So long 2011, 2012 is here! With each passing month, online videos are getting more creative, more fun to watch, and less expensive to produce which bodes well for our Spidvid community. Below are 5 remarkable viral videos and production tips from December. There are dozens of others likely just as deserving as these, so if you have a favorite please include the link in the comments below. And here are November’s just in case you missed them.

1. FedEx Guy Throwing My Computer Monitor – Most of us have horror stories to tell of product deliveries gone horribly wrong! Unfortunately most of us don’t have these experiences on video though like the one captured below. This computer monitor likely traveled for hundreds or even thousands of miles to arrive to the customer’s doorstep, only to be thrown on the owner’s property, who by the way was home at the time. Brutal FedEx, just brutal! The views aren’t brutal though as this video has racked up over 8 million views already. Video production tip: Keep those video cameras rolling because you never know when you will catch something out of the ordinary.

2. Flyboard Zapata - This is perhaps the coolest product ever for water enthusiasts that allows you to soar through the air like a flying fish in a Mario Bros. video game. Amazing, and as for the video itself it has earned over 3 million views since December 3rd. Video production tip: Find the most remarkable product you can and give an insane video demo.

3. Most Insane Immersive Movie Experience EVER - Check out this guy’s room totally change into the movie he is actually watching! No SFX, no post production, no cuts, everything you see here is 100% for real. This could be the future of movie experiences in the home, which would give you yet another reason not to go to the movie theater! Bonus: There are more of these incredible videos at GreatFilmsFillRooms. Video production tip: Lighting is key for video production as we all know, but use light in new and creative ways to build environments that are out of this world.

4. Singing Christmas Hedgehogs – OK so Christmas 2011 may be over, but the Christmas spirit lives on with these cute little singing hedgehogs, courtesy of Birdbox. Online video is getting more and more interactive and this video is an excellent case study for the new media initiative. Video production tip: By making your videos more interactive and engaging, you also make them more memorable for your viewers.

5. Hello Little Printer - This little social printer lives in your home, bringing you news, puzzles and gossip from your friends. Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and Little Printer will gather them together to create a timely, beautiful mini-newspaper. Cool product, but bad news for trees and the environment at large. This little social printer is launching sometime this year, and is already supported by Google, Foursquare, Nike, and other big name companies. Video production tip: Interesting products breed interesting videos, just keep it simple and make viewers think “wow, how cool, I want it.”

Create better quality video entertainment by collaborating with our talented community, be sure to get a Spidvid profile and if you need any help at all just ask us!

2011 was a year when online video took another big step forward. Just a couple years ago you couldn’t talk about online video without hearing the word “user generated content.” That term seems to be on the way out as more and more quality video entertainment is getting created for distribution.

Video production value is starting to matter more and more to viewers online, which bodes well for our collaborative video production community who create and produce “mid-tail” video entertainment.

Some videos are shot on a mobile phone, uploaded, and go on to find large audiences, but unless you have a talented cat or capture a remarkably random life moment then chances are your unedited videos won’t get many views. If a video creator and his or her team don’t spend a decent amount of time on their content it really shows through, and audiences don’t spend much time watching their content as a result.

It’s now 2012, a new year, and an opportunity for a fresh start to explore new and interesting video projects. I got an email from a video creator on January 1st stating that his new years resolution was to create videos that viewers love and are proud to share with their friends and family. This guy has a perfect mindset heading into 2012! Don’t waste your valuable time developing video projects that you aren’t proud of, and aren’t passionate about as you will create a video that even you don’t want to watch. Delete your worst project ideas and stories, and leave them behind in 2011 where they belong!

If you have a killer video or film project you want to launch then get a Spidvid profile and post your Spidvid project, or you can join teams who are collaborating on Spidvid projects by bidding on them. 2012 holds tons of potential for developing new and original video content as audiences are exploding and eager to consume it. If you need to build a team of partners and collaborators then keep our Spidvid platform and community in mind, and don’t be shy to tap into their super powers.

