Many filmmakers in the Howcast Emerging Filmmakers Program are film students, and Howcast has begun partnering directly with their school. We first partnered with Boston University last semester, and this semester we’ve teamed up with Flashpoint Academy.

Flashpoint is an intensive two-year media arts college in Chicago with cutting-edge focus on digital arts and entertainment technologies, and an emphasis on real-world experience. We thought this made Flashpoint Academy and its students a perfect match for the EFP!

“At Flashpoint Academy we are always searching for projects that serve two purposes—good samples for student reels, and the opportunity to have our students to work directly for a client. The Flashpoint/Howcast partnership has been a terrific success on both fronts. The students are getting excellent clips for their reels, but more importantly they are having to respond to a client’s demands in a timely and professional manner.” - Peter Hawley, Chair, Film/Broadcast.

Shooting in HD, testing out interesting visual effects, and casting great actors on well selected sets, the students are doing a great job meeting client (our) expectations. Ten Flashpoint groups are producing Howcast spots this semester on topics that range from How To Deal with a Loud Coworker to How To Avoid Drinking When You’re the Designated Driver.

They’ve just begun delivering their spots, and they look fantastic!

See for yourself on the Flashpoint Academy channel… and keep watching, as the Flashpoint students show off their stuff!

- Heather M.

Anyone out there catch Watchmen this weekend? At Howcast, we’re all big Watchmen fans and were amazed by the Rorschach mask–it’s pretty rad! I spent the weekend wondering if there was a cheap way to make that mask. Our pals over at Indy Mogul have shed some light on that mystery with a great video on How To Create Rorschach effect for under $20 at Home. Pretty awesome stuff–check it out:

We love making it easier for people to watch and share the best how-to videos on the web. While we’re always making Howcast.com better and better, recently we’ve been thinking of ways to bring a little bit of Howcast to people wherever, whenever they need to learn how to do something. Sometimes the urge to learn how to do something comes when you’re checking out a web site or blog on that topic.

Howdy Publishers (and bloggers and social networking peeps and …)

So, we’re making it easier for publishers – from regular folks with blogs and networking profiles to large web site owners – to show their visitors relevant, quality how-to videos using simple yet powerful tools from Howcast.

Of course, we’ve always offered a simple, embeddable player that shows videos complete with the step-by-step instructions and navigation available on Howcast.com. Recently, you might have noticed that you can pick your own color scheme and resize the player when you go to snag the embed code for your latest Howcast video faves.

Lonely No More: Introducing the Howcast Custom Player

Recently, we’ve noticed that our videos look a bit lonely when embedded all by themselves in separate players. How-to videos really are often best shown together. So, we’ve come up with a great way to show a bunch of useful, relevant videos to any web site or networking profile in a single easy-to-program, -customize and -embed video player: The Howcast Custom Player.

With the Howcast Custom Player you can:

• Showcase any collection of videos on Howcast – from your own video uploads to videos from Howcast Studios – just point the player to show one of your playlists, all of your video uploads, your list of favorites or pick an entire category of videos (e.g. Yoga or Dating)
• Match the Custom Player to your site or profile’s look and feel by adding a banner image and selecting the perfect color combination
• Embed the player on your web site, blog or networking profile in seconds

Here’s a Custom Player I built to showcase some our favorite videos from Howcast Studios:

Your Site + Howcast Video = Happy Visitors

Some of our other favorite contributors are getting into the act:

• How-To Girl was one of the first to take the Custom Player out for a spin, featuring it on howtogirl.com.
• Elizabeth Chamberlain aka SpaceLift has whipped up a Custom Player to feature her stylish secrets on how to feng shui your home on space-lift.com.

Of course, you don’t need to have your own video to make a Custom Player.

• Give your friends a hand. Share your playlist of favorite Howcast videos on your Facebook or MySpace page. You can embed the Custom Player the same way you embed any other Flash video player. No fuss, no muss.
• Blogging about the latest ways to stay Green? Or, got a site featuring Travel tips? Why not add a little video to spruce up your site? You can create a Custom Player to showcase all videos from Howcast Studios in any one our 25 top-level categories. Instant, relevant video in seconds.

Howcast Playlists + Custom Player = Must See Playlist TV

We’re so excited about the Custom Player that we’ve added it to our own playlist pages to let you sit back, relax and watch all videos in a playlist without ever leaving the page. Check it out for yourself. Watch one of our latest playlists: Happy Camper or Summer Olympics 2008 Beijing.

Inspired?

Add a little bit of Howcast to your site or profile. Make your own Custom Player today.

Sanjay

You’ve uploaded, enhanced, and promoted your video on Howcast. It’s time you check how well it’s doing on our site, as well as on other sites across the web in the Howcast Player.

Visit My Videos and click the new button next to each of your videos to see a nifty graph showing how many times its been viewed on both Howcast.com and on other sites where your video has been embedded using the Howcast Player:

Months from now, you’ll also want to see how your video has done over time, so we’ve provided simple tabs you can click to show views over time.

We even show you the top 5 sites where your video has been embedded, just in case you’d like to send a thank-you note:

Tip: You might not see a graph for videos you’ve just uploaded. It takes a couple of days from when you upload a video to collect enough data to show you a graph worth looking at.

We’re still working on ways for you to track your videos on Howcast, so don’t be shy. Let us know what you think.

Jimmy

Today, I get to show you some simple ways to spread the word about your latest masterpiece — all while you upload your video to Howcast. That’s right. All at the same time. (Of course, you’ll be able to do all of this after uploading, either by visiting My Videos or the playback page for your video on Howcast. But there’s no time like the present to make sure you take a minute to get the word out.)

