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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Twitter is increasingly becoming a more and more important tool within the video production and filmmaking industries. Below I provide 3 ways for how you can extract more value from your Twitter experience.

1. Send custom DM’s – I don’t know about you but between the 3 Twitter accounts I manage on a daily basis, I get at least 200 DM’s each day from people who automate the process and it clearly shows. The 140 character template-like messages usually start with “Thanks for the follow…” leaving me to either unfollow that person instantly, or at the very least ignore the noise altogether. When you get a new follower who has the potential to be a partner, collaborator, or of some value to you, then send them a custom DM which will catch their attention and inspire them to take action. For example “Hi Sarah, I’m also a filmmaker and enjoy connecting with other like-minded individuals. Perhaps we can collaborate on something?!”

2. Use marketing software - The fastest and most time efficient way to build up a large solid following is to follow targeted people in the filmmaking industry, and trust they will follow you back. Be sure to write an interesting Twitter bio, and consistently post content that’s relevant to their interests and they will follow you back. We use TweetAdder and have been very happy with the results.

3. Keep your eyes on targeted keywords – Be sure to join the film conversation at large. To start, follow hot keywords such as “filmmaking” which will allow you to connect with relevant people in your space. Follow them and send an @ reply in response to a tweet that piqued your interest. You can stay updated for every keyword mention through RSS, or via your favorite Twitter software client.

Do you have a 4th way to derive more value out of Twitter as a video creator or filmmaker? If so, please share it below!

Are you in the Spidvid community yet? If not, then get your profile and let us give you a shout out to our 10,000+ followers to start your Spidvid experience off on the right foot!

We are now officially one month into 2011, and the viral videos continue to get pumped out! Below are our favorite five, including one created by Spidvid community member’s Deron, Meghan, and Claudia featured on our video sharing partner’s site UnleashVideo. This one hasn’t gone viral yet but should very soon. Spread the word about the “Narrated Sex” video (as pictured above), and be part of our “viral seeding” team! Enjoy these, and if you have one to add then please share the link to the video in the comments below.

1. Narrated Sex – This is taking narrated sex to a whole new level.

Narrated Sex from Deron on UnleashVideo

2. Greatest Putt-Putt Shot of all Time - Not sure if this is fake or real, but either way it’s cool to see this unique hole in one. And the guy’s silly laughter is pretty funny too! The video now has over 2.3 million views, and was uploaded on January 21st.

3. Ted Williams – Homeless Man, Golden Voice - Inspiring viral videos are uplifting and emotionally charging to see. If you haven’t heard the Ted Williams story yet, then be sure to watch the video below.

4. Kobe Bryant Is “Black Mamba” - Nike are among the elite when it comes to creative TV ads. Black Mamba starring Los Angeles Laker superstar Kobe Bryant, is a masterful 30 second spot produced by filmmaking legend Robert Rodriguez who’s also the mastermind behind Sin City, and other popular movies.

5. Heavy Metal Penguin - Our list would be incomplete without having at least one animal video on the list. There is something very fun and cool about penguins! Check out the hyper-active penguin below, and don’t be shy to jump around a little yourself!

Again, if you have a favorite viral video from January please use the comment section below to share it!

Comedy writer for FunnyOrDie, Scott Gairdner, recently retired from creating YouTube videos. He could’ve gone out with a bang by releasing one of his notoriously hilarious videos on his YouTube channel, but instead he chose to let his replacement, the “New Scott Gairdner”, enter with a bang of his own. Check out this hilarious vlog, which by itself, makes a statement about the current batch of vloggers who are dominating the YouTube charts these days.

The “New Scott Gairdner” is actually Stephen Grossman from Steezyluck Comedy, who also have a nice collection of original comedy videos on their YouTube channel that you should check out.

Perhaps vlogging can be seen as a cheap shot to hacky-editing, self-absorbed, “ce-web-rity”-type of individuals or even a ”cavalry call” to content creators for a new online video battle of vloggers vs. entertainment professionals, or maybe not, but either way this content is certainly good for a chuckle, so enjoy!

Do you create vlogs? Tell us below in the comments on how you create them, and what motivates you to be a vlogger.

I recently tweeted out via Spidvid’s Twitter account that we were looking for talented web series creators and producers to do email interviews with. A few talented individuals fitting that description reached out and wanted to be part of the campaign.