We wish you and your video projects a very prosperous 2012!

The incredible folks over at crowdsourcing.org recently reached out to me out of fascination for Spidvid, with regards to how we are applying crowdsourcing as a concept to collaborative video production. I was asked to write a guest blog article, which I graciously accepted, and the result is below.

When we set out to launch Spidvid, a decision had to be made–whether to form a small traditional entertainment studio which could develop original content, or do something original to challenge the status quo.

In late 2008 Seth Godin was writing about connecting people together, collaboration, openness, new media, going to the fringes, and other cutting edge concepts. Connecting the dots between wanting to do something different and what Seth was saying, it made sense to see if these elements were being applied to the video or film production model, and from our research the answer was no.

Video remixing and mashing was big around this time–where someone could upload a clip, and then others could download that clip with the purpose of adding value to the clip, and then sharing that improved clip with the hopes that yet someone else can add value to it too, and so on. While this was a cool phenomena to see the crowdsourcing power of video production on a large scale, the results were often mediocre because videos often didn’t have a compelling story, value wasn’t always added as it morphed along, and there was always someone who had to use a popular song for background music with no copyright clearances.

The goal for Spidvid was to always have an open video production ecosystem, but remixing was too open and chaotic. So the big idea was to crowdsource talent to create video entertainment where each individual on the team was responsible for something, and allow the members to set how the compensation split will work. For example, if a team has a video creator, 2 actors, 2 videographers, and an editor, the creator and team decide on each member getting 15% except for the creator getting 25%. If the video makes $1,000 in ad/sponsorship revenue then each member would get their pre-determined fair share.

So Spidvid fits into the crowdsourcing landscape as the site that aims to connect and empower individuals to create original video entertainment together, either locally, nationally, globally, or a combination of all three.

The concept came together over many months. “The back of the napkin” happened to be in the notes section on an iPod Touch leading to those concepts getting coded out as features over the next 8 months. On beta launch day in January 2010, 187 users signed up to get profiles thanks to our marketing efforts leading up to the launch day–including press releases, blog posts, getting small niche sites to write reviews, and most importantly–word of mouth and mouse.

Spidvid has grown up a ton–going from a concept with no users, to a public beta with 187, to now in late 2011 with 3,000 members, over 1,000 video projects launched, 250 projects completed, and over 1.2 million views.

Spidvid 2.0 is now being designed and developed to feature a simple and elegant user interface (UI), make video project work flow easier, add more social tools and location features. Spidvid 2.0 should launch in early 2012, and by 2015 full feature films will be produced by Spidvid’s collaborative community.

Here’s the lessons we’ve learned about crowdsourcing so far:

#1 — Projects need to be compelling, otherwise people won’t be inspired and motivated to jump in.

#2 — The collaborative objectives and goals must be clearly articulated before starting a project.

#3 — The benefits and value must be laid out so each individual understands what they are getting for their time and talent investment.

The most surprising thing to date is how fast the crowdsourcing model has taken shape over the years. It used to be that we had to educate people on our new media concept, but now the majority of users understand what’s going on as soon as they jump in to our community.

The majority of our users come from connections on Twitter, which makes scaling our community up fast challenging, but users coming in tend to be more active since they’ve had personal interaction with us before joining.

I wasn’t much of a video creator before starting Spidvid, but now I am since I have a platform to attract talent cost-effectively and quickly. I’ve been creating many entertaining “how to” cooking videos and really enjoy the connections and partnerships I’ve built up over the past couple years.

It’s exciting to think there have been many videos and films created that wouldn’t have otherwise existed without Spidvid’s crowdsourcing product to leverage. What keeps us going is knowing that the next big hit video or film may come from our community, making an impact on that production team, along with the thousands or millions of viewers that consume the content. There’s a lot to be excited about in the crowdsourcing space, especially for video production, and we hope you’ll be watching it all unfold with us.

Guest author: Jeremy Campbell is founder of Spidvid, which describes itself as “a social platform that empowers video creators/filmmakers and other like-minded individuals to connect, form production teams, collaborate on projects, create and distribute content, and automatically give credit and compensation back to each team member involved.”

