Uploading 101 with Professor Compressor

This week in Howcast’s ‘Modern 101 for emerging digital filmmakers’ we’re pleased to welcome guest lecturer, Professor Compressor. Professor Compressor is one of the most revered thinkers in web video and is renowned for his ability to compress and upload videos using the proper codecs, in the correct aspect ratios, and at the precise data rate, so that they look, as he would say, ‘wunderful!’ Professor Compressor comes to us through the magic of video all the way from an Indian archipelago via Eastern Russia to share his expertise on uploading great-looking web video.



Thank you for watching Professor Compressor’s compression video! Here you can find all the pertinent notes from today’s lecture:

What is a codec?
A codec is the format in which you compress your video. It could be a variety of different formats, but the most modern, powerful, and commonly used codecs are H.264 and MPEG-4.

Why H.264 and MP4 (MPEG-4)?
H.264 and MP4 are wunderful codecs! They allow you to have a tremendous quality video at a fraction of the file size. Lets look at a theoretical example:

You’ve finished editing and have made a beautiful 1920x1080 master file. But it is in the Apple Pro Res format, and is over 2GB. This file won’t work for the web. The video codec is too large and the file size is too big. Inevitably you will end up with a low quality video, because the master file is not designed and optimized for the web.

Take that file and transcode it into an H.264. Since web players are designed to work seamlessly with H.264, you won’t have to worry about choppy or corrupted playback. And H.264 encodes your video in such a way that you won’t see a noticeable drop in image quality. What you will see is your 2GB master file shrink to less than 500MB -- perfect for the web!

Help, my footage looks stretched or squished and there are black bars bordering the footage!
This is a common problem that results from uploading an incorrect frame size. When uploading, you need to make sure the video is in the correct frame size for the player. This could be a variety of different frame sizes, varying from SD to HD, so check your website’s FAQ on uploading for instructions. The most common frame sizes are: 640x360, 640x480, 720x480, 1280x720, and 1920x1080.

This problem could also result from an incorrect Pixel Aspect Ratio. Pixel Aspect Ratio (or PAR) can be a little confusing, but the simple way to think of it is that this setting tells your program what aspect ratio to encode your video, at the pixel level. It determines how the digital information is presented and viewed onscreen. I recommend square pixels for HD, PAL for PAL, and NTSC for NTSC, though this can vary.. The best option is to play around with this setting when exporting until you get your video looking pristine.

Help, my video looks muddy and detail is lost. My text looks almost pixelated and the video is generally very low quality.
Low image quality is usually due to a low data rate when exporting your video. When exporting your video, you’re given many options; one of these is data rate. Setting the data rate to automatic will usually result in the best image. It is also highly recommended to do a multi-pass encode. It will take longer than a single-pass encode, but it will result in a much smoother video with higher image quality.

Well, that was a lot of information! Digest it, experiment, and start uploading those WUNDERFUL videos!

Nardeep Khurmi, Howcast’s Post Production Specialist (a.k.a Professor Compressor) recently watched "Pygmy Jerboa".

More about → Uploading 101 with Professor Compressor

Wong Fu film premieres on YouTube

In May 2010, Wong Fu Productions (Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, Philip Wang) and Ryan Higa started talking about doing a special project: a high-quality, long-form film that would be released just on YouTube for fans. Well, the moment is here: the film is now on YouTube, and Philip tells us more about it.



Written in a couple days, the 35-minute movie was shot in one intense week this past summer. Drawing from the talents of a few dedicated friends, the crew was no bigger than 10 and was usually just the three of us from Wong Fu Productions (WFP), plus the actors. There was no big budget, no big company, no big crews or equipment behind the shoot – just us, a DSLR camera, and the desire to do something major and to support each other.

In a time when "YouTubers" are still foreign to industry studios and decision makers, we didn't want to wait around for someone to give us the green light. We just went ahead and did it ourselves. Being Asian-American is not something most mainstream outlets believe is marketable. We struggle with this constantly. But with Ryan and Wong Fu's combined audiences, and a fresh approach to producing high-quality stories, we can show the world what we're capable of – not just as individuals in a new industry, but as a community, as well.

Philip Wang, Wong Fu Productions, recently watched "Agents of Secret Stuff."

More about → Wong Fu film premieres on YouTube

Q&A with Chef John of Food Wishes

Chef John Mitzewich is the voice behind YouTube’s most subscribed cooking channel, Food Wishes. Chef John today posted his 500th video to YouTube, and he recently took time out to answer a few questions about how he makes his videos and the trends he’s seeing as a YouTube chef.

How do you decide what to make videos about?
The whole concept of the "Food Wishes" channel is "What's your food wish?" I get tons of recipe requests, and try to honor the most popular wishes when I plan my dishes. Other times, I'll just start cooking something and realize it would make a cool video, so I'll throw the camera on a tripod and begin filming.

How seasonal are your videos -- both in terms of how you think about what you create and how your audience fluctuates?
Since I film what I eat, and I tend to eat very seasonally, the videos are generally quite in tune to what's available that time of year. Also, if I know a certain seasonal dish is coming up (like chicken wings for the Super Bowl), I'll try and plan something a few weeks ahead so people have time to learn and make it.



What are some other trends you've noticed in viewership of your videos, subscriber growth or fan comments over the years?
Subscribers and viewership have both grown steadily over the last 12 months and are increasing faster compared to when I first started out. I've more than doubled both my subscribers and viewership this year compared to last. It seems every year that the holiday season is when my entire catalogue gets a boost, as I think more people are looking for that special recipe to make for their family and friends. My viewership has also been pretty diverse. I get a huge range of ages, from kids cooking their first recipe, to seniors who've never cooked before getting into it for the first time.

