YouTube Australia Blog: YouTube

Aussie Filmmakers Among the 50 Semi-Finalists for Your Film Festival

Tuesday, 26 June 2012

As you may have seen, voting is open for Your Film Festival, the global competition that unites the Venice Film Festival, Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions, Emirates and YouTube’s community of film fans, in a quest to discover the next great storyteller.

The Scott Free team selected 50 semi-finalists from more than 15,000 short films submitted by creators worldwide. Now, it’s up to you, the fans, to vote for your favorites, and ultimately send 10 finalists to the Venice Film Festival.

Here in the Google Sydney office, we are excited that Australians and Australian residents are behind many of the entries. Take a look at a few below:
Scruples, Director: Adrian Powers - A young double agent struggles to keep his cover when he witnesses a horrifying crime. Are a few innocent lives worth sacrificing for the greater good?

Bat Eyes, Director: Damien Power - Sixteen year old Adam teases a classmate. When he tries to apologise, she has quite different plans for him.

Boot, Director: Damien Power - A night out with best friends ends in tragedy and a terrible secret. Can you save a friendship with a lie?

Good Pretender, Director: Maziar Lahooti - After trying to convince some local bullies that her father is a robot, 11-year-old Ally is dared to shoot him with a spear gun to prove it.

Kiss, Director: Alex Murawski - Tom has never been kissed. His best friend offers his girlfriend to practice with, awakening Tom’s desire and changing the trio’s friendship forever.

The Telegram Man, Director: James Frances Khehtie - During the long years of World War II, Australia's small farming communities paid a terrible price. In the rural towns of New South Wales, one family each week discovered that their son or husband or brother or father would not be coming home. In the throes of such grief, one seldom considers the man who delivers the news.

At the Venice Film Festival, the 10 finalist filmmakers will have their work screened as part of the opening days of the festival and judged by a grand prize jury of industry professionals, including Ridley Scott and actor Michael Fassbender. The finalists will then pitch their next film project to the Ridley Scott team, all for the chance to win a $500,000 production grant to work with Ridley Scott’s award-winning team to create a new original work for YouTube.

So what are you waiting for? Watch the entries, vote for your favourite films on the Your Film Festival channel, and be part of the largest online film festival ever. Voting ends 13th July, so cast your votes now!

Posted by Ernesto Soriano, YouTube Marketing Manager, recently watched The Telegram Man.

Vivid Live: Wrap-up and re-live

Monday, 25 June 2012

Earlier this month, Sydney Opera House celebrated Vivid LIVE, with amazing gigs from world-renowned musicians, and a very special pre-show hangout with the Temper Trap. And in a festival-first, four concerts were live streamed on YouTube with FRONTROW, a custom photo sharing app, which let audiences around the world capture priceless moments, like this streaker at The Temper Trap concert, and share them with friends.

There were over 900k views across the four concerts, with over half a million watching the final eye blasting concert from Amon Tobin, making his show the second largest streaming event in Australia since YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Here’s what he had to say about his latest creation, ISAM:

Back by popular demand, you can now replay and relive some of the best moments of Vivid LIVE on the Sydney Opera House Channel, with two special performances available in their entirety: The Lighting of the Sails by German design collective URBANSCREEN, and The Temper Trap’s live performance from their brand new chart-topping album. As you watch, you can lean forward and relive FRONTROW by zooming and panning within the viewer, taking photos, editing and applying filters and sharing your Vivid Live moments on your social networks.

Posted by Ernesto Soriano, YouTube Australia, just watched URBANSCREEN: behind the scenes.

Improving video awesomeness with one click

Thursday, 22 March 2012

This is a cross-post from the Official YouTube Blog.

