We are back with one of our best Spidcast episodes to date this month (listen in below and subscribe to “Spidcast” on iTunes) with a focus on filmmaking, web series, collaboration, acting, and other interesting sound bites! April’s Spidcast features the incredible individuals Victor Solis and Allie Olson. They are our amazingly sexy and talented guests for Spidcast 16, April 2012.

Our Guests

Victor Solis is a seemingly rare specimen, a Southern California filmmaker who was born and raised in Southern California. He first began collaborating with his long-time creative partner Steven Itano Wasserman in the late 1980s, a dark age of VHS cassettes and voodoo economics. The duo soon discovered they shared an appetite for the craft of storytelling, satire, photography, science fiction, and films of all genres.

Victor and Steven have formally studied film and literature at the university level. In the late 1990s, they began training themselves on various film industry projects for little to no wages. Victor eschewed selling his soul, adopted a journeyman approach instead, and has worked in virtually every film department including development, camera, and lighting.

Victor’s first foray into the webseries space is the superhero adventure “Generic Girl” starring Alexandra Olson in the title role. He co-created, co-wrote, and co-produced the 10-episode series with Steven in 2011-2012. The show premiered Feb. 14, 2012 exclusively on JTS.tv and will launch widely online beginning in May 2012.

Victor is currently producing “Trouble Is My Business,” an original feature film written by and starring Tom Konkle and Brittney Powell. He is also developing a slate of feature films with Steven Itano Wasserman.

Allie Olson is an actress from Pasadena, California. She has appeared in many films and shows.

We thank Victor and Allie for being such fun and inspirational guests!

If you’re interested in sponsoring next month’s Spidcast show, then please get in touch. If you have something to say with regards to what Victor or Allie talked about, then please post a comment below to continue the conversation. Thanks for listening, and be sure to share this show with anyone in your network who can get value from it!

Full Transcript Below

INTRO

Michael London: Hi, I’m Michael London and welcome to Spidcast, the Future of Collaborative Video Production brought to you by Indie Source Magazine where they believe free is better and I like the way they think. On this episode, we’re talking with Allie Olson, an up and coming actress that you’re going to see a lot of very soon, you mark my words on that. In fact, she stars in the web series and we’ll visit with her producer, Victor Solis of the web series as well. He’s not only a producer but he’s done just about every job on the set and got some great insight. So let’s just right in to today’s Spidcast.

First up is producer, Victor Solis. Victor, welcome to Spidcast.

Victor Solis: Thank you very much, Michael. It’s a pleasure to be speaking with you.

Michael London: So tell us a little bit about yourself; the Reader’s Digest version.

Victor Solis: Alright. The digest in a nutshell. I was born and raised in southern California so there are a few of us filmmakers out here in LA who are natively from LA and I started off really fascinated in all aspects of story-telling, and we’re talking old school as in when I was in elementary school, telling stories to my younger sister, reading mythology, Moby Dick, the classic literature that a lot of us have usually forgotten about. My first fascination was in photography.

I started working in the beach cities down here south of Los Angeles with primarily as a wedding and portrait photographer. You wouldn’t think that that would’ve been the utmost training for cinematography but the fact of shooting events and shooting weddings is that you’re always working for a client. Your primary service is not that of a photographer. It is not that of just you capturing images. Your first service to any client is really providing piece of mind.

I certainly learned how to walk the walk; how to treat people with respect; how to always serve the client’s needs; but technically speaking, you learn to work very fast and very efficiently and you’re literally very light on your feet. The sun could be going down in 15 minutes. The power could go out. You need to be able to go to your redundant batteries to your other backup lens. I learned on both medium formats which is a 2.25 inch negative. It’s much larger than even the size of a super 35mm. So learning on those cameras – it’s a much larger camera as opposed to a handheld SLR or now they say is DSLRs.

We came up also during the time that film was transitioning over the digital and I started learning about the DSLRs and how much you could do; without being limited by the cost of every time you press the trigger, every time you take a picture, that’s about a dollar worth of developing film cost, print cost. You learn to work fast but you also learn to be very economical and very judicious about how you shoot and what you shoot.

Michael London: Now you see, that’s a great story because it encourages us to find experience and develop it wherever we can. It developed your eye, your craft, so whatever, whenever and however, take that opportunity to get the experience where you can, right?

Victor Solis: Absolutely. It’s all about whatever and sometimes whenever. Anybody, if you’re in Anchorage, Alaska; if you’re in Peoria, you can find other people out there who do work in a creative field and ideally, something like photography is creative yet technical at the same time. You don’t have to be out here in Los Angeles. You don’t have to be in New York City but the first thing that I always was trained to do and they definitely owe it to my parents for that and to the photographer that I learned with was find other people, reach out to others who know more than you and definitely, it’s easy to find people who know more than you. I’ve found a lot of people who know more than me reach out, volunteer, maybe you’re sort of the intern but by demonstrating that you have the passion and that you have that work ethic, that to me is worth far more than anybody who has the natural talent. Natural talent is surely a great asset but if it’s with a wedding photographer, fantastic. Do whatever works for you but learn the basics. Learn the fundamentals of how to work with equipment, how to tell a story, train your eye as you said, and you can do that in any city.

Michael London: Exactly. Victor, you mentioned a moment ago about reading to your sister and enjoying the classics, I bet you enjoyed classic movies as well.

Victor Solis: Anybody who goes into film has to be literate is what I would recommend. If you’re going into an art form – you have to love story at its core. I’m not talking about specifically cinema or video or the technology itself, but as you said, it’s the basics of what makes a fantastic character when you open up the beginning of Moby Dick and the narrator says, “Call me Ishmael”. I’m in with him. I’m going to be rooting for him. He’s going to transport me into this world I’ve never been before. You could do that with shadow puppets. You could do that with sock puppets or you could do it with a red epic camera and put together a crew of people and shoot it on digital. Really, the format and your style, your medium of choice is less than becoming very literate in story at its core what his character, what our character beats, what our emotions, how can you harness all of those, and maybe it’s true that there was no there was reading a book to my sister or putting on a puppet show in my backyard for the neighborhood kids that I was slowly learning more and more about what are the things that actually make people laugh? What are the principles of comedy? What are the principles of drama? It certainly takes time but I’d rather be doing this than doing dentistry.

