From a International Documentary Association press release.

International Documentary Association Announces  twenty-eight films to be shown in New York and Los Angeles from July 31st – August 20th, 2009. From the astonishing stories of starvation, persecution, and escape from the world’s worst human rights violator to the surprising inside story of an iconic cult, the International Documentary Association (IDA) presents this year’s DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase. www.documentary.org/docuweeks09

Screening in Los Angeles and New York City July 31st through August 20th, 2009, IDA’s 13th Annual DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase will present 18 feature films and 10 short films, a collection of some of the best groundbreaking documentary films from around the world. DocuWeeks™ returns to the ArcLight Hollywood (6360 W. Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles) and the IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue at West Third Street in New York City) for this annual showcase of documentary films qualifying for Oscar® consideration.

As more video comes to light from the struggle inside Iran, one must marvel at the technology making this all possible. Even a decade ago, people had to reply mostly on images smuggled out of an area of conflict by journalists working for the traditional media. Now, with all the quick down-n-dirty ways of getting images on the airwaves, anyone who can get footage to the right sources can get their footage seen by the world.

A story from FOX News is an example of ways some people within Iran have gotten some of the graphic images to the press: by a James Bond-like spy camera embedded in what looks like an ordinary writing pen.

Unlike tiny spy cameras of days gone by, this one records to a flash drive and can be exported through a common USB port. FOX News reports that thousands of these pens were sent to the citizens inside Iran to get these images. Once the Iranian government found out about the pens, they began to confiscate them, and new unknown devices have since replaced the pen-cams. Read the rest of this entry »

You may have read about Metacafe in the annals of our magazine and website; it was a great resource for videographers to make money with online content. In fact, recently,  (like just last week,) we did a Making Money vidcast focused on several revenue sharing sites, including Metacafe.

An alert reader posted a message to us that Metacafe is no longer offering it’s Producer’s Rewards program. We work on our vidcasts a few weeks in advance of their posting, and did some extensive research on this story, but as the crossed-in-the-mail moments happen, Metacafe’s announcement of pulling came about the same time as our vidcast completed.

While the Producer’s Rewards program will be ending June 30th, Metacafe says it will still be posting videos. The working model just isn’t generating enough revenue to pay the producers.

Making money in the video-creation business is actually fairly new, considering the fact that camcorders have been around for 3 decades now. Other than weddings and a few small-business opportunities, small-to-mid sized video production gigs were hard to come by. The internet has changed that, but video sharing in the internet is still in its infancy and therefore is still a moving target. We’re sorry to see this wonderful revenue-sharing outlet for video producer go away, and will keep you alerted to other programs when we hear about them.

Videomaker has partnered with Says Me TV, which is a great program for videographers looking into earning money locally. For instance, the program helps small businesses find a video producer for local TV ads, without the need to go to larger more-expensive production houses. Please check it out and let us know what you think.

For years, we video producers have had to deal with how we share our videos with our associates or clients when we want to discuss changes, and where to go next. We’ve mailed VHS tapes and DVDs and waited for their response. We’ve made low-rez e-mail and FTP links… and waited for their comments.

Several companies have felt our pain and have devised better more efficient sharing systems. One such company we recently discovered is  Market7, a company that helps producers save time, money and energy as they collaborate on video productions with each other and their clients.

There are many programs that allow video file sharing, like FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites, but Market7 claims to have a complete, end-to-end solution that takes a video producer and client from the concept and planning stages all the way through to post production. This online environment can make it easy for video producers and clients to collaborate on scripts, share and view current versions of a project, provide feedback directly inside the and more streamlining the work involved in getting projects finished and out the door.

Pricing is based on the amount of storage space you use. Check out the key product feature demos.

Read the rest of this entry »