I worked with Ian and Galen for the first and second shoot, who are brewers at the brewery. I was incredibly stressed during the second shoot, because the audio wasn’t working at first, and I basically wanted to cry :  )

Then magically the lav and boom mic started to work, so things began to go more smoothly. Ian and Galen were a bit nervous (which is to be expected), so the shoot lasted around 3 hours! I think I might have to do some creative editing, with b-roll overlays, because there wasn’t one time that we got through the beer type monologues without slipping up a bit. Also, the sun kept coming in and out, so the brightness of the shot kept changing.

I should have four complete videos by my Week 14 post!

I decided to buy a cheap video player, so I could easily customize it. I’m not trying to be a developer after this program, but I think it’s still important to understand the coding behind the plugin — especially if I want to do project management on the digital side.

Next week I will be heading back to Lonerider for some re-shoots. I had major audio issues when using the Canon 7D, so a major lesson was learned. I was mad at myself at first, but realized it is MUCH better to make these mistakes during the program, than when I have a fulltime job :  )

I decided to focus my project even more, because I’ve quickly realized that the topic of even homebrewing is way too broad. I decided to instead focus on an event microsite for Lonerider’s ‘Brew it Forward’ event. They just held the first Brew it Forward event in March and had great success. They are looking to grow the event even more next year, so I thought this would be a cool way to give them content they could actually use for more than one year.

I really love the current background of the site. I put a ‘poster’ finish on a very close-up shot of their brewery bottles. I also, due to the advice from classmates, changes the “Lonerider Logo” to be a “Brew it Forward” logo. Vitesse is the official Lonerider brand font, so I made sure the logo was reflecting that standard.

I think at least one of the following needs to be an attribute of a video that’s gone viral.

1) It’s shocking in nature — Not necessarily shocking as in violent. I rarely see graphic/awful videos go viral. I mean shocking as in “Did that person really just do that?” The most recent viral video that comes to mind is the father from North Carolina who put several bullets into his daughter’s laptop after she mouthed off about having to do chores in her Facebook status. The video was a sensation, because it caused a divide between people who saw it. Was this Dad out of line for shooting his daughter’s computer? Was he totally within his rights because his daughter was being a brat? Would this video have gone viral had he not used a gun and just thrown the computer off the roof? I think the gun is the reason it went viral. I’ve never seen a laptop shot with a gun and it shocked people!

2) It’s hilarious — I think this is the most popular way that a video goes viral. People at their core love to laugh and love to share in laughter with their friends. The ease with which videos can now be shared has caused an explosion of ordinary citizens having their 15 minutes of fame. One video I found hilarious was a girl doing the ‘smart phone shuffle’ and walking right into a fountain at a mall. In retrospect, it was kind of cruel to laugh, but I think it was so funny because so many people could relate to it. Almost all of us in this day and age have walked into something, or almost fallen while texting and walking. This woman ended up suing the mall security people who released the video on YouTube, so lesson learned there!

3) It’s Never Been Done Before — One of the earliest videos I recall going viral was “Here it Goes Again” by “Ok Go”. In essence, the video lighting and quality is pretty dismal, but the coolest part is that the dancing is all choreographed on treadmills. I think an audience is willing to forgive shoddy video quality when the video they’re watching is original and creative in content.

What I’ve seen in the ‘for-profit’ realm is that marketers are trying too hard to make videos go viral. I’ve sat in meetings before and had to force myself not to roll my eyes when a VP said “We’re going to make a viral video on cloud computing!” You can’t just sit down and make a viral video. There isn’t a magic formula. Google could pay a billion dollars for the best video ever, and it still may not go viral. That’s what’s so darn cool about viral videos — it truly is up to the public to share with friends and make a video popular. No corporation can force people to like and share it. So the rule to make a viral video is that there isn’t a rule. Just keep making videos, have fun doing it and maybe you’ll win the lottery with one that goes viral!

I finalized the bottling line video, began work on the website and played around with the look/feel on the homepage promos and video preview shots.

I still need to: Develop some infographics for the Beer 101 page, edit the videos of Galen and Ian describing the different types of beers at Lonerider and then potentially work on a motion infographic and check with Lonerider if there’s anything else I can do with the time allotted.  I also need to talk to Brian or Brad about why the slider and the video player are being bumped down when I hover over a nav item.

Here’s the website in its current “Draft” form.

http://www.jessgerber.com/lonerider

Presidential small file

Source file: http://www.slideshare.net/VivaLaVega13/presidential-small-file-12620473

My next steps are to take a better look at the audio interview footage and try to figure out how to save the audio issues. I’m thinking about doing a voice-over with text overlays and cutting back to the video footage when I can. I hope to have something to show next Friday.

I’m also very interested in making a brand book, but I don’t even know where to start! I wish I could say I think about fonts all the time, but sadly I don’t. I do think fonts are cool and beautiful, but I wouldn’t even know where to start there. We shall see what takes course in the next few weeks! Sorry about the short post this week. I’d be happy to give a full synopsis of my term paper “Presidential Elections in the Web 2.0 Era”!

Reflection:

Iconic images stir up memories of stories that affected our lives. An iconic image might affect our emotions in different ways, depending on where we were when the photo was taken, or where we grew up and how our culture has shaped our reactions to historic events. Photo 1 is of a father who lost a son during the 9/11 attacks, and is overcome by emotions while visiting the 9/11 memorial ten years later. This image is iconic, but the way a viewers emotionally react to it is very different.

Those who also lost loved ones during 9/11, or were living in NYC during the time, may have a different emotional tie to this image than a foreigner, or enemy of the United States. Everyone did not share in the actual day of 9/11, but the higher meaning of the loss of innocent loved ones and the evilness of murder is something the entire human race can relate to. I think iconic images are tied to a higher emotional meaning more than just the event that took place one specific moment in time.

Another note is that all of these iconic images from 2011 are about disaster, violence, war, suicide, death or uprisings. Do all iconic images have to be about disastrous events? I don’t think that’s necessarily true, but it is interesting to note that no happy images made the cut as ‘iconic’ in 2011. Could a photo of someone finding out they survived cancer be considered iconic? I would think so. It ties back to a greater human struggle to figure out how to live longer and fight disease.

Example of an image that isn’t iconic: 
We all the love the beach and the beauty of the water, but is the image below really iconic? Sure, it’s beautiful and humans can all relate to the longing for beautiful things, but it isn’t unique. We really can’t give a timeframe from this photo and tie it to an earth-changing event (happy or sad).

Example of an iconic image from 2011:
I think for Americans at least, the image below could be viewed as iconic. The photo shows Gabrielle Giffords, a US Congress member who was shot in the head at a political event. On the brink of death, Giffords fought back and was able to attend the State of the Union Address. This photo causes viewers to remember that violent and awful day, but shows that the strength of the human mind in overcoming any obstacle to move forward and succeed is incredible.

So what truly makes an image iconic? I think the viewer must have an emotional tie to the event in some way, and the image must also play to a higher relationship of human struggles, wants or needs. The way my parents emotionally react to the photo of Jackie Kennedy in shock as Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in on Air Force One, is completely different than the way I emotionally react to the photo, because I didn’t live through that day. Yes, it’s incredibly sad when I view it, but I don’t have the personal memories tied to the photo. All in all, I think what makes an image iconic is personal depending on the viewer, and ties back to the specific viewer’s life changing moments.