As the incredible summer of 2010 nears its end, many of you wonderful people reading this may have missed some remarkable online videos in August. We have done our best to entertain and amaze you with five videos sure to make your summer a little bit cooler. If you missed July’s viral videos, be sure to check them out too.

1. The YouTube Movie

Next month “The Social Network” movie based on Facebook’s massive success, will hit theaters across the world. There have been a few good “mocumentaries” created since, including YouTube’s as featured below, and Twitter’s which can be seen here.

2. The Heineken Tube

Who doesn’t love kicking back in the hot summer with a nice cold beer?! Heineken captured this experience exceptionally well with their beer travelling through a house in a special tube to deliver the beverage. Fun warning: watching this video may make you crave a beer and BBQ, so don’t be afraid to give into your temptations!

3. Roger Federer’s Trick Shot

With the US Open in full swing in New York, tennis superstar Roger Federer did a couple trick shots that you won’t see on the court. This video now has over 6 million views in just over two weeks, incredible!

4. The Upside Down Artist

Have you ever been walking down the street, saw some sort of remarkable act happening and just had to stop and watch? More specifically, have you ever seen an artist draw detailed symmetrical pictures upside down? Didn’t think so, watch the video below to bring out your creativity.

5. Slinky Cat

Cats can be so silly sometimes, and viewers really love seeing funny cat videos, so we had to share one here today. This video only has about 31,000 views to date so it’s not a true viral hit just yet, but like Double Rainbow’s slow start, this one could pick up steam eventually.

Be sure to subscribe to our blog for September’s top viral videos, interesting video production posts along the way, and stay on top of new developments within Spidvid’s community as well. Get the Spidvid blog delivered to your inbox, or via RSS.

Jeremy Campbell Lists amazing, audience, beer, entertaining, filmmakers, funny, Heineken, hits, internet video, online video, remarkable, video creators, viewers, views, viral, viral content, viral video, viral views, web video, wow, YouTube

Acting isn’t a skill that someone is born with, it’s an art form which is developed over a long period of time in which the actor must practice, fail, learn, and eventually grow into a dynamic talent. Because actors are the faces of video and film productions they have immense value to directors, creators, producers, and most importantly the viewers who consume the content.

Mercedes Rose has been an actor in feature films and TV shows, is the voice of Princess Rosalina for Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart for Nintendo Wii (very cool!), and has also worked with lots of big brands. Mercedes shares her knowledge and passion for acting through her “The Lazy Actor” vlogs. We have posted a few of our favorites below, so enjoy! Also, be sure to subscribe to Mercedes’s YouTube channel to stay updated on all her future content.

Tip: Tape yourself auditioning.

Bartering with others.

Be positive and confident.

Social media etiquette.

What is it that you’re naturally good at?

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Jeremy Campbell Lists, resources, video blog acting, actor, actress, art, craft, educator, feature film, how to, learn, mario bros, Mercedes Rose, passionate, performer, princess, resources, skill, talent, teacher, tips, TV, video blog, vlog, VO, voice actor, voice actress, voice over

Why is it that every year the month of July flies by so quickly? Must be the gorgeous weather, fun vacations, and the viral videos. We have put together our top five viral video selections for July, embedded below. If you missed June’s, be sure to check them out now.

1. Guy Walks Across America

This athletic guy gets walking with Levi’s as his sponsor.

2. Incredible Street Art

This project took months to complete, and when you watch the video you will understand why. Stop motion online videos are really exploding these days!

3. Football Goal Celebration

These Iceland football players celebrate a goal, and by the looks of things they love fishing too!

4. Woot Gets Acquired by Amazon, Then Make Rap Video

If you like rap videos and business then this video is certainly for you. Catchy tune, be careful not to let this one get stuck in your head.

5. UFO in China

This flying craft has been described as a non-alien rocket, but if you were to see this live you would be getting flashbacks from the movie “Independence Day” and likely running for your life at the same time.

Be sure to subscribe to our blog for August’s top viral videos, interesting video production posts along the way, and stay on top of new developments within Spidvid’s community as well. Get the Spidvid blog delivered to your inbox, or via RSS.

Jeremy Campbell Lists audience, hits, internet video, new media, online video, remarkable, share, video creators, video production, viewers, views, viral, viral content, viral video, web video

So you’ve created an entertaining video or short film with your team, and are now ready to tell its story to the world’s viewing audience, fantastic. Many individuals who create video content aren’t the best promoters and marketers of it, so I’ve composed a list of tips for what should be done after a video project is complete.

