Two years of Channel 9, whew

no need to be too self-conscious about the craft of filmmaking

Well this isn't film, and content is everything, but the craft is also everything. Good content with poor camera shots, with horrid pan and zooms, poor and choppy audio, with bad editing, and zero post-production, with handheld camera looks and quality, well the content will never break thru. Part of generating good content, is letting the craft come thru so naturally as to be ignored. Going shaky, bad audio, run-on, with no lower 2/3's is, well just incompetent, and the content won't be paid attention to beyond it's limited niche. Case in point here. Imagine if he made it broadcast quality, why heck you might get some real audiences then.

True, you can be too much technique and not enough content (like how HTML'ers over-design a sparse website) but assuming content is all that matters is naive, the craft and content are but one in the same.

But I like your stuff, so I will forgive the mortal sin of Windows Movie Makerisms. ;) Avid (and Liquid), Vegas (with Ultimate S 2), Ultra2, Final Draft (AV) and Sorenson Squeeze more my style. btw, Mr. Sun, you going to NAB?

As far as HD being "big", tons of ways around that...well, if you know the "craft". But my concern with HD is more in the look. Too many videographers are treating the over-vivid and over-white as a noble virtue. Get the high res and then warm tone and contrast it to a film look.

Scoble, curious as to which NLE your On10 guys use...feels quite FCP. They are kicking it in, now there you have the opposite problem, good technique with zero content besides some Tech/G4 TV twizzleheads romping around. If Channel 9 had technique and if On10 had a producer...well then hello. But amazing how you guys manage to screw it up on both fronts. Still I guess in Microsoft metrics, mere "effort" counts...

Content is everything, I agree there. Down here in Hollywood, so many movies shot with state-of-the-art equipment and by award-winning cinematographers still stink to high heaven. There is no need to be too self-conscious about the craft of filmmaking. Eventually, what ends up on the screen is all it matters.

I've just finished putting a video together with Windows Movie Maker. I'm constantly amazed by how much you can achieve with this simple freebie software that comes bundled with XP. The video is called "Radio Flipping". The file size is a mere 8 MB, and the length is 2 minutes and 43 seconds. If you're interested in watching the video, click on my handle.

Mike: I'm not recording in HD yet on most interviews. The file size would take down even our bandwidth. :-)

Scoble said "I have a new HD camcorder".

Don't underestimate how many users you'll lose if you post even bigger files. Big files are a natural deterrent to downloads.

It's a Sony, not the latest model.

You haven't watched my latest videos. I don't do editing. I only pull stuff out if forced, but that's very rare lately. Heck, I even ran an interview with a lawyer without doing any editing.

And, letting developers wonk on is the whole point. If you don't like that there are plenty of other things to watch out there.

We don’t do editing on purpose.

Oh brother, just letting geeky developers wonk on. And yes you do "editing", you subdivide parts and you take out stuff, so that's 'editing' too. Any form of good communication (conversation) has editing.

New HD? Too kewl. Sony? JVC? Panasonic? Make surrrrrrre you warm film tone it all up, HD is too white, too bright, too vivid, get some film look plugins, sticking into your NLE of choice (If Vegas, Ultimate S 2's 24P and the extra Cine Packs work great. Red Giant too but then always massssssive encoding time with them seems like, for me). Get some lower two-thirds, and get some stocky ArtBeats or Digital Visions, and jazz it up a bit.

http://eventdv.net/ - Go there, sub to the free magazine and maybe learn a few things. ;)

Dmad: Werner says they do, so they must, no?

I thought numbers didn't matter?

Happy b-day to C9;
This was really a great job from you. In a short time you could gather all MS Geeks in a community and new design helped you to have more visitors.

"Not to mention that you can post "Microsoft sucks" underneath any of our videos and we won't pull that down."

Not if I can help it as I really enjoy posting first on the videos....hehehe. Besides I've yet to see a really negative comment on the home page. I just have to keep hitting refresh on the page and making sure that I'm the first (or second) to post on the videos. :)

James: I have a new HD camcorder. Improvements coming soon.

We don't do editing on purpose. These are supposed to be about the conversations, not about the video technique.

You'd think after the 700th video or so --the technique would improve, the curiosity on video production-editing, shooting, equipment, etc, would grow, showing improvement on the end product.
But no.

Just because it begs it. Microsoft sucks. Now I feel better.

millions of people...would show up to watch shaky videos done by a guy with a goofy laugh.

Millions of people sell some sort of MLMish "Amway", millions of people read People too. Millions of people are diehard professional wrestling fans. Millions of people follow the Nick-Jessica saga very intently. But so? Maybe those millions are among those already served and while you think you are preaching the gospel and winning new converts, you end up just stealing from other Microsoft community churches.

Maybe a Steadicam/Glidecam and decent audio (good shotgun at least) without a goofball sitcom'y laugh track, might be within your reach? Maybe something shot in HD or 24P? Panasonic DVX100's are cheap nowadays, I am seriously lusting after the new P2's tho. If millions listen with that, maybe many millions more would with a basic freshman-year film school competence level? But I know the answer, incompetence is all part of the aamateurism/bloggerish charm.

Off topic, yet on. I have the PERFECT thing that will help ship Vista. Well when Daytrana comes out for adults, (which is soon).

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/04/06/D8GQPE...

Wow, that's almost a video a day! Whatever people think of you, Scoble, one can't deny a fact that regardless of what you do and how you do it, these insights are certainly better than no insights at all as they let people judge for themselves. Keep at it!