Change is inevitable but necessary in business - especially if you work online. To grow you need to adapt and evolve, rinse and repeat. One change we’re sad to announce is that Susi is leaving Fixation Video. Susi has some other areas she wants to explore and we wish her the best of luck - not that she’ll need it.
Fixation Video is still continuing and we’ll be expanding the range of services we offer. We have some exciting new projects in the pipeline that we can talk more about soon. So, if you have presenting, editing or camera skills - or know someone that does - then drop us a line on hello@fixationvideo.com and someone will get back to you very soon.
Nielsen brought out some research recently which had some fairly standard findings: viewers were most likely to choose their video app based on cost, with free apps fairing way better than their more costly counterparts. Viewers were fine with ads within programs via the app, if it meant they didn’t have to pay for the content.
Duh. People don’t like paying for things.
Hidden away at the end of the report though, was a reference to Sync-to-TV apps. They were not something I was familiar with 20 minutes ago, but in true tech-loving style, I’m now excited. These mysterious apps actually encourage ‘dual viewing’ i.e. sitting in front of the TV whilst having your tablet on your lap. They recognise audio from the TV set and launch an app that has a second layer of content for the viewer. For instance, you could be watching Big Brother, your tablet could pick up on the audio from the opening credits, and would launch a Twitter app where you could view and engage with other viewers around the country. Or in a more cerebral example, you could be watching Question Time, and your tablet could launch an app where you could pose the participants questions, or give your reaction to their arguments.
There is, of course, an argument that we’re losing our ability to do one thing at a time, even if that one thing is sitting in front of the telly. But at least this way you’re giving your attention to one thing, even if it is on two different devices - it beats keeping one eye on Come Dine With Me and another on Google Reader…
Source: Nielsen
This is an interesting presentation on what impact tablets are likely to have on the way people use the internet and consume content. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but it does further confirm that tablets have meant that people are watching more VOD and that they’re being used in tandem to TV watching in a lot of cases. I guess I’m a demographic anomaly for owning both ladybits and a tablet…
This is a really interesting (and short) video about the importance of social media in TV in 2011. The key points are that people are checking and interacting with Twitter whilst watching TV, and it’s become the norm. Hashtags are particularly important with TV discussions (#theapprentice anyone?) and people really like the opportunity to talk and direct messages to the stars of these shows - I’m guessing it works particularly well on programmes like The Only Way of Essex, whose stars are so-called normal people, therefore don’t have that aura of Hollywood that makes them inaccessible. Another interesting point is that any advertising campaign that’s tied into a big programme needs to have an element of social media, and that Twitter account needs to be active during the programme itself (and the ad break) as that’s when people will be looking at it.
In’erestin’.
via Nielsen Blog
It seems Will and I have gone as far as we can as a two person (with occasional wonderful freelance person) team. Times, they are a-changin’ and staff, they need a hirin’. We’re starting small - we’d really like to offer someone brilliant a paid internship, which will have this person getting involved in pretty much every area of the business three days a week (Mon-Weds).
The role will include
- research for weekly shows
- script writing
- basic video editing
- coffee making (but only one in every three times - our office is a coffee making democracy)
Ideally, this wonderful person will have a video editing background, whether it’s through a media course, a love of uploading videos of cats to YouTube or self taught editing skillz. This wonderful person will definitely be the kind of person who doesn’t mind dressing up as a ninja, should the situation require it, and listening to me “whistle” to Steeley Dan and Will “sing” to Elbow. An all-rounder, if you will.
If this is you, or if you know someone who might be interested the first stage is to drop us an email to hello@fixationvideo.com explaining in a paragraph why you’d be suitable. If you’ve got any videos you could point us towards (ideally that you’ve made), so much the better.
Recombu, a site dedicated to mobile phone news and reviews, commissioned us to make a weekly show. We came up with the concept of The Phone O’Clock News, giving viewers a 3 minute overview of the week’s mobile news.
It’s an exciting time to be making online video. Whilst when we started the company we were clear that we didn’t want to break into telly (by stating on our About page that we didn’t want to break into telly) we always knew that it’s not the massive screens and lounge location that we objected to - it was just that we weren’t interested in long form, massive production shows. But the move towards bringing YouTube and other parts of the internet to TVs around the world is something we’re very, very interested in.
And it looks like the that ball of internet goodness is gathering momentum, and it might just be unstoppable. Remember when PVRs didn’t exist, and if you wanted to watch Eastenders you had to sit down at 7.30 to watch it? One day, today will feel as restrictive that.
Google TV
It hasn’t yet got a UK launch date, but it’s unlikely to be US-only forever. The grand Google scheme is to bring the internet to the living room, but the addition of apps will make it easier for people to navigate, and partners such as Amazon and Netflix make it a pretty compelling proposition, to use tech marketing speak. You’ll be able to turn on your TV, hit the YouTube logo, and start watching, say, Frackulous! It’s currently being included on certain Sony TVs and Logitech standalone boxes.
