edit video online as a group! easily!

MixandMash.tv has the most versatile and powerful online video editing software I found.[...] Stumbling across this one has been a real treat. -   “where to edit video for free” blog review by lonnie247

Most of us don’t need to use Premiere or Final Cut Pro to satisfy our video editing needs. Plus, if you want a few people to contribute to the editing process, it’s just not practical to transfer the big files involved with using those high-end, industry-standard video editing applications. Say you want to put together some support material or documentation of a show you just put on. Your friend took some great photos on her new digital camera. One of the Board members brought their mini-DV cam and shot some video of the event. And you’ve got some photos in your office, plus some cellphone video footage that your son or someone’s cousin just sent in an email.

What’re you gonna do with all that??

Luckily, Sarolta’s free online video editor is available www.MIXandMASH.tv

You go to the site, create an account in 30 seconds and send the login username and password to your Board member and friend. Ask them to sign in and upload their photo and video footage. Under the SHARING OPTIONS, they should check ” Private. This media can be viewed by invitation only” unless you’re OK with other folks having access to your photos & video clips. Don’t forget to upload your media too – the photos that your office took, and the cellphone video clip that someone kindly sent.

Once everyone has uploaded their media, or even while you’re waiting for the Board member to get home to send you that video, you can start laying out the photos in the video editor. If you need or want others to see the video at any point in the editing process, just tell them to create an account for themselves, and then you can send them an invitation to view the work in progress. Maybe you need to get their approval, or you just want some feedback, suggestions, or maybe you need someone to help you with an effect, or to add music or voiceover. Collaborative video editing is so much easier when the whole process happens online!

If you know someone who might be interested in

a) running a video mashup contest

b) adding a sophisticated browser-based video editor to their website

c) getting some pointers on how to use the app to pull together some post-show documentation or edited support material

please forward this post to them and tell them to get in touch with me!

As well, in the interests of full disclosure: I’m affiliated with www.MIXandMASH.tv and so I am not only posting about the video editor because overall it is such an outstanding web tool (the most sophisticated in the world to boot!), but I’m also posting about it right now because they just launched a new version of the application. I’d like to know what you think. I tend to be overcritical! Do you like it? What would you think is the most important update they should make to the app? Personally, I think they just need to start with a more comprehensive FAQ for novice users! The app is easy enough to use but knowing there’s an FAQ to turn to is so much more reassuring when you’re treading a bit out of your waters….

Anyway, now I will hopefully, finally, at long last, get out of the bloody house and into the allegedly balmy 18-degrees-celsius weather outside. !!! xoxo

browser-based tools and why they’ll rock your world.

This site is intended to be an online resource for arts professionals and arts organizations. Web tools can rock your world – in a good way! – this website tells you how.

Whenever someone finds out I know something about web 2.0 or even just that I know how to hook a router up to a printer, I get asked a lot of questions about “geek stuff,” particularly web tools and web trends – basically, artists and arts managers want to know if they need to, or ought to, jump on this next train (be it Twitter or wiki publishing or Basecamp etc…). The reverse also happens often: I start using (and loving) a new web tool and think that artists and arts managers could be, even should be using, but they’re not. And it’s just because they don’t know about it (yet) and/or they have preconceptions and misconceptions about how difficult it will be to implement another new tool.

No stress! Web tools can be great tools. In fact, the newest web tools are designed to be user-centric, user-friendly.

Just remember, you don’t still write grant applications by hand or on a typewriter. By now (I hope) you’ve found a computer that works for you. Maybe it’s a PC, maybe it’s a Mac, maybe it’s any old thing with 24-hour tech support from a friend, family member, volunteer or staff person. The point is, I bet you get a lot of mileage out of your computer. This site will help you get maximum mileage out of your web browser.

Yes, this site will focus on browser-based tools — meaning tools or applications that run from your browser window (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome) usually without any downloading or installation required. A great example of a web-based tool would be your webmail – whether it’s your Hotmail, your Gmail, your work email that you can access via webmail – could you imagine life without being able to access your email from any browser in the world?

Browser-based tools are the key to mobility, accessibility, efficiency, and money saved.

By the way, if you are sensitive to the needs and challenges of arts profesionals and would like to contribute to this site, please contact me! Initially, I had envisioned this site as a public wiki so that anyone could suggest a tool and talk about its uses. But frankly I don’t know too many (read: any) arts managers who have time to contribute to a wiki that I can’t promise has readers yet. So I’ve started off solo to get the ball rolling. If you want to pen (type) a review, or if you just want to suggest a tool for me to review, get in touch.

If there are more than, say, three of us, we can definitely move this site over to a wiki platform. I’ve already got a wikidot site registered in anticipation…