Have you ever wanted to pick up a video camera and make a short video or film, but felt intimidated by your lack of knowledge? The explosion of film-making for websites and mobiles gives people and organisations the opportunity to tell their stories and show what they have to offer, at low cost. This collection of exciting videos features The Open University’s experienced team of filmmakers, who will show you some of the craft secrets that underpin good filmmaking, and how professionals stay up to date. You will learn the basics of editing, how to conduct an interview, the role of the producer and other crew members and how to archive your finished project. This material forms part of The Open University course T156 Digital film school.

What is a microbe and what have they ever done for us? From Black Death to Cholera, and Syphilis to Typhoid, microbes have been responsible for some of the world’s most devastating diseases. But they have also provided the human race with the technological advances of genetic engineering and nitrogen fixation, the vision of life on Mars, the life-saving properties of antibiotics and food preservation, along with the wonderful taste of beer. Using expert commentary, animation and stylised visuals, these videos provide an engaging introduction to microbiology, by examining the impact microbes have had on humans through a historical perspective, from Egyptian times to the present day.

"I used to prefer Vimeo over YouTube. Vimeo was always a bit better in quality, had a nicer looking player and website. Most importantly, it had a more mature and tasteful community. So when I released my game TRAUMA, it was a no-brainer to publish the trailer for it on Vimeo. It was an arty project that was made exactly for the kind of audience I would meet on Vimeo.

Today, I’m regretting that decision…"

"However, one thing that has become increasingly difficult to find has been anything related to video games. Specifically, indie video games. Vimeo's long been the go-to space for heralded indie titles like Sword and Sworcery to tease viewers with glimpses of in-development games. Yet, indie devlopers are finding themselves running afoul of an edict that forbids video of gameplays for users at the Basic and Plus levels of membership. To have gameplay videos hosted, users must purchase the Pro level at a cost of $199/year. That may not seem like a lot, but considering how many indie games get made by one- or two-person teams with no other source of income, it can be a big difference.

After seeing a flurry of tweets about the Vimeo policy earlier today, Kotaku reached out to Independent Games Festival chairman Brandon Boyer for his take on the situation. His editorial follows:"

"But wait… That wasn’t all they did. They disabled embedding of all content on our site, even the things we had made ourselves. Sure, the videos were still available by going directly to Vimeo.com and going into our account, but embedding was gone, so every occurrence of a video on our site was replaced with a block that said “embedding has been disabled for this site.”"

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

According to David Pogue, Apple says they’ve rewritten the app to accommodate changes on the technological landscape. What could these changes possibly be? Could it be that Apple has a very clear and well-rendered vision of the future of video? Could it be that the Apple sees a future where source material is assembled in real time by an engine that works on the viewer side rather than the author side? Where editing is something that happens in process of distribution, and not (as it has always been) well before? Think of this new vision of video as the HTML5 to Flash. Where elements are lightweight and rendered on the fly, rather than pre-baked and packaged into chunky deliverables. I firmly believe that this is Apple’s vision of the future of video and media, and that Final Cut Pro X is a new, bold (ill-timed and hastily executed) flagship to support this vision.

Paper Record Player by kellianderson // This is a wedding invitation for my friends Karen and Mike. We created a paper record player to house + play a flexi disc pressed with their original song, inviting guests to the wedding.

Check out the full song here: http://karenandmike.us/song.mp3

And more

Getting the Meeting by Merlin Mann // This? This is an extremely full-of-shit man.

Try as you might, you can't walk in a straight line without a visible guide point, like the Sun or a star. You might think you're walking straight, but as NPR's Robert Krulwich reports, a map of your route would reveal you are doomed to walk in circles.

Funny song about the elements in the periodic table.

“No Flickr, you have it wrong. I don’t need to install anything. I just need to use a different site to host my video which properly supports modern web technologies.”

What I will talk about is how I (and you, of course) can use the Web to find content for your talks, record them, share them with others and save them for future audiences. I’ll also explain how to share it all for free and how to convert closed formats into open ones by using the Web.

Tech N9ne explains how he comes up with his incredible flows and how he manages to deliver them on stage.

