With more broadband and the writers strike in Hollywood, 2008 was a great year for online video, from a rising Hulu to the recent peak of 100M Youtube users last month, with no way to ignore the big audience elephant in the room.

Karlijn showed me a few months ago a project Lowe/Draftfcb Amsterdam was working on and it got me attention right away, as a sign of things to come.

Upload Cinema

Upload Cinema picks the best of online video and brings it to the big screen, with people getting together to enjoy inspiring and entertaining web video, selected by curators or proposed by the members.

The meetup, currently only by invitation (apply here), takes place every first Monday of the month at 9.30 PM at movie theater De Uitkijk in Amsterdam. The current edition’s theme is “Typo Film”, showcasing motion graphics using kinetic type.

The project has recently been awarded as Best crossmedia concept at Spin Awards.

Online video as an alternative media diet took shape in 2008, with websites like Current.tv to the more randomly obscure Upl8.tv, a trend becoming even more evident as digital video gets away from keyboard and spreads to multiple devices, with an increasing long tail consumption of online video.
From Viral Film festivals to Vimeo offline, it’s something we’ll start to get used to. With or without the popcorns.

I’ve been short of posting interesting videos on the blog, so let me get this out of the way by sharing my latest favorites as a video inspiration digest:

Intel does corporate kinetic type, on a glimpse to the future of technology as the embedded Internet.

Nick Campbell talks about How to Be A Motion Designer and GET PAID

Bathroom Twitter Literature: #1: Reading David Armano.

(also in the series: Joseph Jaffe, Guy Kawasaki, Valeria Maltoni, Robert Scoble, Mack Collier and Tara Hunt )

You’re Digital. I’m a Poster.

Gary Baseman discusses the influences and motivations behind his artistic pieces for WhiteCanvas.

Enjoy your weekend.

Cadbury brings another delicacy, with some eyebrows techno crazyness.

Eyebrows brings to life the story of a brother and sister’s moment of mischief when backs are turned and they are left to their own devices. Feeling the rhythm, the children crank out a range of eyebrow dance moves for 60 seconds to the sound of ‘Don’t Stop the Rock’ by electro-funk superstar, Freestyle.

Seems like Nokia is doing more viral stuff, with Bruce Lee on a ping pong challenge.

Last Monday i finally bought a Nikon D90, after a 3 year hiatus and a stolen D70. I’m still getting the the hang of it, and one of the most frequent questions asked is about the movie mode. The usual pundits have taken their side, but as i’m not a big fan of technical jargon, let’s stick with the visuals, with a test between the Nikon D90 (digital SLR) and Panasonic HVX200 (camcorder).

D90 and HVX side-by-side test from Chronicle Project on Vimeo.

Now it’s becoming even clearer why Flickr decided to support video.

More D90 video goodies, found at Colmeia, after the jump.

The Pumpkin Patch from Jason Zada on Vimeo.

What did you do Saturday? from Jason Zada on Vimeo.

Head over to www.fly-a-balloon.be
Don’t resize your browser.
Watch what happens.

One of the best examples on how to use the browser and web technologies as a creative medium. Simple javascript effects and carefully synced video can do wonders for your interactive experiences.

The video below has been around for a while, but it was the first one that turned lip dubbin’ into an Internet meme.

Lip Dub – Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

Quite appropriately, it was done by a group of friends who work for internet video startups like Vimeo and CollegeHumor. And the girl at the beginning (Amanda) is really cute.

Liked it? Here’s a few more videos:
(more…)

Rob has just published the titles he, Chris and Ben did for OFFF Lisbon 2008, and gently granted permission to post it on Vimeo. Enjoy.

OFFF Lisbon titles from armandoalves on Vimeo.

Following the Devoid of Yesterday talk and title sequence at OFFF New York myself and Chris were invited to again both speak and present a new title sequence for the Lisbon event in May 2008. Rather than just repeat the previous titles we decided to shoot various sea life in a studio using macro lenses to act as a metaphor for the conference both taking place in Portugal and to have a closer look at the speakers and their way of thinking. Shot over a day and finalised over an eternity with audio by Ben Lukas Boysen.

This blog has been too quiet these days, as i enter my second week of holidays. I’ll be back in full strength, but meanwhile enjoy a month old video of fireworks with music by Sigur Ros.

The Fourth from Michael Brodner AKA Bones on Vimeo.