My first interview was a collaboration with Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, the creators behind the web series “Broad City”. I took each of their answers, mixed them up, and turned them into content for you to learn from. Enjoy the interview below.

1. What are the biggest challenges in creating a web series?

Abbi – For one, it’s challenging to create a web series with no budget! I think the most difficult thing is figuring out the relationships between the characters, and how to maintain them in various situations. Being confident that you have a story worth telling is key to getting everyone on the same page.  Any collaboration can be difficult, and figuring out our process as a team has been both interesting and tricky over the last nine months. What roles do each of us have, and how do we brainstorm ideas and execute them to complete the end product.

Ilana – I think the biggest challenge was finding the right director and editor to round out our team. The series started as just the two of us, and so we decided to make the most of the situation by trying out as many directors and editors as we could, kind of like how Six Feet Under rotates directors. This was of course not optimal, but we learned a lot from that experience, and it led us to our third member, Rob Hugel. As much as we wanted to keep it purely us two and our own dynamic, we learned that shit is going to change. In fact, that’s still something we’re learning about, enabling us to focus on the core tasks we’re good at, and letting others do what we’re not quite as skilled at.

2. Was collaboration between team members integral to the success of your production projects?

Abbi and Ilana – Absolutely, collaboration is the project. This process started out as a conversation in a pizza shop by just bouncing ideas off of each other. Creating that dynamic between these two ‘characters’ was something we had figure out by spending a ridiculous amount of time together. About half way through, we changed the way the series is produced. We now meet about 2 times a week to go over ideas about future projects, and how we can reach more people with our story. We have worked with a bunch of different directors, cast and crew, and found those collaborations to be refreshing to the show by bringing in different perspectives. The last couple months have been very interesting, and our team is working better and better together to constantly improve the show with each episode.

3. Is finding talent which bodes well for web series hard to find?

Abbi and Ilana – I would assume that for the average web series creator it would be challenging to find the right talent to work with, but we are fortunate to be based in the middle of the most talented pool of actors and production crew in New York City. If anything, it has been hard for us to narrow down the list of who we want on our team, as we adore and admire lots of skilled people.

4. Is film school needed to become a star in the video or film industries?

Abbi and Ilana – Completely unnecessary, you don’t even need your own camera! However, film school may help with grooming students to understand the importance of telling interesting stories that viewers want to watch. The created content and delivery is most important, so not everyone involved necessarily has to go to film school. Every team needs some technical knowledge and experience though, so whether that comes from a formal education or not is up to the individual.

5. What will the web series landscape look like in 2015, and how will it evolve from its current state today?

Abbi -I think web series exposure will only grow from here, and more and more valuable platforms will become available for creators and producers to leverage. The challenging part is competing for viewer attention against the plethora of new web series released now and in the future. And with everyone’s attention spans increasingly diminishing, that’s another challenging element to take into consideration.

Ilana – I have NO IDEA. Actually, I think that mankind will be wiped out in 2012. If it isn’t though, then I think that 90% of all content on TV will have originally existed on the Internet first.

I thank Abbi and Ilana for the interview, for their insights, time, and kindness. If you aren’t already, be sure to have our future interviews and posts delivered to your email inbox, or get them through your favorite RSS reader.

So you’ve went through the entire process to create an entertaining web series that runs for a few episodes, great! Now comes the fun and challenging part, promoting and marketing it effectively so it finds an engaged viewing audience.

We’ve been sponsoring, and working with a few video creators over the past few months and have learned a thing or two about getting attention for web series. Below are the top 5 places online to promote your web series, according to our many experiences.

1. Twitter – We’ve worked hard to build up our Twitter following, and it’s starting to pay off as our followers enjoy hearing about web series creators, their projects, and content. Plus viewers coming from Twitter are proving to be very engaged with videos, and encouraged to share the content with their friends and followers.

2. Facebook – Lots of people are clicking through to web series content via Facebook because they’re interested in watching entertainment, and seeing a picture to go along with a video link really helps. It also doesn’t hurt if there are a few “likes” and comments on the content to entice others to see what the buzz is all about.

3. TubeFilter – There are lots of passionate viewers into web series, and the top place to learn about new shows is TubeFilter. We’ve helped to get a couple web series featured on the site, and in turn it led to other entertainment bloggers picking up the story and writing about them too.

