Late to the news, but huge congratulations to Legendary Entertainment for managing to broker a deal with video legend, Felicia Day, for the Geek & Sundry YouTube channel.
Ms Day has a fearsome reputation for insisting on being fairly compensated for her ground-breaking work and keeping control of her intellectual property (it sounds logical, but how many creators have lost these rights to their own work over the years?) In 2009, when The Guild was the subject of intense negotiations with various parties, Ms day stuck to her guns and came out with a deal with MSN/Xbox that allowed her to keep ownership of her work.
It's too early to know what this might mean in terms of cross-platform work, but there is every reason to be excited about this news.
Day reiterated her excitement: "As someone who's been working in digital entertainment for eight years, I am excited to see my company grow with Legendary, and to be able to keep making award-winning content within the changing digital landscape. And as a creator, I look forward to making fantastic things together, bringing projects I am passionate about to all platforms."
It's easy to forget that YouTube was launched less than ten years ago, Amazon is only just ten years old, and iTunes was released less than 20 years ago. In that short time the way entertainment is created and distributed has undergone a phenomenal change. Creators have not always negotiated the new reality well, and future-proofing contracts to protect works is an on-going challenge.
Congratulations to Ms Day (and Kim Evey and Sheri Bryant, who set up Geek & Sundry with Ms Day in 2012) for showing that it is possible to forge your own path and create a future that is, well, legen - wait for it -
Greg Benson has been making videos for ever and knows how to tickle the old funny bone (and then some). Even though a good many of his videos involve pranking members of the public in various ways, he has a fine sense timing and compassion for his victims subjects.
Greg is a good guy, so I shouldn't have been surprised at this new video from MediocreFilms, but I was. This just blew me away:
The concept is simple, but powerful. The execution is brilliant. Mr Benson M.C.s with grace.
A YouTube commentator says it all.
We get to see some of the background work, too, and Greg Aronowitz and his team really helped make the event special.
For every thousand views, $1 is donated to dosomething.org, so feel free to watch it multiple times, and share it with everyone you know.
Freshly baked on http://www.memecreator.org/ this morning
It's Pi Day! An excuse to be cheesy on the inside - and out :)
I might try to recreate a classic from yesteryear [image not available], or I might just cheat and buy a delicious pie and gussy it up. Either way, it's an excuse for flaky, crusty fun...
Someone asked me recently how I could imagine that people I met on the Internet were 'real' friends when we have never talked or even seen each other. They used Facebook to keep in touch with people they knew IRL, but couldn't imagine making new friends via the Internet, and likened them to imaginary friends. It was hard not to pity them.
When we first moved to Canada, some of the first new friends I made were online. They were, and are, more than virtual friends. One of those friends is celebrating her birthday today. Not with fancy-schmancy LA glitz, but with a muscle car, Rock Jocks and home-style cooking. There might even be collard greens. And to start the day right - Twinkies:
Birthday breakfast: first cappuccino I've had in six months, croissant and breakfast Twinkie. Nomz. http://t.co/vcGiEzRQmf
— Felicia Day (@feliciaday) June 28, 2013
JOSS UPDATE AT THE END
Yesterday I had a wonderful time at the Vancouver Can't Stop The Serenity 2013. Gayle and her team of helpers had prepared a fun-packed day and the atmosphere was welcoming and happy.
Saturday's Schedule - subject to change without notice (but probably not) Noon Doors open 12:30 Welcome then Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog sing-along 1:20 Evil Laugh Contest 1:40 Live Auction 2:15 Costume Parade & Prizes 2:30 Whedon Trivia Bingo 3:00 Silent Auction ends; doors close. Prize draws.Special videos & introduction to movie
3:30 SERENITY
5:30 Silent Auction winners announced. Closing remarks and acknowledgements
The sing-along Sing-Along was a traditional way to start everything off and if you've never had the experience of singing "..It's a brand new day, and the sun is high. All the birds are singing that you're gonna die.." with a bunch of other people, then I highly recommend it.
