I love reading a book or two per month! This month I’m reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. The book’s core premise is that startups should build a minimal viable product (MVP), release it, get feedback, learn, iterate, and rapidly shape the product towards establishing a solid product-market fit.

How this methodology applies to video project development is that perhaps you shouldn’t create a long-form video, or develop a full web series until you know it will work and get traction. A minimal viable video (MVV) if you will. So maybe instead of writing a script for an 8 episode web series, you should write pilots for 4 potential shows, create those, see which one of them resonates best with viewers, and then develop that particular series fully. Pilots are a good way to learn about how your viewers would like to see the story develop (and if the story is strong enough to move forward in the first place), and which characters are liked and which ones aren’t.

This is something to think about, always try to do extraordinary things but minimize the risks associated with developing original content. Create something fast, release it, learn, and you should have a better idea of what can work longer term.

And of course by all means, if you’re passionate about a story and want to see it all the way through then go for it because nothing feels better than creating something you love. If a topic or subject makes you feel good inside, then go for it no matter what others may say to you.

Always be listening, always be learning, and stay foolish and hungry.

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Because we are an influencer, innovator, and evangelist in the filmmaking industry we were sent a copy of the new book “Mastering Celtx” by Writers Guild of America member Terry Borst. Celtx is the top product for managing your film and video pre-production, and also any kind of other professional writings you may do.

This fantastic book includes: The Evolution of Pre-Production, Getting Familiar With Celtx, Project Navigation, Creating and Editing Production Film Scripts, Script Breakdowns, Reinventing Project Scripting, Storyboards, Sketches, Calendaring and Scheduling, Sample Projects, Creation and Admin, User Interaction, Sketch Images, Celtx Community, and other related topics. The book is also very visual with lots of great Celtx screen shots, which was a good idea so readers can learn very easily.

We have read it over, gotten value from its contents, and now want to give the book away as a gift to one of our Spidvid members. If you want to win this book, be sure to get a Spidvid account, and then let us know why you deserve this book more than anybody else. You can tweet us, post on our Facebook page, email us, or comment below to enter. Tell us a story and emotionally engage us to maximize your chances of winning! We will announce the winner tomorrow on July 26th so enter NOW!

P.S. We will throw in a few Spidvid stickers (as modeled below by this little guy) inside the book as well!

If you are a Spidvid member you should be using Celtx for your collaborative projects. Celtx is the perfect pre-production tool to complement your Spidvid projects, and any other film project you want to successfully bring to fruition.

Steve Garfield has been named “the godfather of video blogging” as he’s been creating this type of content before the term vlog was even invented. Steve has learned a lot throughout his online video journey, and recently released the book Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business.

The book includes valuable information and resources such as: choosing a camera, lighting and sound, making videos without a camera (say what?!), recording and shooting, editing, uploading, broadcasting live, the art of video blogging, interesting interviews, and other golden tidbits of knowledge to make your videos the best they can be.

Since the book has been blessed by so many video creators and other individuals within the video production industry, I thought it would be a good idea to give away books to our Spidvid production community. So if you have wanted Steve’s book but are too cheap to buy a copy, or if you just learned about the book right now, here is the perfect opportunity to get a copy on us.

So here’s what you need to do to get your very own copy of Get Seen

1. Get a free Spidvid account and create a profile.

2. Either post a project and form a collaborative production team, or bid on a project and join a team.

3. Create a unique and entertaining video or short film with your team, and upload it via our platform.

Each team member who participates will get a free complimentary copy of Get Seen mailed to them directly. You have until Sunday July 11th (one month) to get your team’s project completed and video or film uploaded for distribution. So if you want a book it’s time to stop reading this post to assemble your team and get creating.

]]> http://www.spidvid.com/blog/2010/06/want-your-online-videos-to-get-seen/feed/ 0 http://www.spidvid.com/blog/2009/11/thinking-big-about-collaboration/ http://www.spidvid.com/blog/2009/11/thinking-big-about-collaboration/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:13:15 +0000 Jeremy Campbell http://www.spidvid.com/blog/?p=219

This post in inspired by The Think Big Manifesto by Michael Port.

I have listed some quotes and questions from the book below, which inspires both Spidvid and our community to provide ideal environments to produce quality video content. There are some (Spidvid’s take) comments as well on how these quotes and questions relate to collaborative video production.

- Love is at the foundation of the very best collaborations. Spidvid’s take: any video will be produced better if the team members feel the love for each another.

- True collaboration is a give and take. True partnerships are founded in equality. Equality does not equal sameness. We don’t all bring the same skills or resources to the table, but we all bring something and we all need something. Spidvid’s take: every video project needs a diverse set of individuals to make things happen.

- The paradox: Big thoughts create independence, not dependence. Big thinkers act instead of compete. They discover that in an open, fluid, back and forth collaboration, in the free flow of ideas, when you can intrust yourself to the notion of trust, big thoughts get even bigger. Spidvid’s take: open and authentic collaboration will always yield better results than a closed silo type of approach. Our social platform has been developed using these key concepts.

- Collaboration levels: (1) Competitive interactions, (2) Cooperative transactions, and (3) Collaborative interactions. Spidvid’s take: there is competition for joining limited sized production teams, but healthy competition ensures projects receive the highest quality of talent possible. 2 and 3 are large parts of what our platform stands for.

- How do we find partners and collaborators? The same way you get a date. By believing in yourself and what you’re doing. When you are excited about a project, you will draw others to you. You will receive offers of help. More than you can even accept. Spidvid’s take: if the enthusiasm and confidence in your projects is evident it will motivate others to join your production teams, and the passion will trickle down to each member involved.

- People who play small think they have to do it all themselves. What about you? Are you ready to play bigger by truly collaborating with others? Spidvid’s take: our skills, talents, and outputs are limited when we are the only person working on a project. Working on a well coordinated team ensures that our projects get value which we can’t provide on an individual basis. Long live collaboration.

- Are you the kind of person people want to help? Do you enjoy collaborating with others? What kind of collaborations do you engage in? Can you take your partnerships to the next level? Who do you love?  Spidvid’s take: if you are open to leveraging a collaborative model, can delegate tasks to team members, and trust and believe in what your team is capable of, there should be lots of love when your videos are fully produced.

Statement of Collaboration

- I will be a person others want to work with.

- I will work with others without hidden or selfish intent to accomplish our mutual goals in the service of what each of us stands for.