through downtown where he wrecks all the Christmas finery without hurting anyone.

Now, if the movie had any guts at all, it would end up with Broderick and DeVito dead on the front lawn, one having pushed a bayonet into the guts of the other one just as the second brought the baseball bat down on the first one’s skull. Okay? That’s the internal logic of the picture. Do you think they go there? Or do you think they both see the Error in Their Ways and darn it all, become friends in the end to the tune of cash registers doing a ka-ching ode to joy?

I literally didn’t count a single laugh in the whole aimless schlep, except for the hustlers who made it, on their way to the bank.

Read more at WashingtonPost.com

Part of our job here at See3 is to remind you how powerful video can be. You should be using video to show the world what you do at your organization because with video the viewer has an experience that you can’t get in print. With this one — ski-flying down Mount Eiger in Switzerland — I had my heart in my throat:

I have mentioned Beth Kanter in the last two blog posts, so I might as well add another one. I want to share with (both of) my readers Beth’s video and her fundraising project. Beth Kanter is a blogger and nonprofit consultant. She is on the Board of an organization called the Sharing Foundation. Beth is using all of the web tools at her disposal to raise some money for this group. Her goal is $750 by the end of the year. You can help her reach that goal by donating right now using this cool donation widget (allowing portable fundriasing like this) from ChipIn.

What I want to show you is the video Beth made about this effort. It is super simple and you should be inspired to do your own video from it. Using some home video, still photos and a voice over, Beth created a nice little video that has much more impact than if she just wrote about the subject. If you think video is out of your reach, you are wrong. Have a look.

So in my Webinar today about video the issue of Fair Use came up. It came up because we did a little mash-up for N-TEN to promote the contest we are running. And N-TEN was told this was illegal and we would all go to jail and they were going to take it down.

I said… hold on a minute! Maybe this is Fair Use. Here’s what I wrote to Katrin, the ED of N-TEN:

Katrin

It’s your call, but I think I didn’t explain my position too well here when we spoke about it. I am pretty sure this would fall under the legal principle of FAIR USE. Companies like Disney and the music companies have tried to get people to think that *any use* of a copyrighted material is not allowed. This is not the case.

From Stanford’s Fair Use Guidelines:
“2. Parody

A parody is a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work, by imitating it in a comic way. Judges understand that by its nature, parody demands some taking from the original work being parodied. Unlike other forms of fair use, a fairly extensive use of the original work is permitted in a parody in order to “conjure up” the original.”

Judges are required to look at 4 factors in determining Fair Use:

“The four factors judges consider are:

1. the purpose and character of your use
2. the nature of the copyrighted work
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market.”

The use here being nonprofit, educational, no impact on the potential market, etc… Here’s a link to read more.

An attorney will most likely tell you that judges decide what is fair use, there is no other way to know for sure, and better safe than sorry. I think that’s a cop out. Seems to me that no judge would hold this as infringement based on the standards and no rights holder would even try to test it in this case.

So, I think you shouldn’t be too defensive here, and I think we shouldn’t disqualify entries that appropriately parody copyrighted materials.

Michael.

The exciting thing about all of this is that I think N-TEN is now thinking about taking some leadership on this issue and helping nonprofits – as much as anyone can – navigate the world of Fair Use. One important source of information for us comes from the Center for Social Media at American University. They have been the most important source of information for filmmakers on this issue and I encourage you to check them out.

I just want to also give some props to Beth Kanter, who reminded me during the Webinar today when the issue of Fair Use came up that folks should look to Creative Commons for a lot of material that they can use without worry.

And Katrin pointed out a video that is on YouTube on this issue. It is a nice little primer on the subject. I have embedded it below:

Today I ran a webinar for N-TEN on nonprofits and video. I want to thank everyone that attended. I also want to thank Beth Kanter, who contributed at some key points. Wow, it’s hard to speak for 90 minutes! (And most likely harder to listen…)

I promised everyone a list of resources and so here it is.

Information about Vlogging
Ourmedia videoblogging resources
What is a vlog?
Vlogging tutorial on freevlog.org
Beth Kanter’s Blog, A Look at Nonprofits and Vlogging
Very informative site with many links relating to videoblogging
“LIGHTS! CAMERA! VODCAST!”, Wired Magazine

Examples of viral Flash Animations
The Meatrix
True Majority (Oreo cookie)

Digital Video Camera Buying Guides and Comparisons
Camera comparisons from Camcorderinfo.com
Tips for Buying a Digital Camcorder, Jake Ludington’s MediaBlab
Digital Video Cameras Buying Guide. Australian PC World

Tips for shooting for the web
Tips for shooting video for the web
“Shooting Web Video: How to Put Your Readers on the Scene”, Anneberg Center for Communications at USC
Web Tips: Shooting Video for the Web, creativepro.com

Tips for Lighting Video
Lighting Source: Lighting for the Internet, Videomaker.com
Lighting Techniques for Shooting Video

How to Record Better Sound, Videomaker.com
http://www.videomaker.com/article/3112/

Useful Resources for Video Editing
Comparisons of Video Editing Software
Ken Stone’s website for troubleshooting Final Cut Pro
Digital Filmmakers Resource Guide
Larry Jordan, Essential Information on Final Cut Studio

Information About Video Compression
Article about Flash from Adobe
Article about Flash from digital-web.com
Definition of Video Compression
Exporting Video for the Web

Comparisons of Video Hosting Services
Techcrunch.com
Dvguru.com

Information on Copyrights and Fair Use
American University, Center for Social Media
Stanford Copyright & Fair Use Center
Creative Commons, Enabling the legal sharing and reuse of cultural, educational, and scientific works.

