Spidvid Press

Spidvid is a Killer Startup

Spidvid.com - Collaborative Video Production Community

Spidvid empowers a social movement for individuals in the video production industry who want to become a part of a large talent network. This network can collectively create and produce quality video content, distribute it, market it, and reward each member according to the talent, time, and value each individual contributes to the project.

Through the site, video creators can post projects and look up the talent they need to push their projects forwards, whereas professionals can bid on projects and join teams that are being assembled.

The team behind Spidvid hopes this connected human network becomes a powerful ecosystem which challenges the status quo of the traditional video production studio model. As they say, for many video creators the motivation is never a monetary one, but rather producing content that is enjoyed by people from pole to pole, and which elicits thought and change. From what I can see, the elements for an exciting and useful platform are firmly in place, and I definitely recommend any person who is into the industry pay the site a visit.

Why it might be a killer

Such a platform can virtually redefine the way online video is produced and consumed.

Spidvid on WebDev 2.0

Spidvid was developed with both creators and professionals in mind, to allow creators to build an on-demand video production team with professionals, and then share the credit and financial benefits according to the value each individual contributes.

Is Spidvid the Future of Video Production?

What would you do if you had a really great idea?

I’ve got this fantastic idea for an entertaining video series – 3 minute video pitches for social media start-ups, presented as auto-tuned music videos, featuring exclusively spoken clips and images of Betty White and The Old Spice Guy. Social Media + Auto-Tune + The Most Viral Couple Possible? A sure recipe for a viral video hit.

And I’ll think about how many views that video will get and how Mashable and TechCrunch will just be all over it. While going on with my daily life, content that even though I could probably write the words to a few pitches, there’s no way I could record killer music videos and audio tracks, and certainly not do all the work to find the right clips of Betty and Isaiah and mash it all together.

Thanks to Spidvid, a collaborative video production platform and community, the rest of the people in the world that like the idea and have the talent to lend a hand, can now get involved from wherever they are, for a stake in the project, by participating in video ideas and posting their own to the world.

I found out about Spidvid when some video producer friends shared an interview they’d done with Jeremy Campbell, Founder of Spidvid and parent company Socially Collaborative Media. And even though Jeremy is used to being the one doing the interview, I caught up with him to share his vision for the start-up, and the video production model.

Give me the elevator pitch for Spidvid.

Spidvid is where individuals go to connect, collaborate, and create video entertainment together.

What’s your business model?

In the short term sharing ad revenues with the production teams who release video content through our Spidvid platform, and long term we have some big opportunities to tap into that involves deeper partnerships with our community members.

Tell me the story of Spidvid in five years, and how you’ll get there.

In five years I see Spidvid powering the web’s open and collaborative video production ecosystem. Our path to this BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) is to provide the platform and support our community needs to create video entertainment that they wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to do. We also have to educate our community that the traditional video production process is evolving with new collaborative tools widely accessible to anyone who want to leverage them for their projects.

What’s the key to successful collaboration in the creative process?

I would say alignment. Individuals have to share a common project goal or passion, be on the same page throughout the project’s work flow, and each individual has to know what value they need to deliver to make the project an overall success. Also, at least one person has to sell the project’s vision, and get others to believe in it enough to buy in and be part of their team.

What’s your all time favorite viral video?

Hard to say since I’ve seen so many remarkable videos over the past few years that I thoroughly enjoyed. I would likely have to give the honor to one of OK Go’s music videos. Perhaps “This Too Shall Pass”. Their team has an incredible music video imagination, and it’s bringing them new fans and followers that they wouldn’t have otherwise attracted.

What entrepreneurs do you admire?

I admire entrepreneurs that work hard, are driven to succeed, have strong leadership skills, are creative, think big, and live their passion through their companies. Some entrepreneurs who fit that description are Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, and I have a lot of respect for the world’s youngest billionaire ever Mark Zuckerberg. I think that Mark is the entrepreneur’s new poster boy, and he’s going to spawn a whole new crop of company visionaries.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

The passion of innovating the video production model through a new media connection framework, and seeing video entertainment created using Spidvid’s platform that otherwise wouldn’t exist in the world. I also see all of these creators on YouTube who now create “user generated content” and believe that in time a decent percentage of them will realize that if they reach out and connect to other talent they will be able to increase the entertainment and production value of their content. There’s a new wave of video creators coming up now, and Spidvid’s platform and community will be there for them when they’re ready to take their content to the next level.

The article, along with supporting videos can be read and viewed in its entirety on Arik Able's blog.

Spidvid Discussed on This Week in Media

Not sure if this actual press coverage or not, but it's certainly media coverage.

The This Week in Media (TWIM) panel discusses online video marketing ideas for Spidvid, and has a brief conversation about the need for a collaborative social platform within the video production industry going forward. Tune in at around the 48:00 minute mark to hear the clip.

