We are always looking for good communities, shows, videos, films, and events to get behind. Damian Pelliccione is heavily involved within the new media scene, and video production world. He successfully organizes a monthly mixer event in downtown Los Angeles called New Media Vault, which brings together hundreds of like-minded individuals working in and around new media.

Damian informed me that he was coming to Toronto in August and mentioned he wanted to do a New Media Vault Toronto event, and wanted me to help him co-organize it. I was on board from that moment on and since then all of the details have been worked out for a Monday, August 23rd event in downtown Toronto. If you reside in or will be in Toronto on that date, then you should definately come out because you will meet some extraordinary people who share the same new media passion you do. And if you’re lucky you may win a door prize, discover a new yummy drink, or meet what could turn out to be your future husband or wife. This isn’t a match maker event, but roof top patios in the summer can be pretty magical at times.

If you have a new media event that we should get behind then please let us know about it on Twitter, Facebook, or in the comments below.

Jeremy Campbell News co-organizer, drinks, event, gathering, group, host, Hyatt, mixer, new media, New Media Vault, passion, patio, social, social media, sponsor, Toronto

Sometimes our high ambitions go beyond our actual talent level needed for a video production project. This is sure to happen if you think big when it comes to creating new video entertainment. Nobody can do everything themselves, so why not find video collaboration partners who share your passion and vision for the project, and fill in the talent gaps that are lacking.

The challenge is how do you find and connect with talented individuals who can add value to your video projects? There are many places online where you can accomplish this goal, so I’ve outlined some of the top destinations below.

Meetup is a useful site because it allows you to join local video and film production groups, have conversations with those group members online, and then take those relationships offline to connect on a deeper level. If there isn’t a local video production group in your town or city you may want to consider organizing one to bring your local community together.

LinkedIn is the web’s largest social network focused primarily on establishing and maintaining professional contacts and relationships. It’s easy to add new contacts on LinkedIn, but it means virtually nothing unless you actually reach out and spark a discussion with these people.

Craigslist can work wonders if you clearly outline your project’s details, goals and objectives, and what kind of individual(s) you need to collaborate with. Many users on Craigslist are looking for paid gigs so if you just want to partner up and not pay upfront for their time be sure to mention that important bit of information. People are always looking for new worthwhile opportunities so if your video project fits that description you may want to submit a posting on Craigslist.

Facebook is the world’s largest social network but many users just use the site for sharing pictures, “liking” stuff, and messaging. There are many excellent fan pages though, so look who’s active on them and don’t be shy to shoot them a quick message to see if a joint collaboration makes sense.

Twitter is where we get a lot of new members for our community, and we have established some wonderful friendships over the past few months despite frustrating battles with the infamous “fail whale”. Follow actors, directors, producers, editors, or whoever you may need on your team, and whoever follows you back send a custom direct message to see what kind of interest is out there.

Google has to be mentioned because this is where you can track down blogs, forums, and communities that focus on video production. Leave comments on blog articles, reply to others in forums, and be human to show you are capable of being an effective video production partner. Listen closely to the needs and questions that people have because you have to properly address those before anything will happen.

YouTube is where the most video creators and filmmakers hang out due to the fact that it has the world’s largest viewing audience.  It may be a good idea to establish connections on YouTube, but don’t forget that creators go there to upload new content so don’t distract these individuals with long messages. Move the discussion to email, or wherever you are both comfortable communicating.

Last but not least, Spidvid is the social network where individuals go to connect, collaborate, and create video entertainment together. So when you send a message to someone on Spidvid you can be sure it will be well received because of the hyper focus around creating new video content.

There are many other sites out there for the purpose of connecting with potential video collaboration partners. Just remember that how you engage, why you want to engage, and most importantly who you engage with are the key elements to every successful partnership.

Jeremy Campbell Lists, resources actors, collaboration, collaboration partnership, craigslist, directors, editors, Facebook, filmmakers, LinkedIn, new media, partnership, producers, production team, social media, spidvid, talent, twitter, video collaboration, video creators, video partnership, video production, videographers, YouTube

The definition of “crowdsourcing” according to the collaborative writing community over at Wikipedia is: a neologistic portmanteau of “crowd” and “outsourcing” for the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to a large group of people or community through an open call. In a simpler form I would say it’s the aggregation of talent completing a task together as a team without corporate restriction.

However you want to interpret the meaning of crowdsourcing is up to you, but just understand that the model is changing every form of business in today’s world. Need to crowdsource to raise money for your film, or another important project? Then check out KickStarter. Need an answer to a question you have? Tap the community at Yahoo Answers, or if you have an engaged following then Twitter can work quite well for this too.

