AOL Video uploads blog

9:18:09 AM PDT

We've talked about them before... in fact we had a Sweepstakes where we gave one away every day for the entire month of June... but the bottom line is we just can't get enough of the Flip Camera by Pure Digital.  The Flip Video™ Ultra Series, is a highly compact digital camcorder which makes it easier than ever for you to shoot and share high-quality video on-the-go.



This stylish, pocket-size camcorder is the first with built-in software for direct uploading to AOL (and other video sharing sites)!

It's the world’s first camcorder with on-board software to enable editing, organizing, and seamless video uploading.  Flip Video delivers surpisingly good video and sound quality, even when played on large-screen TVs, but most importantly, it puts the power to instantly capture, edit and share video in your pocket.

Check out the features list or visit Flip Video.


Product Features:

The Flip Video Ultra Series incorporates a wide range of advanced new features, including a 1.5 inch transflective, no-glare display screen for clear viewing in even the brightest sunlight, next-generation video processing, and increased on-board memory (2 GB of for the 60-minute model and 1 GB for the 30-minute model). Features include:

    * One-touch recording with 2x digital zoom
    * Instant on-camera playback and delete
    * High-speed video sharing from any PC or Mac
    * One-click emailing of videos and video greeting cards
    * One-click emailing of videos and video greeting cards
    * Custom editing of movie mixes, with the option to set them to your own music
    * Capture of still photos from video
    * Built-in tripod mount
    * Convenient DVD processing option at over 9,400 one hour labs nationwide

Buy your own Flip Video Camcorder just in time for the holidays!


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9:40:35 AM PDT
Feeling Chillin'
Hearing nothing... but I'm going to see The Police soon.

Back by popular (or at least Betty’s) demand…

 “Knowing is Half the Battle: Part Deux”

 
In the first installment we covered some important user tips.  In Part Deux, we’re gonna cover shooting and editing.

 
Shooting Tips:

Ø      Pre-Plan… before you start filming ask yourself, how does my shot look? Is it framed well? How’s the lighting?  Oh wait, this is a viral video and none of that junk really matters.

Or maybe it does?  Point being, your video doesn’t have to look perfect as long as it’s interesting and can hold people’s attention.  If you want it to look nice, great!  Users may start to like you even more, but the bottom line is, if you want it to be popular, it’s all about the content.

Ø      Things to Avoid:

o       Limit Camera Effects – some cameras have in-camera effects.  Be sure to avoid the following: image stabilization, digital zoom, digital effects, etc.

Again, you don’t have to, but after you upload the video, it will playback in “flash”, and sometimes those effects can look pretty ugly in flash.

o       Zooming In and Out – same as above.  It’ll look ugly in flash, but more importantly, the 70s are over!  Unless of course, you’re trying to capture that Hawaii 5-0 look. 

o       Quick/Jumpy Camera Movements - avoid quick camera movements, pans or tilts..  WARNING: Jumpy camera work will cause nausea (like when I got sick watching the Blair Witch Project).     

Editing Tips:

Ø      “Star wipe and we’re out!” - Did you ever see the episode of the Simpson’s where Homer thinks he’s a filmmaker?  He’s having Lisa edit his masterpiece and keeps asking for the star wipe transition.  In other words, if you are an advance user, playing around with video editing software (iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premiere, Final Cut, etc.), don’t over do it with transitions or effects.  Keep it simple & stick to the basics.

Ø      Thumbnail… it’s the image at the 4th second!  See Part I for more details on how to “select” your thumbnail.

Ø      The Bigger the Better - Our standard uploader doesn’t have a file size limitation, only a time limit restriction of 10 minutes.  So, the bigger the file, the better the playback experience.  Again, this only is relevant to our more advance users who are using editing software. When you’re about to “output” your file, be sure to do so with as little compression as possible.  The less compression, the better the playback after the file has been uploaded.

Ø      Supported File Format’s – For a list of supported file formats. Or you can read our full FAQ.

In our next installment, you can look forward to more uploading tips, as well as some promotional tips on how to get the most mileage out of your videos.

-The AOL Video Team

                                                                                                         Read our previous entry for other helpful tips.


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5:33:31 AM PDT
Feeling Hopeful
Can't put your finger on it? As you can see from the logos and text on the site, the name UnCut Video has been changed. The functionality will continue to be the same fast and easy upload experience you know and love, and the service will still be free.  The name change is just the first step towards becoming fully integrated into AOL Video. If you haven't checked it out, it's the best place to find, watch and share video from all over the web.  We hope you stay on board and enjoy the ride!

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7:10:00 AM PDT
Feeling Ecstatic
Hearing The Hold Steady

Have you ever looked at the “most popular” or “most comments”?  Was your video there?  NO?  Well, here are some simple tips on how to get the most mileage out of your viral video:


1) Keep it short!  Unless you’re Ingmar Bergman or Orson Welles (may they rest in peace) and you need the full 10 minute time-limit to tell your epic Viral Tale… keep it under 30 seconds.  Don’t you know that the VideoSurfer’s time is precious?  If they’re not getting any payoff within the first few seconds, they’re gonna bail.

2) Don't Suck! - I’m not going to tell you what to shoot, but try and film something cool, cute, funny, or strange.  Be original! But if you can’t pull that off, at least be a good copycat.  Ask yourself one question: “Is my video interesting?”  Chances are... it is... but is it great?