Michael London: You got that right. You also talked about puppet shows a little bit ago in the backyard and such. Tell us about making that jump from your backyard in the Hollywood?

Victor Solis: The first production – I remember pretty vividly, it was out above the hills right as you would look up from Pacific Coast highway in Malibu and you see these rolling hills that are perfect for fog banks that always come in. Anybody who thinks that LA is sunny year-round, just come on down in May or June. I was still doing undergrad, studying English and film studies at UCLA and got a position on an AFI – American Film Institute – thesis film. They were shooting up in Malibu and I came one as the lower lead but very important to any production PA or production assistant. There was about three of us and everyday was totally different. It wasn’t just get the director a cup of coffee. It could’ve been on one particular evening where we had this pond – man-made ponds on the premises of this mansion that was up in the Malibu Hills. We’re shooting at night which is always interesting because you must light everything and the sound department calls one of us over and I had no experience with sound. I don’t know why the sound recorder wants one of us. So he calls us over and he says, look, guys, we need you to go out to that pond in the backyard and get a stick or get something, figure it out and we need you to keep those frogs quiet. Apparently, there is this nice community of frogs that were all ribbiting in sync much to the chagrin of the sound recorder and the director who was pulling out his hair.

One of my main jobs on that set was to run around the man-made ponds with another PA, shaking our hands and banging sticks together as long as it wasn’t too loud in order to get the frogs to shut up so we could get our takes in the can.

Michael London: So now you’ve gone from frog wrangler to wrangling the “Generic Girl”. Tell us about “Generic Girl”.

Victor Solis: Yes, fast forward several years, in fact, probably at least a decade, it was in late 2010 that I have been collaborating with my creative partner Steven Wasserman and his production company for a long, long time. We met actually in elementary school. When I was working on shoots like that AFI shoot, he was also working on shoots in northern California. That’s where he went to school. We’ve been in touch forever and we were painting his house. The doldrums of rolling pain on the wall will definitely get two men in a room to either drive each other nuts or come up with a concept for a 10 episodes super hero series.

We came up with the latter. We said if our next project is going to be something fun, why don’t we do something that amuses us? Hopefully, it amuses a few other people as well. as we’re painting his house, we conceived the story of a girl caught up in a world governed by comic book physics and inhabited by super heroes and villains and henchmen, but in our world, they have to follow union guidelines. You can’t become a hero until you have your three vouchers. A lot of it was winks to the labor unions in LA and to super hero and comic culture. That’s how we conceived the project and we shot it in 2011. Finally, we are still working on post-production and getting about to audiences. We have about five episodes remaining before all 10 episodes are online.

Michael London: Excellent. Where can we get a peak? Where can we see “Generic Girl”?

Victor Solis: Right now, you can watch it exclusively without ads on http://JTS.tv – Just The Story. Later in May, we’ll be going more widely online – YouTube and other platforms. Our website is www.gogenericgirl.com.

Michael London: Very good. Where can we learn more about you, Victor?

Victor Solis: My page is certainly up on IMDB and my info and more tidbits and behind the scenes about the making of “Generic Girl”, my bio is up on www.gogenericgirl.com.

Michael London: Shameless plug time. Talk if you will for a moment, Victor, about the value of www.spidvid.com.

Victor Solis: As a producer, you are all about collaboration. As a producer, you have to be always reaching out to others and it’s so much easier now that we have widespread internet access and people are online looking for like-minded people, looking for other collaborators, filmmaking, unlike something like photography, it’s fundamentally collaborative. You are always dependent upon everybody around you. For us, using technology, using the internet and using websites to reach other filmmakers, we work with a VFX artist who’s in northern California. I have stories of friend who have produced web content or other content and their different team members are in different parts of the US. You can do it. You don’t need to only have your same crew of five people always meeting at your house. You can do it online. It really teaches you how to juggle tasks, how to manage people, but it’s absolutely critical and that would be my recommendation. Reach out to other people and see who agrees with your mindset and who agrees with your vision and hang out with those people. Nurture those relationships.

Michael London: Right. Relationships and networking and that’s what it’s all about. How about a parting shot, Victor? A nugget of advice?

Victor Solis: Whether you are wrangling frogs on a film set or whether you are wrangling actors in a super hero series, whatever you may be doing, be humble, learn, learn, and learn. There is no shortage of literature out there to learn whether its stories, whether its photography technique, lighting, sound, learn from others. Offer your services. Be on the shoot. Work with people and you may not necessarily be receiving the paycheck but you were going to receive the hands-on knowledge of filmmaking, creating video, this is all hands on. You will always learn from others. There are always going to teach you a little tidbit, a little tip that you may not have ever thought of. Be humble and get yourself out there that’s probably the best advice that I can provide.

Michael London: And wonderful advice it is. Victor Solis, thank you so much for joining us today on Spidcast.

Victor Solis: It’s been a real pleasure, Michael. Thank you.

Michael London: Spidcast is brought to you by Indie Source Magazine, the fastest growing independent filmmaker resource and the only free publication of its kind. Their mission is to bring you not only stories of the industry’s highly celebrated but also stories and insights from players in all areas of the media creation process. At Indie Source, they believe free is better. Visit them at www.indiesourcemag.com.

We’ll continue now with the Spidcast and joining us is the Generic Girl herself, Alexandra Olson. Allie, welcome to Spidcast.

Allie Olson: Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.

Michael London: Tell us a bit about your story. Well, I’m Alexandra Olson, I’m an actress. I’m from Pasadena, California and I actually wasn’t always into acting. I started off pursuing music. I was all set to go to Cal Poly Pomona for college when I was kind of scouted by a Disney Record Label and I did the whole manager-producer thing for a while and it just ended up setting me on a completely different course than I had planned and made me want to pursue a career in the arts. I didn’t end up signing with that label but I did do music for a while. I did pretty well. I got some independent film placements, some really small artist cuts, but I just didn’t have the love or the passion to really do what it takes to make it in music and since I was more of a songwriter rather than a performer, I spend most of my time kind of alone in a studio or a marketing my stuff on the phone talking to like 50-year-old publishers and meanwhile, all my friends who are out of college and partying and having fun and I felt like I was missing out kind of on my youth so I decided to go to Pasadena City College where the goal was to do get credits and most important to have fun.

