If you’ve made a buzzer-beating three-pointer, a bending free kick goal, a diving fingertip catch, a walk-off home run or a fantastic play in whatever your sport, this is the chance to show the world what you’ve got.
Go to ESPN’s YouTube channel, check out the rules and submit your great sports video before Tuesday, November 30. SportsCenter’s Emmy-winning producers will select the best videos, which will then be voted upon by the YouTube community. The winner will be flown to ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., for the taping of a special segment on SportsCenter.
Fall sports season is just about to get underway, and we’re hoping to see amazing plays from amateur hoop stars and gridiron heroes across the US. Even if you’re not submitting, come back to the channel to see a gallery of the best submissions throughout the fall.
If you’ve made a buzzer-beating three-pointer, a bending free kick goal, a diving fingertip catch, a walk-off home run or a fantastic play in whatever your sport, this is the chance to show the world what you’ve got.
Go to ESPN’s YouTube channel, check out the rules and submit your great sports video before Tuesday, November 30. SportsCenter’s Emmy-winning producers will select the best videos, which will then be voted upon by the YouTube community. The winner will be flown to ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., for the taping of a special segment on SportsCenter.
Fall sports season is just about to get underway, and we’re hoping to see amazing plays from amateur hoop stars and gridiron heroes across the US. Even if you’re not submitting, come back to the channel to see a gallery of the best submissions throughout the fall.
Today, Argentina becomes the 25th country to get its own version of YouTube. This means that Argentines will be able to more easily discover local talent like GuadalajaraMan, UESiglo21, farolatino, casiangeles or yoteloexplico, as well as view the most popular and most viewed videos in their country.
To experience the new site, head to the bottom of the page, click on the ‘Location’ tab, and select Argentina from the menu:
We’re also teaming up with local broadcasters to ensure that YouTube viewers, wherever you may be, can watch some of the best news, sports and public television videos being made in Argentina today. Such partners include Encuentro, America TV, Boca Juniors and TV Pública. Other Argentine video-makers can apply for partnership at www.youtube.com/partners.
We look forward to working with everyone in Argentina to make the YouTube community even bigger and brighter than it is today.
Ricardo Blanco, Communications Manager, Latin America, and Brian Truong, Product Manager, recently watched “Otakus with English Subtitles.”
Autumn may be upon us soon at YouTube HQ, but that doesn’t mean we can’t think about warmer weather, exotic locations and the thrill of getting away from it all. There’s no shortage of videos on YouTube to inspire travel plans, and our new program Vacationer Presented by NCL brings the best of our partners’ travel content into a single destination.
Whether you’re seriously planning the trip of a lifetime, or just need an excuse to do a little online escapism, Vacationer is packed with reports from authorities in the space, channels like Lonely Planet, National Geographic and the Travel Channel. After all, you don’t need to be following in Anthony Bourdain’s footsteps to enjoy his take on authentic eats in some of the world’s most memorable destinations.
If you do make plans for a cruise, a camping trip or even some close-to-home sightseeing, don’t forget to pack your camera, shoot your own video clips and post them on your YouTube channel. Launching The Vacationer reminds us that millions of people all over the planet turn to YouTube every day to experience new places through fresh eyes. We hope you’ll be inspired to share your own travels with the world at large.
William Jefferson Clinton has worn many hats over the years. He served two terms as the 42nd President of the United States. He founded the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative to tackle problems like global health, poverty, education and climate change. He’s spent much of this year leading the recovery effort in Haiti through the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
And starting now, he’s taking your questions in an exclusive YouTube interview. Hear more about the interview and the President’s work straight from the man himself:
To participate, visit www.youtube.com/citizentube and use the Moderator platform to upload your video question for President Clinton—and vote for the ones you like the best. You can also submit a text question if you can’t record a video.
Later this month, at his annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting, President Clinton will sit down with us and answer a selection of your top-voted questions in our interview.
Submit your question and start voting early! The submission period closes on September 13.
Today on our homepage, we’re featuring a new batch of StoryCorps videos animated by the Rauch Brothers. If you want to be moved by the human experience, watch them now.
StoryCorps is a massive oral history project during which 50,000 everyday people have already interviewed friends and family. A handful of these are transformed by the Rauch Brothers, who look to animate universal stories that capture the joys, struggles and extraordinary lives of regular people. Here, in our ongoing series of Creator’s Corner posts, the animators take you along their creative journey and name the YouTube users who in turn inspire them.
1) What is your process?
We receive an edited voice track from StoryCorps’ Peabody Award-winning production team, which we then research. Time, place and personality of the main characters are all important. After digesting what we’ve learned, we determine which details to leave in, and which to take out in order to tell the story in a clear, engaging, and honest way.
After the initial research, we create character designs, a storyboard, and rough background layouts. When those stages are complete, we move on to animation and final background layouts. The last step is to paint everything and pull it all together in the computer.
2) Sounds like “Danny & Annie” was the first time you met your subjects in person. Was that unusual?
Whenever possible, it’s very important to us to meet the storytellers in our animation. It gives us a chance to get input from them, and helps add authenticity to the final piece. “Danny & Annie” wasn’t the first time we met one of our storytellers — we met the Littmans while working on “Q&A.” Seeing them interact was important for Tim (who draws all the animated characters), because it helped him capture some of their mannerisms in animation.
“Danny & Annie” was the first time we had the opportunity to actually visit the home of one of our subjects. It was particularly important to get good reference photos of their Brooklyn apartment because the majority of the story takes place there. We also referenced some of their wedding photos in the final animation. Through that process, we were able to add authenticity that reflects the documentary nature of the original recording.