Spidvid on the New Media Minute

Top online video analyst and reporter Daisy Whitney talks about collaboration tools for video production, and how social platforms like Spidvid are redefining the way video content is created.

You can watch the video on Daisy's New Media Minute show.

Shared Creation Magazine's Take on Spidvid

Spidvid - Collaborative Video Production

Spidvid is a start up with a mission get those who want to create video working with and talking to each other more effectively. The plan is to leverage social media techniques and an open database of skilled individuals, projects and ideas.

It sort of picks good ideas from what you can with mainstream social media like old Myspace and Facebook, with the more production orientated places such as Celtx.

Right now I would class Spidvid as a good idea. It’s not fully operational but with a straightforward design and a passion for achieving an end goal you can only hope that it does well.

SpidvidNuze on VideoNuze

The hosts of the online video news show VideoNuze discuss new collaborative technologies and platforms, including Spidvid's.

You can listen to the show on the VideoNuze website.

Spidvid in Venture Bin

Web Ventures & Internet Business Report

Spidvid - Collaborative Video Production

Spidvid is a site aiming at generating a social platform to develop social video creation. It’s objective is to connect different performers in the video business to develop the next way to shoot and perform video creations. Spidvid’s platform probides the process to respect the accountability of individuals to compensate for time and talent they invest in the project.

Leaving Hollywood, Welcome to Hollyweb

Spidvid.com launches its platform to provide an open web-powered collaborative video production model

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire) - Spidvid provides the social framework needed so that individuals can connect to form production teams, collaborate on video projects together, distribute the content, and give credit and compensation back to each member involved.

"Back in early 2008 I saw a video which had an entertaining animated effect in it" recalls founder Jeremy Campbell. "All the video creator did was include a quick "special thanks to animator name" at the end of the video, which I felt wasn't enough credit based on the services offered. I did more research to find many more similar examples so I knew that this collaborative relationship was very beneficial to the creators. I saw huge future potential in developing a platform which could better connect these individuals together, compensate all individuals involved on production teams, and to accomplish this on a large scale."

It used to be true that only the large powerful entertainment studios were capable of creating quality content that a large audience could enjoy. This is no longer the case as the economics and tools available to the masses have levelled the playing field for virtually anyone with an idea, some talent, the ability to connect with individuals to form a production team, and passion to gain attention on a global scale.

Spidvid is now in private beta and site access is through invite only. Visit Spidvid.com, click "Sign Up", provide your email address to get added to our waiting list, and become part of our production community.

About Spidvid

Spidvid.com is the first social platform where individuals in the video creation industry can connect, collaborate, produce quality content together, and offer credit and compensation to each team member. Spidvid is a property of Socially Collaborative Media Inc.

WinWeb Pitch of the Week

WinWeb Pitch of the Week - Socially Collaborative Media, Inc.

This week’s winner of our competition is Jeremy Campbell, the owner of a small business called Socially Collaborative Media. Jeremy’s innovative company provides a platform for people to connect and collaborate on video projects. We recently spoke to Jeremy to find out more about his business and here is what he had to say:

“Our business is divided into two unique web properties, Spidvid and UnleashVideo. The first of these, Spidvid, is where individuals get together to create video and film entertainment together. Our Spidvid users are able to build up a portfolio and profile, form collaborative teams, post or bid on video production products and then release the completed project through our UnleashVideo website, getting full credit and earning cash for their work.

The company originally began as a video sharing website, but after seeing similar aggregation sites enter the market I was driven by a desire to stand out from the crowd. My first thought was to start a small entertainment studio, but the market was already crowded. I decided to take inspiration from my hero Seth Godin to build a new and original platform instead, with a focus on collaborative projects and letting anyone in the world put together a video / film creation team.

The main obstacle we have faced as a business is trying to gain traction and raise attention for something new and non-traditional. However, we recognise that this is a necessary part of our growth as even Twitter was once a foreign concept to everyone just a few years ago.

In five years time I see Spidvid powering the Web’s open video / film production ecosystem and transforming the studio-closed industry that exists today. I am currently searching for angel investment and capital to build my team and make this dream a reality.”

Jeremy wasn’t satisfied with his business until he had found a niche that wasn’t crowded that he could make his own.

Founder of Spidvid on the Web of Intrigue Podcast

Jeremy, founder of Spidvid has an interesting conversation with co-hosts Marc and Brett of the Web of Intrigue podcast. Topics covered are Spidvid, online video, new media, branded entertainment vs ads, and open video production.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Interview with an entrepreneur: Jeremy Campbell from Spidvid

Entrepreneur Jeremy Campbell didn’t find his business inspiration from a frustration in his own life, he found it in someone else’s writing. His favourite author Seth Godin wrote a lot about connecting people together, collaboration and openness – something that spurred Campbell to start a collaborative video entertainment platform, Spidvid. The company, which launched in late 2009, plans to partner with large video distribution sites next year and is currently distributing content on UnleashVideo. We took a moment to ask Jeremy more about his business inspiration, his challenges growing the business, and his tips for new entrepreneurs.

