I’ve moved this blog to a hosted WordPress solution- it can be found at www.willvideoforfood.com.

If you’re reading this via RSS, please replace this feed with: http://willvideoforfood.com/feed/

Sorry about the switch, but this allows me to embed video, optimize for search engines, and customize some of the features and functionality.

Please jump over, and join the forum too!

Hi. This location of the WillVideoblog is going dark on WordPress, because I’ve moved WillVideoForFood to my own hosted solution. I’d like to thank Jan, TrippleHelix and the kind folks from Revver who helped make this happen. Asi, you are amazing.

To subscribe via RSS to the new posts, please use this URL:

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I’m still trying to figure out how you can subscribe to the comments via RSS. Anyone have any ideas?

But in the meantime, please bookmark willvideoforfood.com.

Note that the new WillVideoForFood has a sidebar on the right with links to other things, and embedded videos via Revver.

A lot of interactive agencies are now pitching clients on the value of online video to promote products and services. But how many of them are brave enough to throw themself in the mix?

At a recent “lunch and learn” for Atlanta-based “Spunlogic,” I spoke about online-video marketing to some major media and marketing companies. I’ve posted the presentation, titled “Online Video Marketing” publicly.

After the presentation, the Spunglogic founder helped me pull this prank video (Drunk Interviews) on some of the employees. Here are the outtakes.

I’m coming out of the closet as an 8.5 fan of NBC’s “The Office.” This new video (titled ‘The Office’ Obsessed Fan”) is directed toward the creators and actors of “The Office.” It’s rated 5th highest “video of the day” on YouTube and the second most discussed. So hopefully the staff finds it. (Click “more” to see transcript of this video, done by the wonderful Jan L.).

I have a parasocial relationship with you, and can’t wait to meet you at The Office Convention on October 27 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. My wife (wifeofnalts) was born and raised near Scranton, and I plan on stalking the cast for a collaboration video. If you readers and viewers would like to join me, please do. But don’t stalk me, because I’ll be busy stalking the cast.

Some important links for other fans of “The Office”:

• The official “The Office” store at NBC
• Office Tally blog with audio files (be sure to get permission before using from theme song creator Jay Ferguson and The Scrantones.
• Dunderdall: An Office Fan Site
• Dwight’s Blog: Schrute Space
• Life in the Office: Blog and fan site
• NBC Blog on “The Office”
• FanPop fan site of “The Office”
• Kate Flannery blog (the official “Office” drunk)
• Pam (Jenna Fischer) MySpace page
• Is Your “The Office” fan site not listed? Please post in comments. I’ll moderate since URLs get automatically moderated.

Just to document that my obsession with The Office is not new. Some previous WillVideoForFood blog posts:

• My video with Grant watching “Mr. Poop” (May 2006)
• My failed pursuit to get permission from NBC for using above clip
• My quest for the Dwight Bobblehead (August 2006)
• My Writers: a series of my videos that blatantly rip off “The Office”
• The Office video contest
• The Office viral video campaign
• The Office viral video campaign- winners

Digg This.

Thanks, Jan for transcribing!!!!

“This video is directed at everyone involved with the
creation of The Office; television show on NBC.

Ahh quick introduction, I’m Nalts. I’ve made some 500
videos on Youtube; kind of a big deal there.

Ahh, but I’ve never been so nervous as this one; I
mean just addressing you guys is….

Alright, three ground rules. For anybody else that is
watching this not involved with the office.

First of all, there will be no calling me obsessed.
Okay? Cause you all got your own obsessions.
Some view high school musicals [unintelligible]

Second of all, there will be no comparisons of the
British version and the U.S. version, they are both
fantastic; in their own rights.

And third of all if anybody dares to make a negative
comment about The Office I’m gonna remove it, and I
don’t usually bikini wax my comments, but I will.

Okay, back to the staff and this is directed at
everyone from Steve Carell to the person who does Ed
Helm’s makeup (lay off the pancake sweetie it’s a
little much).

Three things. First of all I’m a level 8.5 fan, which
means I represent no imminent danger, but I’m obsessed
with you, okay?

Ahhh, I don’t, ya know, have a blog about The Office.
I don’t run a chapter of the fan club, ya know I don’t
bid on Janet Fisher’s stuff on ebay and I’m not gonna
dress up like Dwight on Halloween, but I’m committed
to the show.

Second of all I can not wait to meet you guys on
October 27th in Scranton at Office convention I just
bought my two tickets for 50 bucks a pop.