Start Spreading The News

You might already have noticed the new “Share Your Video” module shown on the same page where you can enhance your video with steps and graphics. Today, I want to walk you through how it can help world about your new video using 4 simple yet powerful ways to spread the word to friends, fans, and beyond.

1. Email everyone. Every time.

Use our handy form to email all of your friends and fans about the video you just uploaded.

Yep. All of them. Even Aunt Suzy or that old college buddy who works at NBC now. You never know who’s going to find your video interesting and forward it to all their friends.

Can’t remember all those email addresses? No problem.

Keep your contacts at your fingertips by importing email addresses from your personal email account (we support most providers, including Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Gmail, and AOL).

Just click “Add contacts from personal email account” to access and save email addresses from your personal email account. After a quick little wizard, all you’ll have to do is type in the first few letters of a friend’s name or email address to auto-complete the address. Just pick the right contact and you’re set.

Learn more about adding contacts…

Add A Personal Touch

Add a quick note to say hello and introduce your video. Point out anything new or special about it that your audience may find interesting. Lastly, encourage folks to forward on your video to anyone they think might find it of interest.

2. Socialize Your Videos

Everyone’s doing it. You should too.

Post your video to the most popular social sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Digg with a single click.

TIP: Don’t have an account for any of these services? Don’t worry. Click the icons anyway and follow their directions on how to get set up on their service.

3. Harness the Blogosphere

One of the best ways to get your video noticed is to embed it on your blog or website using the Howcast Player.

TIP: Don’t have a blog? Watch Everything You Need To Know To Start a Blog in 4 Minutes.

This code also makes it easy to reach out to a blog you’d like to feature your video. Simply send the blogger an email with a description, a link to your video on Howcast, and even the embed code. If they like your work, they’ll appreciate you making it easy for them to write about it.

4. Links: Subtle Yet Powerful

Get in the habit of showing off a link to your new video wherever you can — especially on the communications services you use every day, from email to IM to Twitter.

Just copy and paste the link (along with a brief preface like “my new video”):

1. into the status message of your Instant Messenger client (AIM, Yahoo, Live Messenger, and GTalk all have easy ways for your update your status with your text).
2. your email signature (almost every Email client from Outlook and Thunderbird to webmail services like Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and Gmail offer you the ability to add and personalize an email signature).
3. into Twitter (a site where friends exchange quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? - just respond that you just released a new video and provide a link).

Put These Methods To Work For You…

Upload a new video and start spreading the word.

… and Let Us Know How It Goes

Some of these goodies are still in beta, so don’t be shy. Let us know what you think.

Michael

We’ve been slaving away building new ways for video contributors (like you) to enhance, promote, and track the fun, imaginative how-to videos you share with the Howcast Community. Today, we’re excited to introduce you to some easy ways to enhance your video with printable step-by-step instructions and easy-to-apply polished on-screen graphics and thumbnail images.

Just In: The Wall Street Journal beat us to the punch in introducing our new video enhancement tools in this morning’s The Mossberg Solution:

In order to make it easier for average users to upload better-looking videos, Howcast provides an Upload and Enhance tool that simply and quickly adds professional-looking graphics and printable steps to go along with how-to videos. This formula makes videos more enjoyable to watch.
- Katherine Boehret, “How to Teach Yourself How to Do Almost Anything” May 7, 2008

Be A Better Teacher - Go Step-by-Step

Create step-by-step instructions, tips, warnings, and facts for your video that users can follow along and print out for future reference. Don’t worry, control freaks: it’s easy to “click and drop” instructions, tips, warnings and facts to the perfect spot in your video:

Polish Your Video With a Single Click

With a single click (and without a lick of editing software), you can now add professional, polished on-screen graphics to your video (just like the graphics on videos from Howcast Studios). You can add:

1. A Title Card showing off the title you’ve already crafted.
2. Sleek Step Animations subtly indicating the arrival of the your next step.
3. Handy Tip, Warning & Fact Animations displayed along with Howcast’s signature Tip Ding! sound. (Think Pop-up Video but remixed for your how-to viewing pleasure.)

Don’t Just Take Our Word For It.

Howcast members are already polishing up their videos with these graphics. We particularly love how The Natural Princess has already started spicing up her great recipe videos with our steps and notes. (My favorite’s definitely How To Make Chipotle Homefries. Yum.)

Get Judged by Your Cover

Thumbnails really are the book cover of the modern age. Catch a viewer’s eye with the thumbnail image that best expresses what your video is all about.

Pick the best image from the three thumbnails Howcast auto-magically pulls from your video on upload.

Or, upload your own thumbnail image by visiting My Videos and clicking Edit Video after your upload is complete.

Give It a Whirl…

Upload a new video or spiff up your existing library, today. Some of these goodies are still in beta, so don’t be shy. Let us know what you think.

Sanjay & Henry

Many online video makers already rely on the super services of TubeMogul to distribute content to the web’s best video sites with a single upload.

Starting today, Howcast will be on the list of sites video makers can “launch” (for the unitiated, that’s TubeMogul’s term for a sending a video to a website) videos to, right there alongside YouTube and MySpace.

Simply check the box and pick us too!

If you’re a already a TubeMogul user, you can share your how-to library on Howcast without having to upload anything else. It’s also a no-brainer to keep your profile fresh, by launching your latest uploads to Howcast.

If you don’t use TubeMogul yet and you distribute your content to more than one site, you should check it out. It’s an excellent way to manage, promote, and track your online distribution.

No worries though, you’ll always be able to upload directly to Howcast.

Howcast’s partnership with TubeMogul is just one of the many ways Howcast is working on to make it easier for how-to video makers to reach an engaged audience.

So next time you’re at TubeMogul, don’t forget to blast your content off to Howcast!

–Heather Menicucci