If you want to crowdsource video production where do you turn to? I was at an event last night called Startup Drinks which brings together investors and entrepreneurs, and I was trying to explain what Spidvid was all about to a lawyer. I kept my explanation fairly simple (or so I thought) but the concept still alluded him, so I simply said “Spidvid uses a crowdsourced like approach so individuals can create entertaining videos together.” He pretty much picked up on that right away, so I thought what better post to write today than sharing that story.

If our community, and the media want to think of Spidvid as a crowdsourcing platform for video production that’s fine with me. All I care about is that the idea of Spidvid is understood well enough so that it can be effectively spread from one person to the next, and eventually become a meme.

If a crowdsourcing approach interests you for your next video or film project, then quickly grab a Spidvid profile and tap into our production community for the talent you need.

Jeremy Campbell Visionary, community actor, aggregation, community, concept, crowdsource, crowdsourcing, director, editor, filmmaker, model, new media, platform, production, social media, special effects, video collaboration, video creation, video creator, video production, video project, writer

Do you and your friends create videos together as a team for recreational purposes? Maybe you’re in a film college and you create a new video every week, month, or semester with your classmates? If you create video entertainment within a team structure then you either can’t likely manage the project very well online, or fairly credit your team members for the work they do, or both.

I keep rethinking about the value our platform provides to collaborative teams and their video content, and it seems like many individuals out there understand the impact Spidvid can have on their hobby or career, but fail to lead a project. I believe it’s because we have been trained that all we can do online is get a YouTube account and upload a video to our account, and then share it with others. This pretty much neglects and fails to give credit to our team members who helped to create the video with us in the first place.

A large percentage of videos out there on the web today were created by teams, but from the outside looking in it appears that one person did everything. When studios do this kind of thing we understand that there were lots of people behind the show or movie, but when we see an unknown “By: creator name” we assume they are some sort of mega solo talent or something. Sure videos have credits but names and associated titles don’t do much to fairly credit or acknowledge anyone really. Heck most viewers don’t ever see the end of the video.

Spidvid provides the framework needed to fairly showcase everyone behind the project, by allowing the team to release the video together as humans versus using an obscure username that nobody cares about. If you are looking to release your video entertainment in a more effective way by properly partnering with your team, then get a Spidvid profile and manage your next project through our platform.

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Jeremy Campbell Visionary, community collaboration community, collaboration team, collaborative team, community, framework, new media, new media model, new solution, next-gen media, platform, social media, spidvid, team released video, team vs individual, video community, video production, video production team, video team

There has never been a better time in the history of mankind to create videos, and there has never been a lower cost way to market your videos to viewers across the world than now.

Most of us are on the popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, but from the updates and tweets I read on a regular basis, very few people leverage these marketing outlets effectively.

I’m not saying that I’m a social network marketing genius or anything but I pay close attention to the links my followers click on, and which ones they don’t. I think that promoting your videos via social networks is a great opportunity to take advantage of, but perhaps the biggest tip I can offer is to not always be pushing your own content, you need a mix of other’s work too. In order to receive attention you need to provide attention, so your posts can’t be about you constantly shouting out to the world “look at me, look at what I’ve done, look at what I’ve created.”

Some key benefits for promoting your videos through social networks:

• Increase awareness and interest in your videos
• Establish and develop positive word of mouth
• Grow your viewing audience
• Save money on advertising, the main cost is a time investment
• Develop a grassroots following and fan base.

When promoting and marketing your videos through online social networks you need to really focus on using good metadata. Your title is the most important piece of metadata for each of your videos, so you will want to choose a title that’s so irresistible that viewers can’t help but click on your link. Video descriptions are also very valuable pieces of content so provide interesting information, and be sure to include a back link to your website or blog. Tags usually get overlooked by many video creators but can have a dramatic impact on view count. I know of a video creator who tagged their video “thriller” the day before Michael Jackson died and the very next day the video reached 1 million views. That was purely luck and timing, but this should help you understand the importance of tagging your videos. Take the time with metadata because what many video creators do is spend hours creating their video, and then spend less than a minute on their metadata which is bad because this is how most viewers discover new videos to watch.

For maximum effectiveness it helps to use a solid team approach when promoting videos through multiple social networks. If you want to build or join a team to help create and market a video, why not get a Spidvid profile and leverage the talent of our production community.

Jeremy Campbell Lists, resources audience, exposure, film production, marketing, new media, promoting, social leverage, social media, social networks, team production, video collaboration, video production, viewers