What are the keys to really great cooking videos?
To me, a great cooking video is one that makes the viewer feel like they're making the video with you, not just watching someone make a recipe. I want to bring the viewer right into the scene. Close, interesting shots of the food, with an engaging, affable narration are what I try and use to achieve this.

How important is a mouth-watering thumbnail?
A great looking thumbnail that is clear, bright, and close-up, is second in importance only to the recipe title itself.

What is a common mistake budding cooks make when making videos?
They try to do a TV-style cooking show. You're on YouTube, not Food Network, so stop trying to do an imitation of a network "stand and stir" show. Generally the viewer is way more interested in the food, than the person making it; so stop trying to "perform" for the camera, and just show us the cooking.

Do you have any insight into how much technology, like YouTube videos or iPad, is moving into the kitchen?
I know this is a huge trend! I get all kinds of emails from people that tell me they take their laptops or iPads into the kitchen to cook with. A library of your favorite video recipes from YouTube on your iPad IS the cookbook of the next decade.

Thanksgiving. How do you approach this holiday as a video-making chef?
I just try to film a nice variety of recipes suited to entertaining. People are at their most insecure when cooking for friends and family during the holidays, so I want these videos to make life a little easier (and more fun!).

Anything else you'd like to add?
For someone who doesn't cook, watching a video recipe is the best, and most enjoyable way to learn. As food television trends towards reality shows and contest-based programming, I predict YouTube becomes the primary resource for on-demand culinary instruction.

Annie Baxter, Communications Manager, recently watched "Peach Brulee Burrata Recipe."

More about → Q&A with Chef John of Food Wishes

YouTube Holiday Solutions Center to the rescue

With Thanksgiving around the corner, another holiday season moves into full swing. Every year at this time, we see searches for cooking videos and turkey recipes surge on the site, and it’s one reason we’ve aggregated many great culinary videos on a single channel, the YouTube Holiday Solutions Center, which is back for its third year.

For 2010, we’ve spiced up this holiday destination with even more recipes and how-to tips, including:

This tasty and easy-to-follow stuffing recipe from Howcast...



Ideas to decorate your home for the holidays from Real Simple Network...



A guide to building a gingerbread house with the family from Epicurious.com...



We’ll be updating the channel daily, so make sure to check back regularly. We might just have that solution you’re looking for.

The YouTube Holiday Solutions program is brought to you by Target.

Lee Hadlow, Marketing Programs Manager, recently watched “How to Carve a Turkey.”

More about → YouTube Holiday Solutions Center to the rescue

Happy Birthday Automatic Captions! Celebrate with more videos and higher quality

Today marks exactly one year since we launched automatic captions. We started with just a few partner channels in November 2009, and soon after turned on auto-captions for everyone. As we explained back then, we like to launch early and iterate, and this year we’ve been making steady progress to expand the quantity and quality of captioned video online. It’s been truly gratifying to see how far we’ve come.

Here’s the quick summary:

• People have watched video with automatic captions more than 23 million times, and have automatically translated captions more than 7.6 million times.
• The number of manually-created caption tracks has more than tripled thanks largely to automatic caption timing technology.
• Just recently, we’ve reduced the error rate in our speech recognition algorithms by 20%

Back in November we talked about how online video presents a tremendous challenge of scale. Before automatic captions, there were around 200,000 videos on YouTube with captions. It sounds like a lot, but at YouTube more than 35 hours of video is uploaded every minute. We want all videos to be accessible to everyone -- whether or not they can hear or understand the language.

Since March, people have been able to get captions for almost any video that has clearly spoken English. Less than a year later people have watched video with automatic captions more than 23 million times. Clearly, there’s a lot of demand for captioned content, and people have been really making use of our technology. They’re also using the technology to access content in their own languages, since captions can be automatically translated to more than fifty languages; we’ve seen more than 7.6 million caption translations.

Auto-captions aren’t perfect, so we’ve also been pursuing a number of initiatives to help people manually create captions. At our event a year ago, we introduced automatic caption timing, a feature that will take an ordinary text file and turn it into captions with time-codes. Since then we’ve added these features to the YouTube Data API to make it easier for people to write scripts and apps that can upload large numbers of captions at once. More recently, we started the YouTube Ready qualification program to help video owners find professional caption vendors familiar with YouTube. Thanks to these efforts, we’ve seen the number of manually-created caption tracks available on YouTube more than triple (with more than 500,000 available today).

When it comes to captions, we care not just about quantity, but also quality. Here again we have good news: just like a real one-year old, YouTube has been learning many new words! For example, we now recognize the word "smartphone" (turn on speech recognition to see). =)

In the past few weeks, we’ve rolled out a significant improvements to our speech recognition technology to improve the accuracy of automatic captions. YouTube's new speech recognition model reduces the overall word error rate by about 20%. Although the improvements vary from video to video, a video that had identified 50% of the words correctly before will now recognize about 60% of the words, and a video that was at 75% before will now correctly identify about 80% of the words. We continue to make improvements and there is much more on the way.

On a personal note, it's been amazing to see the feedback, videos, blog posts, thanks, (and bug reports!) sent in over the past year. Even though we can't possibly respond to them all, we love to see them, and they shape our efforts on this project. We’ve taken this feedback to make a number of subtle improvements to the service, such as adding an “Always show automatic captions” setting, adding an interactive transcript button so you can see all the captions and skip through the video, and making the red  button easier to find.

What's next? We’ll continue to work on accuracy, and we also want to make sure captions are available on YouTube everywhere, on your Internet TV, your computer and your mobile phone. We have a few other things coming... but I don't want to spoil the surprise. You'll have to stay tuned, and I hope you'll turn the captions on when you do!

