Posts Tagged ‘Poptent News’

  • New Poptent Profile, Portfolio Design

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on April 23rd, 2010. Categories: Features | 1 Comment »

    We just launched a newly updated design for your Poptent profile with an eye to making it a better portfolio for you to showcase your commercial-creating prowess. Here’s a little walk-through of what’s new.

    Let’s start at the top of the page. You’ll see several tweaks here, including one of the coolest new components, the Featured Media widget (pictured here, David Shamban’s profile). Basically you tell Poptent what you’d like to show the world when they first visit your profile. Is it your award winning demo reel? Or perhaps the commercial you had purchased by a Fortune 100 brand? Simple to do.

    screenshot-1

    Next, check out the sweet new Brands widget in your sidebar. This will basically tell the world all the great brands you’ve done work for here on Poptent. Submit a video to an assignment, have that brand’s logo pop up on your page. Simple as that. Seen here, GreenSkyMedia’s profile.

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    We’ve added a more prominent Network widgets to show who you like working with, or who you like to follow. Also, the new activity wall is far more robust than our last version and should add some useful tools for you.

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    On your private view of your profile, you’ll see another super handy tool, Calendar Export. Simply click on the link of the corresponding calendar app you use and all the Poptent deadlines will be added dynamically to your personal calendar system. Easy!

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    And finally - one of the features we’re most excited about, Medals. There’s a tab on everyone’s profile for the Medals page where you’ll see a variety of awards you can earn - from being a Featured Creator to having been first to submit to an assignment. We’ll be rolling out more Medals soon, so keep an eye out!

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    Don’t see a feature you were hoping for? Why not Request it!

  • GreenSkyMedia’s “Making of…” Video

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on April 1st, 2010. Categories: Community Highlights, Creative Inspiration | No Comments »

    Star Poptent creators, GreenSkyMedia just put up a really sweet video detailing how they went about creating their Beck’s Beer assignment video! So awesome of them! I love when our creators go ‘above and beyond’! Check it out:

    And here’s their assignment submission:

  • A Poptent Team Lunch

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on July 15th, 2009. Categories: Our News | 6 Comments »

    We had the whole team in the office today and went out to lunch. I snapped this photo while we were happily chatting and since we all look so handsome in it, I thought it’d be fun to go ahead and post it to the blog. :)

    poptent_team

    From left to right around the table that’s Jason, Drew, Neil, Ryan, Megan, Tony, Liza, Chris and Tim. Me, I took the photo, but you’ve seen my face all over the site already…

  • Creative Inspiration: Post-it Notes Stop Motion

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on June 11th, 2009. Categories: Creative Inspiration | No Comments »

    Videos don’t get much cooler than this. Director Bang-yao Liu’s school project is really tearing up the viral video charts, for good reason. Just take 6000 Post-it Notes, and spend some time with your buddies locked in a room for four days and this is what you get…

    This is my senior project at Savannah College of Art and Design. Where my idea comes from is that every time when I am busy, I feel that I am not fighting with my works, I am fighting with those post-it notes and deadline. I manipulating the post-it notes to do pixel-like stop motion and there are some interactions between real actor and post-its.

    Directed by Bang-yao Liu
    Music by Röyksopp (http://royksopp.com)
    Sound design by Shaun Burdick

    And how lucky are we that he made a ‘making of’ video, too!

    (via Sun Sentinal)

  • Mashable Mixer Party with Poptent and IndyHall in Philly

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on April 30th, 2009. Categories: Our News | No Comments »

    mashablemixerphilly1

    If you’re in the Philadelphia area this weekend, why not stop by the Mashable + IndyHall Mixer! It’s promising to be one heck of a good party. Come meet the Poptent crew and some great folks from the Philly tech scene.

    Details

    Date: Friday, May 1st, 2009
    Time: 8:00 pm till close
    Location: Cavanaugh’s River Deck, 417 N Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19123 (map)
    Tickets: Open Admission, 21+ only please
    Why?: Meet Mashable and IndyHall, $5 drink specials and it’s a Friday night!

    All the details and RSVP links here.

  • Creative Inspiration: A Powerful Punch Line

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on March 27th, 2009. Categories: Creative Inspiration | 1 Comment »

    A friend of mine passed this video on to me this morning. Five side-splitting commercials for (now defunct) Ameriquest Mortgage, each with a similar witty punch line. What I love about these is how simple they are. Nothing fancy here, just a tight script and a few clever shots.

