Jamie is a provocative internet lover. From Free Art & Technology Lab work, to Know Your Meme, Jamie has explored the internet and worked to evolve its culture in the public domain.
Now Jamie is CEO of VHX. How did that happen?
an interview with Jamie Wilkinson: Internet Love, Viral Videos and VHX.tv
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Jamie Wilkinson (jamiedubs.com) was a great candidate for a first interview experience. We always have amusing chats. He's precocious about exploring the internet. He's aligned with open source and the public domain. And now he is running a company focused on improving the online video experience for artists and video consumers.
Note: I'm not a customer of Jamie's, or his company VHX.tv, just a curious friend. I met Jamie through Mimi Ito and Kenyatta Cheese; Kenyatta was my co-teacher for "Portable Video Production and Internet Distribution" at the University of Southern California.
Through Know Your Meme and more, Jamie has his own experience with online video and amateur production; this made him sympathetic, participatory and patient with my emerging home green screen process.
I didn't anticipate how choosing Jamie might make editing easy - Jamie has left a rich trail as a combination media-maker and public speaker. Searching Vimeo and YouTube for Jamie Wilkinson I had plenty to choose from.
What I Learned
For this video, I had my first true multicam experience. Three cameras, set up in my basement, pointed at the two of us on a green screen. I used two iPhones, each with more megapixels than my 2006-era Sony HDR-SR1. I logged the footage into Final Cut Pro X, using the powerful multicam syncing features therein.
I've been messing unsuccessfully with 2-audio-in-1-camera; for this shoot I used 2x inexpensive lavalier mics into the camera and one of the iPhones. Getting the lavalier into the iPhone also required an iPhone-XLR adapter.
Ilyse asked why I didn't have better angles straight on Jamie's face; that was a limit of the shape of my green screen setup. I "lifted the curtain" just before the credits so you can see; I didn't have much room to cheat around.
A few weeks of regular production made this go surprisingly smooth; I can see more I would improve, but I'm grateful that my first green screen interview attempt came together.
I filmed on Friday, edited over the weekend, and on into Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday is my weekly deadline for publishing. 22 October Tuesday Apple announced a refresh to their line of laptop and desktop computers; if I wasn't editing, or waiting for my 2008-era MacBook Pro to finish rendering or quavering, I was researching the computer I want to buy.
Future Computering
Since 2001 or maybe before, I've been a laptop carrier. I've bought desktop computers, mostly for games or deep geeking. But all my film editing has taken place on laptops. I love the idea of being able to make media happen wherever I appear. Like editing free beer film in Brazil! Or reading spam in rural Japan!
At the same time, since my web sharin' bus trip of 1996, I have had sore wrists. I'm now an ergonomics primadonna, so I avoid extensive work away from a well-arranged desk situation. I can't hunch over a laptop on a plane or a cafe for long before my body screams at me!
After last week, when I tried to use Motion to make special graphics and my 2008-era computer just wept silently, I realized I want to experiment with a healthy load of computer power. Ilyse is fond of pointing out that any computer from 2013 would be a huge improvement over my current system.
The new 2013 Apple Mac Pro is a sexy cylindrical beast of a new desktop computer, optimized for Final Cut Pro X. But it's at least five or six weeks away, and that's five or six videos I intend to make. I'm in a hurry to accelerate serendipity! And each day I touch my computer I twitch unhappily through extensive downtime.
Plus the Mac Pro starts around $3000 before I even add anything. I'm without income since I left work at DeNA, so I'm wanting to make these dollars I have go far for what I need nowish. If I start working with higher-than-high definition 4K-type footage, and I need moar cores in my compooper, I'll sell my iMac and buying something else.
I left behind the laptop idea, and began looking at the iMac (thanks Taylor). From what I read, I'll be able to make more advanced videos, I'll be able to screw around with Motion graphics so I can resemble a sports team perhaps, I'd be able to experiment with some Unity and PhoneGap programming. MAYBE ALL AT ONCE -
Recently I've been reconsidering my avoidance of caffeine; I'm excited to see what I might make when I'm chemically stimulated that way. But I'm waiting to get a new computer before I try black tea here at home.
What I Used
I leaned on the Know Your Meme archives; you can find Know Your Meme videos on YouTube. I used Know Your Meme: All Your Base Are Belong To Us, Know Your Meme: Phonetic Translations
Know Your Meme: Christian Bale Rant
Know Your Meme: Boxxy
Know Your Meme: Advice Dog
Know Your Meme: Three Wolf Moon
All my music came from Free Music Archive, specifically the dublab: Bonus Beat Blast 2011 which has been supplying much of my October videowork. Gracias!
1000 Names - Beat of Today
Sahy Uhns - Lazy Sumday
Sahy Uhns - Uh Hmmm...
Wake - Glytch Funk
Plus I tossed in some Prince's Orchestra - On A Christmas Morning; I love their eager [now] comedic sound.
OrangeHD supplies me with my timelapse clouds and sky. Woo hoo! This film used Clouds 23 timelapse. The Clouds in Space came from ?? at Footage Island. The Roulette Wheel and footage of Aerial San Francisco came from bottledvideo.com - they aim to upsell HD footage, but the standard definition footage is all free, thank you very much.
I grabbed a few frames from this short promo piece on VHX.tv by a moving company: Innovators on the Move: Casey & Jamie from Unpakt.
Jamie plugs Duncan Watts as a strong internet researcher; I used a picture from Duncan Watts on Wikipedia, taken by Doc Searls.
At one point Jamie says the internet allows a boy from Arizona to meet people from around the world. I wanted a range of faces to show; I found them searching YouTube for Creative-Commons licensed footage under "faces." I'm not sure I knew YouTube had a Creative Commons search built in! Well they do, and I used it.
Here are the faces I found: Faces of Borsec by LaptopHooligansKMF9 - U-Kiss - Exclusive Interview by koreanmusicfestival, faces by Leonardo Rinaldo Ferri and b+c Faces of Nigeria 2013 by beautyandcoragem.
The "Arizona" themed footage came from The Walk Across Arizona (Full Length) by TArwood Media - the result of a successful kickstarter now available for sale here.
Three stars of YouTube illustrate Jamie's discussion of probability and video fame: Evolution of Dance - By Judson Laipply, "Chocolate Rain" Original Song by Tay Zonday and Susan Boyle - Britains Got Talent 2009 Episode 1 - Saturday 11th April by UKAdvertChannel.
I was looking for network visualizations that would be free to use; best I found was "Network 1" (2008) by Casey Reas, from bitforms gallery on Vimeo.com.
I'm epically grateful for people who post re-usable media material online, so I like to list them out here. Plus I figure linking to them might help other videomakers find stuff fast. Finally, I think it's probably good for search engine traffic, so this writeup might catch someone's attention searching for Prince's Orchestra or who knows what combination. The more thorougly I write out my video bibliography, the more likely it is to be found, right? Attribution - everyone wins :-)
