Staff Blog

by Sam Morrill
April 13th, 2010

Yo Vimeo!

Question: Do you enjoy watching videos on Vimeo? Do you also like hurling heavy marble objects at precariously placed statues while wearing ridiculous shoes? How about both of these at the same time?

If you answered "yes" to any or all of the previous questions, then we've got some very good news:

Yes, my friends. The rumors were true and we are psyched to announce our second installment in the illustrious bowling/video/dancing/schmoozing extravaganza otherwise known as Eye Candy for Strangers! The program is an ongoing collaboration between Vimeo and Brooklyn Bowl, one of Brooklyn's best new venues. Just envision some of Vimeo's finest content being broadcast in HD over a 16-lane bowling alley.



Next week's installment is poised to be an especially awesome affair with a performance by The Light Surgeons!

The festivities will take place at Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday, April 22nd, doors opening at 6 PM. Click here for more information. RSVP here and get in for free!

And one more, awesome order of business: We need your submissions! We have a group specifically for Eye Candy for Strangers where you can submit your own visually stimulating creations. Just read the rules and send them our way. If you can't make it to the event, this is a great way to be there in spirit, you'll also get some great exposure.

Can't wait to see every single one of you next week!

Sam

by Taylor Doyle Gillespie
April 12th, 2010

Greetings Vimeans!

First, let us introduce ourselves: we are Katie and Taylor, the Community Apprentices here at Vimeo. We've gathered a few goodies to share with you for today's installment of This Week in Vimeo. Onward!



The beautiful French family behind Capucha stopped by our offices today, and we're all still swooning over little Capucine. If you haven't seen their videos yet, here are a few simple steps to attaining enlightenment:

Step 1: Slap yourself on the wrist for living under a rock. Where have you been?
Step 2: Watch this.
Step 3: Try to resist the immediate video-watching frenzy that will most likely ensue as you click through each one over and over again. Yeah, we couldn't do it, either.



Melt your cyber-hearts even further by heading over to the My Family Portrait Group to witness sentimentality at it's very best. This is great collection of unpretentious, honest footage of the ones nearest and dearest to the members of Vimeo.



In the increasingly digitized world of moving pictures, it can be easy to forget about your roots. This channel aims to make sure that doesn't happen.
The Vimeo | 8MM HD | Film Channel showcases some of the best works on Vimeo shot exclusively on the vintage home movie stand-by, 8 millimeter film! What better channel to watch while waxing nostalgic about friends and family?

Yours truly,
The Apprentices, Katie and Taylor

by Julia Quinn
April 5th, 2010

Hey friends!
Got a case of the Mondays? Well here are a few things that might cheer you up. Also, this is a very special This Week in Vimeo because it is brought to you with the help of our totally rocking apprentices Katie and Taylor!



This week we would like to feature a lovely Vimeo user named Cameron Christopher. Cameron has been an active member of Vimeo for about three years now and we had the pleasure of meeting him last week when he came to visit the office. Katie's favorite video of his is this one and Taylor's is this one.


Katie found this awesome channel called Visually Delicious that is, well, videos that are visually delicious. The best quality videos that you will find on Vimeo for your viewing pleasure. Definitely worth a look.



Taylor found this cool group called Moments Like Today. This group is also an ongoing project "aiming to inspire people all around the world to post videos that capture their mornings, afternoons and evenings" in order to form a story of people's everyday life.

Cheers,
Julia, Katie, and Taylor

by Daniel Hayek
April 2nd, 2010

Hello Video Creators!

Here's the challenge this week- take an actual voicemail message you've received and make a video to compliment the message. Your imagery can be abstract or literal, the images can be animated or actual footage. As long as you create the visuals specifically for this project you are free to push yourself to the creative edge on this one. You can use more than one message but try to keep your video to no more than 2 or 3 minutes in total running time. The most unique and compelling video wins.

Make sure to submit your video to the Weekend Project Group. Please note that the Community Staff will approve videos for inclusion into the Group and will also be selecting the winning videos.

The winner gets a Plus account (for Basic members) or 25,000 HD Embeds (for Plus members). The runner-up gets an extra 1 GB of upload capacity (for Basic users) or 10,000 HD Embeds (for Plus members). Make sure you only submit videos made specifically for this weekend project!

Submissions are due on Tuesday (4/6) at 11:59PM (EST).

Have fun with this project and have a great weekend everyone!

P.S. A big shout out to Vimeo Member Dubi Kaufmann, who presented me with the idea for this Weekend Project.

UPDATE: This week's winner is Steev Hise with his creative video They Really Want You Guys To Play, he gets a Plus account! The runner up is Maria Bowskil with her video LOST, enjoy those extra HD embeds!