Note: Here’s the original posting “Spidvid’s Lessons Learned About the Crowd and Video Production” on crowdsourcing’s remarkable site, which you should definately check out!

We’ve been getting lots of positive and a couple negative pieces of feedback over the last couple months for collaborating with talent on Spidvid. For the most part video creators, filmmakers, actors, and other talent are having excellent experiences on our collaborative platform which is great to hear, but a couple of issues have come up including payment to talent who didn’t complete the work, and lack of communication and involvement.

Below are 3 tips to get the most out of talent on Spidvid

1. Talk to them – The most effective way to build solid relationships with users on our site is to speak to them directly. Whether that’s in person (which is ideal), over the phone, or on Skype, make sure that you establish verbal communication before any formal collaboration begins.

2. Outline objectives and goals – Before doing anything be sure that everyone on the team is on the same page. If an editor is to edit a video then the elements which need to be completed should be clearly laid out on the table up front. If the editor can’t do everything needed, then an alternative individual should be attracted. Establish milestones, which lead up to the end goal of getting the video or film completed and ready for distribution.

3. Be careful with financial compensation – If you intend on paying someone who you’ve connected with on Spidvid, first be sure that a firm deal is in place. We don’t yet have a payment solution in place inside of Spidvid, so if you are paying someone via PayPal or on another third party payment site, you may want to have signed papers in place to protect yourself. So when the work gets done, you pay. Or maybe you pay 50% up front, and the other 50% when it gets completed. We will eventually be accountable for financial transactions between our community members when our internal payment solution is implemented, but right now we can’t be as all deals are externally happening outside our site.

These are 3 simple things to keep in mind when collaborating on video projects via Spidvid, and elsewhere on the Internet for that matter. Understanding them will ensure a smoother Spidvid experience, and ultimately projects getting completed safer and more quickly.

Keep updated on tips for getting more out of Spidvid, have our posts delivered to your email inbox. And join the other 11,338 people by following us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

This article is sponsored by the project management degree program at SMMU.

If you are interested in learning about project management, many universities offer a project management degree online for individuals with a busy schedule.

With each passing month, online videos are getting more creative, more fun to watch, and less expensive to produce which bodes well for our Spidvid community. Below are 5 remarkable viral videos and production tips from November. There are dozens of others likely just as deserving as these, so if you have a favorite please include the link in the comments below.

1. Google Chrome: Movember – I can’t add a video to this list without including one that’s Movember related. If you live in a cave under a rock, Movember is where guys grow mustaches in support of raising awareness and research money for fighting prostate cancer. I didn’t grow a mustache this year, but support these guys who did, and thank Google for creating this video. Video production takeaway: Create entertaining videos and release them during emotionally charged times of the year.

2. Catvertising – Cat videos are loved by many, many viewers online, and are often found here on my viral video lists. This video tells the story of a company that offers “catvertainment” inside of branded company videos, brilliant! Video production takeaway: Use cats, dogs, birds, or any kind of cute pet you want in a video, just be sure to tell a story that’s original.

3. Carrie Underwood’s Skin Secrets – This year Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley hooked up to host the CMA Awards, and created a short and sweet promo video for the awards. I wonder if Carrie’s beauty sponsors were on board with this campaign?! Video production takeaway: Celebrities are popular, so try to lure them into starring roles in your videos and films. You won’t likely be able to get someone on the A-list, but call up Screech Powers from Saved By the Bell and see what he’s up to.

4. Jorian Ponomareff Drifting – One of the world’s top freestyle motorcyclists shows off his moves going through a tight track, and getting distracted by a sexy female. The video has been viewed almost 3 million times since November, 11th. Jorian Ponomareff is remarkable! Video production takeaway: Shoot as many angles as you can, the more footage you have for editing the better!