Ken Harrenstien, Caption Jedi, recently watched "Sign Language from the Space Station"

More about → Happy Birthday Automatic Captions! Celebrate with more videos and higher quality

How producing for the web can fit into a filmmaking career

Heather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, is writing weekly guest posts for the YouTube blog on filmmaking in the digital age. You can catch up on previous posts here.

After a little break last week, we’re back today to share a post I’ve been really excited about. When we first began planning this blog series I knew I wanted to interview an established filmmaker who could share their experience producing videos for the web versus other more traditional venues like television. Someone who has worked professionally across platforms definitely has some insight into what makes producing for the web unique and how it fits into a filmmaking career. This week, I’m happy to introduce Clayton Long, producer for the Bajillionaires Club, which has worked on television and web projects for companies like Cisco, Kodak, Travel Channel and made over 30 shorts for Howcast. Clayton grew up in Dallas and currently lives in Los Angeles.

1) Tell us what you do and you how you got started.
The Bajillionaires Club approaches each project differently. Some days I'm wearing the development hat; other days it's post-production, and others it's coordinating resources and communicating with clients. The guys I work with (Tom Campbell, John Erdman and Bryan Madole) are all brilliant creatives, so that makes my job easy. I surround myself with brilliant people and hope some of it rubs off.

We've been collaborating since grade school, making short videos for fun. In high school, we started making videos for our English classes. We modernized Hamlet and set it in a bowling alley. We made a redneck version of The Canterbury Tales. They were big hits and gave us the confidence to keep going. Everyone scattered for college -- I attended UCLA's Film, TV, and Digital Media Program -- then came back together.

A trailer for a film the Bajillionaires Club will be shooting in 2011.

2) When did you start making videos for the web and why?
Our first video was made when we were all living in an apartment together in Hollywood. One weekend we had a 35 MM camera package sitting around our apartment (which is, by the way, not a prerequisite for making a successful web video), so we decided to make a few commercials for Folgers coffee in the style of those old ads from the ’70s. They were very unique, and when we uploaded them on websites like YouTube, they attracted some attention. We built relationships with companies like Howcast, which led to other web-content related jobs. The rest is history. So yeah. Just for fun. But we definitely had an angle we were going for.

3) Are there things that work on the web that simply do not work in other venues?
Randomness works incredibly well on the web. Audiences are young, and they're interested in something new, different and weird. Spoof works really well on the web, though it can survive elsewhere. But why shell out the money to see Vampires Suck when you can laugh at that same one-note joke on the web done in two minutes?

4) Are there things that work for TV or film that don’t work for the web?
Sure. TV and film projects take more time to develop. They're much more polished, and a lot fewer of them get made. In short, there are a lot more rules. You must develop your characters with a certain timing, revealing bits and pieces as you go.

5) Describe your crew and equipment list for web video. How is it different from your crew and equipment selection for other projects?
Depending on the budget, we might use a 5D, 7D, T2i, or an HVX. Sometimes we just use a Flip or another low-cost HD consumer camera.

The budgets for web projects are smaller, so the equipment list is smaller and the crew is leaner. Crews can be anywhere from three people to 10, depending on the project. But we always light, and we often use dollies, cranes and other traditional means of making shots stand out, even if the camera we're using is the size of a cell phone.

6) What's your favorite web video?
Too hard to pick a favorite. “Muto,” “Cows & Cows & Cows” and “Independence Day” are great animated pieces. “Who Needs a Movie?” is still one of the best. I also recently saw a really weird video about horses by this band called L.A.Zerz. Can't find anything about these guys, but I dig their style.

Heather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, recently watched “Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans Tour.”

More about → How producing for the web can fit into a filmmaking career

Chrome Extensions for YouTube

I’m a movie buff, and love getting excited for upcoming releases by checking out trailers on YouTube. It’s easy and convenient to watch the trailers online, but I’ve often wished I could get closer to the theater experience in my browser. So I did some research, and found a few really handy Chrome extensions that can make your YouTube viewing experience bigger and better.

For example, Window Expander for YouTube maximizes YouTube videos to fill your entire browser. With Turn Off the Lights, you can make the entire page outside the video fade to dark like you’re in a movie theater. Not sure whether a video is worth viewing? The OpinionCloud extension summarizes comments on YouTube (and Flickr!), so you can quickly get the crowd’s overall opinion.

And just recently the Google team released YouTube Feed, which notifies you whenever new videos are available in your YouTube homepage feed. You can directly access videos that your friends upload, rate and like right in your browser.


There are many other useful extensions in the gallery to make your YouTube experience more customized. Find out more about Google Chrome extensions here, or by checking out the video below.



Koh Kim, Associate Product Marketing Manager, recently watched “Rymdreglage - 8-bit trip”.

More about → Chrome Extensions for YouTube

Next New Networks shares the spotlight with YouTube comedians

Next New Networks has developed, produced or promoted some of the most popular web series on YouTube, including “The Key of Awesome,” “Obama Girl” and “Auto-Tune the News.” They recently launched a new series, “Comedy Thunder,” to help introduce you to some of the great comedy channels available on YouTube. We asked them some questions about the new show...





1. Tell us about "Comedy Thunder." Where did the idea come from and what can the YouTube community expect?
It’s our version of a comedy festival. Each week the eight channels will tackle a topic that we select, like cute animals or blockbuster movies, and give their comedic take on it. We will also have surprise YouTube guests taking part in the series.

From GoPotatoTV to Cyr1216, we want to showcase the best, up and coming comedy talent that YouTube has to offer. We're re-creating the experience of going to Montreal for Just for Laughs or HBO's now-defunct Aspen Comedy Festival and bringing it to YouTube. Like popping into a showcase at a big comedy festival, viewers will see a range of comedic styles.