Whether you’re perfecting your double backflip at the park, capturing a flash mob on your phone, or enjoying singing in a subway, it’s not easy to get your video quality perfect. Sometimes videos suffer from symptoms like “shaky-camera-itis” or “augmented-darkness-levels” that keep viewers from seeing just how awesome your video really is. We made a big step last year with the YouTube Video Editor, and now we’re adding a feature that does the work of curing these symptoms for you. If you upload a video that’s shaky or dark, we’ll automatically offer to fix it for you, creating an updated version of your video on YouTube. When you upload a video that could use a fixup, you’ll see a notification bar on the Upload page and in your Video Manager. Click the button to fix it, and you’ll see a side by side preview to decide if you want to accept the edits.

Select “Okay” if you’d like us to update your video to the preview version (you can always undo this later). Even if you’re uploading a video from your mobile device, the Video Manager on the desktop will give you a notice if this video can be cured as well. Here’s an overview:

This breakthrough in video awesomeness is possible thanks to our research team who expanded on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button launched last year, automatically detecting if stabilization or color correction would be helpful for you. The result is a one-click option rolling out over the next few days that cures these two symptoms now, and more planned in the future.

So you keep capturing those awesome moments, and we’ll keep on developing ways to help you make those videos even more awesome.

Posted by John Gregg, software engineer, recently watched “Panda,” and then watched “Panda (stabilized).”

Holy Nyans! 60 hours per minute and 4 billion views a day on YouTube

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

This is a cross-post from the Official YouTube blog.
Since the dawn of YouTube we’ve been sharing the hours of video you upload every minute. In 2007 we started at six hours, then in 2010 we were at 24 hours, then 35, then 48, and now...60 hours of video every minute, an increase of more than 30 percent in the last eight months. In other words, you’re uploading one hour of video to YouTube every second. Tick, tock, tick, tock — that’s 4 hours right there!

In the past we’ve made charts and infographics to describe the kind of mind-boggling engagement you’re driving, and this time we let our dataheads run wild. They came back to us with onehourpersecond.com — an interactive collection of what happens in a YouTube second. Here’s a sample:

For all the hours of video you’re uploading—you’re watching more as well; we’ve now exceeded four billion video views globally every day. That’s up 25 percent in the last eight months and the equivalent of more than half the world’s population watching a video every day, the same number as there are US $1 bills in circulation, the same as number of years since there was water on Mars...it’s a big number, and you’re making it bigger every day.

With more original Channels rolling out this year, a new homepage to help you find and follow Channels you love, and new tools for creators always on the horizon, we’re excited to see how many times you’ll grow these numbers this year!

The YouTube Team recently watched “The Joy of Books.”

Coming to a universe near you: YouTube Space Lab

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

This is a cross-post from the Official Google blog.

Can plants survive beyond Earth? Can proteins observed in space reveal the mysteries of life? Science experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS) could unlock the answers and now we're giving you a chance to ask the questions. Today, we’re launching YouTube Space Lab with Lenovo, in cooperation with Space Adventures, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Space Lab is a new galactic channel on YouTube that will lift off from your laptop, taking you to interesting and awesome videos from around the world... and beyond.

Interested students are invited to come up with an idea for a science experiment that can be conducted in space and upload a video explaining it to YouTube by December 7, 2011. The YouTube community and a panel of distinguished scientists, astronauts and expert judges, including Professor Stephen Hawking, will pick the best ones. If your video is selected, it will be performed aboard the ISS and live streamed on YouTube to the world in 2012.

We'll also throw in some out-of-this-world prizes for the winners: like ZERO-G flights, Lenovo IdeaPad laptops and your choice of either a trip to Tanegashima Island, Japan, to watch your experiment blast off in a rocket bound for the ISS, or—once you’re 18—a one-of-a-kind astronaut training experience in Star City, Russia, the training center for Russian cosmonauts. For more information on how to enter, including eligibility requirements and experiment guidelines, check out the competition page on the channel or the official rules.

All future astronauts and space enthusiasts can find inspiration in the space related content on YouTube.com/SpaceLab. Space Lab is just one of many educational channels available under YouTube.com/EDU. Educators can also visit YouTube.com/Teachers to learn how to better incorporate video into the classroom. We're developing a YouTube for Schools pilot aimed at making YouTube accessible in more schools. If you want to be notified when it's ready, sign up here.

