YouTube Goes HD

If you haven't already heard, YouTube has been busy upgrading. First they switched to a new 16:9 (widescreen) video player a few weeks back and now YouTube supports uploading of high definition videos. If you want to start uploading your videos in high def, YouTube has a guide to optimizing your video uploads.

Rob Schrab's 4 Minute Film School

Filmmaker Rob Schrab talks about his "drawless animation" technique on the 4 Minute Film School podcast.

Rob Schrab is the guest professor for this week's installment of 4 Minute Film School on DIY filmmaking web site Indy Mogul. On the show Rob explains the puppetry/animation technique he calls "drawless animation" and demonstrates how he's used it on a variety of different projects, including The Sarah Silverman Program and the Death Cab For Cutie video Crooked Teeth (see previous post).

I love the way Rob takes everyday stuff, wraps it cardboard, shoots it on green screen and creates something that's very original and very cool!

Via Lost in Schlock.

Democracy Player: A Great Way To Watch Video

I recently started using the open-source Democracy Player (it will soon be renamed the Miro Player) and I really, really like it. Not only can Democracy play just about every kind of video imaginable - Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, etc. - it helps you find some of the internet's best video podcasts via its built-in Channel Guide. You can also use it to download, save and watch BitTorrent files as well as videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video. It even supports high-definition video too!

For those of you who already produce a puppet podcast or are thinking of starting one, Democracy offers video creators a number of helpful tools, including one click video subscription buttons, Broadcast Machine (for publishing videos on your web site) and Make Internet TV (a guide to shooting and editing video for the web). Even if you don't want to use the Democracy software yourself, you can submit your show's RSS Feed to create your own Democracy Channel to help you attract new viewers.

You can download the latest version of the Democracy Player via www.getdemocracy.com.

Celtx - A Great Tool For Fillmmakers

The latest version of Celtx, the open source pre-production software for independent filmmakers has been released. Here's what developer Greyfirst Corp's co-founder Mark Kennedy has to say about it:

“This is the whole shebang under one roof. The entire Pre-Production process is supported in one open standard software application. Celtx includes features for developing a story, writing an industry standard screenplay, or stage play, completing a breakdown, making a storyboard and scheduling the shoot - all with one tool.”

I tried one of the earliest beta versions of Celtx a couple years ago and wasn't terribly impressed with it. At the time it seemed like a low-end script editing program with a few project management features tacked on. Well, Celtx has improved a lot since then and is quickly becoming a powerful open source pre-production tool for independent filmmakers. It's features include integrated project management, script writing/editing, storyboarding and scheduling software. It's web based too, which makes it ideal for collaborating over the internet. Oh, and did I mention that it's free?

If you make films and videos (with or without puppets) you're going to want to download the latest version of Celtx and take a look for yourself.

Via Machinima.com.