Exploding Lamborghinis & A brand new video platform - we've got it all!???
VIDEO IN THE NEWS
YouTube improves video compression with AI that mastered chess?
YouTube?has begun using an artificial intelligence algorithm first developed to conquer board games such as chess and Go to improve its video compression. The algorithm, called?MuZero, was developed by YouTube’s London-based sister company DeepMind. Applied to?YouTube?videos, the system has resulted in a 4% reduction on average in the amount of data the video-sharing service needs to stream to users, with no noticeable loss in video quality. While that may only sound like a slight improvement, given YouTube’s scale it provides major savings in computing power and bandwidth. This will also help people in countries with limited broadband watch video content they would otherwise struggle to view. Already, video streaming occupies?a good chunk?of the world’s internet capacity, and that figure is only expected to climb.
?[Source:?Fortune]
Merger will create largest short-form video platform in India
Times Internet’s?MX TakaTak?and ShareChat’s?Moj?revealed a strategic merger to create?the largest short-form video platform in India — a country where?TikTok?is banned. The combined MX TakaTak-Moj platform will have 100 million creators, more than 300 million monthly active users (MAU), and nearly 250 billion monthly video views. Times Internet, the digital arm of giant Indian media conglomerate the Times Group, operates MX Media Co., the parent company of MX TakaTak and popular streaming platform MX Player. Both platforms will be controlled by ShareChat, a social media and social networking service developed by India’s Mohalla Tech. MX Media and its shareholders will become strategic shareholders of ShareChat. Numbers were not disclosed, but the deal is believed to be worth $900 million in a mix of cash and equity. The Indian government?banned Beijing-headquartered ByteDance’s immensely popular short video app TikTok?in June 2020 over ongoing border tensions with China, opening the door for apps like Moj and MX TakaTak.
[Source:?Variety]
Google to restrict cross-app tracking of users on Android
Google is going to start blocking cross-app tracking on Android in a multi-year effort to replace the existing online advertising system for its mobile OS with a privacy-preserving alternative. The news came as part of an?announcement?about new privacy-focused restrictions that will stop Android apps from profiling users’ internet activities.
?“ Specifically, these solutions will limit sharing of user data with third parties and operate without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID. We’re also exploring technologies that reduce the potential for covert data collection,”
said Google. This includes stopping advertisers from using other forms of data to?fingerprint?users.?The announcement comes a year after Apple introduced privacy controls that require?iOS software developers to first ask users for permission to track their activities across both the web and third-party apps in order to serve tailored ads.
?[Source:?PC Mag UK]
44% of TikTok users discover products from brand videos
?TikTok has?published a new report?which provides fresh insights into the role that its platform plays in the evolving path to purchase, and how TikTok clips can change the way that brands and consumers interact. Key findings of the study include:?
You can read a full overview of the Material/TikTok brand study?here, or check out the?infographic overview.
?[Source:?Social Media Today]
领英推荐
FIVE WAYS TO BOOST SALES USING VIDEO
Making a commercial impact at different points in the customer journey
Like most people in the video marketing community, we get quite excited by a quality video because we understand the craft and creativity that go into making one. Let’s face it though, a video that draws critical acclaim but doesn’t actually move anybody along the marketing funnel cannot be considered a success, or a good investment. One way or another, a good commercial video should generate sales.?Fortunately, video is renowned for doing just that, with?80% of video marketers?saying it has directly increased sales.?For a comprehensive strategy, it is best to think about how video can be used differently at various points in the customer journey. For some insight and inspiring examples of using video for brand awareness, product awareness, conversion, direct sales and brand evangelism, run your eyes over this helpful piece on?our blog.??
TALKING POINTS
Conceptual artist SHL0MS detonates a Lamborghini in the desert
Pseudonymous conceptual artist?SHL0MS?has blown up a Lamborghini Huracan?in an undisclosed desert location for an NFT art project. 999 fragments of the car have been meticulously categorised, documented, and filmed in stunning rotating videos to highlight “the striking stochastically-generated abstract forms produced by the wreckage”. The project is intended to deliver “a smouldering critique of zero-sum, extractive practices in the crypto industry while postulating a way forward that centres around long-termism and a focus on using technology for broader societal value rather than self-enrichment.” Nope, not sure we fully understand that either. But?the video is quite something.
Glasgow Film Festival goes hybrid for the first time
The 18th edition of the Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) will take place from 2 to?13 March 2022. This year will be its first hybrid edition, featuring both the highly anticipated return of in-person events and screenings, while also continuing to build on its hugely successful digital platform, Glasgow Film At Home. GFF22 will be largely based at its home cinema, Glasgow Film Theatre, and Cineworld Renfrew Street, but this year the festival will also take its premiere screenings to cinema partners across the UK – including BFI Southbank – to make a selected programme available to film fans across the country. Check out?what’s on.
Humans find AI-generated faces more trustworthy than the real thing
A new study published in the?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences?USA?suggests that real humans can easily fall for machine-generated faces and even interpret them as?more trustworthy than the genuine article. “We found that not only are synthetic faces highly realistic, they are deemed more trustworthy than real faces,” says study co-author Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. The researchers were surprised by this finding, having presumed that synthetic faces would be less trustworthy than real ones. However, the?Uncanny Valley?phenomenon has not entirely disappeared.?Study participants overwhelmingly identified some of the fakes as fake. “We’re not saying that every single image generated is indistinguishable from a real face, but a significant number of them are,” study co-author Sophie Nightingale told?Scientific American.
Taking inspiration from bold movie making
No one ever agrees on best movie lists, that’s part of the fun. Contentious as it may be, there are undoubtedly some inspiring choices near the top of?IndieWire’s Best Movies of the 2010s?rankings, which puts Barry Jenkins’?Moonlight?at number one. Second spot went to Jonathan Glazer’s?Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson as a seductive, murderous alien. The film achieved moving and at times unnerving naturalism through some brilliant hidden camera work, as Glazer discusses with?The New York Times?in this?Anatomy of a Scene.
WOOSHII SAYS
Wherever you need to film, we can make it happen
Picturesque Cahir Castle in Ireland has been announced winner of the European Film Commissions Network?Location Award.?Needless to say, location can be a critical aspect of video making and we at Wooshii, with our global talent network of over 16,000 experts, have the capacity to create video anywhere in the world, in any format. That means we can film in the best location for your needs at a cost effective price.
Get in Contact?
For more information on how we can help you with your video project contact?[email protected]
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