Check out The Alaska Short Forum, it’s a new television show we’ve been working on and episode three just hit the web today!

You can catch episodes online or on KTOO/360North which broadcasts statewide.

We’re still in the experimental stages so any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Also, we’re looking for Alaskan short films to feature on the show so if you know any animators or filmmakers who might want to share their work, please help get the word out. Thanks!

I died this morning. The weather was somewhere around 12° F and I had to get up early which I thought would make for an unpleasant death but I actually rather enjoyed it.

I’m not sure the movie has a title yet but Mike Partlow and Paul Disdier are working on a short WWII film and I was recruited to play the part of a dead American soldier.

I got to spend about an hour and a half covered in cold, sticky fake blood. It tasted pretty good but we had some problems with it freezing and I thought it might have been just a touch too red but that part will probably get fixed in post. Here’s a pre-photoshop version of the image above.

I forgot how much I like being covered in fake blood and I now wonder if everyone gets as much joy out of being covered in red corn syrup. I remember when Aaron and I filmed our “Concentration” short film and I had a drill go through my head. It was ten in the morning on a Tuesday and I walked past the coffee shop window. I couldn’t figure out why people were looking at me. Was I dripping on the carpet? How embarrassing.

I can’t wait to see what my gurgling and coughing look like on the big screen. I have great faith in Paul’s abilities after seeing his edits and color balancing on his “Freakin’ Fungus” trailer.

In an attempt to win 5000 bucks we created a short film about cookies for a contest a week and a half ago. There were almost no submissions at the time we entered and the quality of the existing videos was quite poor, so we thought our chances to be good. The film is a bit technical, and I think it’s also rather dull, but it got us to the final round (mostly based on the competition). The five finalists were all invited to D.C. to screen our films for industry experts who would then crown a winner.

I didn’t meet dubya in my time at the capital (though I think he may have flown over me), though I did have an opportunity (albeit slight) to influence public policy while I was there. The screening was part of a town hall on behavioral advertising on the web held the the Federal Trade Commision. They are starting to look into what kind of (if any) regulations need to be placed on web advertisers in regards to consumers’ privacy rights. The town hall was remarkably interesting and terrifically boring at the same time. The big names in the industry were there (Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft) and basically opposed any sort of government control. They also promoted the idea that if consumers didn’t trust them, business would dry up and they would disappear overnight so that regulation by the government was unnecessary. Though it made me wonder, does anyone really trust Microsoft? Watchdog groups were also present, but they didn’t really seem to have any plan of their own to promote, or perhaps just had too many… (more…)

I’ve been using the Miro player to track YouTube RSS feeds and currently have a channel setup to capture any videos with “Juneau” in the keywords. Mostly I get crappy home video footage of people visiting the glacier or video performances by a band named Juneau. Today I finally hit the jackpot.

Weird Al came to Juneau in 1995 and put on a kick ass concert at Centennial Hall. It was pretty much the pinnacle of live music experiences during the first 20 years of my life. I remember waiting in a big line after the show so that I could meet him. The guy in front of me asked to touch Weird Al’s hair. It was.. weird.

Geotagged YouTube videos are sprouting up on Google Earth. Now you can see what your neighbors are posting or find clips from your favorite places in the world. I’ve been using to explore Southeast Alaska and Aaron was revisiting Armenia.

It doesn’t look like all of our geotagged videos are in place yet and I’m not sure what the update cycle is like but it’s going to become a really incredible tool in the next couple years. I just updated our Buy Back Alaska video so that it should eventually appear on or around the state capitol building. Heh heh.

Here’s some of the clumsy footage I managed to scrag together from the lunar eclipse last night. Lou took some cool photos that aren’t included here, this series just comes off my little point and shoot camera. I should have duct taped it to a telescope and upped the resolution but it was total amateur night for me up on the rooftop.

At least I didn’t fall off into the alley.

If you’re interested in publishing video to the internet I strongly recommend visiting makeinternettv.org, the site is packed full of useful information for first time and more advanced users. It was a resource I referred to several times in my work on the Alaska Robotics site and still visit when thinking about how best to present our work.

The site walks you through equipment selection, shooting, editing, obtaining licenses, publishing, and promoting your work. There’s even a distilled version for people feeling a little overwhelmed.

The journey is even-handed, comprehensive, and sprinkled with objective commentary. The site is produced by the Participatory Culture Foundation, the same group behind Miro, and while they make a strong case for their own player and feed based video in general, it’s clear that they’ve gone out of their way to provide all the information you need to make an educated decision of your own.

I also recommend reading Nicholas Reville’s essay on the future of video.

The Alaska Robotics Film Library was featured on Miro today and our feed subscriptions have already jumped a bit. I really have no concept of how many people are using the Miro player but I really like the idea of feed based channels and I hope Mefeedia, Fireant, Miro and others are successful in moving the herd that direction.

What will help is if someone develops an easy system to create and upload videos for a feed. Right now it’s a complicated process that involves quite a bit of technical expertise and time, probably one of the reasons so many people use YouTube instead of self publishing.