Bill Cammack

Kfir Pravda asks the question How can videbloggers leverage live video platforms?

I think live video will enable individuals or production teams to foster closer relationships with their core group of viewers. I’ve seen Jonny Goldstein make excellent use of “live” from back in the days when we used to have to use telephone conference services to video conference with each other. Now, services and applications are getting better and increasing the number of features to the point that just about everyone is getting experience with some kind of live interaction, even privately, via Aim, iChat & Skype.

As far as for scripted shows, such as 35 and Something To Be Desired, there’s the opportunity to go behind the scenes with the actors.. either as the actors themselves or as their characters. Depending on the situation, either one could be really fascinating. It would call for some ad-libbing,though. The actors would have to have a really great understanding of the characters they play in order to interact in real-time with an audience “in character” and explain motivations and information that ended up on the cutting room floor or weren’t discussed by the cast & crew at all. I think this would make people way more interested in the show itself to have more of an intimate interaction with the actors.

I’ve seen Epic-Fu do live shows. They’ve had live entertainment from Paul Dateh and it was great to watch them party and interact with each other genuinely and authentically. There’s much to learn & gain even from being a ‘fly on the wall’ when people whose shows you’ve seen are out of character and being themselves.

I think that interactivity is the benefit of internet shows over television shows. It gives the actors the chance to get to know more about their audience, and makes the audience more emotionally invested in the show. It also affords the actors the opportunity to showcase more dimensions to themselves than scripts and editing allow. I mean, who’s going to script Jonny playing his music box into a show? :D

Another benefit is allowing the fans to become a part of the creation of the show. Going live, you can get suggestions from them and incorporate their ideas into a future script. You can get an idea of what they’re receiving compared to what you’re attempting to project to them.

I think live video’s going to be a great asset for scripted shows. It’s just going to take a while for people to get up to speed in utilizing the various services and sites before we see some really creative and innovative uses for the medium.

Yesterday was a fantastic day. :D

I got to meet Kfir Pravda, who was here for a few hours in NYC Friday morning awaiting his connecting flight to Israel. I was familiar with Kfir from blogging as well as our involvement with the Yahoo Videoblogging Group.

We’ve had interesting discussions about the direction of online video and television, but I never figured I’d meet him in person, since I had no plans to travel to Israel.

Fortunately, our schedules and locations coincided, and I was able to enjoy the morning with Kfir, Kathryn Jones, Jeff Pulver and Keren Dagan.

One of the benefits of social media is that you can learn about people and their ideas at your own pace. If you see something interesting, you can bookmark their site or add them on a social network or follow them on a status update service. The effect is that you can gain a respect for someone without ever having met them in person, or if you’re a lurker, without them ever even knowing that you exist. I already appreciated Kfir for his ideas before I walked into “The Library” at the Regency Hotel. The intangibles of meeting him in person amplified that appreciation.

As much as you might be able to tell about someone from reading their blog posts or comments, there’s much more to be gleaned from having real-time, F2F conversation with someone. How do you greet each other? Do you have similar senses of humor? Is this person as sharp in a real-time, constantly-evolving conversation as they are in text, which they may have taken an hour to write, or in a video which they may have scripted or rehearsed many times before recording it? Is this someone with whom you would probably have been friends, had the “accident of birth” placed you in the same geographical location?

Previously, I asked “How Social is ‘Social’ Media?”. Yesterday, there was a ton of “Social” and a ton of “Media”! :D Jeff Pulver was broadcasting live to Qik utilizing his Nokia N95 and his portable hotspot (described/shown in the video below).

I recorded a Seesmic video with my MacBook Pro. So, not only did we share breakfast with each other, we shared ‘sharing breakfast’ with our friends on other social media sites as well. :D

This time, social media came through BIG TIME! :D Fortunately Keren was keeping an eye on the clock, because our conversation had become three hours long with no end in sight. There really ought to be laws against having so much fun before 2pm! :D

It was a pleasure meeting Kfir & Keren. It makes such a difference when someone steps off of a blog page or computer screen and you get to experience them IRL. It was great to hang out with Kathryn & Jeff as well. I’m going to strive to sift through the QUANTITY of consistently increasing adds and contacts and have more QUALITY interactions like this one through social media. :D

Bill Cammack • Cammack Media Group, LLC