Blast off now and be part of a global experiment where your teacher is an astronaut and your classroom, space!

Zahaan Bharmal, YouTube Space Lab lead, recently watched Android in Space - Nexus S on Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Life in a Day: Now in theatres

Monday, 5 September 2011

On July 24, 2010, thousands of people around the world uploaded videos of their day to YouTube to take part in Life in a Day, a historic cinematic experiment to create a documentary film about a single day on earth. From over 80,000 submissions, including 1,500 from Australia, executive producer Ridley Scott and Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald have crafted a 90-minute feature film that paints a surprising, moving and entertaining portrait of the world today.

The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was simultaneously live streamed on YouTube. The film arrived down under at the Sydney Film Festival and subsequently at the Melbourne Film festival, and we’re proud to announce that Life in a Day is now playing in select Chauvel Cinemas.

Happy watching!

Posted by Ernesto Soriano, YouTube Australia, recently watched Kevin McDonald & Joe Walker discuss Life in a Day

Get your boat shoes, because America’s Cup is live streaming on YouTube

Friday, 19 August 2011

This is a cross-post from the YouTube blog.

Through its 160 years of competition, the America's Cup has helped develop the sport of Cup racing and even brought attention to taking better care of our oceans.

Now, you'll have an opportunity to experience the sport in a whole new way as this year's America's Cup World Series is being live streamed on YouTube at the America's Cup channel. With on board cameras and microphones in HD quality, you can see and hear the crews live as they attempt difficult maneuvers and battle for nautical supremacy.

If you miss any of the live action, you can also see recorded footage of the day’s action on the America’s Cup YouTube channel.

We invite you to get on board and see sailing in a way you've never seen it before, on the wide open seas of YouTube.

Seth Frank, YouTube Strategic Partner Development Manager, recently watched “Flying on the Water"

Your personalised guide to music on YouTube

Friday, 19 August 2011

YouTube has videos across the entire spectrum of music, from current pop hits to classic tracks to obscure but wonderful sounds (double rainbow, anyone?).

But how can you stay in touch with what’s hot on YouTube right now? To help, we’re re-launching our YouTube music page with new features to help guide you, and some help from a few guest curators to start.

On YouTube.com/Music you can now find:

recommended videos and artists based on the music videos you’re watching
local concert listings in your area paired with artist videos
the YouTube Top 100 - your invaluable source to the most popular music based on what the community is viewing

Finally, you may have noticed the electric guitar adorning the YouTube logo. It’s there today to celebrate the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Guide to Rock, who have the first hand-picked playlist on the new music page.

Over the next five days some of your favorite music stars will be sharing their personal favorites, including Australia’s very own Gotye, whose new album is already hitting the top of the charts. You’ll also hear Lady Gaga’s Guide to Pop, and Eminem’s Guide to Hiphop.

Look out for a new music-based YouTube logo each day, and clicking on it will bring you straight to the music page.

Happy listening.

Posted by Sophie Hirst, YouTube Music recently watched “An Introduction to the YouTube music page.”

Sailing ships with the Sydney Opera House

Thursday, 18 August 2011

This is a cross-post from the YouTube blog.

YouTube and the Sydney Opera House developed a relationship during the YouTube Symphony Orchestra from our shared love of music, and we continue to look at ways to bring new music experiences to you. Victoria Doidge, Director Marketing and Communications at the Sydney Opera House, is our guest blogger today to discuss their recent project.

Last year we set out to create a piece of content that would celebrate Sydney Opera House’s place in the global cultural community—one of the busiest performing arts centre in the world with 8.2 million visitors a year. Even from the inception of The House, master architect Jorn Utzon was committed to pushing boundaries, and as an example they had to invent a new crane to build his model.