2. You've had previous success with series like "Key of Awesome" and "Obama Girl." What words of advice would you give to other YouTube content creators looking to build their audiences?
YouTube is a social platform. Your audience wants to talk to you. Ask them questions. Get opinions and then feature them in your videos. You are leading a conversation.

3. Are you hoping to help the comedy groups you're working with get discovered? Is this kind of collaboration the future of online video?
Collaboration and cross promotion between channels is not the future of online video – it is the present. It is what makes YouTube a unique and social experience. Fans get excited seeing their favorite YouTube users show up on other channels they love. I am hoping that the series helps these channels grow their audience so they can get closer to making online video their full-time jobs.

Sara Pollack, Entertainment Marketing Manager, recently watched "Vader VS Hollywood." You can follow all the videos and channels participating at youtube.com/comedythunder.

More about → Next New Networks shares the spotlight with YouTube comedians

Why Facebook uses Blue Color?

When you open Facebook, the first thing that you notice is the blue color it uses. Ever wondered why is Facebook so blue in Color and not upgrading its theme.

Ever since they started as 'thefacebook', Facebook has sticked with the blue color. Although major changes have been made in the Facebook theme since then, the major unchanged thing has been the blue color.

Facebook from its early days when it was known as  thefacebook

An exciting fact: In its earlier days, thefacebook.com required you to have an  .edu email id to join.

Everywhere from its login page to Facebook groups, you find only blue.

Facebook Login Page. All Blue!

The reason for this is that  Mark Zuckerberg, the young founder of Facebook is red-green color-blind and blue is the richest colour for him which he confirmed in an interview with Leo Laporte few years back.

Another important commercial factor for using blue color is the fact that most colors tend to distract the viewers. Blue on the other hand acts as a transparent background to the main content as visible to the human brain due to which most popular websites tend to use the blue color. It can easily be called a webmaster's favorite color. Blue Color is also sometimes referred to as 'Nirvana' for the brain.

All these factors make blue a prominent color on Facebook.

If you are bored with Facebook's blue theme and want a stylish theme, visit Change Facebook Theme.

More about → Why Facebook uses Blue Color?

Give YouTube Topics on Search a whirl

We know that sometimes people come to YouTube looking for a specific video, but at other times, they have only a rough idea of the kind of videos they want. We’ve been there too, and have been thinking for a while about this challenge of searching when you don’t yet know exactly what you’re looking for.

Here’s a glimpse inside how we are approaching this challenge:



In coming up with a solution, we wanted to help you specify your search even if you started with something as vague as “funny”. We also wanted to surface varied sets of videos and make it easy for you to explore them further.

To that end, we have a prototype we’d like you to try out. It’s called “YouTube Topics on Search” and you can get to it from TestTube. Here’s a video showing you how it works:



Put simply, we try to identify topics on YouTube and associate videos with them. We use many different sources to find these topics, including frequently used uploader keywords, common search queries, playlist names, and even sources outside of YouTube such as Wikipedia articles.

When you search -- for example, let’s say for “obama” -- we suggest other related topics tied to videos that you might want to explore, such as “michelle obama” or “john mccain.” You can click to get to videos on these topics or you can find videos that contain both topics by clicking on the (+) next to the topic. This is handy for refining. For instance, try searching for “turkey” and you’ll see “thanksgiving” as a refinement option further down the page. We hope topics become a fun way to explore new and interesting corners of YouTube’s video universe.

To start you exploring, we’ve planted topic “Easter eggs,” which we challenge you to find. Here are a couple of hints relating to just some of the topics out there:

• “Whoa, man. Whoa. Whoa! Oh my God! Oh my God! Woohoo! Oh, wow!” What did this person just see?
• They’ve boogied to Beyonce, Brazilian samba and Sugar Hill Gang. Who are they?

For more clues to other topic Easter eggs and for other questions you have, read this article in the Help Center.

Give Topics on Search a test drive and let us know what you think in the YouTube forum.

Palash Nandy, Software Engineer, recently discovered “cheese rolling," and Elizabeth Windram, UX Designer, recently discovered “big wave surfing.”

More about → Give YouTube Topics on Search a whirl

Change Facebook Theme Color, Appearance, Skin, Style or Template

Facebook is a social networking site which enable people to connect with friends and people around. That's how Facebook is usually introduced but Facebook is beyond the requirement of being introduced as almost everyone is on it. But it has one flaw, the default blue theme in Facebook is really boring.

Some even consider it an annoyance while visiting Facebook. As Facebook does not allow to change its theme like MySpace used to, users are left with no other option but to bear the theme Facebook wants them to use.

However, it is relatively easy to change the Facebook theme to a stylish one using a Firefox addon and custom themes which are available free of cost on the internet.

An example of the final outcome would be something like in the image.

This is the Ferrari theme. More themes are available for you to choose.

Requirement: The basic requirement for this to work is to have Mozilla Firefox 3.5 or higher.

Steps to achieve this: The following steps should be carried out to successfully change Facebook theme.

1. Open Mozilla Firefox and install 'Stylish' addon.


2. Follow the basic steps and install the addon.


3. Restart Firefox after successfully installing the stylish addon.


4. Login to your Facebook Account and click on the small 'S' button in your Firefox status bar.


5. Click on "Find Styles for this Site" to open a new tab with free themes to use for Facebook.


6. Click on any theme and a preview will be shown.


7. If everything is fine in the previewed theme, click on "Install with Stylish" button at the top right corner of the page.


8. A dialog box will open.


9. Click on Install in the dialog box.

Now whenever you open Facebook, it will show the theme that you have installed with Stylish instead of the boring old blue theme.