Giant Steps – A music animated short film (2:15 minutes) to John Coltrane’s masterpiece.<br />
When I listen to music I see colors and shapes and when I watch visual art I hear sounds. I wanted to express my sensing of shapes, colors and music in this short animation.<br />
I chose this piece because I’ve struggled to play it for many years and I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of it.“Giant Steps” was also a major breakthrough in the history of Jazz music.  It was the first time that music was based on symmetrical patterns, which stemmed from a mathematical division of the musical scale.<br />
I translated Coltrane’s mathematical approach to architecture. His musical theme defines a space and the musical improvisation is like someone drifting in that imaginary space.

Pummelvision flashes your life before your eyes using photos from around the web.

Are you curious about how to make videos but can't tell a camcorder from a coffee maker? Do the terms 'pan' and 'tilt' conjour up thoughts of tv cooking shows instead of movie making terminology? Or maybe you're tired of always being the audience member and want to start making videos yourself? Well look no further, Video 101 is here! Join the friendly Vimeo Staff as we cover all the basics of shooting and editing videos you can be proud of. We've handcrafted these lessons for beginners of all backgrounds, check it out!

If you've shot a video on your camera but have no idea where to go from there, then open up your eyes and ears and prepare to be enlightened! This lesson is for Mac users.

By constantly saving the previous few seconds of video before you hit record, Precorder lets you wait until something interesting happens to start recording, and you'll never miss a precious moment or get stuck with hours of boring video to painstakingly edit down.

When people think about how to start screencasting, they often forget that screencasting is not only a very interesting way of showing something quickly, comprehensibly and easily; it’s also a way of advertising their products. It’s a shame to see how many websites out there lack a beautiful looking screencast, as this can make products look a lot more attractive to potential customers.

At the 99% Conference, veteran storyteller Jay O'Callahan illustrates how stories tap into our imagination, engage those around us, and inspire amazing achievements. Stories, he argues, are what make us alive.

Super slo-mo video of popcorn popping: http://bit.ly/aw5Gm4

Remembering Mississippi John Hurt, who died November 2, 1966. RIP. http://bit.ly/cFu65H via @slarkpope
who sez this video is magic
– henrietta walmark (ettagirl) http://twitter.com/ettagirl/status/29502685750

Hailed as the “godfather of Brooklyn pizza,” for forty five years Domenico DeMarco, Italian émigré and father of seven, has been slinging pizzas in his legendary corner shop, Di Fara. Employing five of his children, Dom works tirelessly from morning until night hand crafting each and every pizza himself while his kids take orders and manage the mob of devoted pizza aficionados. The Best This I Ever Done is a portrait of DeMarco and his beloved pizzeria, an exploration of his rise to fame and an ode to pizzaioli who take their time to 'make it right.'

Bizarre Flashback: How People Thought About Twitter in 2007: http://bit.ly/cSNHlh

Jason Schwartzman introduces the New Yorker iPad App. Great video: http://bit.ly/94Pvwt

I gave a version of my “Dark secrets of the blogging superstars” preso to a group of news directors from public radio stations (including a couple of our Argo stations). The Knight Digital Media Center has posted a video of the session online. Feel free to take a look. Slides used during the session are below.

Wow. Utterly dream-like: HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II's http://vimeo.com/14821961

Online degrees and video courses from leading universities.

The complete interview with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs at the D5 Conference.

You're about to watch a future history of the media by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson, with music by Aaron McLeran.

Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy -- and our own self-awareness.

Interactive video built in HTML5 and featuring music from Arcade Fire.

Back to work today after a superb break. Cee-Lo's song couldn't be more appropriate: http://t.co/xFCmpMZ

Michael Jackson’s 1983 “Thriller” remains the most popular music video of all time: a 14-minute horror spoof that changed the business. Behind the scenes it gave its star a temporary home with director John Landis, sparked a near romance with actress Ola Ray, and revealed how damaged the young pop idol already was.

RT @tcarmody: Was sure this was an Onion headline; it isn't. RT @stribs Cisco Fails With Old Spice Copycat Campaign http://j.mp/b2XUUa

Video: "Bold Ideas & Insane Possibilities." Merlin on connections, intimacy, and visiting Safeway in your underwear. http://i-0.us/MANN-wv10
– Merlin Mann (hotdogsladies) http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/statuses/17041977268

RT @pgoricha: The OK Go Video: Playing With the Speed of Time http://shar.es/mzK7q