3)  Choose Your Thumbnail Wisely – it’s the single most important part of your video. No matter how good your video is, no one will know if you have a lame thumbnail.  Think of it as your movie poster or trailer.  With a crappy thumbnail, your masterpiece may go unnoticed!

As of now on AOL Video, there is no thumbnail selection tool, but what we should tell you is that the thumbnail is automatically generated at the 4th second.  So whatever frame is present at the 4th second of your video, will be your thumbnail image.

Although you can’t select the exact thumbnail on the site, there is still something you can do about it.  Either edit your video ahead of time, so the frame at the 4th second is preselected, or you can use the “trim tool”.

Where is this “trim tool”, you ask?  It’s actually hard to miss, so pay attention!  On the second step of the upload process, after you’ve selected your file (but before you upload), look at the timeline & you’ll find it.  There’s a trim tool handle at the start of the time line, & at the end.  Look at the screen shot below.



What you’ll need to do, is drag the "in point" (starting point) to where you want it.  Click the play button, wait 4 seconds & see what you get.  If you like the image, you’re golden.  Otherwise, try again.

Now you know! And knowing is half the battle.

 - The AOL Video Team

                                                                                                               Read our second installment.


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9:01:54 AM PDT
Feeling Hopeful
Hearing Nothing right now... Are you a registered UnCut Video user?  Have you ever been sent an invitation to view a private video?

It’s a pretty cool feature.  The problem is that if you ever lose the original email invitation or accidentally delete it, you have no way of finding that private video… until now.

 “My Invites” is a list of all the private videos that have been sent to you by other users.  Now you have one convenient location to view all the private videos you’ve been invited to watch.

The “My Invites” button can be found in the header toolbar, at the top of every page.  It’s right next to the “My Videos” and “My Favorites” buttons.

Enjoy!

- The UnCut Video Team

Learn more about Private Videos
Go back to UnCut Video

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3:11:29 PM PDT
Feeling Surprised
Hearing Prince Hey all,

Lately we've been using handy tools to find out some more about what you guys do and don't like to do here on our site (since most of you aren't commenting on our blog yet). One thing I was surprised to find is that you're not clicking on "By Collection". While we figure out why that is, I wanted to tell you why I think the page is so cool.

The Collections page gives you one-click access to tons of packages of videos that are more specific than the ever-popular Categories (Pets, Travel, and the rest). With one click, you can get to a bunch of car crashes, or bad dancing, or cute kids, or all Hillary Clinton's videos, or Mitt Romney's...it's a treasure trove, I tell you.

Let us know what else you'd like to see...we're listening.

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10:53:55 AM PDT
Feeling Surprised
Hearing The sweet, sweet sounds of "maloof51"

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2:21:48 PM PDT
Feeling Happy
Hearing still silence Howdy friends,

Here at AOL we take privacy and security seriously, and it is certainly great for our users to remain vigilant against spammers, hackers, and phishers who might want to get private user data.

Right now we are running a sweepstakes, where people who upload videos are eligible to win a pure-digital camcorder. Of course, if you are a winner, then we will contact you to get information from you to verify your eligibility, and to send you the camera. In order to ensure that you are contacted by UnCut Video, we thought we would let you know how we would contact you, so that you know it is from us.

First of all, the e-mail will come from uncutvideoteam@aim.com. In the body of the e-mail, we will ask for your name, your date of birth (so we are assured that you are of legal age to upload to UnCut), your mailing address (so that we can send you the camera), your residency (because only residents of the US are elligible), and if you are an employee of AOL (because you aren't eligible if you are).

We have already sent out a few cameras to winners, and we have gotten a few replies from skeptical potential winners who (understandably) doubt the veracity of the e-mail.

I should reiterate that we will never ask you for your password or any billing information. We will only ask for the information above for the reasons given above. If you have any questions, then let us know in the comments, and we will endeavor to answer as soon as possible.


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5:59:14 AM PDT
Feeling Happy
Hearing Um, silence Hey guys,

So many of you have done a great job uploading your videos to UnCut Video. And some of you might visit your uploaded videos often to see how many people have viewed it, commented on it, or rated it. Now, through a partner of ours, you can delve into all that data, and see how your video has done from the moment you've uploaded it.

TubeMogul is a new, free service that allows you to track your videos after you upload them to UnCut. Additionally, you might want to track how your favorite candidate is doing, be it John McCain or Hillary Clinton, and you can track them with TubeMogul as well.

To get started, head over to TubeMogul.com, sign up for a free account, and under the dashboard, select "track publishers." You can then input a URL from any video, and TubeMogul will begin collecting data on that video (it might take a day before you can view your information).

Let us know in the comments if you guys like this functionality, and point us to your blogs if you post any graphs!

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8:07:46 AM PDT
Feeling Loopy

You're a video fan, or else you wouldn't be reading this blog, but maybe you want to learn more? AOL has pulled together some tips on its Digital Lifestyle site, so check out this link for info on the "ten foot experience" and more: http://digital-lifestyle.aol.com/video

And, if you don't win our Camera-a-Day Giveaway (see earlier post), you've got to get a digital camcorder! Digital Lifestyle also has tips to help you choose one (especially helpful for Father's Day...): http://digital-lifestyle.aol.com/video/faqs/faqarticle/_a/digital-camcorder-buying-guide/20070102143109990001

Back to UnCut here: http://uncut.com

digital lifestyle, camcorder, camera, AOL

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