[Kay, realize I ‘m coming across as a crazy 9 level
fan]

Ah, but I want to make a collab video, ahh with any of
you that ah that are there. Collab video is what we
call, eh, when we collaborate with et uh… Nevermind!
I’m just gonna, I’m gonna be your ticket onto on line
video.

Um, so I know you are big in the main stream, but if
you’re in a video with me that’s your ticket, okay?
That’s your ticket.

And thirdly! What was thirdly? See I’m so nervous
See it’s not just caffeine. Okay I’m just gonna take a
deep breath I’ll be right back.

Oh! I remember my third point. I got a bunch of links
to other videos and what I would I would like to pitch
to you guys is that you do video about online video
where someone [unintelligible] watching online video
and you play one of these videos, I mean that would be
a dream come true!

Calm blue ocean
Calm blue ocean

Calm blue ocean

But let me start with Steve Corell ah with whom I have
so much in common. I mean we got um a list we share
we’re both Catholic, I got one shoulder lower than the
other so do you, you were educated in Massachusetts
and Ohio, me too! Ah, I’ve got two kids roughly your
age and sometime we have play dates together. Ah. it’s
not real play dates, it’s kind of ah thing that goes
on in my mind, it’s part of Para Social Relationship
with you and the other people in the Office. Sometimes
we just hang out; ya know like you me and Stewart and
Colbert um we just head out, hang out and have drinks.
But ya all, all of this in my mind

Do you think anyone has a Para Social Relationship
with me like I have with the people in the Office?

It’s much more comfortable being on the other side of
the Para Social Relationship.

Angela I am so sorry about your cat dying.

Dwight sure who is only second only to Christopher
Walken is one of the best staring people on SNL. I
mean it’s looks Shakespearean like acting, beautiful
stuff and not everybody can act as well as you.

Take BJ Novak, the temp, Okay? Sorry BJ, she’s not
that great of an actress either, but she’s got two
other things going for her. But there’s hope for you,
because Janet Fisher did not start out as a really
good actress, but she’s refined over ti…

Jim, every time you look at the camera. I know you’re
looking at me.

And and Jim and Pam you’re so cute I just want to put
you in my pocket. and just take you everywhere

Look at you two!

To say all I can say is that my marriage is at rocks
when you two aren’t in sync and now, okay someone else
is pulling up, this is creepy.

Let me say something about Kevin Malone. Okay, you
guys need to give him more lines, that stuff is
hysterical. Sometime when the other members of the
office where refer to him; his name on the show is
Kevin, I pretend that they’re talking to me.
Ed Helms besides the pancake batter face, when you
fell over in that sumo costume and landed in the
water, I had to rewind that like 50 times. I can’t
even watch The Office in less than two hours, because
I have to keep replaying and replaying.

Let me say something also to this writer of the resent
the resent Entertainment Weekly. How dare you! How
dare you begrudge The Office for not being let in on
future plots. I don’t want to know what’s gonna happen
of the future episodes of The Office. I had to turn
off closed captioning last night because it was
feeding me your lines before you deliver um folks.

Ahhhhh Dwight!

Would like to see more of Roy and Daryl. Get um
upstairs, bring um back.

Okay, I gotta get to work, gotta get to work! And if
my office is not nearly as interesting as yours, but
do me a favor let’s do a cal lab video, stick some of
my videos in the show; would make me so happy, so
happy.

I’ll just end with, keep it up. Keep doing what you’re
doing. This show will Never jump the shark. Never!

It’s gonna be like M.A.S.H..

It’s gonna be like a final episode where they all go
different ways and I’m gonna cry. And I’ve only cried
two times watching TV shows. Once, when Jim and Pam
were fighting, and then the other time was with
Charlotte’s Web. Ya know, when Charlotte
left…Wilbur….and the little eggs flew off…

“Good bye… goodbye…”

“Oh don’t go you all can’t go!”

“We’re going out in the world to make webs for
ourselves.”

“Wait a minute, you can’t all go!””

I’m working on a post that summarizes some of the recent statistics related to online video, and I’m hoping YouTube will share some recent stats. I’m also hoping I can post some of the data I source via Hitwise in my day job (with permission).

In the meantime, I found this Profy post titled “ComScore Releases Internet Video Report.” Here’s the full report, based on July stats, from ComScore. ComScore gets its stats from a panel of online consumers. Hitwise gets its data from ISPs, so the sample size is much larger.

