Interviews - SocialTimes

Believe Entertainment Group Co-Founders On The Growth & Future Of Web Series [Interview]

Megan O'Neill — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:35:02 +0000

The size of online video is growing at a rapid pace—it has tripled in size since 2003, more people are watching online video every day and people are craving longer and more professional content on the web. I had the opportunity to ask Dan Goodman and Bill Masterson, co-founders of digital entertainment company Believe Entertainment Group, about their take on the appeal web video and what they think is in store for the future of web series. Read on to find out more.
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Rapper Denny Blaze On His Rise To YouTube Fame As The Average Homeboy [Interview]

Megan O'Neill — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:55:35 +0000

Rapper Denny Blaze, aka The Average Homeboy, is one of the most recognizable YouTube memes. He rose to viral fame back in 2006 thanks to a demo tape that he recorded back in the late 1980s. The tape features the song ‘Average Homeboy’, and Denny Blazin Hazen explaining what he’s trying to market. “In mainstream music right now, there’s not a middle-class, average guy telling his point of view that’s white.” His mission was to fill this gap.
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Kid Entrepreneur Catherine Cook On Building A Company At Age 15

Megan O'Neill — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:00:31 +0000

Six years ago, at age 15, Catherine Cook and her brother Dave came up with the idea for myYearbook—a new way to meet classmates at her new high school. myYearbook has grown into one of the most popular teen websites in the world. Today Catherine is 21 years old, recently graduated from Georgetown and just sold her company for $100 million! I had the opportunity to ask Catherine a few questions about myYearbook, her success, and the advantage and disadvantages that young entrepreneurs have to deal with. Check out my interview with Catherine below.
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Web Series Actor Drew Lanning On How To Break Into Web Series Acting

Megan O'Neill — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:40:16 +0000

So you want to act in a web series but you don’t know how to get started, eh? I had the opportunity to ask actor Drew Lanning, known for his work on Beak A Leg, Leap Year and the 7-Eleven Road Trip Rally, a few questions about his experience with web series acting, including what advice he would offer to those of you looking to break into the biz. Read on to find out what he had to say.
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Web Series Creator Yuri Baranovsky On Succeeding In The Web Video Industry

Megan O'Neill — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:39:23 +0000

Yuri Baranovsky, writer, producer, director and actor, has made a name for himself as one of the pioneers of the web series. Founder and Head Writer at Happy Little Guillotine Films, Yuri is known for his work on a number of web series, from Break A Leg to the 7-Eleven Road Trip Rally and, most recently, Leap Year. I had the opportunity to ask Yuri a few questions about his experience with web series production—how he broke into the industry, his path to success and what advice he has to offer to others looking to follow in his footsteps. Read on to find out what he had to say.
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Which Online Video Platform Is Endorsed By Oliver Stone?

Megan O'Neill — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:30:46 +0000

Vzaar is a professional video hosting platform designed to help businesses enrich their customers’ eCommerce experience through online video. With vzaar, businesses can integrate professional, customized video players into their sites to engage customers. But aside from being one of the leading video platforms for eCommerce and business sites, vzaar can claim something that no other online video platform can—film director Oliver Stone is an investor.
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Interlude CEO Yoni Bloch On Innovating Interactive Video

Megan O'Neill — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:45:14 +0000

Interactive video fanatics—prepare to be wowed! Digital media startup Interlude is revolutionizing the world of interactive video with their choose-your-own-adventure-esque online video technology. Interlude’s technology can be used to create awesome interactive videos that give viewers the ability to choose the path the video will take in real time. I had the opportunity to talk to Interlude’s CEO and Co-Founder Yoni Bloch about the inspiration behind Interlude, some of the projects it has been used for, and what we can expect from them in the future.
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Charlie Todd On Improv Everywhere’s Latest Stunt: The Mute Button

Megan O'Neill — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:34:14 +0000

If you haven’t seen the latest video from Improv Everywhere, the NYC-based performance group known for its strange public displays and flash mobs, then I suggest you stop everything you’re doing and watch it right now. It’s called ‘The Mute Button’ and it’s one of their best pranks to date, if you ask me.
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Thinkmodo Co-Founder On Nude Gaming Parties, Hoaxes & Starting Conversation

Megan O'Neill — Tue, 31 May 2011 07:30:33 +0000

“Would you attend nude gaming parties if they were real?” That’s the question that a new Thinkmodo campaign for XtendPlay asks. The campaign, a mockumentary clip of a nude gaming party, has been viewed over 750,000 times in the first week and has sparked conversation all over the web. I had the opportunity to ask Thinkmodo co-founder Michael Krivicka a few questions about this campaign, the art of the hoax, and how he and Thinkmodo have managed to start conversation time after time through online video. Read on to find out what he had to say.

Before we get to my interview with Michael, you have to see this naked gaming video, if you haven’t already. It features a bunch of naked New York gamers sitting around in their birthday suits, playing video games at a nude gaming party. The party is “sponsored” by XtendPlay, an accessory for your Xbox 360 or Playstation controller that frees you up from “the cramping and fatigue that ‘naked’ controllers can cause.”

Within days, the campaign received coverage on sites around the world from the Daily Mail and The Sun to websites in Russian, French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. Everyone wanted to know if nude gaming parties were real or if this was a hoax, and the conversation and comments that came out of the campaign have been hilarious so far—comments like, “They are playing Call of Booty,” “Ooopps, just grabbed the wrong joystick,” and “This is the naked truth about gaming.” (FYI—Xwerx will be holding a caption contest on their site this week, giving away free XtendPlay units to some of the funniest comments.)

