National Geographic Encourages Making of Wild Animal Videos

by Abha Malpani on

I have a vlog now (come on, you don’t!?), and now I can dub myself to bark, chirp or roar if I want. I can even drag and click to have a pet penguin appear in my video. Finally, all my animal fetishes can surface and be recorded in the privacy of my own home!

Not quite what National Geographic might have had in mind with the recent launch of Wildlife Filmmaker, a creator amateur nature-loving filmmakers to make, urrm, nature-loving films!

Perhaps that’s why it doesn’t seem to have the rocking popularity (or abuse) it might have had in today’s freaky vlogger world. That’s where all the video-production junkies muck around giving reality television new meaning; Wildlife Filmmaker doesn’t allow you to mesh any of the features with your own ‘animal instinct’ videos.

When you try to find Wildlife Filmmaker, the link takes you to the National Geographic homepage. Perhaps they’re going to fix the program, that’s why access to the link doesn’t exist anymore (?).

Oh well. I was I am quite excited to have animals featured in some of my productions.

UPDATE: The link works now. Check it out!

Google and YouTube Take Video Watching to Different Level

by Abha Malpani on

Since online monopolizing giant Google bought YouTube last year, it’s not surprising to see them incorporate YouTube into their Google Earth program.

I’m yet undecided as to my privacy concerns when it comes to Google Earth, since I love zooming and peering into friend’s homes, hotel rooms, offices and other random spots — (yeah, and you don’t? — admit it!). I think the ability to be able to see related YouTube videos of the spot you are nosing into is a welcome application, although not particularly necessary; I guess the need of another press release was in order.

I was going to add — who would get onto Google Earth to watch YouTube videos? But then, why wouldn’t you? — specially if they are readily available and accessible from Google Earth. Who will upload, connect and tag these videos to Google Earth? The same crazy people who make them — we are all attention seeking maniacs who will put in extra effort to link where ever we can and be seen where ever we can.

There is a spanking-ly funny video on YouTube that gives a perfect example of what we have already gotten ourselves into with Google Earth, now difference is that videos will be more geographically connected and sorted.

TVTRIP.com

by Erik Olsen on

Any first-time visit to a city brings a host of potential problems. Among them, especially for the more budget-oriented, is finding a decent hotel to stay in, one that promises a measure of comfort and convenience, as well as cleanliness. Face it, if you look around on the Web for hotels, many of them appear quite different online than they are in person. This has happened to me before, for sure. Online the place looks lovely and well-tended. But when you get there, cockroaches skitter into the shadows and those pearly-white walls you saw on the Web site are soiled with water stains.

Well, if you are heading to Europe any time soon, you might be able to avoid this problem. A new site called tvtrip.com offers video tours of European hotels. The site was created by managers of Expedia Europe, so you can be relatively sure the quality of the site is good. And it is. It is not only well organized, it is good-looking and easy to use.

I clicked through several of the tours and thought that if were were heading to, say, Paris, this could be a very useful research tool. In fact, I imagine that we’ll be seeing a lot more sites like this that allow you to check out tourist sights, restaurants and more. If a picture says a thousand words, a video says a million. Give it a look-see to see what I mean.

LonelyPlanet.tv

by Willy Volk on

Lonely Planet recently launched lonelyplanet.tv, a new website packed with travel footage shot by Lonely Planet TV — like the excellent overviews of Mumbai and Berlin — as well as uploaded by independent travelers — see, for example, the clip of Lake Burma’s jumping monastery cats or the unusual tour of the unusual Squilax Hostel in Canada (hosted by an unusual tour guide).

The clips load fast (a plus!), though they aren’t embeddable (a minus). Nevertheless, the site, organized by channels, contains loads of footage that’s meant to inspire, educate, fascinate, or simply amuse.

Swing by and browse through the channels A Year of Parties; Oh F***! Oh Wow! (showcasing unusual happenings around the planet); and Tripcast, which features travel journals.

Get inspired. Then go do something.

Watch Here TurnHere

by Erik Olsen on

A friend of mine sent me a link to a pretty cool new
site that’s all about video. TurnHere.com has got loads of videos,
many of them pretty well produced, about town around the country. I checked out a few of the New York videos, including
one on my old neighborhood, Hell’s Kitchen, and man, I was pretty impressed. They cover other places and activities,
too, including surfing in the Rockaways and food. Then I took at look at some of the stuff coming out of Seattle, like
this piece on West Seattle, and was yet more impressed. This is big. It looks like if you have some production ability
you can make a video of your home town, or favorite hot dog joint. There is a production kit here. The site appears to be
in beta, but so far, I’d say it’s one to watch.