Highlights:

• 75% of online users are watching videos (frequency obviously varies dramatically). That’s up 4% from 4 months earlier.
• YouTube claims 27% of the market by the end of July. That comes out to about 2.5 billion videos viewed.
• Comscore’s research shows Yahoo! edging out Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Interactive Media, proprietor of MySpace and Photobucket by about 100 million in terms of videos viewed.

Some of this doesn’t make sense, but that could be a function of ComScore’s sample size or methodology.

If you have any other stats or site, please list them below. I know WordPress pushes hyperlinks into a moderated cue, so I’ll try to keep my eye on them!

I feel like I need to shed light on a recent controversy regarding my use of promotional videos. Feel free to comment and Digg this post if you like.

The vast majority who watch my videos are receptive to an occasional promotional video. Take my recent “Poor Man’s GPS” video I did for GPSManiac as an example. The video quickly became the second-highest rated “comedy of the day” on YouTube. And If you read the comments from viewers, they mostly found the video entertaining. I’m always transparent when I make a paid video.

As George Clooney recently said, “I’m not going to apologize to you for trying to make a living every once in a while.”

Still, I’ve recently been attacked by some members of “The YouTube Underground.” Apparently this group is in the midst of an “operation” that targets me for what they see as perverse self promotion and manipulation. During SouthTube (a YouTube gathering last weekend in Atlanta) I met a former member of this bazaar group. Mike Skehan gave me some insights into these people, and helped me understand why they prefer not to be labeled as “Haters.”

Last week I made a parody of some of the outlandish comments I’ve received recently, and as a result of Skehan’s insights I changed the name from “Scripted by Haters” to “Scripted from Negative Comments.” You may want to watch it — it’s kinda funny when you hear some of their weird comments out of context.

Despite my initial instinct to parody their absurdity, I won’t deny the attack got to me. You’ll see my thoughts on this in this 10-minute reflection I posted on one of my alternative YouTube accounts (it’s rather dull). Most of my YouTube friends tell me to ignore this stuff, and not to let it bother me. They can’t understand why it gets to me or why I give it any attention.

But I’ve been thinking about the fact that most YouTubers who get attacked simply want the controversy to go away. Almost every “famous” YouTuber becomes the victim of some attack… Renetto, HappySlip, LisaNova. YouTube “weblebrities” get bashed, and sometimes they’re embarrassed so they ignore it. In fact it’s frightening when you become targeted by people full of anger even if it’s probably an inevitable part of “putting yourself out there.” Renetto once got literally stalked by a “hater” and ultimately had to get the FBI involved. You don’t know if they’re just being quirky or if they’re downright lunatics who could be a threat to you or your family.

In one video, a person who calls himself “TheeStranger” does an “expose” on me, and reveals private information like my real name and the appraisal value of my house. He later apologized for listing my real name (and made this response video), but it’s still freaky when someone has researched where you live. Will someone show up at my home and attack me or my family? Even more frightening than TheeStranger is Samtwist who has made several videos that attack me: Nalts Cheats, Nalts Whores, The Underground, and Naltsferatu.

What motivates these people?

Some of them will tell you they’re serving some important cause. Why else would they invest hours and days making videos that harass you? In some cases, I believe their cause is legitimate. They want YouTube to be a community not a website that has advertising and promotion. I feel like there’s a great role for entertaining promotion, and most YouTubers are happy about receiving free content and perfectly willing to see advertising to avoid paying for content.

Ironically, the group accuses me of self promotion, but many of their videos are simply designed to get attention for themselves. This, to me, is a greater crime than using YouTube to advertise a legitimate product or service. It’s sad when someone uses anger and attacks on others to get attention, instead of creating something interesting, educational, artistic or funny.

So this will be the last time I give this controversy any attention. Writing this post, in fact, arguably gives them more attention then I’d like for them to have, and I’m sure they’re thrilled to have it. But YouTube should be about entertainment, community and art. And there’s also a role for marketing — especially since I’m not compensated for the 30 hours I spend making comedic videos (except for a modest income I receive from YouTube’s “Partner Program,” in which I receive a small portion of the advertising that appears with my videos).

What are your thoughts? Positive or negative. Bring them on…

Every few days someone asks me what video camera to buy. Unless I happen to be “in the market” I don’t track closely. But I do trust Consumer Reports, and just received an issue ranking the top camcorders.

Note: My guide to buying a video camera can be found here.

What Format: Mini DV, DVD, Hard Drive, Combination?