While some viewers took this seriously, it was never actually intended as a “hoax”. Michael Krivika’s co-founder at Thinkmodo, James Percelay, told the Daily Mail, “The art form is progressing where people presume now that these videos are hoaxes. We’re entering into an understanding that, it’s kind of the implicit agreement now where the audience just wants to know how we did it. It’s almost the way you go to a magic show. You know it’s not real, but you still want to sit down and figure out how that guy pulled a car out of his briefcase.” Thinkmodo’s previous viral stunts include The Shaving Helmet viral for HeadBlade and, most recently, their Times Square hack viral for the movie Limitless, which has been viewed over 3 million times.

While Thinkmodo’s focus is currently on hoax videos, Michael tells me that Thinkmodo doesn’t like the term “hoaxes.” “We call them ‘conversation starters.’ Each video is a ‘what if’ scenario to start conversations about something that has a product plugged in that we are promoting. This way we engage our viewers who ask themselves, ‘What if this was real?’ That opens conversations.”

I asked Michael about how they come up with their concepts and whether or not they test them out ahead of time to see if people believe they are real. He told me, “We don’t text a ‘hoax’ concept but we do a lot of research on it first to see if our idea has been done before. That is not because we want to stay original, but because of SEO reasons. So when someone Googles certain key words such as ‘Shaving Helmet’ or ‘Times Square Hack’ or ‘Nude Gaming Party’ then you will ONLY find our campaigns and nothing else. That is critical for the campaign. So a lot of strategic thinking goes into creating a viral concept like that.”

I was curious about where the idea for the Nude Gaming Party video came from. Michael told me, “The product we are promoting is a gaming accessory. That means our target audience are gamers. Gamers are open to fun and crazy things so we wanted to create something edgy and spicy that would get them talking about this product.”

Michael points out that, “You can’t always go ‘edgy’ with viral campaigns for certain brands. Especially brands who have an established image and are very scared to do the spicy things we do. But the fact is, what we do works and it works extremely well. Each of our campaigns delivers amazing results by creating global press and media buzz and directly boosting sales and web traffic for every client. We get daily emails from companies who want to ‘go viral’ but then they give us a list of things we cannot do. WTF? You have to step out of your comfort zone and do something creative and spice things up to get people talking.”

Megan O’Neill is the resident web video enthusiast here at Social Times. Megan covers everything from the latest viral videos to online video news and tips, and has a passion for bizarre, original and revolutionary content and ideas.

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How Hannah Hart Turned Drunk Cooking Into A YouTube Partnership [Interview]

Megan O'Neill — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:15:55 +0000

When Hannah Hart uploaded her first drunk cooking video to YouTube she had no idea that in two short months she would be a YouTube Partner with over 16,000 subscribers and over 1 million views, but that’s exactly what happened. Hannah “Harto” Hart is the host of ‘My Drunk Kitchen’, a drunk cooking show that’s all the rage on YouTube these days. I had the chance to ask Hannah a few questions about the show, becoming a YouTube partner and more. Read on to find out what she had to say. Who says you can’t drink your way to success?
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7 Tips For YouTube Success From YouTube Stars On The DigiTour [Video]

Megan O'Neill — Tue, 10 May 2011 11:15:04 +0000

Last month I had the opportunity to attend one of the shows on The DigiTour, the first countrywide tour of YouTube musicians, and to talk with some of YouTube’s biggest musical stars. I shot a lot of footage of the show, as well as some fun stuff backstage, which you can check out in my previous posts here and here, but I also had the opportunity to ask several of the performers about how they got their start on YouTube and what advice they would give to others who want to rise to YouTube fame. In the video below, Christina Grimmie, DeStorm, David Choi and Ricky Ficarelli tell a few great stories, and offer up some great advice.
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‘Steal From The Best’ – Barely Political’s Mark Douglas [Interview]

Megan O'Neill — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:10:37 +0000

It’s always fun to hear from successful YouTubers about how they got into YouTube, how they worked their way up the charts and what advice they would give to wannabe YouTube stars. Here’s the latest in our series of YouTube Partner interviews—an interview with Mark Douglas of Barely Political. I met Mark at The Digitour show last week at Jammin’ Java in Vienna, VA, where he and his wife Anastasia performed a few of the most popular parody songs from Barely Political’s The Key Of Awesome. Mark was kind enough to answer some questions for me after the show, via email. Read on to find out what he had to say.
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SocialGuide & Tribune Partner Up To Revolutionize Social TV [Interview]

Megan O'Neill — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:05:35 +0000

Earlier this week New York-based social TV company SocialGuide announced that it has entered into an agreement with Tribune Media Services (TMS), a leader in the field of entertainment information databases. I had the opportunity to ask Sean Casey, the CEO of SocialGuide, about what this partnership means for the future of the social TV service, as well as how SocialGuide differs from other social television services. Read on to find out what he had to say.
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Bambuser CEO Explains How Their Platform Agnostic Video Platform Is Helping Middle Eastern Protesters

Megan O'Neill — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:10:46 +0000

Citizen journalism is, more and more, becoming an integral part of how we consume news and discover what’s going on in other parts of the world. Videos have been uploaded to the web about everything from natural disasters to protests. In recent months live streaming has become a popular way to broadcast events from around the world as well, especially to document recent protests in the Middle East.
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NASA Crew To Field YouTube Questions Live From Space

Megan O'Neill — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:10:35 +0000

YouTube interviews have become a really cool way for every day people to get their questions answered by everyone from President Obama to Elmo and now NASA astronauts will be fielding your questions live as they hurdle around the planet at 17,500 miles per hour.
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