"Your silly web video could land you a job"

Machine · Post by **Machine** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:04 am

Beowulf wrote:It worked for me, it can work for anyone

Likewise

Inkwolf · Post by **Inkwolf** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:02 am

The guy who created the Star Wars Gangsta Rap flash cartoon got a job out of it as well.

kmv · Post by **kmv** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:20 pm

and it's not just editing jobs, I occasionally put video in my presentations - you can totally own a crowd this way, especially if you do the voice over live.

I have won contracts this way.

ZephyrStar · Post by **ZephyrStar** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:00 am

kmv wrote:and it's not just editing jobs, I occasionally put video in my presentations - you can totally own a crowd this way, especially if you do the voice over live.

I have won contracts this way.

x2

People are astounded by simple stuff it seems...I remember giving a powerpoint presentation to some folks (they really wanted to see bulleted items on slides outlining my plan) and I embedded some moving stuff to the sides and tops and photoshoped a background that blended with these, for a moving kinda background.

They asked me more questions at the end about how I did the slides then they did about the business plan I was proposing (except for the one MBA who was like "video bah" and went straight to the numbers, but that's an MBA for you)

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:35 pm

I'd like to point to a different perspective on a related subject written by Douglas Rushkoff, because I think it's a more realistic appraisal of just what all this "you"-oriented stuff is all about.

The article that this thread started out with makes it sound as if the Web is some sort of massively successful experiment in egalitarianism, where anyone now has equal chance to make it big. That may be, but if your ideas of success include truly "blowing things open" -- e.g. leveling the playing field for the little and big boys alike -- then it's harder to say whether or not these media websites offer that at all.

The pattern I'm getting from the KOMO-TV article is that large, established players are using the Web as just another talent search tool. Where's the leveling in that?

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:10 pm

The easiest way to see the corporate influence behind using the internet is with the ireport-type things that CNN does. Why pay journalists and photographers when you can get anyone and everyone to snap quick news photos and with a quick culling that can be done by someone you already pay for some other job or another - no need to pay someone new or even give out the more expensive benefit packages that come with employment.

kmv · Post by **kmv** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 7:48 pm

trythil wrote:That may be, but if your ideas of success include truly "blowing things open" -- e.g. leveling the playing field for the little and big boys alike -- then it's harder to say whether or not these media websites offer that at all.

The pattern I'm getting from the KOMO-TV article is that large, established players are using the Web as just another talent search tool. Where's the leveling in that?

Hmmm... I can see how you got there, but I am going to have to disagree (up to a point anyway). To answer your question, the levelling is exactly about the "established players ... using the Web as just another talent search tool". It was my understanding that "big" media has always been something of an exclusive clique, dominated by a few schools and names, which can naturally makes the so called "barrier to entry" difficult to overcome.

The trend of the past few years to make media technologies much more accessible (cost, availability, usability, mentors, competition, etc.) has effectively created a virtuous circle where it is now becoming possible to do something that approximates an internship - albeit an unconventional one - outside a media company. Consider: the guy referenced in the KOMO-TV article only got 500 bucks for a commissioned piece, but it is something that contributes to his professional experience and his back-catalogue which in turn leads to more work.

OK, you can make the argument that places like the 'Shack are exploiting the work of their contributors, and that may be true, but as with any content aggregation service they increase the chance that said content will be viewed at all, and hence the likelihood that a "diamond in the rough" will be noticed. Even if you do have to wade through a mountain of dross to find it.

Then, by the time you have a reasonable amount of original content that may worth protecting, there will be a good chance that you won't need to rely on the likes of the 'Shack to do your distribution for you.

And the levelling isn't limited to media; how many people on this site have put the skills they have honed here to other uses? How many have been able to get into a school that they would otherwise have been excluded from if not skills they picked up here? How many people have increased their general IT knowledge?

In my own case, referenced above, I noted that I have used skills I leant here to create original video for use in presentations.

Conclusion: It's a two way street, both sides are effectively using each other. It's also Change, and it is natural for those effected by change to be concerned about it.