I was like okay, I’m here to have fun. Let’s go out for a play. I auditioned for the play and I got in and I ended up absolutely loving it and the teachers and the people in the theater department were just so funny and cool and all of a sudden like I had this great bunch of friends. I remember my dad actually called me one as I was heading home from rehearsal and he asked like hey, are you coming home for dinner? And I was like no, I can’t because I’m going out with my friends. I have friends again, Dad. I ended up just becoming really involved in the theater department there and going kind of from show to show. I discovered that I just really loved acting and loved the community of it and just working with really talented people to create great art together and to tone off the story. That’s what I want to do with my career.

Michael London: A moment ago, you mentioned music being your first love. Tell us a little bit about that.

Allie Olson: I tend to go more of the songwriting route. That’s actually my true passion and I think that’s my strength. I sing and I play guitar and keyboards but those are kind of tools for me to use to write my songs. I love to write and I love to listen to music and I think my style is really kind of sweet, pop, acoustic, organic feeling. But I love a good song in any genre.

Michael London: What was your very first production?

Allie Olson: The first production I did? I think the first real production, real part that I got – I was so excited about getting it. I played Eve in “The Apple Tree” directed by Whitney Rydbeck at Pasadena City College and I was just elated. I had never really had a lead role and I was terrified out of my mind but I worked really hard and the experience of just going out with the people after rehearsals and then forming a community as a cast was so much fun. Definitely one of my favorite plays that I’ve done.

Michael London: So from being on stage and live productions, you get a call about doing a web series. First thoughts?

Allie Olson: To be honest, when I auditioned for “Generic Girl”, I didn’t really think much about the fact that it was in that digital video format. I was just kind of like reading the breakdowns and saw what looked like a really cool project that I want to be a part of so I went out for it, but I just gotten more into promoting it. I really learned a lot about the merits of the web series format and how digital video has really sort of democratized filmmaking. I just think it’s so cool that independent filmmakers and actors like myself can realize the vision without needing this huge budget for like distribution and you can make your seven-minute episodes or your short film and upload them to all these platforms like Blip.tv, Dailymotion, or JTS.tv, which is “Generic Girl’s” network, et cetera.

Basically this worldwide distribution without the monstrous budget and it gets lead to lots of consumers really being able to discover a whole bunch of great content that may never have even gotten made but for this new digital way. I’m really glad to be a part of something like a cool web series in a format that’s sort of the apex of the whole wave. It’s really cool. I love doing independent stuff. I think a lot of great talent really exists in that medium.

Michael London: Before you’re on Spidcast today was Victor, who you mentioned a moment ago. Tell us about him.

Allie Olson: Oh, Victor is so cool. He is a person that has so many ideas and he’s one of those people that actually really works to put them into action. The work that he’s done promoting “Generic Girl” has been outstanding. He’s constantly out there doing everything from networking, getting us on this new JTS network to even going to Comic Con and handing out business cards. He’s like a really even a foot soldier and a general. He’s great.

Michael London: Traditionally, through the years, Hollywood has been the stage and then to the small screen and hopefully to the big screen at a theatre near you, but you seem to have fallen into that new, hip, cool place called the web.

Allie Olson: Definitely true. I think the web series – I think it would be cool if web series became the new episodic television. I think there’s always a place for sitting down in front of your television and waiting for that 10 o’clock slot to come on and waiting for it all week and being really excited and watching it with a big group of people, but that can also be done online. I think it kind of actually mirrors what’s going on in the music industry too which is what musicians and actors were able to act like our own production companies almost and promote ourselves and reach our audience without needing to go through like a network per se. I mean, it is a network, but it’s like a different kind of network. It would be awesome if web series just became accepted as a regular episodic TV format.

Michael London: And of course, there’s no man in the ivory tower telling you what you can and can’t do and what will be produced and won’t be produced. You make your own content and find your own audience.

Allie Olson: Exactly. That’s a beautiful thing because if it were the case that we’d have those network producers sitting in the ivory tower shutting down some potentially great project. Thos projects can be made anyway. They can find their own audience without needing to go through all these screening processes.

Michael London: Allie, what would be your advice to someone just getting to Hollywood today?

Allie Olson: I myself I’m definitely just starting out and still really trying to make it in the industry and I mean, I would say two things probably come to mind that are really important. One is really find that teacher or that director that you feel you can really learn from and then absorb everything you can to really get the confidence in yourself as an actor. For newcomers like myself, it’s really important that we know our brand and know our strength and really play them. I think working with a great mentor can really help with that.

Michael London: I’m going to bet that you’ve come from a performing family.

Allie Olson: Oh yes, my family is – we get called the von Trapp’s sometimes. When we call people to say happy birthday, we actually sing “Happy Birthday” in three-part harmony. My mom and dad actually met in a band so we’ve always had jam sessions with our friends every month and it’s so cool. Just the other night, we’re actually sitting around our living room playing with a couple of family friends. We’re playing Iz’s version of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” and we had a fiddle, a saxophone, my mom was singing, my dad was playing guitar, and I was doing harmony. It was just ethereal, wonderful experience. I love it so much.

Michael London: That is so nice, so fun. Tell us a little bit about “Generic Girl”.

Allie Olson: Oh my gosh, working on “Generic Girl”, it was incredibly fun. Definitely the coolest thing I’ve yet gotten to be a part of. Everyone on set just has this awesome mixture of professionalism and pure silliness. There were a lot of times when we would actually have to improve and we have a lot of really experienced improv actors in our cast like Matthew Bohrer and Johnny Skourtis. I could barely keep a straight face. Oh, also Matthew Farhat. I could not keep a straight face of all the craziness that was going on and the great staff that the cast have come up with.