4.  YouTube – By putting teasers and trailers up on YouTube, you can drive web series interest from loads of potential future viewers. Just be sure that this short form content is highly entertaining, and nicely cut, otherwise most people won’t even be inspired to watch episode 1.

5. Web Series Network – The four above websites are fairly big ones that you likely know about, but have you heard about Web Series Network? WSN is a social network for web series creators and fans, so by connecting directly with these people you get a targeted group who wants to hear about new web series launches.

Hope you enjoyed these website recommendations for promoting your web series. And of course we always like helping out web series creators and producers with promotion, so reach out if you want some Spidvid love.

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One of our passions is being able to help fund the dreams of video creators and filmmakers, as they produce what could be the next big video or film entertainment hit online. One of the video creators we helped to fund on KickStarter was Melissa Center who is the creator of the web series “Missed Connections Live”. MCL is based on the missed connections section of Craigslist where people shoot messages in there with hopes that whoever they came across in the physical world would then re-connect with them online.

Part of our funding deal with Melissa (for season 2) was that she run all of her past production projects through Spidvid, and we would help promote and market her content to the web’s viewing audience.

On Monday her first Spidvid project was completed, and episode 1 (NYC Cafe Hostess hopes to find mystery Economist Man) of Missed Connections Live was later uploaded for distribution as embedded below.If you like episode 1 then you will love Melissa’s future episodes even more, so be sure to subscribe for weekly releases, and other quality entertainment from Spidvid’s collaborative production community too.

Missed Connections Live Episode 1 from Melissa on UnleashVideo

If you have a web series, or short video or film that you would like to run through Spidvid’s system then grab a free account, complete your production project with your team, and get your content uploaded so it can find audiences who crave watching new entertainment.

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Spidvid has been making its rounds around the web for the past few days on some of the most prominent startup, investor, and entrepreneurial blogs online. Check out a few locations where Spidvid has been hanging out lately, below.

If you have a video or film production, new media, or collaboration blog we may be interested in reaching your audience to attract new members to Spidvid’s community. If your blog is a good fit for Spidvid’s messaging then be sure to contact us, or on Twitter, or on Facebook.

It can be a huge challenge to do video production on the fly. Long gone are the days when ‘portable’ in the 1970’s meant Francis Ford Coppola and his clunky video equipment that fit into a van along with a few crew members. Fast forward to today and ‘portable’ might just be one person with a video camera and a laptop in the trunk of the car, what a new aged on-demand video studio indeed. Video production is now more simple than ever before, but collaboration is still vital to overall success.

Chances are you can do one thing really well in the video production process, but that still leaves a few talent gaps open in order to create quality content. If you are good at shooting video then you still likely need at least one individual to be on screen, and maybe an editor to put everything together in post production. Collaboration is the key to forming a team capable of creating video entertainment.

1. The optimal end product can only be achieved with collaboration. Viewer attention is limited, so only remarkable content will stand out and reach a large viewing audience. Your idea or script is nothing without others helping you out to make the content a reality. Excellent scripts often sit on computer hard drives waiting eagerly to be used.

2. Viral videos only come to be through collaboration. Finding the actor with the perfect look, the voice actor with the ideal tone, and the crew who do the tedious work is necessary for reaching success. Sure you can learn how to do the things you can’t do now, but you should focus on what you’re passionate about and where your core skills lie. I can’t remember the last time I saw a viral video that was born through a single individual’s effort.

3. The most marketable product requires collaboration. Even some of the most independent looking viral videos still had an experienced VFX individual behind the scenes helping to turn a regular video into one with cool effects, and making the content so much more marketable. Be kind to VFX individuals because your next video may need the skilled expertise that only a VFX artist can provide.

4. Things are easier with collaboration. The more talent you have on your team the more you can draw from to make the production process easier. The challenge is delegating tasks so that each individual can contribute to the team’s overall end goal. Collaboration only works when everyone adds value collectively.

5. Collaboration can work wonders. It’s amazing what can be done when collaboration is leveraged for the greater good of the team. One individual can feed off the next to create momentum, and elevate one’s own skill level to new heights.

If you need to collaborate on a future video or film project in the near future, be sure to grab a free Spidvid account and connect with the talent you need to reach your production goals. Have an open mind, be friendly, and have fun collaborating this summer.