Thanks for all the great videos folks, this week saw some great creativity.

by Daniel Hayek
April 1st, 2010

Here at Vimeo we have a long standing tradition of tricking our beloved Community with a clever prank every year on April Fool's Day. It seems no matter how hard we try though you clever folks always figure out our pranks without fail.

I'm sure no one will soon forget the great upside down video prank fiasco of 2006, the erase your likes option (codenamed operation clean slate) that we offered in 2007, and it goes well without saying that we're all still chuckling at the "let us delete all your videos for you" prank of 2008, and let's not forget last years "we're going out of business, you have 24 hours to remove all your video content" prank. Now that was a real hoot!

This year we've decided to make our prank harder to find, but trust us, it's hilarious, you just have to look really hard to find it. You'll need to scour the site from the peaks of the HD Channel to the swamps of the Help Center to find it, it could be anywhere!

The first Vimeo member to post a comment here explaining this year's prank gets a Plus account. If you already have a Plus account we'll give you an extra year for free. Additionally the fourth person to comment on this blog post may be eligible for a live phone chat with us the Vimeo Staff. So get cracking Vimeo detectives, we eagerly await the results of your search!

UPDATE- The prank was that there was no prank. Fooled many, but not all of you! That Arnie audio file has been there for a long time, consider it an Easter egg, happy Easter!

by Julia Quinn
March 29th, 2010

Hello!

The last Monday of March can you believe it?




This week I would like to feature a British Vimeo user Adam Pellin Deeve. Adam has been on Vimeo for three years now and has uploaded a lot of great videos. His first video on Vimeo was an instant hit. He does great live action and animation videos.


Hey remember 5X5's? Well there is a whole group for them. Basically it is just five clips of five seconds each strung together. They are really fun to do and great for that extra footage you might have laying around.



This week's channel is called Electrolux. Our new apprentice Taylor describes it as a channel that "explores the experimental, embraces the glitchy side of video and abstraction through compression." Alright, sounds cool to me!

Love,
Julia

by Daniel Hayek
March 26th, 2010

Hello everyone,

It's time for another sweet, sweet Weekend Project. Here's the challenge-

Have someone you know and trust take a camera of yours and instruct them to shoot what they find to be interesting during the course of an afternoon or so. If they're not familiar with the camera model make sure to instruct them in the basic controls such as on/off, record, zoom, etc. Let them shoot whatever footage they find appealing, try to allow only their perspective to influence the shooting subject matter and technique. Once they're done, your work begins. Take the footage they shoot and try to assemble something worth watching that is no more than 2 or 3 mins in total length. The most interesting video that demonstrates keen editorial choices and technique wins!

Make sure to submit your video to the Weekend Project Group. Please note that the Community Staff will approve videos for inclusion into the Group and will also be selecting the winning videos.

The winner gets a Plus account (for Basic members) or 25,000 HD Embeds (for Plus members). The runner-up gets an extra 1 GB of upload capacity (for Basic users) or 10,000 HD Embeds (for Plus members). Make sure you only submit videos made specifically for this weekend project!

Submissions are due on Tuesday (3/30) at 11:59PM (EST).

Have fun with this and make sure to share with your camera buddy the final edited video.

P.S. Big props to Taylor Gillespie, our new Community Apprentice for inspiring this week's project ;)

Update: This week's winner is Lea Amet with her piece Adolescence, a dreamy peak into moments of youth. The runner up is Rob Sargeant who took footage that his wife shot of a domestic home maintenance problem and turned it into a funny medley. Thanks for everyones submissions. Tune in later this week for the latest challenge.

by Blake Whitman
March 18th, 2010

Hey Everyone,

If for some reason you've been hiding under a rock on Vimeo for the past few months and you still haven't heard about The Story Beyond the Still contest sponsored by Canon, then you should definitely pay attention because it's awesome. Canon and Vimeo have teamed up to offer anyone with an HD camera the ability to enter an incredibly unique and collaborative filmmaking contest for a chance to win some great Canon prizes and have your work seen by a group of top Hollywood producers and cinematographers.

Basically, the contest is a continually evolving series of seven total chapters that begin and end on a still photograph, with each round beginning with the still image from the previous chapter winner. If you're a little confused, not to worry, we explain it more in depth on our first blog post including the contest rules. The contest already kicked off with a bang for the first round where user Runner Runner saw beyond the still of the first chapter, Vincent Laforet's film "The Cabbie". The winning entry for the first round can be seen below:



Now we're nearing the deadline for chapter three (due March 22nd at midnight) and hopefully lots of you are already working on your entries! If not, that's cool, but you can still participate by watching the entries and voting on your favorites starting March 31st on the contest page.

We encourage you all to enter the next round if you aren't already working on your entry right now, and I speak for all the judges when I say we are very excited to watch your interpretations and see where the story goes!

Have fun and be creative,

Blake