To be honest, I knew this was going to be a really cool project to do from the very first audition because of the way they auditioned us. Sometimes you go to auditions and they hand you like a sheet of paper that’s like okay, fill in your sizes, tell us about your relevant experience but this audition, Victor and Steven, the director and producer actually handed us a piece of paper that asks questions like what comic book do you like to read or if you could have any super power, what would it be and what would your super hero name be. Immediately, I was like, okay, this is going to be awesome.

Michael London: Allie, what super power would you have and who would you be?

Allie Olson: I think I put that my super power was to be able to shoot purple sparkles from my hands but they weren’t just any purple sparkles, they were purple sparkles of death. I had named myself – I think I named myself Sparkle Super Nova, which sounds like a different kind of name, but it was favorite hero name.

Michael London: Hey, where can folks see “Generic Girl”?

Allie Olson: You can see it on a networked called – it’s an online network called http://JTS.tv. It stand for Just The Story. It’s an ad-free subscription network. New episodes go up every Wednesday. There’s actually a lot of really cool shows on there like “Continuum”, and I think it’s called the “Jeff Lewis Comedy Hour”. Those are the cool ones. There’s a lot of good content.

Michael London: And where can we read all about Alexandra Olson?

Allie Olson: You can go to my website which is http://allieolson.com.

Michael London: Perfect and for those listening, Allie, how about a great nugget of advice, the great take home message from you.

Allie Olson: The great nugget of advice from Allie Olson – I would say just make sure to always care about telling the story. That’s what I’ve learned as my biggest piece of wisdom of training that I’ve gotten from my mentor, Duke Stroud. I will just say tell the story, always be honest when you’re acting and love what you do.

Michael London: Love what you do. Excellent advice. Allie, thank you so much for being with us today on Spidcast.

Allie Olson: Thank you so much for having me, Michael. I had to say, you have the coolest voice that I have ever heard. You sound like on those movie trailer guys that could voice overs.

Michael London: That’s very kind. Thank you very much. I will tell my agent to start booking some of those jobs.

Thanks for listening to our Spidcast show. We appreciate your time and attention. You can now join the conversation at Spidvid.com or on our Spidvid blog and you can join our collaborative filmmaking community at Spidvid.com. Tune in next month for another entertaining and informative episode of Spidcast.

This week features MediaSilo’s Evangelist Dan Green. Dan talks about saving money and time, the importance of metadata, and how to improve the video production work flow. He also discusses his podcast Work Flow Junkies.

Topics covered in the show:

- The story behind MediaSilo.

- The video production process through MediaSilo’s platform.

- Who can benefit and get value from MediaSilo’s solutions.

- Text transcriptions and extracting metadata from your video assets.

- Why metadata is the future for online video.

- How far collaborative editing has come over the years.

- How producing videos has changed and evolved.

- What comes after YouTube?

- How Spidvid community members can improve their production process and video content through MediaSilo.

- Why to get a free demo account at MediaSilo.

Full Text Transcript

Show Introduction: Hi. I’m Michael London and welcome to Spidcast, the future of collaborative video production brought to you by Spidvid.Com. On this episode we’re visiting with Dan Green, evangelist from MediaSilo.com. MediaSilo is a wonderful video content management and collaborative platform.

Dan, welcome to the Podcast. Tell us a little bit about the MediaSilo story.

Dan: Well, MediaSilo actually started out for the production environment several years ago. It started from a company called Producturials which did a lot of work in video for the web and most of the clients actually were banks. Getting them to agree on anything or even just all of the stakeholders involved to actually view some content and approve it was a nightmare. So what the guys did was they actually started to piece together that they knew a little bit about the Web and online video. So they pieced together a system that enable those stakeholders involved in the production of the online videos to go from their own computers and actually view that content and make comments on the time line, and then approve or disapprove the content.

It was such a big hit that some friends of theirs and other production companies were like, “Hey, man, can I use that?” One thing went to another and gosh, a lot of people might be able to use this. The platform has really grown from there. It started just as an online approval system and really grew beyond that to become a fully-functional full-collaborative online video platform.

Michael: Well, it certainly is that. Now is this a real-time experience?

Dan: No. MediaSilo is not live. MediaSilo gives you the ability to collaborate on your own schedule. So you’re able to control who has access to any given workspace and that’s what we call them. We break them down into workspaces which are like folders or if you’re an avid person, maybe like a bin, and you can break those workspaces down into projects, or into clients, or however you want to break them down and then you can assign people that have access to those workspaces and determine what they can do in those workspaces. So whether or not they have the ability to actually make comments on video in there, view it, share it with other people, or work with that video, or embed it onto their websites, you control all of the things that they’re able to do in a workspace with video. And you’re able to do it on your own time with notifications via email.

Michael: Got it, got it. Now take us step-by-step through the MediaSilo process.

Dan: What happens is you can just upload any video directly through your online login. Click one button and you choose the file that you want to upload or you can upload it via FTP direct out of your system if you like and it will go directly into that workspace where we take not only the source file. So we’ll take the source file. If you upload it in QuickTime, we’ll take the QuickTime. If you upload a Windows Media file, we’ll take the Windows Media file and we store them online so that you can access and download it at any time. So if you’re uploading from New York, you can download that exact same file in Los Angeles.

But at the same time what we do is we create a Flash proxy of that video which you can view online and work with online. So when that video goes up and it’s encoded into Flash, that’s actually what you see and that’s what you work with through the MediaSilo platform.

Michael: Oh, I love that. Now, your content stays untouched and then we work using a Flash version. Very, very nice. Now Dan, who exactly is using MediaSilo at this time?

Dan: We have a lot of clients in the reality TV space; some of the network talk shows are using us. For example, one of the big prime time talk show’s is using us to brief talent that they want to get involved in some of their bits. So they’ll have producers for example do a mark up of that bit or do a run for that bit and then they’ll send a sample straight to that client’s iPhone or their agent’s iPhone example. Directly right to their phone or make it available online, or they can actually give them access to the system within MediaSilo if they want. So you can collaborate within the platform if you like or outside the platform if that’s what you want to do as well.