Sprouter: Tell us about how you got the idea for Spidvid and how you started it.

Jeremy Campbell: My company began its journey by developing and launching a video entertainment sharing site, UnleashVideo. I would contact video creators and filmmakers, then have them upload their content. This was going pretty well in the beginning, but before I knew it there were tons of white label video sites that seemingly popped up over night that really crowded the aggregation space. After tons of brainstorming I realized that original video entertainment was important to my company’s success long-term. I considered starting a small entertainment studio but didn’t really want to enter that traditional space. During this time my favorite author Seth Godin kept writing about connecting people together, collaboration, and openness. I did extensive research to see if a platform existed for the production industry where individuals could connect to form teams, collaborate, and create video entertainment together, and found nothing. So taking these three elements I went back and forth with my development team to come up with a strategy to develop such a platform. Just over a year later in December 2009, Spidvid launched as a beta. All video and film entertainment created by Spidvid’s community is now distributed on UnleashVideo, with future plans to partner with the large video distribution sites in 2011.

S: What were your biggest challenges starting Spidvid?

JC: Since there was nothing like Spidvid online, there were many challenges for developing the platform and building the community. On the development side we had to figure out what features should be core at launch, what the user interface should look like, and how our community would get value from using Spidvid for their production projects. We’ve made many tweaks since launch thanks to our community’s advice and ideas. Building our community has been slow but rewarding. We have advertised Spidvid online, sponsored small film festivals, and even got a great sponsorship deal on a couple niche TV shows, but the most effective way of growing our user base has been through engagement on Twitter, Facebook, and forums. You can’t buy a community, you have to attract one new member at a time, and nurture it daily to earn respect and loyalty.

S: What are the top 3 tips you’d give to early-stage entrepreneurs?

JC: Here are my top three tips, based on my experiences.

1. People are more important then ideas – Whatever your company starts doing will likely not end up being what it ends up doing. Change in direction will more than likely need to happen to achieve sustainable success, and it will be fueled by people both inside and outside of your organization. The startup term commonly used here is pivoting, and many of today’s greatest companies have done it.

2. 2X rule – This means that you will likely spend twice as much money as you originally planned, and it will take twice as long as you originally forecasted. Be sure to add in a buffer for cost and time because chances are they will be needed, and ultimately this element can mean the difference between success and failure.

3. Focus – There are so many “shiny new objects” out there on display. It’s easy to say wow Facebook has 500 million users so if I build something similar I should be able to carve out 1% of the space and succeed. Copy cats hardly ever win, so in most cases you want to do the exact opposite of whatever everyone else is doing and own it. Smart entrepreneurs are always looking for that elusive blue ocean to swim in.

S: How are you getting the word out about Spidvid?

JC: As I mentioned earlier we are building our community and brand mostly through social media marketing. We also sponsor lots of web series and short film projects on sites like KickStarter to help video creators and filmmakers fund their content, and in return ask these people to use Spidvid to manage some of their past and future production projects. It’s all about having an ongoing conversation with individuals we want to attract to our community, and ones already active in our community. We also promote and market the heck out of our member’s projects and video content, so that’s a substantial value added service for getting involved on Spidvid.

S: What’s coming up at Spidvid?

JC: We have some new features in the works on the project management side, access to Spidvid accounts through Facebook Connect, and a couple big interesting ones we strive to launch in early 2011. We are always listening to our community to make tweaks that continually improve their Spidvid experience, and will do anything we can to ensure that our platform remains unique and innovative going forward.

The original interview can be found on Sprouter.

Need a Production Crew To Create a Video? Try Spidvid

BIG idea, check.

Director, videographer, actress, gaffer, best boy, voiceover, animator, editor….wait.

If the only thing standing between you and the creative execution of your big idea is a crew and some talent, you might want to click on over to Spidvid and consider using the power of crowdsourcing (there’s that word again) to excavate the talent you need to transform your creative carbon into a digital gem that will dazzle the Zooppa community.

Spidvid is a social platform that unites and empowers video creators/filmmakers and other like-minded creatives to connect, form production teams, collaborate, create and distribute content, and automatically give credit and compensation back to each team member involved. Teams can include members from any location and be formed locally, nationally, or globally.

For a preview of the digital stylings of the talent pool you will have access to, preview videos created by the Spidvid community at UnleashVideo.