More about → Change Facebook Theme Color, Appearance, Skin, Style or Template

Great Scott! Over 35 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute to YouTube

Remember in March when we shared with you that more than 24 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute? Well, you continue to amaze us: you’ve increased the amount of video uploaded to YouTube to 35 hours per minute. That breaks out to 2,100 hours uploaded every 60 minutes, or 50,400 hours uploaded to YouTube every day. If we were to measure that in movie terms (assuming the average Hollywood film is around 120 minutes long), 35 hours a minute is the equivalent of over 176,000 full-length Hollywood releases every week. Another way to think about it is: if three of the major US networks were broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the last 60 years, they still wouldn’t have broadcast as much content as is uploaded to YouTube every 30 days.

As you can see from the above chart, the number of uploads to YouTube have more than doubled in the last two years. How come? Here are some of the factors contributing to the growth:

• The time limit for videos uploaded by users increased by 50% from 10 to 15 minutes.
• The upload file size increased over the last few years by more than 10x to 2GB via our standard uploader.
• Mobile phones have improved dramatically in how quickly and easily they upload videos to YouTube.
• More companies integrating our APIs to support upload from outside of YouTube.com (Activision’s Call of Duty Black Ops. as one very cool example where you can record and share video footage from within the game).

So, what happens in 35 hours? Here are just some of the things that can happen in that time frame:

• A team can set the record for the longest soccer (eh hem... futbol) match in history.
• Someone can drive non-stop from YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, CA to Chicago, IL.
• You could fly over half-way around the world in a balloon.

Clearly, you are able to tackle some of our most daunting challenges. So it is with that in mind that we throw down another heavy gauntlet: upload 48 hours of video every minute. That’s right: two full days and 100% growth of what we achieved back in March of 2010.

Hunter Walk, Director of product management, recently watched “FD Sonoma: Tilt-Shift Formula Drift”

More about → Great Scott! Over 35 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute to YouTube

Tonight! Watch Bon Jovi perform their greatest hits, live from NYC

Bon Jovi lived on a prayer: that you would determine the set list for their concert tonight. And you heeded that call: 1,494 of you submitted 1,733 questions and cast nearly 25,000 votes to determine what those songs would be. So tune in to www.youtube.com/bonjovi at 8 p.m. (ET) tonight to watch this legendary band perform for the world from the Best Buy Theater in Times Square, New York City.



If you can’t make the show, it will replay twice every six hours over a 24-hour period so you’ll have another chance to watch. Rock on!

Ali Sandler, Music Partnerships, recently watched "Baby Bob Marley."

More about → Tonight! Watch Bon Jovi perform their greatest hits, live from NYC

Howcast vlogger wanted!

Howcast is changing it up this week, and Heather Menicucci’s weekly series on filmmaking in the digital age will resume next Friday.

Help Howcast find our first video blogger!

We're looking for someone to produce, edit and host our new video blog taking a look inside Howcast and the world of how-to. This is a real, paid part-time gig in our NYC office in SoHo.

Want to show us what you can do? Tell us why you should be the face of our new series by submitting a video response on YouTube. Be as creative as you want as long as you highlight Howcast's how-to content.

Be sure to check out the full requirements below, which include a dynamic onscreen presence, availability to work in our New York office, and serious video shooting and editing skills. Entries will be judged on originality, charisma, technical prowess and YouTube user comments.

Sound like you? Maybe your best friend? Your cat? OK, maybe not your cat, but you get the point. Anyone could be harboring dreams of online video stardom, so spread the word!

And if you think you've got what it takes, submit your audition now:

Here's how to enter:

1. Visit YouTube.com/Howcast to watch the casting call video.
2. Review the job requirements* and make sure you qualify.
3. Create a vlog entry highlighting both Howcast’s how-to content (sample videos) and your own individuality. Don't forget to wow us with your shooting and editing skills!
4. Upload the vlog entry as a video response on YouTube to this video here by Nov. 30.
5. Send us the link to your video response and full contact information (name, phone number, e-mail, mailing address) to vlog+casting@howcast.com.

If you’ve got questions, e-mail vlog+casting@howcast.com.

Katy Zack, Communications Manager, Howcast, recently watched “Trash Machine.”

* Requirements:

• Fun, dynamic personality
• Great on-camera presence
• Availability to work in Howcast's NYC office at least 2 days each week
• Minimum one year commitment
• Video shooting and editing expertise, experience with Final Cut Pro or comparable editing software
• Bonus: After Effects experience

More about → Howcast vlogger wanted!

Control YouTube on the desktop, or the TV... with the YouTube Remote app for your phone

If you’re like me, you love watching YouTube on your smartphone. My phone is always with me, which means my favorite YouTube videos are never more than a few taps away. Sometimes though, mid-watch, I wish I could get a big-screen experience of that video. What if there was a way to wirelessly “connect” my phone to a much larger screen, like a Google TV?

Cue YouTube Remote, a new Android app that we’re launching in the Android Market today.

YouTube Remote creates a virtual connection between your phone and YouTube Leanback. To ‘pair’ your phone with your Leanback screen, simply sign into YouTube Remote on your Android phone, and to YouTube Leanback on your Google TV or computer with the same YouTube account. Just like that, you've connected your powerful multi-touch Android screen with the biggest screen in your home. Once connected, you can use the rich browse and discovery interface on YouTube Remote to find and queue up videos to watch, and send them all to Leanback with a single tap. With YouTube Remote you can play, pause, skip forward and back and even control the sound volume.


YouTube Remote is currently in beta and contains new and experimental features that are not in the official YouTube Android app. Please give us your feedback and help us improve the product - we'll integrate the best features from this beta app into the official YouTube Android app in the coming months.

Again, you can download YouTube Remote now on the Android Market. It’s currently available only in the US but we’re working hard to make the app available in more countries very soon. To download, scan the QR code below or go to the Android Market app on your phone and search for “YouTube Remote”.
Kuan Yong, Senior Product Manager, recently watched "Angry Birds Animation."