Michael: Well, I’ll tell you what. The flexibility and customization possibilities are very, very exciting indeed. So Dan, share with us a little bit more about the actual working parts and pieces of MediaSilo.

Dan: Well, we call them “modules” in MediaSilo and those modules give you the ability to do different things. For example, we have the ability for you to create your own channels online that you can program on the fly. So for example if you want to have a broadcast channel that has a number of videos like let’s say for example, you want to do your reel and you have different versions of that reel. So you have commercials, you have documentaries and so on. You can actually break that up into different channels within your overall MediaSilo channel. So you would go in and build that within MediaSilo, take the embed code and put it on your website. You can actually program that on the fly simply by dragging and dropping content into that channel and it will change automatically. You’ll never have to go back in and re-embed it or change the code in the website ever again. All you’ll have to do is drag and drop and you can move all of those things from within MediaSilo and it will control it.

So the broadcast feature is one that’s particularly popular because of the ability to program it through Alliance. We also have a transcription mode which gives you anybody who has ever sat there and had to sit there and knock out bytes and transcribe bytes for log tapes know how tedious that can be. We’ve got a very affordable option where if you go out and you do your shoot, you can actually upload that content from MediaSilo, then drag it into the transcription feature, and request to transcription. You can add any notations that you want, names, or specific request, or i.e. time code and things like that, and send it off and within 24 to 48 hours for $5 a file and a $1 a minute, you’ll get a full transcription back on MediaSilo that you can then cut and paste and work with and create your piece together. Those are couple of the modules that we have and we’re working on several others.

In addition to those we also have an interface with Final Cut Server which gives you the ability to take that metadata. Metadata like transcriptions, metadata like adaptations on the timeline and comments on given files, and write them back into your Final Cut Server. So we’re able to make a full loop so that you can work with an asset within Final Cut Server and then upload that content and make it all available online and update metadata that’s relevant to you and move the production process along within your non-linear editor.

Michael: Now you just mentioned metadata. There are some old school editors out there who have painfully made that transition from recorder to Beta, to DV cam and then from linear to non-linear editing. Talk a bit about that process.

Dan: I think that metadata is clearly the future in the direction that we’re moving in. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. But making the transition from linear into non-linear, I think most people have made that jump. What happens is where to go from there and the ability to really catalog your assets and make those assets available to other people to be able to work with those assets outside of your non-linear editing platform. That is a process that is sort of like crack, I think. You get a little bit and you just want more because it really streamlines your work flow and it makes your time far more productive, and you’re able to work on projects and know exactly where you are on those projects – on approval – with all the stakeholders that are involved. So you can bounce from project to project and still be up to date and keep you informed just to where you are and gets your approvals and move along.

Michael: Indeed. For my money, one of the coolest features is the ability to be editing in New York, get instant feedback from my client in L.A. and with the client’s partner at O’Hare Airport in Chicago as well.

Dan: Yes. And you can do it on your phone. In fact you can access your entire catalog on the phone if you want to – on the iPhone. But the mobility that we are demanding in this new environment, particularly with the Smart phones and the flexibility that we have in the software that’s coming through non-linear editing systems whether it be Avid or Apple. And then through Avid server system or Final Cut Server gives us tremendous flexibility in that regard and all of these things are merging together. MediaSilo really has positioned as an online component for those things.

Michael: Ah, great position to be in. Now how has producing videos changed and evolved over the last couple of years?

Dan: Well, I think that the biggest change that we’re seeing is a movement particularly in Hollywood towards work flow that it’s not just about editing anymore. It’s about total work flow from acquisition all the way through the post-production process because the biggest change that I think I’m seeing anyway is the need to take any content that you have and be able to use it on a number of platforms. So we’re seeing a lot of our clients particularly in the reality space take a piece of video that it’s going to be used for a show, but it also has to be re-purposed for the Web. It has to be re-purposed for promos so that they can be sent to newspapers or tabloids around the world; and they have to be able to take that content and put it on the Web, or edit it into their own systems. And the relevant metadata that’s going to be coming with that video is going to be very important because it’s going to add to your ability not only to maximize that content on a number of different platforms, but then as you move forward to also be able to track that content and see what it’s doing for you online.

Michael: Now, speaking of online and stepping away from that traditional Hollywood studio model, what does the future hold for online video content in terms of the production model?

Dan: I think it’s what comes after YouTube now. Because YouTube certainly has its place, there’s no doubt about it but YouTube was the great repository. And when you have a great repository like that, it doesn’t give you the ability to really set yourself apart. So I think people are demanding now the ability to have more control of their content, to be able to stand apart and have a unique delivery system beyond the standard things that are out there. Does that mean there’s not a place for YouTube? Absolutely not. There’s no doubt about it.

But the days of being a production company and putting your stuff on YouTube makes you kind of look cheesy. Let’s be honest. So people want to have the ability to have an incredibly professional look on their Web sites to be able to have an incredibly professional work flow and do that online at a very affordable price. I think that’s where MediaSilo really comes in.

Michael: Which then of course takes us to the bottom line – tell us exactly how do your clients save money and time using MediaSilo’s platform?

Dan: Well the first thing that’s going to save them a bunch of money is that they’re not dubbing DVDs all day long and shipping them out to clients for approval and then waiting days to get an answer back. The money that they saved on FedEx alone pays for the MediaSilo platform, or systems that are incredibly ineffective for video like YouSendIt and FTP delivery systems where they don’t even know what they’re looking at. They just got a file and they have to download it and maybe they don’t even want to look at it in the first place, or maybe it’s not even the right file.

So this is a visual platform that gives you a lot of flexibility and saves you money through delivery, it saves you money through time and the ability to collaborate and get an answer and use our time as an editor and a producer far more effectively. We have casting agents in Los Angeles that are using MediaSilo and we have one recent project where we had a casting director do a project in half the time it took him before and normally he would have three or four casting assistants on the project, and instead he had one. So it’s a money-saver in terms of efficiency and giving you the ability to focus on the project that you’re working on or multiple projects that you’re working on, and move them forward in a pace that’s going to be profitable to you and make a difference on your bottom line.

