Earlier this week, in the teeth of a wicked storm, I trekked to a studio loft in San Francisco for the first taping of 5 Across, a new video program undertaken by Mark Glaser of PBS’s MediaShift blog.
The gathering was interesting on several levels. First, because it was instructive to see how Mark would structure a new Internet video “show.” (It turned out, with a professional camera and sound crew, Lowell Rifa ex light to illuminate the subjects, quality editing and hosting on blip.tv.) Second, because the discussion did raise some points of disagreement. The five guests were myself, Veronica Belmont of Revision3, YouTube comedy content manager Mark Day, Eric Elia of Brightcove and Irina Slutsky of Geek Entertainment TV.
Some of the themes I returned to were:
• Be authentic. Let people hear, see and sample the genuine stories you want to tell. Draw from your own life and your community.
• Just do it. If you’re thinking of diving into online video, just do it and don’t get hung up on the technology. Too many people are paralyzed by worry about how their production will look instead of focusing on just telling a story. Continue reading →
In a tag team interview session, I interviewed Carlos Rodela, CEO of AllofUsAreFamous and co-host of “Rad on the Web.” Rodela hosts many shows on the Mevio network. Mevio streams its shows live through the Justin.tv network which has a live chat built into the page.
