For more information, visit www.25thestate.com (I especially recommend the videos page), the 5th Estate blog (not a typo), and the Apt portfolio & blog.

Without further adieu, 25th Estate (full screen recommended):

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

[shoutout to Tim H on Facebook]

[via core77]

Online entertainment is a different story, especially for video-based content. Personally, I believe it is a combination of the “snack mentality” and multitasking. In the former, people just want a little bit of something. They usually don’t go online with the sole intent of watching this video or that, they go online to be entertained or gather news & information. The specifics usually aren’t that important¹.

More to the point, TubeMogul recently posted a study in which they tracked how long users would watch a video. The results aren’t really surprising: Roughly 90% of people watch more than 10 seconds, while fewer than 10% will watch more than five minutes, which a fairly strait drop-off as you move between the two. Though there is a slightly larger dip once the one minute mark is passed.

Though, as with all statistics, the numbers make little sense without context.

For a two-week period, we measured viewed-seconds for a sample of 188,055 videos, totaling 22,724,606 streams, on six top video sites

So we know it’s from a variety of sites and (likely) a variety of different videos. The thing I believe is missing is context, namely the type of videos. For example, I have a fairly low tolerance for for shaky cell-phone footage of some dude wiping out on his bike. However, I will often watch most narrative (and the more traditional documentary) pieces through to the end, provided they are intriguing & interesting.

Many times at work, we are constantly talking about this magical “two-minute threshold,” where if a video is longer than two minutes, it’s often too long. However, I tend to disagree. I don’t think there is a hard threshold. If something is engaging, people will watch, provided the have the time. There’s just a difference between watching someone else’s antics and being told a story.

For the sake of argument, many on-line videos are just images of something that (generally) regular people are doing. Dropping Mentos in Diet-Coke, someone’s kid doing something silly, high-school students left to their own devices with a camera²… I, and I believe many people, just don’t have a high tolerance for any lengthy video in that category. I believe this is the reason for the rapid fall-off in the TubeMogul chart. Those videos just aren’t worth our attention when our time is finite.

What I would be curious to see is a break down of types of videos. I firmly believe that people will sit down and watch more of an online video if it is narrative or  a more traditional documentary. But I could be wrong. It’s been known to happen once-in-a-while.

[via korrejohnson]

[update: also posted this on the All About Face blog.]

1. Notice I say “usually.” Sometime people fire up the YouTube for a certain video. Also, research is also a pretty targeted task. One doesn’t often say “You know, I think I’m going to research… something.”
2. If you’re a high-school student and reading this, just put the camera down, seriously. Just think about what you are going to be documenting. Chances are, it’s really not a good idea… at all.

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers.

This follows the trend Apple started (I believe) when they pulled out of NAB 2007. I will be interested to see what Macworld will become without a Stevenote¹ or Apple booth.

[via Ryan Block]

1. This we’ll actually see this year as Phil Schiller wil be delivering the keynote.

I should add that I will finally be joining this year. Steve Farr has finally worn me down. Joe Ban helped, too. Plus Dembro is a scarry clown. and I don’t want him stalking me.

• 35mm Film
• Red One
• Sony EX3
• Panasonic HVX200 (w/ Letus & Redrock Micro adapters)
• Panasonic HPX170
• Panasonic HPX300
• Canon XH-A1
• Canon 5D MkII
• Nikon D90

You can probably skip through the first six minutes or so to get to the footage comparison. Copied & pasted from my IM with Dembro, here are my impressions:

• Film: Awesome.
• Red: I know for a fact Red footage looks great, what did they do¹?
• HPX300: DOF is terrible, color is nice.
• HVX200 (Letus Ultimate): Noisy, soft.
• HVX200 (Letus Elite): Same.
• HVX200 (Redrock): Same.
• EX3: Not bad, but something seems strange with the focus.
• HPX170: Okay, but a bit dull.
• XH-A1: Blah.
• 5D MkII: What did they do? That camera is praised for its low light capabilities, but the blacks are completely crushed.
• D90: Flat.

Dembro & I both came to the same conclusions: 1.) Film looks pristine and b.) It looks like Zacuto is really trying to push their low end cameras to people who otherwise wouldn’t have even thought of renting one to begin with.

In all honesty, though, the closing statement is spot on: Any of these cameras in the hands of a skilled professional can produce great results.

Zacuto’s Great Camera Shootout ‘08 from Steve Weiss, Zacuto USA on Vimeo.

1. Not to knock Filmworkers, but some Red footage we had color graded there & down-converted to SD also looked a little off as well. But I’m sure they, like the rest of us, are still working out our Red workflows.

The Clown, featuring Ryan Dembroski, edited by yours truly. Produced for United Adworkers and featured at their Cannes Reel benefit tonight.

Credits:
Cast- Ryan Dembroski, Cesar Gamino
Director - Carlo Besasie
DP - Mike Gillis
Art Director - Matt Lemke
Assistant Camera - Michael Krieger
Gaffer - Chris Marks
Key Grip - Mike Luce
Best Boy - Ryan Plato
Make-Up - Kim Goodwin

Editor - Paul Conigliaro (Civilian Edit)
Music & Sound Design - Peter Batchelder (Independent Sound)

Equipment courtesy of Milwaukee Film Corps, Blue Moon Lighting and North American Camera.