Michael: And in this age of the bottom line being just that the “bottom line”, I trust that Spidcast listeners and the Spidvid community will appreciate the value of a hand-in-hand partnership with MediaSilo. And that when they assembled their production teams from literally around the world via Spidvid, they would then turn to MediaSilo to complete their projects or even use MediaSilo throughout the complete production process.

Dan: What we’ve seen is a lot of people integrating it piece-by-piece. Some will use this for casting and then start using it for research and put all the research content on there. Others are using it in the production process and then branching out from there. So there’s multiple applications for MediaSilo and if it fits into certain parts of the work flow, then it really works.

One of the things that we really try to do with the platform and encourage people to do is incorporate it into the work flow the way that they want to on their level because we’re not trying to set a work flow and say, “Listen, this is the way that you do it.” We have the flexibility for you to customize the system, customize the approval process, who sees what, when, where, and what workspace it goes into and then where it progresses to based off at the platform, not off of what we say. So you’re able to customize that platform to fit your work flow. So we’re seeing MediaSilo brought in different levels, then expanded from there.

Michael: A bit ago, Dan, you hit on the jump from linear to non-linear editing. Well, this takes the jump from linear to non-linear thinking and this is just today in the present. Now, what do you see in the near future?

Dan: The future is clearly about metadata. There’s no doubt about it and that’s what we’re committed to and we want to make that interaction as seamless and as painless as possible for people. In fact we work with a company called, Focus Enhancements who has a product called the FS-5 which gives you the ability to put metadata onto a file and acquisition, and then you can upload that content and import that metadata up to MediaSilo and into your non-linear editing system and it stays with the file. So it can be good take, bad take; it can be day shoot, night shoot; it can be accurate information, it can be whatever; it can actually be a script. And that information then stays with the video all the way through. It’s searchable, it’s findable, it’s something that you can then put into your library and seek through and have your hands on that video whenever you need to. And that’s going to improve dramatically video production as we move forward.

So if you can get your hands and search in a matter of seconds whether it be on MediaSilo or within your own system using some simple metadata, you’ll be able to get your hands on the video content that you need immediately and it’s going to save you a fortune. It really will and I think we’re going to see metadata incorporated into work flows, in production so that actual approval and the sorting of content is in a reality space where you will have producers sorting through content and picking bodies, and picking the cut-away shots that they want to use, that those selections are with the video as it sits on a server. So whether you go and find it through MediaSilo or you go and find it in your editing system through your production work flow, you’re able to find every shot of John and have your hands on every cut-away of John that was ever shot during the entire production, and have it in seconds. That’s really going to change everything in the way that we do it.

Not to mention the facts and there are other things to come into it. That metadata could also be color, it could be settings, it could be other variables, GPS, it can be what temperature Kelvin were we shooting at. So if you have to go back and do a re-shoot, that metadata is always going to be there and you’re going to be able to change it. Think about the ability to actually do that instead of renting an EVD of a movie, to be able to rent all of the video that we shot for that film and the ability just with metadata to re-cut it the way that you want to, that those scenes are there. That’s the kind of things that we have in the future.

Michael: It sounds like the future is bright indeed. Dan, I sure appreciate you being on Spidcast today, but you also have a Podcast. Tell us a little bit about Work Flow Junkies.

Dan: Well, Work Flow Junkies is sponsored by MediaSilo. We touch on MediaSilo from time to time but really the podcast is about work flow in the production environment. We spend a lot of time talking about metadata there and the potential applications for metadata in the video production space and where we’re going. But at the end of the day what we like to do on Work Flow Junkies is just talk about ways to save yourselves some time and save yourself some money in video production and have fun doing it.

Michael: And to me that has to be the ultimate bottom line. Have fun doing it. Dan, where can the Spidcast listeners go to learn more about your solutions, get a demo and get connected with MediaSilo?

Dan: We’re online at MediaSilo.Com. Podcast is at work WorkFlowJunkies.Com. That’s work WorkFlowJunkies.Com but you can go online to MediaSilo and get a look at the system, sign up for a demo and it’s all free. There’s actually a free account. You can sign up and get your hands on MediaSilo right off the bat and not pay anything. There are limitations in terms of total volume of files that you can upload and so on. It’s a great chance to just sign up for free account at MediaSilo.Com and start up loading some video and see how the system works and see how practical it is for your work flow.

Michael: Wonderful invitation. We will do that, Dan. Thank you so much for joining us today on Spidcast.

Dan: All right. Thanks for having me, Michael.

Michael: Dan Green, evangelist from MediaSilo.com. I’m Michael London. Thank you for listening. You can join the conversation now by visiting Spidcast.Com. We welcome your thoughts, opinions and feedback, and you can also get access to the full-text transcript of this week’s show at Spidcast.Com.

This week features Seth Kenvin, who is the CEO of Market7. Seth talks about collaborative environments so individuals located all over the world can work on video production projects in real-time, improving the overall process.

Topics covered in this episode:

- Seth’s vision for the video collaboration space.

- How individuals can benefit using new social and collaborative platforms.

- How budgets for production projects can be managed in a more effective way.

- When it became evident to Seth that better technical tools were needed for producing quality video content.

- How collaborating and communicating in real-time with team members works.

- How video creatives are from Venus, and producers are from Mars.

- What the future challenges and opportunities are for video production.

- How Market7 impacts the business side of video production.

- How Market7’s collaborative tools improves video production for every team member involved.

Full Text Transcript

Show Introduction: Hi, I’m Michael London and welcome to Spidcast, the future of collaborative video production brought to you by Spidvid.com. On this episode, we’re visiting with Seth Kenvin, an Internet entrepreneur and CEO of Market7.com. Seth will discuss his vision of the future of collaborative productions and his part in that arena. Market7 is a superb tool for everybody – from producers to grips and it’s all about keeping it organized and keeping it profitable for everyone. So let’s jump right in to this week’s Spidcast.

Michael: Seth, thank you so much for joining us today.

Seth: Thank you for the opportunity.