The Consumer Reports “best buy” is a Panasonic SDR-H18 but it’s $430 and is a hard-drive model. I prefer the MiniDV for two reasons — first you’re always near a store that sells those little digital 8 mm tapes if you run out of space. Second, if my computer and camera blows up, at least I have the tapes. That said, most equipment malfunctions are related to moving parts. I suppose a tape recorder has more than a hard drive. Still, I’ve been burned too many times by crashed hard drives and few tapes have let me down.

Sorry. Not sold on these models that burn DVDs. I suppose it’s easier, but some models (the Hitachi DZ-GX5020A) gets 18 minutes of the best quality. 18 minutes per DVD? Puleez.

Bottom Line

So for the typical amateur, I’d recommend sticking with a simple Mini-DV model. The three Consumer Reports winners are the Canon ZR800, the Panasonic PV-GS80 and the Sony DCR-HC28.

I like Canon. I use the Digital Rebel for still photos and the Canon HV20 for my videos. No problems with either of them. The Canon HV20 takes longer than I’d like to “boot up” and the audio is poor. But the images are quite nice for its $1,000 price. For most amateurs, however, a prosumer $1000 camera is total overkill (unless you want high definition and have plenty of money).

So I’d go with the Canon ZR800. It’s listed at Amazon.com for $209 even though Consumer Reports lists it as $255. I get a lot of my impulse buys from BestBuy, but they’re listing it at $254 (but watch the circulars if you don’t want to wait for shipping).

It’s not perfect. Read the C-Net report so you know of some limitations, and the Amazon user reviews are mixed. It got a mediocre review, but so did the Panasonic. I also use PCMag to compare cameras, but the Canon ZR800 wasn’t listed.

The folks behind Xlntads.com (the contest site that connects brands and video creators) were good enough to let me hijack their studio for my fake election videos (”Embarassing TV Appearance” and “Embarassing TV Appearance part 2“). Famed YouTuber, Renetto, makes a cameo in these.

So the least I could do was talk about Xlntads for a series being featured on iMediaConnection.com. Check it out.

You can also hear from the Acting CEO of Xlntads, Neil Perry, who talks about how marketers can get quality video content cost efficiently by leveraging amateurs. The former McDonald’s executive also plays my campaign manager in the above-mentioned videos.

Disclaimer: I’m leading the creator advisory board for Xlntads and I’ve entered a number of their contests. I’m a big believer on new models that connect creators with marketers, because I think it’s a great match. Unless you happen to be a creator working for The YouTube Underground. Then you’re likely to eat the marketer. And marketers don’t like to be eaten.

Well I’ve been ridiculed about my Crocs before by such YouTube folks as Nutcheese (see this hysterical clip after the YouTuber caught a shot of my orange Crocs in a video).

But this takes the cake. Now Clinton Kelly, fashion guru and host of TLC’s “What Not to Wear,” is telling me they’ve got to go. Check out this footage on Metacafe from when he dissed me yesterday after one of his fashion appearances (see on YouTube). Don’t ask how I got into his limo, please. It’s such a long story.

So I’m eBaying these cute little Crocks that have been seen in countless online videos and traveled the country. Bid before October 5 at http://crocs.ofnalts.com/

The folks that connected me with my recent sponsored video for GPSManiac did a blog entry that recounts the way the idea developed. Here’s the video, titled “Poor Man’s GPS.” It’s currently the third highest rated Comedy video of the day on YouTube, which is the highest rating I’ve yet received for a sponsored video.

This video was posted the day after a recent controversy, where I’ve been the target of a “YouTube Underground” operation. They don’t much care for my commercialism and marketing… which they believe perverts a site that’s about community. Ironic timing, but it seems the vast majority don’t mind a promotional video as long as it’s entertaining.

Funny Or Die, the website made famous by Will Ferrell’s “Landlord,” is now hosting a few of my favorite Nalts videos.

Monday, Sept. 17 Update. Thank you YouTube subscribers for responding to this video and rating up my videos. Six of my appear as “hot” on the homepage!

Now about that collaboration video with Will Ferrell… Maybe I could take him through some private tutoring on how to get a video viral (on his own- the Pearl one doesn’t count). And he could teach me to be funny.

I’ll come to you, Will. And dig up that wig and the oversized pants, sir.

Just as sure as you can count on viral videos, you can count on viral-video mosh ups (well-stitched edits of famously viral clips).

If you’ve met the “Angry German Kid” and you’ve been exposed to your fair share of Chris Crocker (the YouTube self-proclaimed “queen of the ghetto”) then you’ll appreciate this vulgar clip…

…titled “Angry German Kid Kills Chris Crocker.” (profanity laden)