5. Old Spice | Motorcycle – Another motorcycle video! No this video doesn’t have the now infamous Isaiah Mustafa in it, but it’s still pretty clever. Video production takeaway: Be original, think outside the box, and do something that most video creators don’t have the balls to pull off.

Create better quality video entertainment by collaborating with our talented community, be sure to get a Spidvid profile and if you need any help at all just ask us!

Today the iPhone 4S by Apple (pictured above) launched, and what a beautiful looking product it is! I’m personally not going to buy the iPhone 4S as I already have the iPhone 4,  but I’m anxiously awaiting for the projected iPhone 5 later next year.

I have shot numerous videos on my iPhone 4 including my Spidvid team’s enchilada video embedded below, and really enjoy the experience of using a simple yet powerful device fully equipped with a 720p HD video camera.

How To Make Chicken Enchiladas from Jeremy Campbell on UnleashVideo

The new iPhone 4S video camera is 1080p HD that has stabilization built right in for steadying shaky shots, and video editing can be done in a native way on the device as well.

3 of my favorite iOS apps for mobile video production are:

- ReelDirector: Full editing suite to add titles and credits, cut scenes, add music, and add transitions.

- 8mm: Has a few various lenses to shoot source video with including; 60s, 70s, Sakura, XPro, Noir, Siena, and 1920.

- Movie Looks: Select already filmed clips and select the look  you want including; Black and White, Cold Day, Face Light, Mojito, Pop, Soft Faded, Sunset, Vintage Color, Bleach Bypass, Bronze, Cinematic, Cold Beauty, Cross Process, Grunge, Warm Beauty, White Diffusion, Crime Scene, Curahee, Epic, Hughes, Neo, Night Vision, Ohio, Warm and Fuzzy, Auto Art, Blue Note, Crush, Gold Tone, Hi Con Glow, Platinum, Selenium, Sepia, Action, Connor, Garber, Jake, MC, Optimus, Resident, and War. 40 different looks in all, very cool!

Perhaps the most important thing to my video shoots is my little, trustworthy tripod as pictured below. Steady shots are key and this product provides a wonderful solution.

Mobile video production is ever improving as the tools and technologies are paving a path for new filmmakers and video creators to explore, and prosper from. It will be interesting to see where these products go in the future. Perhaps by 2015 or 2020 the top mobile devices will have RED quality cameras come standard.

Side note: RIP Steve Jobs, you truly changed the world with your passion, vision, and execution. You will be truly missed.

Where do you see mobile video production going? The comments are yours!

We love to sponsor video content that resonates with our members of web series creators and producers, filmmakers, actors, screenwriters, directors, and other talent who can gain value from our Spidvid platform and community. If you don’t yet have one, grab a free Spidvid profile now.

I recently had a conversation with Travis Gordon who is the host of This Week In Web Series, and instantly knew that sponsoring his show would be a fantastic idea! This week features Tom Konkle, who’s very well known in the web series world for Safety Geeks. Along with Travis and Tom is Chris Greenaway who’s the creator of the male favorite Venus Spa web series. Their conversation is all about web series, the IAWTV awards, YouTube vs traditional television, and a discussion about Spidvid.

Watch This Week In Web Series – Episode 4, below

The 3 gentlemen had a discussion about Spidvid, and you can hear what they had to say below

Next week’s show features Rich Mbariket, who’s the founder of Web Series Network and Web Series Today.

Have a comment about the new show, the guests, or something else? The comment section is all yours below, don’t be shy

Don’t miss any of the upcoming This Week in Web Series shows going forward, subscribe to this YouTube channel to stay updated!

I asked a question to our Twitter followers and Facebook fans a couple weeks ago; As a filmmaker, would you sooner create a web series or short film? 13 people said they would sooner create a web series, whereas 7 people insisted they would rather create a short film.

What I know is that I watch many more web series episodes vs short films during a typical week of online viewing. I’m obsessed with watching web series creators and producers increasingly improve the production and entertainment value of their content as we push forward in the rapidly evolving media creation space.