See3 & N-TEN Video Contest
Watch the mash-up contest announcement

Recommended Reading
Digital Video Production Cookbook (Cookbooks (O’Reilly))
Videomaker Guide to Digital Video and DVD Production, Third Edition
Digital Video Hacks (O’Reilly’s Hacks Series)
Digital Video Pocket Guide (O’Reilly Digital Studio)
Real World Digital Video (2nd Edition)
The Business of Streaming and Digital Media
Marketing with Digital Video: How to Create a Winning Video for Your Small Business or Non-Profit
Secrets of Videoblogging
Videoblogging

Was this the first YouTube election? In the Sunday Times, Frank Rich writes about the self-destruction of Senator George Allen, who was “caught on tape” during a campaign stop in rural Virginia:

[Senator Allen’s double-digit lead] ended famously on Aug. 11, when Mr. Allen, appearing before a crowd of white supporters in rural Virginia, insulted a 20-year-old Webb campaign worker of Indian descent who was tracking him with a video camera. After belittling the dark-skinned man as “macaca, or whatever his name is,” Mr. Allen added, “Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.”

The moment became a signature cultural event of the political year because the Webb campaign posted the video clip on YouTube.com, the wildly popular site that most politicians, to their peril, had not yet heard about from their children. Unlike unedited bloggorhea, which can take longer to slog through than Old Media print, YouTube is all video snippets all the time; the one-minute macaca clip spread through the national body politic like a rabid virus. Nonetheless it took more than a week for Mr. Allen to recognize the magnitude of the problem and apologize to the object of his ridicule. Then he compounded the damage by making a fool of himself on camera once more, this time angrily denying what proved to be accurate speculation that his mother was a closeted Jew. It was a Mel Gibson meltdown that couldn’t be blamed on the bottle.

Read the whole story. (Subscription required.)

We have had a lot of conversations, both internal and external, about all of the new social networking tools and how they can be used by nonprofits. There is a tendency in the nonprofit world to focus a lot of talk on the latest and greatest thing and to feel some kinds of social pressure to be doing “it” – whatever it is.

Those who focus on online fundraising – such as our partners at Donordigital, the online fundraising guru Madeline Stanionis and the good folks at M&R – are quick to remind us to focus on goals and measurements. What are you looking to do? And does this activity get us toward that end? And can you prove it through measurement? Though it may be a buzz kill, we have to remember that resources are not unlimited. That MySpace page or blog might be “free” but your time isn’t. And though it might be what everyone is talking about, it might not make sense for you, and not now.

I just returned from the Communications Network conference where Victor D’Allant (a fabulous mench) made just this point in one of the sessions. He mentioned that Social Edge, the networking site for social entrepreneurs, is going to launch a podcast, years after he was told he “needed” one, because he finally has some content where podcasting is the best option.

At AED (the biggest nonprofit you never heard of), Natalie Halpern made a moving film about AIDS orphans in Africa. It’s a 20-minute piece and Natalie has been able to get screenings of the film at events and some festivals. They are thinking about social networking because if the goal is to get people to see the film (or shorter stories made from the film) then social networks might be a good way to find them. It is easy – but time consuming – to identify pages on MySpace and other social networks that mention the issues an organization cares about. Where it makes sense, we at See3 help our clients find the influencers – the people with lots of friends and lots of activity on their pages –and invite them in, get them engaged and watch as they influence their personal network in our direction.

There are some people who believe that this is the entire future of marketing. These folks think that top-down marketing, where we tell you what to think by directing advertising at you, isn’t working any more. They say that the only way to get noticed is to do something remarkable (or entertaining or moving) and then grease the wheels that allow regular people to tell each other about it. I think this overstates the case a little, but this is for sure the way things are moving.

In the here and now though, there are times when it’s a no-brainer to use social networking tools. We just created three direct-response video pieces for Amnesty International USA. They are using YouTube to host the video. They have embedded the video onto their tell-a-friend pages, and are using their Kintera tools and the YouTube community to push the video beyond those already on their house list. (As of this writing we have close to 16,000 views on the first video released.)

(SHAMELESS PLUG: We are building DoGooderTV to become THE place for nonprofit video because the DoGooder community will be there for the specific purpose of engaging on issues. The good clips will be syndicated across the web, grabbing much more attention that you can get buried among bloopers and TV shows.)

The social networking world can sure seem overwhelming. Nonprofit professionals are just starting to wrap their arms around blogging and RSS and, lets hope video (which is used by orders of magnitude more people than blogging and RSS). My advice for the overwhelmed is to relax and make decisions based on the likely return on your investment of time and money. There are things you can do quickly and easily and there are activities that will take more investment. There are proven strategies and new ideas. Balance, in work as in life, is always good advice.

We are sponsoring with N-TEN a video, mash-up, and annimation contest.

The winners will be announced at the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference, NTC. The next NTC is April 4-6 2007 in Washington. If you haven’t been to an NTC you should go — it is the #1 event for those interested in nonprofits and technology. You have until February 15 to get in your submission. The Grand Prize is a trip to the 2008 NTC in New Orleans! It’s easy, it’s fun — enter now! And you can see how easy it is by looking at the mash-up we just did to announce the contest:

There was a move this Election Day to video at polling places across the country. Called “Video The Vote” this project brought together more than 600 amateur videographers today to get their cameras pointed to the polls to monitor voter access issues. Not all states allow cameras inside but interviewing people as they come out about their experience could be interesting – or, hopefully, really boring and routine. What’s cool is that they put the videos right up on YouTube. Shot, cut, digitized, and uploaded in a few hours. Read more about it in the Baltimore Sun.