More about → Control YouTube on the desktop, or the TV... with the YouTube Remote app for your phone

Do you love K-POP?

Well, we know Will.i.am does after he called out the Korean girl group 2NE1 on YouTube earlier this year. If you are not familiar with K-POP, check out some of the top Korean music labels like YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment, then come back between November 10 and 28 for your very own chance to be the next K-POP star.

MBC, the No. 2 TV network in Korea, is partnering with YouTube to search the world for the next big talent. Top Korean music labels have found audiences all over the globe watching their music videos and now it’s your turn to do your own performance. Don’t worry if you don’t speak Korean; you can audition in any language.



Based on the video views and votes for your submission, you’ll have the opportunity to be sent to Korea for a second audition on national TV. The final winner will be awarded KRW 300 million as well as a sponsorship from MBC to be debuted as the next K-POP star. For more details, visit www.youtube.com/MBCAudition.

Lois Kim, Head of Marketing & Communications, YouTube Korea, recently watched “Wonder Girls NOBODY US Debut Single HD MV.”

More about → Do you love K-POP?

Emilynoel83 wins the first “On the Rise” spotlight

Meet Emilynoel83, a morning news anchor who's also a “makeup addict” who loves to make videos about beauty products. Today she's on our homepage. And you put her there.

Last week, we announced a new initiative to give rising channels greater visibility and hopefully also more subscribers. We selected four channels whose subscriber base flourished in the last month, and we asked you to choose which one should go on the homepage. As you can see, Emily won by a significant margin.

Here’s a few words from Emily herself:


The growth of "Beauty Broadcast" has been slow and steady since late 2007, gaining subscribers that are more loyal than I could've imagined. My YouTube channel is my passion, and I'm thrilled to think that more people can become part of it as a result of this poll! As many have found, Beauty Broadcast isn't just about makeup... but also positivity, fun, and inner beauty. Thanks to this opportunity, I hope many people will go "On the Rise" right along with me! :)



We’ll be back soon with four new channels for you to vote on in the next edition of “On the Rise.”

Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched "Katy Perry & Russell Brand Makeup Tutorial."

More about → Emilynoel83 wins the first “On the Rise” spotlight

Great videos on a budget: how to fake a zombie attack

Heather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, is writing weekly guest posts for the YouTube blog on filmmaking in the digital age. You can catch up on previous posts here.

Last week, we made some arguments for why quality matters in web video, and we heard from Howcast filmmaker Luke Neumann, who said that it matters “because you never know who’s watching.” Duh! Watching Luke’s videos, you can tell he’s motivated by much more than that, but as we said last week, it’s a good starting point.

Luke’s been making Howcast videos for about a year now and he’s got more than 50 under his belt. From the beginning, he impressed us with videos like “How To Yodel,” where he showed he could build a story around a simple script, work in some cool camera angles, and make us laugh. Last week we featured one of his newest spots, “How To Survive a Zombie Attack.” If we thought Yodel was pretty darn good when it came in a year ago, you can imagine "Zombie Attack" knocked our socks clean off.

Luke clearly strives for the best every time he uploads. The web offers free access to audiences like no medium ever has. As filmmakers, we’re tasked with not squandering this access. Every upload should be better than the last to keep this audience coming back for more and to refine our skills for the day when perhaps we are handed that huge check to make something.

We asked Luke to let us in on how he does it. How did he make this gorgeous zombie video on a budget that would barely cover the average wedding video? How did he create that apocalyptic feeling, complete with fiery explosion? And, how did he make his zombies look like they’re decomposing before our very eyes?

Here’s Luke’s first “Behind the Scenes” video for Howcast. This is the first part of a new series where we’ll be letting you come behind the scenes to see how our filmmakers make the most creative how-to videos on a DIY budget. Step 1: Cover yourself in plain old dirt to look like you’ve been to hell and back. The Walking Dead producers could learn something from Luke!



Want to learn more about how Luke created Zombie Attack? Visit his blog where he posted in-depth tutorials, photos and a cool trailer.

Heather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, recently watched “Howcast: Vlogger Wanted!”

More about → Great videos on a budget: how to fake a zombie attack

The Mexican Revolution on YouTube

November 20 will mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution and we’re looking forward to observing that anniversary on YouTube by celebrating a new revolution that’s taking place in Mexico today: a cultural revolution that has pushed Mexican filmmakers onto a global stage.

A number of the nation’s most talented filmmakers, including Gael Garcia Bernal (who starred in Amores Perros, The Motorcycle Diaries and Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education), Diego Luna (who came to fame with Y tu mama tambien), Carlos Reygadas (who won the jury prize at Cannes for his film Silent Light in 2007), Rodrigo Garcia (who directed the award winning Nine Lives and was nominated for an Emmy for directing an episode of HBO’s Big Love) and Patricia Riggen (who directed 2008 Sundance hit La misma luna), to name just a few, have banded together to create a feature film, Revolución, made up of 10 individual short films that explore the topic of Mexico’s revolution 100 years after it took place. The film has played at numerous film festivals throughout the last year, including the Cannes Film Festival, and will be available on YouTube for 24 hours on November 20 (thanks to YouTube partner Mubi) and for Mexico from November 20th at 23 hrs to November 21st until 23 hrs.

In advance of the film’s premiere, you’re invited to submit questions about the movie, the filmmakers or about the Mexican Revolution at youtube.com/mubi. The filmmakers will answer the most popular questions in videos that will be posted to the Mubi channel on November 20, the day of the film’s premiere.

Get your questions ready after watching this video from the filmmakers of Revolución:

Sara Pollack, Entertainment Marketing Manager, Directors' invitation to watch Revolución

More about → The Mexican Revolution on YouTube

YouTube to give love a bad name (aka Bon Jovi live!)