Straight after that was the Evil Laugh Contest, and there were some incredibly strong contenders this year. After each had demonstrated their prowess we were treated to mass laugh-off, which can only be described as a Macabre of Evil Laughs.
A Macabre of Evil Laughs
It came down to the Final Four. Unfortunately I didn't get my iPhone set up quick enough to record 'Inaru', but you can see (and hear) for yourself the high standards of the entries:
After that excitement came the Live Auction. The inaugural auction last year was a huge success, and this year it was MC Alan Douglas (a.k.a. @alalcoolj, The Masked Roger and Father Aloysius Rambo) who whipped up the crowd into a bidding frenzy. With many cries of "Signed by Jewel Staite, you say?" the magnificent prizes were snapped up by an eager mob.
If that wasn't excitement enough, next was the costume competition. Another very strong field this year, and we had quite a time of it trying to decide who should take the prizes:
Firefly and Whedonverse Costume Competition
In the end Kaylee, Malinda and Inaru all claimed prizes.
I had neglected to buy my Bingo cards in time (and not just because I was lining up to sample the sweet treats from C & C Cakery which were, as it happens, delicious), so I could sit back and enjoy the Alan Douglas challenging and delighting the audience with some well-thought-out Whedon Trivia Bingo. The tension in the room was palpable, and after a couple of false dawns, there was a clutch of Bingos all at once.
Then it was rush to get out to the Silent Auction:
Once time was called, it was on to the Main Event. A screening of Joss' Equality Now speech, the CSTS 2013 Equality Now introduction, and then on to Serenity. And, again, if you've never watched Serenity with a crowd of Browncoats you are missing a rare treat.
Joss Whedon's Equality Now speech
I can't thank Gayle and her team enough for such a wonderful day out and I hope everyone enjoyed a well-earned rest today!
JOSS UPDATE
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the fact that Joss is now on Twitter, and how conflicted I felt about that. Well, sad to say that the @JossActual account has now been made private (I'm sure it wasn't anything to do with that post...).
But - fear not! There is now the @JossWhedon account! So all is good with the world. Just don't be tempted to do something like this:
I'm glad I didn't :)
Not content with doubling his presence on Twitter, Mr Whedon has been busy IRL, including making the 2013 Wesleyan Commencement Speech (surprisingly, nothing to do with Wesley Crusher). He was also made an honorary Doctor Of Letters:
I wanted to blog about the 2013 CSTS Vancouver event that's happening on Saturday, and since I have two sets of photos from the 2012 and 2010 events on Flickr I was going to add slideshows for them.
In the old Flickr it was pretty easy. Go to the set, view the slideshow and the link to share it appeared in the top right-hand corner.
Now, I consider myself to be pretty savvy with software. I teach people how to use many different programs, and I'm pretty good at it. But it took me more than 15 minutes to work out how to share using the new Flickr, and I think that's way too long.
The only reason I kept searching is that I was sure I would have heard people complaining about it. I don't want you to have to go through the same thing.
So, here's how you share slideshows in the new Flickr:
1. Select Set
2. Click on any photo in set and locate the three white dots on the bottom right corner:
3. Click on the three dots to reveal a new selection menu. Click on 'View Slideshow':
4. Once the Slideshow pages loads you will see a link to 'Share' in the top right corner:
5. Once you click on 'Share' you will see the link and embed code:
6. You are good to go!
And, to prove it, here's the above screengrabs as a slideshow, courtesy of Flickr :)
We've been attending the Vancouver CSTS event since 2008, and every year we have a ton of fun with costumes, auctions, sing-alongs and, of couse, seeing Serenity on the big screen one more time with the BC Browncoats and friends.
The 8th Annual Vancouver CSTS is on Saturday May 25, 12:30 - 5:30 PM at the MacMillan Space Centre, and promises to be another awesome event.
Check out the awesome auction items on the CSTS Vancouver blog - and find out how you can take part! Keep up to date with all the excitement by following @CSTSVancouver on Twitter, too.