So to create something in The House’s name, we sought to democratise the artists and the spirit of The House to as broad an audience as possible. This notion of accessibility and democratising the content, like our partnership with Google on the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011, was critical to how we would measure success and why we chose to release the clip on YouTube.

We started with a song, Nick Cave’s The Ship Song, considered by many to be one of Australia’s truly great ballads. When we approached artists to volunteer to perform, we found hundreds who were excited to join: Neil Finn, Paul Kelly, Angus and Julia Stone, Martha Wainwright and Daniel Johns, to name a few. To bring it all together, we had these artists perform and accompanied by a full orchestra and opera choir.

For the final result director Paul Goldman created a voyeuristic journey through the venues, rehearsal rooms and back stages of the House. Paul has a unique skill for capturing the personal nuances of the many artists in this clip, and Elliot Wheeler complemented the video with a powerful soundtrack.

We’ve heard positive feedback from Australians at home and all over the world, telling us that it’s brought out pride and even tears. We’re thankful to be able to share this with you, and think our beloved Utzon would be pleased.

Victoria Doidge, Director Marketing and Communications at the Sydney Opera House, recently watched “The Ship Song Project - Making Of.”

My experience at Vidcon

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

This is a guest post by YouTube Partner “TwistedTim01” who recently attended Vidcon 2011 in Los Angeles.

After seeing my favourite Youtubers attend Vidcon last year, I thought “Attending Vidcon would be a dream. I will make this happen.” I was able to fully fund the trip from Tasmania to Los Angeles as a two week trip after months of saving. Earlier in the year I also noticed Alen from ChampChong write on Twitter that he planned on attending, so I organised to travel with him.

While staying in Hollywood for a week, Alen and I met with brilliant content creators such as Daneboe of Annoying Orange, Bobjenz, Kevin Brueck, Greg Benson, Funnyz, KeepTHEheat, and DavidUngerMusic, with whom I organised a collaborative music video cover / parody.

When I got to Vidcon, I found it extremely informative. It was super entertaining to watch all of the amazingly talented creators perform, talk, and interact. I was also lucky enough to perform a few songs on stage and do a live music show for Vokle.com, where I could interact with viewers watching the Vidcon stream.

Here’s a summary of some things I learned from Vidcon:

1. Networking among the YouTube community is key
YouTube is both a media site and a social network, so of course networking plays a large role. It’s the best feeling to work together to create great content, share tips with one another, and make friends with people who love doing what you do. There’s always a way to contact other creators to network, collaborate, and get opinions about your work — just stay persistent. Nothing happens overnight.

2. Trying to get exposure? Stop trying so hard!
The more popular YouTubers are people with a hobby and lots of talent — just like a football player, musician, or skateboarder! If you have talent and you’re working hard on your videos, eventually people will catch on and follow your work.

3. Have fun
If you’re having fun while creating content, then who cares if you’re not getting the views you want? Just open up, have fun, and show your personality. It’s what people like.

Vidcon was amazing, I made so many new friends, and learned a lot of great lessons. If you have any other questions upon my trip, feel free to comment them below or post them as a comment on my channel. I’ll do my best to get back to you!

Posted by Tim Whybrow, who recently watched Gym Class Heroes

Watch Splendour In The Grass live on YouTube this Sunday

Thursday, 28 July 2011

Earlier this year, it was Laneway Festival and then Coachella. Now, thanks to Virgin Mobile, Splendour In The Grass will be coming to you on YouTube, live from sunny Woodford, Queensland.

If you missed out on getting tickets to Splendour this year, never fear! Put on your gumboots and get out your festival gear, because you can watch live performances on YouTube from Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs, Elbow, The Vines, The Vaccines and Cloud Control and interviews from a number of other acts.

Be sure to check out all the live action from 4:30pm until Midnight AEST this Sunday, July 31st at youtube.com/virginmobileaus. On the go? Don’t worry, we’ll be live streaming to mobile as well, so take Splendour with you wherever you are!

Tell your friends - this one is going to be awesome!

Richard North, YouTube Australia, recently watched Hometown Tama.

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