When I first started tracking and covering online video news and production “norms” back in 2006 it’s like night and day compared to just 5 years later, now in 2011. The quality gap between TV series and web series is certainly getting smaller and smaller, as the economics are constantly improving for the semi-pro filmmakers and video creators to show off their creativity, passion, and storytelling.

There are advantages and disadvantages of creating a web series vs a short film (see links below for more reading in this area), and I believe that filmmakers and video creators should do both over time. Create as much quality entertainment as you can, promote it like crazy, see which videos find large audiences and engagement, and create more similar content by doubling down on what actually breaks through the noise. Don’t spend too much money or time in the beginning, if your story resonates with viewers then leverage that when reaching out to producers to help take things to the next level.

The number of entertaining web shows is blowing up, and to me it’s extremely exciting because I see progress every week and believe in the potential going forward. I’m bullish on web series, and it will be interesting to see what big hits emerge out of this space next.

Perhaps now is your time to shine?! If you need to build a team and/or collaborate on your video or film projects, then be sure to join our Spidvid community, and post a project for our talented members to check out!

What do you think of web series vs short film in terms of creation and viewing? The comments are yours below! Here are some opinions from other bloggers on this subject: The Short Film Is Dead, TV vs Web Series vs Indie Film, Indie Filmmaking Death Match: Short Film vs Web Series.

Don’t miss another Spidvid blog post or article! Get our content delivered to your email inbox, or to your favorite RSS reader.

I love sharing content that I feel has value to filmmakers, video creators, and members of our Spidvid community. Russ Pond recently reached out to me to give me the inside scoop that he was releasing a new ebook to help video creators in the marketing video area, an area where so many individuals struggle to produce successful results.

This ebook is packed full of research, stats, stories, and of course juicy tips and advice for creating marketing videos that cut through the clutter and get your brand in front of targeted viewers. To get it, all you need to do is visit the ebook’s page, and send out a tweet to download “6 Steps To Producing a Successful Marketing Online Video” for free!

6 Steps Ebook Teaser:

1. Conveying a clear message.

2. Creating a persuasive call to action.

3. Focusing on production excellence.

4. Maximizing video optimization.

5. Considering multiple distribution channels.

6. Tracking your videos across the web.

Now that your interest has been piqued, go download the valuable ebook now, and if you have something to say about its content then please comment below. Or you can reach out to Russ directly via his website.

About the author, Russ Pond (in his own words)

Since the mid 90′s, I’ve been producing and directing corporate video projects for a variety of clients, including a handful of Fortune 500 companies. Other producers often contact me with questions about budgeting, client relationships, workflow, cameras, equipment, crew structure, contracts, business structure, accounting and other questions. So, I decided to share my resources for those interested in the business of corporate video production. My hope for this site is to provide a stream of resources to help those in the freelance production business or those interested in getting into this business.

I’ve worked on both sides of the fence. I spent 16 years working for two Fortune 500 companies in their marketing department. I was the one hiring video production companies for a variety of projects. I’ve worked with high-end ad agencies, marketing consultants and the smaller production companies. In 1996, I bought my first editing system — a Media 100 — and started learning the art of media production. Shortly after that, someone actually paid me to produce a short presentation for them. My first paying project! That excitement sent me down a path of learning where today I now run my own production company, Top Pup Media.

Since launching into the corporate video production business, I have produced projects for Nokia, AT&T, MasterCard, Haggar, Uniden, IndyCar, and a handful of other large clients. I’ve also produced, directed and edited a full-length, feature film called “Fissure“. I also recently finished work on a new television show called “Marry Me Again” that we are starting to shop around to networks.

A couple years ago, I took an assessment called “Strengths Finder” and with the help of a certified Strengths Finder coach, I learned quite a bit about the way I’m wired. My top five strengths are Learner, Relator, Responsibility, Individualization and Belief. Why do I share that? My top strength is Learner. I love to learn. I get a buzz when I learn. I look for opportunities to learn. And, I hope that this site will be an outlet for me to share all that I’ve learned about corporate video production.

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.