Boxee
The Boxee box is great, because it can be plugged into your existing TV (you know, the one you shelled serious money out for only 18 months ago) and it’ll be available in the UK in November for about £199. You’ll be able to launch a browser on your TV, and it streams 1080p video. There’s also the chance to swap content with your friends through things like Facebook.
Apple TV
The Apple TV is just a tiny box, and from that, you can access iTunes’ massive catalogue of films and TV programmes, available to rent and buy. You’ll find Frackulous on there, as we have an iTunes feed, and you’ll also see our YouTube version, as there’s access to that as well. There’s not a full browser, so perhaps it’s an interim measure before you’re ready to let the whole of teh internet on your telly.
YouView
YouView is the product of Project Canvas, and is due to land in the UK in 2011. Hopefully. It comes in the form of a set-top box, which will offer all digital TV channels, as well as the previous 7 days programming as well as a whole load of on-demand services. And that’s where we’ll come in. We’ll be able to make our own portal to our programmes, putting us (kind of) in the same league as the BBC. Or at least SyFy.
So, it’s a pretty exciting time, and it means we’re thinking beyond your laptop screen, and beyond your phone. Expect things to come that are fully taking advantage of all of those wonderful screen inches.
Update: The Guardian have an interesting article about YouView, and the various objections to it, as well as a round up on the market as a whole.
Last Friday’s episode of Frackulous - our new daily app show - featured Stephen Fry. Well, not technically Stephen Fry himself, but we did have a number of app suggestions to help him out with his new pub pastime.
We obviously thought it would be brilliant, if a little unlikely, if Stephen Fry linked to this episode on his Twitter account - since he’s got 1.7m followers and all. At 1:30pm that actually happened.
Somewhat predictably, the server fell over under the weight of traffic. We had prepared for the slight chance of a sudden influx of traffic and nailed everything down, but it still wasn’t enough. But it came back in about five minutes and stayed up from that point onwards.
Our bit.ly Pro stats (bit.ly powers our frkl.us URL shortener) show that to date 17,216 people have clicked the link Stephen Fry posted. Our Google Analytics account shows we dropped a couple of thousand visitors while the site was down, but the majority of them made it to the site.
On YouTube, however, it looks like only 703 people have viewed the video which is clearly significantly less. The video on Frackulous was set to autoplay, so anyone who arrived at the page would have at least started watching the video. YouTube now appears to lock videos around the 300 views point and it’s not clear when they then get updated again. There obviously needs to be measures in place to stop people artificially increasing their view count and gaming the system, but when a traffic spike is genuine the current system seems to disadvantage news shows.
The main benefit is that thousands of people saw Frackulous - which is really why we make it. It’s just a shame it’s not currently reflected in all the publicly available stats. We’ll update the post again once we hear back from YouTube about what the situation is.
It’s been a busy couple of months here at Fixation Video - we’ve had the launch of Frackulous, we’ve (finally - eek) done some rejigimication to the website and meanwhile tried not to get too distracted by the likes of new babies (in Will’s case) and new scooters (in my case). But we’re back! And it is ON!
Having spent the last six weeks filming bucket loads of app videos, we think we’ve got the whole process down. And so, we’re offering our services - if you’re a developer, if you have a client with an app, if someone’s made you an app you want to promote, we reckon we’ve got something for you. In fact, we’ve put together a range of options outlined below for anyone who would like a paid-for demo video of their app.
Basic
A basic demo of the app, with the phone positioned against a white background and a voiceover.
Greenscreen
Featuring an intro filmed against a greenscreen, with an app run- through against a white background. Example: Flipboard
On-site
A more lifestyle approach, with the app demo given in ‘natural surroundings’. For instance, this could be taking a WiFi finding app to the coffee shops of Soho, or a photography app to the major landmarks.
Greenscreen and on-site
A mixture of greenscreen presenting and on-site footage i.e. ‘and for a demo let’s take the app out on the street…’. Example: Nectar
Just for the record, to be completely clear, and transparent, and all of those good things: Fixation Video making an app review for anyone does not equal a spot on Frackulous. The two are run completely separately - it’s just that we want to use all these tips and tricks we’ve used in the making of Frackulous for the good of Fixation Video. Just so as you know.
Nectar launched its app today, which will allow those toting Nectar cards to get extra points in-store by activating their favourite offers. I didn’t have a card before, but by the end of the day’s shoot, I absolutely wanted one - free stuff! In exchange for buying Tropicana! I’m totally in.
We worked with Nectar to produce a video which both explained the process in a clear manner, and added something a bit different (in this case, Extreme Shopping). Whilst Frackulous is all about daily nuggets of app goodness, this is great example of what we can do given a bit of time to get creative! Check it out below:
Recent Clients
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