Brian Kameoka's blog

The Guild - Mucho Grande Burrito (a social media success story)

A couple of weeks ago a fan on Jeff Lewis's Facebook Fan Page asked, "has anyone else seen the Taco Bell training video that Jeff starred in?" Jeff replied that he was "speechless" as the video was probably ten years old.  According to Robert (the fan), he worked at Taco Bell at one point and thought this video was hilarious so he asked his manager if he could have the extra copy that had been sent to his store.  This was long before there was a web series called The Guild or a character named Vork.  Unfortunately, Robert had no way to convert & upload this gem from VHS.  So I messaged him and said "hey, I do have a way to convert & upload - if you send it to me I'll get it up on YouTube and mail it back to you."  So, through the magic of an Elgato Video Capture Device, social networking, a super cool fan of The Guild, this brilliant gem can now be shared.

I know that social media has made it's mark on global politics, changed the way we communicate, and done things like help an independent show like The Guild reach new audiences daily.  But it also helps unearth such rare gems like this Mucho Grande Burrito video.  Remember, it is by far the largest burrito on our menu:

YouTube Decides for You: Always Show Captions

One of my duties as marketing coordinator for The Guild is to manage the show's YouTube channel.  On Friday I uploaded the first episode of Season 3 and added the English and Portuguese subtitles.  Everything seemed to go smoothly, but I noticed that the English subtitles seemed to be on by default, and I wondered if I had configured something wrong on the video or channel.  After some investigating, I discovered that this is not configured at the channel level, but at the individual user (viewer) level.

What's worse is it appears that YouTube has decided to default all users to "always show captions" as part of the new implementation of auto captions announced here. (link to YouTube blog post).

So, quick user tip, here's how to turn this off* (with screen shot below):

1. While logged in to your YouTube account, go to "account" (under your username)
2. In "Account Settings" scroll down to "Playback Setup"
3. Under "Captions" uncheck the "Always Show Captions" option
4. Hit the "Save Changes" button at the bottom

 

While this may only be a minor annoyance to the individual user, this decision by YouTube really affects content creators who are already using captioning.  The Guild has a large international following plus a significant number of deaf or hard of hearing fans who rely on the subtitles.  YouTube is great for sharing a show like The Guild worldwide, and because of the hard work of a lot of dedicated fan volunteers, the show is available subtitled in many languages.

However, the decision to set captions on by default without announcing it is effectively blindsiding users and content creators with a change in functionality.  While I applaud YouTube for having easy to use captioning capability, and believe the auto-captioning is a really cool development, this poor decision has made captions a sore subject and will potentially annoy many users.  The Guild has over 170,000 subscribers on its channel and we're now fielding tons of "why did you turn captions on?!" complaints in comments.  What's worse is that if a user is not logged in, the default is also to run captions.

Not cool, YouTube.  It would have helped if you had given users a heads up to this.

* Note that as of writing, I've turned this off on my personal account yet YouTube is still serving captions to me.

And, shout out & thanks to @worldofhiglet and @osiramon for replying to me on twitter when I first was trying to figure this out, and to @maxsummers, The Guild's translation coordinator.  Also, the amazing and brilliant Gina Trapani mentioned this issue on TWiG (I had emailed her suggesting this as a possible tip of the week).

What is The Guild?

Yesterday I blogged that it was one year since my affiliation with The Guild began.  I thought I'd back up and give you an introduction to The Guild, and start with the simple question "What is The Guild?"  Sure you could go to Wikipedia or The Guild's website, but here are my words on the subject...

What is "The Guild?"

The Guild is a comedy web series about six online gamers, created by Felicia Day, who writes, produces and stars in the show.

What is a "web series?"

A web series is a TV show, but on the internet.  In the case of The Guild, it's like a sitcom.  Think "Friends" but shorter form (four to eight minute episodes).  In fact, Kim Evey (who produces The Guild with Felicia) has called The Guild as "'Friends' but with gamers" and I think that's apt.

There are now lots of web series out there.  Sometimes web series (or webisodes) are extensions of traditional television shows, like "LOST: Missing Pieces" or "Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy" but there are a bunch of great web series being produced independently that are standalone series.  There are two websites that are great starting points to learn about these many web series, NewTeeVee and Tubefilter.  You can also search Twitter every Wednesday to look for web series suggestions from Twitter users.  The first web series I saw was Kim Evey's hilarious Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine show, which you can see here.

How did "The Guild" come about?

The Crocker Art Museum

Since May of last year I've been working at the Crocker Art Museum as marketing specialist, but yesterday was my last day as I've had a few great opportunities come my way and have decided to pursue them.  But more on that later.  I wanted to write a blog entry about the Museum and how it was a great place to work, staffed with wonderful people.  Now is an incredibly exiting time for the Crocker as the 125 year old museum is set to open it's expanded "New Crocker" on October 10th of this year (yes, 10/10/10).  So, I'm sad that I will not be a staff member on opening day, and I will miss the marketing team which I was honored to be a part of.  Lead by Marketing Communications Director LeAnne Ruzzamenti, the team of Mark, Michele, Kathleen, Gregg and Anna was a fun group to work with, and I'll miss working with them.  The department was one I always admired and respected since I first moved to Sacramento.  Great marketing ideas and implementation.