3) How close do you try to get to the person’s true likeness? We use photos for reference as we work on character designs, but we find that people are more than just the face one sees on the surface. They have a personality and a spirit that isn’t necessarily captured in a photograph. Luckily, StoryCorps’ terrific recordings of these voices and stories help tell us a lot about what we can’t see in a photo. As StoryCorps founder Dave Isay says, the voice is like a window to the soul. Focusing on that aspect of the people in these stories has been the most effective way for us to capture something that feels honest and real.
4) What do you hope your work conveys? We would like this work to serve as a reminder and a celebration of our shared humanity.
5) Who on YouTube is making great animation? Pes – Pes uses everyday objects in unique and unexpected ways to tell short, funny stories that leave you wanting more. Blu – Animated graffiti takes over the world! Fran Krause – The quirky characters and stories that Fran develops with his brother, Will, are always fun. Nina Paley – Nina tells entertaining stories and makes them freely available to watch, download, and remix. She is an animator perfectly suited for the age of YouTube. Bill Plympton – The King of Indie Animation still reigns supreme.
We’ve had a lot of famous folks sit down for interviews in the past year, like President Obama, Shakira and Katy Perry, but our next subject, with his tony address and instant name recognition, may have celebrity status that tops all the rest.
Through a partnership with Sesame Street, Elmo will answer your burning questions right here on YouTube. So, moms and dads, if your family has ever wondered, “How exactly do you get, do you get, to Sesame Street?” or whether Oscar’s really as grouchy as he seems, here’s your chance to ask. More details from Elmo himself here:
And if you need some extra inspiration thinking up questions, take a spin through some of these Elmo classics:
Upload your video question to the Moderator gadget on Sesame Street’s YouTube channel and vote on the ones you think Elmo should answer by September 15. He’ll answer the top-voted ones in a few weeks.
On July 24, people around the world made history by capturing glimpses of their lives on camera and submitting the videos to Life in a Day, an experiment to create a documentary about a single day on Earth. In total, 80,000 videos were submitted from 197 countries, making this the world’s largest user-generated film. Now, you can explore many of these videos in the gallery on the Life in a Day channel .
To make browsing easy, you can sort videos by geography, time of day, mood and more. The film’s Academy Award-winning director, Kevin Macdonald, and his team are adding more videos to the Life in a Day gallery as they are reviewed, so check back soon for more content. You’ll also find updates from Macdonald and editor Joe Walker as they lead a team of researchers in reviewing and cutting the footage down to the final feature-length film. Remember to subscribe to the channel for more news on the film’s progress as Kevin and producer Ridley Scott gear up for the world premiere in January at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Congratulations again to all of the participants. Thanks for making history.
This post is part of our “BizBlog Series”, which was formerly its own blog. Check back each week to see articles for partners and advertisers on YouTube, or search under the label, “BizBlog“.
In this election season, we’ve been working with political campaigns to understand how best to take advantage of what YouTube has to offer on a free and paid basis for getting their message out. Recently, we hosted a webcast to provide some tips to candidates running for office and advocacy groups campaigning for ballot issues on ways to present your candidate or your issue and engage with your constituents on YouTube. Did you miss it? No problem, we boil it down to 5 key tips for you here:
Tip #1: Search for your candidate or issue on YouTube. What did you find? With 2 billion video views per day, YouTube is the second-largest search engine after Google. You most likely have a search engine strategy for the top search engines – is YouTube included in that plan? If not, what are the top results – is it your opponent’s message or is it one that frames your message in a positive light?
Tip #2: Master your destiny on YouTube. Set a destination for your candidate or issue by signing up for a politician channel. It’s free and enables you to present your candidate or issue using video. Most importantly, it allows voters to find out more information about your campaign and can connect you to on-going efforts (volunteering, donations, or voter information).
Check out the channels for Jerry Brown and Carly Fiorina as examples of candidates running in California.
Tip #3: Consider paid advertising on YouTube. YouTube offers various cost-effective ad formats to help amplify what you may already be doing with other media. Promote your video as a Promoted Video against search results and related videos. Extend your TV ad assets with InStream Ads on YouTube, which we covered last week. Raise broad awareness with a homepage masthead ad or a one-day mobile roadblock. Included with YouTube advertising is free reporting on how your video ads are performing so that you can fine-tune your message and placement.
Tip #4: Engage in conversation with your constituents. Use free tools such as YouTube Moderator and video responses to start your dialogue. You can ask viewers to vote on topics they would like you to address. You can also hold weekly “chats” or an online “town hall” to directly answer their questions posed via YouTube Moderator or video responses.
For example, Texas gubernatorial candidate Bill White recently used Moderator to collect supporter feedback on curriculum standards.
Tip #5: Consult www.youtube.com/youchoose for more information. This site lists the resources described above and more. Use it to decide which tools work best for your campaign objective and budget. Whatever your issue or whomever your candidate, YouTube has an audience waiting to engage with you.
President Obama set a deadline of August 31, 2010 for ending the combat operation in Iraq and shrinking the U.S. footprint there to no more than 50,000 troops. Tonight, at 8 P.M. ET, the President will address the country from the Oval Office about the status of this effort. You can tune into a live-stream of the speech on YouTube at www.youtube.com/whitehouse — where you’ll also be able to ask the White House follow-up questions on the future of American involvement in Iraq in a special Moderator series. Click here to submit your question now.
If you miss the live address and the Q & A, tune in to Citizentube afterwards where we’ll feature the President’s remarks, the Q & A, and the Republican response to the Administration’s plan in Iraq.