Also worth checking out is the Spidvid blog and Spidcast, where you can listen in on conversations about how to find the talent, leverage the power of collaboration and rethink production while learning about useful tools and resources to make producing videos faster, easier, and more fun. Guests include executives, reporters, actors, writers, directors,producers, music artists, and Spidvid members.

If you have a vision and are ready to embark on your quest towards becoming the next Zoopperstar, then Spidvid just might be the place to start.

You can read the full article on Zooppa's blog here.

Spidvid Mentioned on the Social Media Show

Karim Kanji and Soniya Monga host the Social Media Show, a show that talks about social media (obviously), startups, new media, tech, politics, and other interesting topics. On Halloween this yearSpidvid made its way onto the show which featured GigaOM story teller Matthew Ingram who talks about Mesh Marketing, and an interesting discussion was had about our open video production platform.

What Is Spidvid?

Very rarely to do I promote and throw a website into people’s faces like I do when talking about the content that I am creating but when I talk about SpidVid.com I can’t help but through the URL into people’s faces. SpidVid has changed the way I look at the possibilities of video creation and brought my a little ways back into the days of film school in terms of creating video content.

I came across SpidVid last year while working as the online media coordinator for the 2011 Buttered Corn on the Cob Film Festival. They offered to host and promote the short films that were picked to be Juror Picks. I realized that to in order to explain what SpidVid was going to do for these films I would have to figure out what SpidVid actually did. So I took an old film of mine that went a few film festivals and was a winner on an online film contest. Within a week I got 2,000 views. I was shocked, 2,000 in less then a week.

I once was a online video creator for myspace when that site first launched a section for filmmakers where I was making around $400 a month from a web series I called The Nook. I averaged around 10,000 views a week but I had the backing of myspace as well as my friends and fan base. Plus on Youtube I averaged around 1,000 views with all my videos combined, so yes I was shocked that this website I never heard of could give me 2,000 in less than a week. At the time I was also working on a web series about my cats which was getting around 150 views a days by me resulting in hardcore promoting so I really enjoyed 2,000 views with no work put into it. SpidVid had me hooked and I couldn’t wait to share this with the Juror Picked filmmakers.

That was my first experience with SpidVid, watching my film that I thought was once dead be given a new life online and one of the 2011 Juror Picks get over 5,000 views when the same video on YouTube get around 300. Someone once said that YouTube was crowded, they were right. YouTube has a lot of crap out there and it is hard to shuffle to the good stuff. Yes, I know I might be part of the problem but YouTube is a really easy way for me to share my dog videos with my family. Just wait till I have kids I’ll crowd it up even more.

My second experience with SpidVid comes after the 2011 Buttered Corn on the Cob Film Festival when they decided to front the money for my next project Gen Y. Now I was going to get my hands dirty on the production side via SpidVid. I already knew how production worked on the traditional side of creating film and I knew a little bit about creating web content but I really wanted to create a web series with a continuing story. It really shouldn’t be that hard right.

I found that the part I found the most fascinating about SpidVid would also be the most frustrating. SpidVid is a global social network of filmmakers, each with a talent gift to give to your project. Unlike production in traditional terms where I knew who I was working with, could meet with them on a whim, we all lived in the same area, and I pretty much knew their schedules, SpidVid was completely global and online. I brought people onto my team from all over the world. I have an editor in the UK and a composer in Australia for example. They all have different schedules and different amounts of time they can give to the project. All our communication is done online and even our file exchanges are done online. As I type this blog I have an editor from Canada uploading a scene she has completed this week for me to add to the rest of the episode.

Also SpidVid has been very supportive in the process and even has brought knowledge to the tools we are using online to create this project.

Even though our schedules are different and we live in different time zones SpidVid brings together people who want to form and a team and ultimately create better content than what you would find on YouTube. Yes YouTube might be an online video giant but the content on SpidVid is fresher and will have a lasting impact in the online creative world.

As I read through this blog I see that it is the worst blog to be posted due to it being all over the place but that is exactly how it is when using SpidVid and it isn’t good nor bad it is a change at how online videos are going to be made. There will be global collaborating and SpidVid is ahead of the curve. With this change you will need to adjust how you set your time structure in creating deadlines. Things are going to take longer. You are no longer swapping hard drives but uploading gigs of footage between each other and not everyone has a high speed broadband connection. A benefit though is the Crocodile Mike can upload his work while you sleep and then while he is sleeping you write back his work needs these corrections. The days of looking over the shoulder of your editor is coming to an end.

I am really enjoying what SpidVid has to offer and the changes that they are a part of in the online film community. I am proud to have them be a sponsor again for the 2012 Buttered Corn on the Cob Film Festival. Please visit their website Spidvid.com and I will post next week about what SpidVid has to offer you are filmmakers and web series creators instead of rambling about my experiences with SpidVid.

Original article on Buttered Corn On the Cob Film Festival's blog.