I'm proud of my accomplishments at the Crocker, where I was focused primarily on social networking in addition to helping maintain the website and serve as one of the editors of the quarterly member magazine ArtLetter. I'm particularly pleased with the establishment of the Crocker's Facebook Fan page which in less than nine months has grown to over 4,200 fans and is one of the largest and most active pages in Sacramento.  I also established the Crocker on Twitter and YouTube and worked on its Flickr page.  It's funny, I had intended to post a blog entry when I got hired using the black "I am the New Crocker" button but never got around to it, and now it's been supplanted by the new New Crocker button.

Failed "Glee" Auditions

Check out the latest video from Greg Benson of Mediocre Films - "Failed 'Glee' Auditions."  It's a shame he didn't get cast - he's done a ton of TV and film work so I'm surprised that Glee didn't hire him.  He really nailed some of those auditions.  If you haven't checked it out yet, Glee is a hilarious new show on Fox.

 

I was in LA over the weekend to do some work for The Guild and Greg roped me in to help him with this shoot - so I was the cameraman for this shoot.  Greg's amazing - this vid was pitched, written, shot and edited (and now posted!) within a matter of days.  But that should come as no surprise if you follow his work - on his new MediocreFilms2 Channel on YouTube, he posted a new video every day in July, and then he's continued to post a new one almost every day since.  Subscribe to his stuff - it's very funny.

Sacramentjoe Episode 2: California State Fair

Just posted Episode 2 of 'Sacramentjoe' - Joe and I trekked out to the California State Fair for this one. What resulted includes cinnamon roles, livestock, bellydancing, and a terrible Schwarzenegger impression. Oh, and Joe hits on a Pea (you gotta see it to understand).

Here's the episode:

Come check out 'Sacramentjoe' - 2 episodes so far plus a few "vlogs" (video blogs), all of which are available on our YouTube Channel.  Hope you'll subscribe on YouTube, and we'd also love it if you would connect with us on the various social networking sites:

http://myspace.com/sacramentjoe
http://facebook.com/sacramentjoe
http://twitter.com/sacramentjoe

There was a delay between episodes 1 and 2, but episode 3 is actually ready to go.  We'll leave it up to our viewers - once we get 500 hits for episode 2 we'll post 3.  Enjoy!  Thanks for watching...

More from Comic-Con: Pictures and Video

I was really looking forward to using my new camera on the trip to Comic-Con and I was able to grab a bunch of great pictures.  There was so much to see and photograph, and you can check out my Flickr sets for many of the photos I took.  One of my favorites is this one of Belle Chere as Red Sonja.  While at Comic-Con I posted my photos to several groups (this is one of the great powers of the social networking features of photo-hosting sites, being able to tag and share content from live events can instantly give you a worldwide audience).  Very quickly this photo became viewed by the hundreds, and then thousands, favorited, commented, etc.  What's even cooler to me is that someone commented asking if that was Belle Chere.  I had no idea who she was - but before long Belle Chere herself posted a comment saying "That's me!" and asking if she could use the photo on her site.  Turns out she's a well-known cosplayer and works by day as a theatrical costumer.  Pretty awesome - if you'd like to see more of her amazing costume work, check out her webpage here.

In addition, I spent some time hanging with Greg Benson of Mediocre Films and helped him to shoot some stuff.  We filmed a bunch of stuff walking around, but the first thing that made it up to his YouTube channel was this prank about throwing away handbills:

I loved this prank and had a hard time suppressing my laughter as we shot it.  Greg was actually drawing a crowd as he did this.  The next day, the video had something like 40,000 hits - I was amazed, but Greg said that with those numbers, for him, it hadn't gone viral, it wasn't really hitting and people weren't passing it around.  It was fascinating hanging out with him and learning some of the nitty gritty of YouTube videos.  The other video I filmed was the famed "stripper bus" that was transportation for the cast of The Guild on the day of the panel:

Fun stuff.  Greg is a YouTube star and I love his stuff.  He has two channels on YouTube - Mediocre Films and Mediocre Films2 and I recommend subscribing to his stuff (you can also be a fan on Facebook here).

Sacramentjoe - new web series about Sacramento

Check out 'Sacramentjoe' - a web series I created with Joe Styron.  We just finished and posted episode 1 to YouTube.  Hope you'll subscribe on YouTube, and we'd also love it if you would connect with us on the various social networking sites:

http://myspace.com/sacramentjoe
http://facebook.com/sacramentjoe
http://twitter.com/sacramentjoe

Here's the trailer, and below that is episode 1.

Social Networking workshop w/League of Sacramento Theatres

Chris McSwain (Twitter: @ChrisMcSwain) and I are presenting a workshop on social networking next week for the League of Sacramento Theatres.  Space is limited, and the League is handling RSVP's, so if you're interested contact me and I'll put you in touch with the right person.

If you're not familiar with the League of Sacramento Theatres, check them out at SeeAPlay.com 

Social Networking on the Web 101
A League of Sacramento Theatres Marketing Workshop

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogging and MySpace ... gibberish? confusing? a way to kill time online? Perhaps, but also a practically free way to engage current and potential audience members. The session will introduce various online social networking sites, talk about what works and doesn't work, and give tips on increasing the number of your fans, friends and followers. Learn innovative ways to entertain your audience and promote your productions on the Web. Bring your Internet success and horror stories to share.  Presented by Chris McSwain and Brian Kameoka on Monday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m.

 

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