Next Wednesday, November 10, at 8 p.m. ET, Bon Jovi will give an exclusive performance at New York’s Best Buy Theater, streamed live to the world on the band’s YouTube channel: www.YouTube.com/BonJovi. With the help of YouTube’s Moderator tool, fans will also have the chance to submit comments and videos expressing what they love about their favorite Bon Jovi songs. Watch Jon Bon Jovi’s personal request for submissions below.




The set list for the November 10 concert will be determined by you. Submissions end Monday, November 8, so upload a video and start voting now. Here’s your chance to help shape a concert from one of the biggest bands of all time.

Ali Sandler, Music Partnerships, recently watched “"I wanna rage, right now" - Brian Wilson.”

More about → YouTube to give love a bad name (aka Bon Jovi live!)

Longboarding around the world with YouTube

Today’s guest blogger is Scott Imbrie, CEO and Co-Founder of Original Skateboards. His passion is longboarding, a popular new form of skateboarding that also blends elements of surfing and snowboarding. Scott started Original with his brother, Brad, using YouTube to grow the business from scratch.


From the start, Brad and I wanted to design longboards and trucks that would allow descents of the steepest paved roads in the world. Since longboarding as a sport was relatively unknown in 2002, we saw an opportunity to grow both our sport and business through online video.

In 2005, we shot our first video, “Longboarding Cadillac Mountain,” on Cadillac Mountain in Maine. With just 12 subscribers to our channel, we uploaded the video and promoted it through our MySpace and Facebook communities. We had no idea what to expect. The next day, we came into the office and found more sales orders than we had received in the previous week, including many orders from Europe and Australia.

YouTube had provided us global reach, which drove more potential customers to the Original website. Our total sales increased roughly 40% from that night forward. Seeing the impact online video had on our sales, we began to build our business with YouTube at its core. We added Nick Patrick, the director of Cadillac Mountain, to our three-person staff to shoot, edit and produce YouTube content full time.

To stay connected with our viewers, we began to expand beyond a single video. Our next project was an episodic travel series we called “Western Sessions.” YouTube featured the first episode on its home page, and we reached over 150,000 views, which was a record for us at the time. Our sales again increased by approximately 40%. Last year’s sequel, “Puerto Rico Sessions,” received 8.9 million views, making up over 30% of our total video views in 2009.

Our strategy to achieve those viewership numbers and increase our subscriber base has been through a combination of online advertising (primarily Google AdWords and YouTube Promoted Videos), creative print advertising and word-of-mouth. We found when we produce relevant, high-quality content, one in four viewers will share that video with a friend. This viral word-of-mouth sharing greatly decreases our costs (when we pay for video advertising) and has enabled us to grow our business on a very limited budget. Additionally, we are developing YouTube-based applications to help us connect even more effectively with our viewers.

While Original has more than 105,000 subscribers around the world, it remains very much a family affair. Brad and I continue to work together every day, and our childhood best friends are key players in our business. Moreover, longboarding as a sport has grown exponentially. The sport now receives millions of views per week on YouTube and has grabbed the attention of major newspapers and television shows.

We are thankful that the YouTube community supports our artistic expression and sport. It has helped open many new opportunities for our business.

Our latest video, “Go Longboard 2010,” is our interpretation of what we feel makes longboarding different from other extreme sports out there. Our goal was to make the most visually stunning nature video on YouTube, and showcase longboarding while we were at it. We hope you like it!





Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, recently watched “Longboarding Boston.”

More about → Longboarding around the world with YouTube

Freddiew’s "Roadtrip" teaches amateur filmmakers tricks of the trade

Freddie Wong and his production partner, Brandon Laatsch, describe themselves as “just some cool dudes making sweet vids with rad FX!” And if you’ve ever seen their action-packed, colorfully explosive videos, you know this to be true. Wong is starting a new series called "YouTube Roadtrip 2010," where he’s driving across the U.S. in an RV, meeting with fans and teaching them filmmaking skills. The series just premiered on his primary channel, where he'll be uploading new episodes for the next couple of months, and he'll be putting supplementary videos on his secondary channel.



1) How did you come up with this idea?
Brandon and I were walking around our street one day (we had just bought ice cream), talking about locations, and how we felt like our industrial looking area was getting a little boring as a location. Over the last six months, we've gotten boatloads of emails from our viewers asking us to visit their hometowns, or showing off cool locations near them, and we thought, "Well, why can't we go and make videos where our viewers are?" So that's basically how it started: we wanted to get out of L.A., we wanted to meet our viewers in person, and we wanted to collaborate and make videos with them.

2) What’s your favorite place visited so far?
The House on the Rock in Wisconsin, which is apparently one of four possible things to do in Wisconsin (the other three being, in no particular order, cow tipping, football, and cheese curds). Basically, this guy named Alex Jordan totally idolized Frank Lloyd Wright, and one day got the opportunity to show Wright some of his architectural drawings. Wright basically told Alex that all his drawings were horrible and he wasn't fit to design a chicken coop, so, jilted, he decided to build a Japanese-style house on a rock in the middle of Wisconsin.

Thing is, Alex was clearly NUTS because he kept building and made the whole thing into this giant sprawling complex featuring giant music machines, the world's largest indoor carousel, suits of armor, dolls, dollhouses, ridiculous guns, dioramas of circuses, and more. I struggle to define in words the sheer amount of spectacle within those walls, and by the end, you leave the museum dazed from everything you've just seen.

It's a place that has to be experienced. I highly recommend it to anybody.

3) If someone wants you guys to stop in their town, how do they make that happen?
The best way is to have a location that they either own or have permission to use. We have a submission form at our website http://facerocker.com/submit

Otherwise, they can send me a message on Twitter. Best bet is to send along a photo or something, as well, so we know what we're getting into.

