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.

Jeremy Campbell Give Aways, Production Tool audio play, author, book, Celtx, comic book, contest, film, film production, free, giveaway, Mastering Celtx, new media, novel, pre-production, product, screenwriting, scriptwriting, software, story, storyboard, Terry Borst, theatre, video

If you live in the greater Los Angeles area and love NHL hockey, be sure to get a Spidvid account because our good friend Susan Johnston has generously offered a draft ticket to one of our community members. Susan is the founder and director of New Media Film Festival and the one lucky winner will get to attend the event with her.

Who will go first overall will finally be answered this Friday in LA as the Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin question gets answered by the Edmonton Oilers. We will announce the winner tomorrow so arrangements can be made with Susan to receive the ticket in time for Friday’s big event.

Jeremy Campbell Give Aways, community Draft 2010, draw, free, give away, LA, Los Angeles, National Hockey League, NHL, NHL Draft, Susan Johnston, ticket, win

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.

Jeremy Campbell Give Aways, community book, free, Get Seen, gift, give away, how to, information, learn, online video, prize, read, resources, reward, secrets, Steve Garfield, video creation, video production, vlog, web video

I’ve always been kind of obsessed with stickers. As a kid I would find and buy all kinds of stickers, and then look for interesting places to place them. Most of the time I would end up violating my parents fridge, freezer, furniture, floors, walls, lights, and even vehicles, as older stickers tend to not peel off so well years later.

In any case I thought that I would combine my obsession of stickers with my obsession of Spidvid together to create Spidvid stickers. These stickers will have a nice glossy finish, will be a size of 2″x4″, and will peel off easy and fairly clean if one needs to be removed for whatever reason.

There are three ways you can get yourself some Spidvid stickers.

#1. Tweet - send out an update on your Twitter account which includes @spidvid, and make it creative. An example could be “My life will be complete if I get some cool stickers from @spidvid.

#2. Request on Facebook – Simply go to our Facebook fan page and post a sticker request comment. An example could be “I’m a big Spidvid fan, and would love some stickers for my laptop and iPhone.

#3. Email us – Head over to our contact page and shoot us an email. Say hi and that you want some stickers, and provide your mailing address so we can ship some to you.

If you use option #1 or option #2 above we will follow up with you to get your mailing address. For now we are limiting Spidvid sticker shipments to North Americans only. If you live outside of North America and desperately want some stickers, we will make a special exception if you are willing to create a video of yourself using the stickers in creative, remarkable, or unusual ways.

Our hope is that a good percentage of people who receive Spidvid stickers will upload pictures and videos of themselves, showing off how they are putting the stickers to good use. We may even offer prizes to those who showcase their passion for Spidvid via uploaded content, and as voted on by the online community.

Don’t wait, make your Spidvid sticker request right now on Twitter, Facebook, or through email.

Jeremy Campbell News free, fun, passion, pictures, product, promotion, spidvid, stickers, video

Video production has long been viewed as expensive but valuable, since video is the most engaging and richest form of content in our media world today. If a picture is worth a 1,000 words as the famous quote goes, then a video must be worth at least 100,000 words.

The problem for video creators and producers is that production is costly because traditionally, individuals want to be paid for their work. This makes perfect sense because to provide for oneself and ones family, money is certainly a necessity. For decades now we have witnessed an employer/employee relationship in the production space where one pays and one receives, but what happens when a partnership model emerges to provide a relatively new approach.

Many individuals work on company’s video projects for money, but there’s more to life than just money, and so personal passion projects are becoming more and more intriguing as hobbies.

So lets go over the two scenarios here.

Scenario #1

On the one hand creators and producers pay out money to obtain talent, retain 100% ownership in their content but that makes for a risky strategy since only a small percentage of videos go on to find a large audience, and turn a profit. Let’s also not forget that paying people for doing work usually means that a) they are nowhere near as passionate about the project as the payer is, and b) there is little incentive to do an outstanding job because a personal content ownership stake doesn’t exist.

Scenario #2

On the other hand if creators and producers choose not to pay their talent (or pay very little), but make each member a partner by giving them an ownership stake, then each individual is motivated to do their very best, the project is interesting to everyone involved otherwise they wouldn’t be part of it in the first place, and the project’s financial risk is vastly reduced.

Of course scenario #2 won’t work well for major projects that take months or years to complete, but for the evenings when the day job is over and when some free time on the weekends is available, then this option makes a lot of sense. A donation of time is given in exchange for a video that can be used as leverage to build up ones personal profile/brand, and a share in whatever credit and revenues result.

Scenario #2 is of course where Spidvid fits into. Our social platform was developed to empower new video project opportunities that are traditionally hard to create, discover, and be part of.

So if you are a talented creator, actor, writer, videographer, editor, or another production talent, and want to partner up with other like-minded individuals like yourself on collaborative projects, then you should join our community.

Also, if you are interested in sponsorship for your future project we are seeking investments into some original content. The stipulations are that you have to collaborate with at least four other individuals, and at least one team member has to be outside your continent to outline the true global nature of Spidvid’s platform. The video should also be between 2-5 minutes in length. If a sponsorship opportunity makes sense for your next project, be sure to contact us and submit a short proposal outlining how a deal is mutually beneficial for all involved.

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Jeremy Campbell News actors, animation artists, creators, editors, free, how to, individuals, join our community, partnerships, producers, production team, spidvid, sponsorship, talent, videographers