1. Video metadata – You are likely going to want to upload your video or film to the web for distribution, and possibly monetization also. How many viewers find videos online is by searching for them so a video’s title, description, and tags have to be of quality. The title must grab a viewer’s attention and make him or her go “wtf?” I have to watch this right now! The description is important because lots of information can be written which can turn up in search results. Using lots of broad and narrow tags is good since lots of viewers discover relevant content using this piece of the metadata.

2. Distribution – When you want to deliver your videos online there are many options to choose from. YouTube is the first video sharing site that will come to mind, but competition for viewer attention is pretty intense there. To get mass distribution quickly, many video creators are now turning to TubeMogul which allows for uploading to multiple sites simultaneously. To release video or short film content as a team, you can turn to our platform as a solution for accomplishing that goal.

3. Marketing – Social media is becoming the go to way to promote online videos. You should be constantly growing your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, within the blogosphere, and especially in the video sharing communities you distribute in. Advertising can be spent to attract more views, and it’s a good thing to experiment, just be sure to pay attention to the campaign analytics and statistics to see if it makes sense to buy similar ads for your next video. Some bloggers who embed video content drive huge view counts for creators, so be sure to connect with bloggers in your niche to see if they are interested in showing the video to their audience.

4. Comments - If someone spends the time to leave a comment on your video you should thank them and respond to them if appropriate. Normally less than 1% of viewers write a comment, so be sure to treasure the ones who do because they are your fans who may talk about you or your video. Word of mouth and word of mouse viewers are the ultimate marketing vehicles for your video content.

If you aren’t into promoting and marketing  your entertaining video content, you may want to partner up with an individual or two who’s talented in this important area. Our community has individuals who can increase your video’s view count, so you can focus on what you do best which is create or produce videos.

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Jeremy Campbell Lists, resources comments, create, distribution, entertainment, how to, internet video, marketers, marketing, new media, online video, produce, production, promoters, team, tips, video, video production, web video

Quick mention: First off, extremely happy to announce that our hacked servers from late last week have been 100% restored, and everything is back to normal once again. So you can again feel safe visiting and using our platform, and reading our blog. Now onto the topic of the day which is giving you five video editing tips you can use for your future production projects.

Since the mid-1990’s, video production has undergone vast changes due to technological improvements in video equipment and software, distribution options, funding avenues, and barriers to entry have been virtually eliminated.

Once you film and record an entertaining video, you or someone on your team needs to edit it down to its core to tell viewers an engaging story.

Here are five video editing tips:

1. Always use a tripod if possible. Tripods have been created for one reason, steady shots. Earthquake-like effects are sometimes desired, but you don’t want your audience to sit through an entire shaky video. In fact, they won’t anyways. Let the tripod do it’s job. When it comes to video editing, steady shots will help you make clean edits.

2. Use instrumental background music. That way the lyrics or vocals from the artist don’t clash with someone speaking on-camera. You can safely use vocals for parts of your video where there is no dialogue. Also, try to edit to the beat of the music, meaning change your shots on each beat.

3. Normalize your audio when editing. This means that all of your sound levels should peak in the middle of your audio meter bar. This bar is an area of your video editing software that quickly moves up and down when a video is playing. You don’t want audio that is too low to hear, or too loud which hurts viewer’s ears.

4. Don’t use too many video effects. This is a rookie mistake, and I’m sure you don’t want to look like a rookie even if you are one. Find one or two good transitions which fit the video’s format and stick with them, but don’t use them for every little scene. Also, use only one or two good filters, which are effects that make the entire screen change or look different. At times a nice effect is to start your video black and white and let it gradually dissolve to color. Experiment with video effects as they can make your video more entertaining, and deliver additional production value to your viewers.

5. Be patient. It takes lots of time to become a good editor. Use your editing software help section, read related blog articles, and tap into community knowledge on video editing forums. Forums are fantastic places to invest your time, and there are likely many thousands of people using the exact software you are. They know the pros and cons of your software, and any issues you are having they have likely experienced similar ones also. Some useful forums are CreativeCow.net, Videomaker.com, and Videoguys.com.

And most importantly remember to have fun, because if you aren’t having fun editing videos then perhaps partnering with a quality editor may make more sense to your projects.

If you have any other video editing advice, be sure to post it in the comments below.

Jeremy Campbell Lists, resources edit, editing, editing skills, editing software, film editing, how to, information, learn, list, software, talent, tips, video editing, video editor, video production