4) What is the most common mistake or misconception among the budding filmmakers you meet?
The idea that equipment and software are the two most important things you need to become a filmmaker. We started out with cameras that shot on VHS tapes, and we used to edit with VCRs, but that never stopped us. It blows my mind to see how awesome cameras are nowadays – even on cell phones. The fact is, the cheapest camera today is a trillion times better than anything we had access to when we were younger.

We hear a lot of people talking about how they'll start making movies once they get that camera they've been saving up for, or that piece of software they know the pros use. That's not the way to do it – use ANY camera you can get, use iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to edit, if you have to – the key is to get out there and start doing it. You become a filmmaker by making films, not staring at equipment catalogs dreaming of how awesome that camera will make your films look.

You don't become a great guitarist without practicing scales, you don't become a great painter without sketching a lot of fruit, and you certainly don't become a good filmmaker without shooting a lot of movies, and you don't need thousands of dollars worth of equipment to start practicing.

5) If your RV could talk, what would it say?
RV: "Freddie, change my oil!"
Freddie: "No, you're a rental."

To follow along with the roadtrip, subscribe to freddiew and freddiew2.

Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched “Portland Hat Chase.”

More about → Freddiew’s "Roadtrip" teaches amateur filmmakers tricks of the trade

Election results and trends, live on YouTube tonight

It’s been a memorable campaign season on YouTube, but the time for persuasion and debate is over -- now it’s time to vote. As polling results come in from across the country, we’re partnering with CBS News to live stream election results and highlight election trends on YouTube and Google. Tune in starting at 9 p.m. ET to youtube.com/CBSNews.

Already, CBS has been highlighting election trends through data from Google and YouTube platforms. In addition to analyzing the top political videos on YouTube, they’re watching Google Trends and Insights for Search to determine what people are searching for and watching online. This approach of examining web trends adds a new level of depth to election reporting and is a model that news organizations can use for any major event or milestone. You can expect more data on tonight’s broadcast. We’ve already seen today that 9 of the top 10 searches on Google.com today are election-related -- most of them queries on where to vote.

In addition to following the election trends tonight, CBS is also asking for your election feedback and ideas on a Google Moderator series on their channel. Login now and submit your thoughts and questions. The top-voted submissions could end up on air.

Ramya Raghavan, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “I Remember”

More about → Election results and trends, live on YouTube tonight

Video the natural world for National Geographic

Footage of natural wonders can be awe-inspiring, but many of our planet's most striking environments are at risk. Our new Planet Inspired program, presented by The North Face, gives you the opportunity to celebrate the natural world and highlight environmental issues via your own short film or by remixing content shot by National Geographic's globe-trotting reporters.

The most original entries will be voted on by the YouTube community, and the winner will receive a National Geographic weekend photography workshop and $1,000 gift card from The North Face. Get started by checking out the Planet Inspired channel to create your remix about the natural world. Here are the details:



Tiffany Shelton, Program Producer, recently watched "The Camera and the Shark."

More about → Video the natural world for National Geographic

The 2010 election on YouTube: By the numbers

In these 2010 midterm elections, campaigns, voters and interest groups have continued to innovate new ways to share their political opinions on YouTube. Because YouTube allows anyone to post and share videos globally, you’ve made this platform the vanguard of the political media discussion. Some of these efforts to influence the political dialog on YouTube were more successful than others. Today, we’re sharing who emerged on top of the YouTube elections heap – and we’re going strictly by the numbers.

The top 10 most-viewed videos, sourced from all videos categorized as News & Politics on YouTube, are a mixed bag of official campaign videos, user-generated content and videos from interest groups:

1. Congressman Assaults Student on Sidewalk
2. We Are Better than That



3. America Rising - An Open Letter to Democrat Politicians
4. President Obama, No One is Laughing in Arizona
5. Language
6. Brewer to Obama: Warning Signs are not Enough

7. Those Voices Don’t Speak for the Rest of Us
8. FCINO: Fiscal Conservative in Name Only
9. Governor Christie Responds to Teacher During Town Hall
10. Arizona Sing-A-Long: Read Immigration Law!


Interestingly, every video in the top 10 comes from the Republicans, which is quite a departure from 2008 when left-leaning Yes We Can topped the charts. In addition, immigration was an extremely hot topic on YouTube this year, with three of the 10 most-viewed videos about the Arizona immigration law (and two videos came from Arizona Governor Jan Brewer).

Now, let’s take a look specifically at the 450 candidates for public office who’ve registered for official Politician channels on YouTube this fall. Here’s a rundown of the top 10 most-viewed Politician channels on YouTube in the last month:

1. Christine O’Donnell 


2. Jerry Brown 


3. Rob Steele 


4. Linda McMahon 


5. Jack Conway 


6. Marco Rubio 


7. Carly Fiorina 


8. Joe Sestak 


9. Chris Coons 


10. Dino Rossi

Leading the pack is Christine O’Donnell, whose “I’m You” video inspired hundreds of thousands of views...and quite a few parodies.

YouTube Insight allows us to see where the view counts are coming for any individual video. For example, parodies of O’Donnell’s “I’m You” video (like the Gregory Brothers’ “Songify This”) received millions more views than O’Donnell’s original campaign video nationally, but Insight shows us that O’Donnell still received more views in the state of Delaware than any parody video.

Similarly, the memorable “Why” video from the No. 2 politician on the list, Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway, shows that he too did an effective job of targeting voters in his state - even though the video went viral nationally.



Stay tuned tomorrow for more YouTube and Google video and trends data, during our special Election Night coverage with CBS News.

Ramya Raghavan, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Mourning in America”.

More about → The 2010 election on YouTube: By the numbers