Michael: Tell us if you would a little bit about Market7.

Seth: Market7 is a company that endeavors to provide environments for people to work together on making videos. So the different ways that we work together on content creation, coming with an idea, getting it scripted, storyboarded, moving on to post-production when there’s footage to look at, how do people review it and provide their feedback that got the editing process and ultimately approve of that content and throughout in addition to the content collaboration that has to happen, different aspects of project management for people to work better together whether that’s scheduling events, assigning tasks, sharing files and the like.

Michael: Man, there’s a lot going on with what you just said and you somewhere, somehow saw the need for Market7. What was that, let’s say, the a-ha moment for you when you realized that this was needed to be created?

Seth: I’ve been in high-tech marketing and a few years ago, the marketing activities in which I was participating expanded from what they had been. Things like developing websites and public relations and events, white papers to include video alongside those other activities. I was more frequently commissioned video production projects working with producers and finding that the utilization of software and technology to make communications clear and to make processes more efficient in video was lacking compared to a lot of those other sorts of projects.

If I could give one example, if we’re working together on a document, presentation, a paper, and we take the software into something like track changes mode, you or I can look at each other’s comments right within the context of the content on which we’re working so I can see that you have a comment or suggested that it is exactly where it would appear. In video and contrast, conventionally, what people do is they’ll look at the video in a player, that player doesn’t have a mechanism for feedback so they have to either scribble down their notes for later exchanges or maybe toggle between the player and email or compile their feedback. Once there’s feedback from multiple parties, there could be confusion as to who’s attending carries the day are people who are waiting to the right file or is everybody being good about indicating with the timelines.

So getting that capability to sort of very intuitively integrate ones feedback within the content itself was something that I’ve found lacking in video production projects. The more I explore it, the more I realized that there were a number of elements the whole way through from conceptualization to completion of video production that could stand to be done more clearly and more efficiently with the right software.

Michael: Let me clarify this in my mind. You’re saying that you have a video on your site and we’re working on it together. We’re discussing the added points and save the music cues and we can work on those elements and be communicating in real time as well?

Seth: That does happen. And actually, there’s an equal advantage if we work asynchronously. In terms of real time, if you and I are both looking at the video and you post a comment to a Web browser on your end, I will see and my client that comment dynamically appear while I’m making my edits. I can reply to it so we can essentially have a real time messaging session while we’re both watching the video together.

Similarly, if we are in completely different time zones or have completely different schedules, and need to coordinate our efforts without being able to be together, this can have correct for the kinds of issues that frequently arise through the ambiguity of how to think about video. If you want to make a comment about a particular portion of the screen and instead of having to describe “you know that part in the upper left where there’s some pixelation or something like that”, when you leave your comment, you can actually highlight that portion of the screen.

Your comment is going to specify where in the timeline to change to what’s in the video. So if your comment pertains from 0:01:14-0:01:19, you’d be able to demarcate that. So whether we’re working together simultaneously, under the gun and we’re trying to communicated as efficiently and expeditiously as possible, we can have a real time session with the same thing or for reasons we can’t coordinate being available at the same time, this actually makes up for some of the frequent ambiguity that exist when we’re working asynchronously.

Michael: Now, I got to tell you, Seth. I have worked video production for close to 20 years and I’m telling you that aside from sitting side by side in an editing suite with your client, this is just fantastic for the producer.

Now, you’ve often said that creatives are from Venus and folks who commission projects are from Mars. What exactly do you mean by that?

Seth: If I could actually go back to the episode in which the company started, one of the things I did that I sure think of there may be a company who are doing this better because I went to producers I’d hired and first thing I would do given the opportunity to talk about the potential for this new company is complain to them about “Why did you service me so poorly? Do you realize how we work in an enterprise the way we collaborate on projects, the way we deal with our bureaucracy and coordinate our communication and you’re just handing off a stack of DVDs or pointing us to an FTP site doesn’t suit our needs if you don’t provide the framework in which we can clearly communicate and reach consensus and provide you with organized feedback?”

And then as the conversation procedure, it got to be their turn to kind of complain to me about how I who was a poor correspondent to them in my role as a client. For example, one of the things I heard from producers we hired is the fact that we would show up for a shoot and essentially had done no preparation and made no allocation for effort or budget for pre-production.

So we would show up for a shoot and then at times would be half a dozen people there on crew, they didn’t know how they’re supposed to set up their gear to shoot because the thing hasn’t been storyboarded. There was somebody with a teleprompter while we were still hacking at the script. The person who was going to read the script that they were a company employee was hardly prepared with their lines and was inept to do multiple takes and this producer/director person was stressed out about the fact that they had a client who was not adequately prepared that right in the middle of the process, there was a shoot to do and I think that kind of illustration of where those of us kind (add) the organizational side, the corporation tend to fall down in our execution on video.

We’re used to sort of 80/20 rule in situations in which if a paper or a presentation is due tomorrow and it’s hardly started, not an ideal situation, but we can probably pull something out that’s at least going to be good if not very good by being kind of resolution enough about getting it done the right way. While if in video, there’s only so much you can do in the eleventh hour because whatever content you have is already there. There’s only so much you can salvage in editing.

And the client’s frequent lack of understanding of that imperative is one example. Like others include the fact that producers tend to be more creatively-oriented. Their clients are the people commissioned the video tend to be more sort of structured in their orientation maybe more bureaucratic versus more freelance in nature. Even down to the sort of “I’m a Mac” “I’m a PC” type of element where one party used to working with that they’ll be creating the suite software and that kind of interface within a Mac environment and the other is possible more like going to be spending most of their time computing in Microsoft Office on Windows.

So what we’re trying to do is allow those people to work together and whatever we develop from pre-production to post-production and project management throughout every single feature we push out, we’re constantly putting ourselves in the minds of the person who’s sporadically involved in video production, who’s more corporate in their orientation how are they going to experience it and how’s it going to feel most intuitive and powerful to them and likewise the person who’s constantly engaged in video production more creatively-oriented, how do we provide the right interface for them to feel equally at home and able to be productive.

Michael: Excellent points there because getting the suites and the creatives on the same page can be such a challenge. I’m glad you’re trying to bridge that. I really appreciate that piece of it. While we’re in the area of the suites or the (bean counters), how does Market7 impact the business end of video production?

Seth: Much of what we talked about has to do with the content collaboration of we’re involved in. Our modules included a creative brief of production brief in which people can layout what is the strategy and what might be some of the key tactical to getting this project done. We have a scripting module which can layout the actual content. That includes advantages like being able to assess how long that content is likely to run based on the length of the script. It also supports integration of visual elements like viral footage, storyboards, headshots of actors, etcetera.

We got our post-production player that supports integrated feedback and commenting in order to guide the editing process. Really throughout the process, those are more staged around content collaboration throughout the process, we enable functionality like task assignment, event scheduling, and one of the modules that we just released in the last couple of months actually pulls from those for resource management. A frequent issue – in video production, as we’ve talked to people is just given the creative nature of both the process and the people involved, there’s often an oversight over how much time went into this. Did it line up with projections? Did we make or lose money on this project?

So one of the things we do that endeavors to basically fold than in very conveniently is we take the information we have from tasks, we take the information we have from events and we compile a sheet of how much time each participant in the project spent.

For example, if a task is assigned to you within the project, when you check a box to indicate you’ve completed that task, there’s actually a processing how much time did you spend on that and two pushes of the keyboard, you can press 60 to indicate that you spent an hour on it and you’re done with that.

When someone schedules an event and scheduling events within our software flow right through the people’s personal calendaring, whether they used Gmail or Outlook or Entourage, whatever systems of email and counter-management that you use. There’s no double work here. When you want to schedule an event and invite people from your organization or involved in your effort, you can schedule it within Market7, push it through their personal calendars. We have some functionality already for checking people’s availability and we’re enhancing that as we speak.

Again, these resource measuring pieces will pull the information for which task you completed and how long it took you, what events you participated and how long they are scheduled for, allows you to add other items very easily like click a button and indicate, I spent 10 hours editing and 2 hours on the storeroom and then compile across all that how much total time did you spend in your project and with just two more fields, you can enter OK and the projected time for this person was so many hours and the hourly cost of this person is so much and then basically get a practically automated report of how much time and money did each participant in this project spend versus what was expected and for someone in the production, the responsibility get an understanding as the project is progressing. Is this again a profitable or unprofitable project for me? Is this a client that tends to work with me towards my time goals or not? Next time a project comes up with this client or maybe even time before it’s over, confront the fact of where we are in terms of real time, effort and implied finances by going to this project compared to what was anticipated.

Michael: Wow, the updates in continuing audits of production costs and expectations are very, very useful. And since we’re on that topic of finance, it’s no secret that the economy has been quite harsh for businesses over the past year. What has Market7’s experience been especially being such a relatively young company?

Seth: First of all, we’re a small company, so to a degree, we’re fortunate that our spending was already at a low level when the time got to a period where there was good reason to keep it at a lower level. Second of all, this is a really fascinating time to start a company. For myself, my prior startup experience was in a router company. A company that actually made gigantic telecommunications equipment so by necessity, a lot of funding was required to both engineer and to manufacturer of that equipment, in this case web-based software in 2009.

Due to those factors, a lot of things conventionally, one had to ascertain to put in to the software are not there anymore. We don’t need to run our own servers and systems and have an extensive systems administration staff. Also because it’s web-based software as a service, our requirements for supporting users are different that they might have been otherwise. All somebody needs is a browser. They don’t have to maintain the software on their premises. And for us, we can incrementally get a functionality which keeps us on target and also lessens the drama around any particular feature release.

In fact, we can get it even better by to a degree of relaxing. We talked to our users about how they’re using our software, currently comprehend where the wishes for enhances are and build towards that enhancement and iterate again. Get it in front of them and often within days or weeks, comprehend just how well does a suite what they’re looking to get out of it. So instead of overly accessing on our own side and frankly being inefficient by anticipating how people are going to use it, we can get it right into peoples hands, get that feedback in real time and go from a good to a great implementation within days or weeks instead of taking weeks and months to get a pretty good implementation out.

Michael: So the fact that changed rapidly for your clients certainly speaks well of Market7 and your commitment to customer satisfaction. That’s great.

Now, technology and behavior is constantly changing, so what are some of the challenges and opportunities did you see coming down the road for collaboration around video production?

Seth: Well, we at Market7 at the moment are very focused on the actual production stage from conceptualization to completion. There are important endeavors both before and after that that I believe can probably be that are addressed through some of the same approaches that we’re bringing to the production process. Once video is completed, how do people access it within an organization? How do they publish it out to the world and monitor its performance in the world? How do they utilize it internally if somebody has a meeting about a particular topic coming up with somebody? How do they find what content might we have within my organization about that topic? Who’s had experience with it and what did they thought?

Likewise, before the video is produced, generally, video is taken on by sort of like a transient team – a group of people that kind of form together and disband once the project’s done. Maybe people come back together in the future, but often in different combinations. I think likewise, a lot of these technologies that are very flexible and web-based and rapid can enable the identification of what’s the right team for this particular project. How do we convene those people – assure that they have the right availability and that with things are lined up for them to collaborate and build expediently that the best possible team of skills and abilities toward working together in advance of the project.

Michael: Seth, as a media producer, I love your philosophy. I love your product and I love your attitude as well. And you seem to have solved a lot of the problems that I’ve encountered as a producer. Thank you for joining us today.

Seth: Thank you.

Michael: And how do people get in touch with you?

Seth: Well, our website is a great place to connect with us. It’s www.Market7.com. We’re fairly active on Twitter which you can also get through to our website, but our Twitter handle is “marketseven”. We’re based in San Francisco. You can look up our address on our website and you’re free to visit us, and we’re reachable at anytime by phone as well 415-981-8000.

Michael: Again, Seth, thank you so much for joining us on Spidcast.

Seth: Thank you.

Michael: Seth Kenvin, CEO of Market7. I’m Michael London. Thank you so much for joining us today on Spidcast.