    Of course, the irony of these spots (and their message) in light of current events is a bit, um, rich. But all things being equal, these commercials are quite amusing as stand-alone stories.

  • Creator Spotlight: Dane Boedigheimer

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on January 19th, 2009. Categories: Community Highlights | 2 Comments »

    Dane Boedigheimer (aka daneboe) has been one of the most creative and active members of Poptent since, well, before XLNTads even launched the Poptent Network! He’s always bringing fresh and interesting takes on our assignments. Dane’s style is always chalk full of fantastic animation. We recently sat down for an interview.

    How did you get into making videos?
    My perents got a 8mm camcorder for Christmas when I was 12. I started playing around with it and instantly fell in love with it. Soon I was spending entire days making short videos with my younger brother. It all just blossomed from there. I remember sitting in my room for hours editing my videos with two VCRs. It was painstaking, but I loved it. There was something magical about making stories come to life right in front of my eyes, no matter how crappy those stories were!

    XLNTads: Where do you get your inspiration from?
    Everything! Well, mabe not everything…but I’ve been inspired by a whole range of things. It all depends. I get inspired by great movies, crappy movies, stories that people tell me, conversations I have, and things that happen in real life. Even though I have a tendency to create fantastical situations in my videos, they are all grounded in some story or aspect from real life. It just goes to show, real life can be more amazing than anything we could possibly imagine.

    What do you like about making commercials?
    Commercials are great for a number of reasons. With most, they allow you to be really creative. They also provide a format for practicing your craft, and they actually help you connect with other people in the video industry. Personally, one of my favorite aspects is that commercial projects are usually short. I love working with short formats, so commercials are perfect in that way. Plus, your getting paid to do something you love…how fantastic is that?

    Any great resources that the Poptent Community should know about?
    I used soundsnap.com for free sound effects religiously, but they recently began charging users for downlading. They are still affordable though, and never let me down. Detonationfilms.com is great for all kinds of free stock footage. SXC.hu is my favorite site for free photos and clip art.

    Tell me a funny story that happened while you were on a shoot…
    Well, it isn’t just one shoot, but I don’t know how many times I’ve had run-ins with police while shooting videos. I’ve been pulled over for speeding, kicked out of a mall, banished from numerous parking lots, reprimanded for throwing objects off a bridge, fined for shooing fireworks in city limits…the list goes on and on. I’m starting to think the cops have my apartment tapped and know whenever I’m going to be shooting a video!

    Check out all our Creator Spotlight posts here.

  • Your Poptent Portfolio is Good for Business

    Posted by ZackScott on November 24th, 2008. Categories: Community Highlights | 1 Comment »

    [Editors note: in lieu of an interview, our Creator Spotlight, Zack Scott went ahead and wrote his own guest column]

    Yesterday was my first opportunity to utilize my Poptent profile page as a portfolio and business card of sorts. A potential client contacted me through YouTube about an opportunity to create videos for his future website. As we discussed some details, he took note of the After Effects work in The Dogs video series. Samuel Seide and I both work on that series, but Samuel is primarily responsible for the graphics and animations. Since the client liked what Samuel did, I wanted to pitch the possibility of us doing ad-style videos to promote his upcoming site.

    I decided to link him to my Poptent profile page so he could see our latest ads. The good news is that he liked them. The great news is that Poptent really came in handy during that particular moment. Now that I think about it, neither my YouTube page nor ZackScott.net would have sufficed for that occasion.

    My YouTube page is primarily for entertainment. I try not to inundate my viewers with our ad creations unless I think they will truly enjoy them. Also, I don’t put professional information about me on that site because I don’t want to bore. That just isn’t how you grow a subscriber base. ZackScott.net is different because its primary purpose is a hub. If someone watches one of my videos, they will see “ZackScott.net” at the end. That way, there is always a centralized place for people to go if they want to see more. Once they get to there, they can contact me or go to my accounts on YouTube, Facebook, and even Poptent. It does contain some professional information, but it’s not the site’s focus.

    That’s why Poptent makes perfect sense. If you go to my profile page, I showcase only my most popular videos along and my ad work. All of this is customizable and is targeted towards people interested in having people like Samuel and me create ads or other video content. It is a perfect portfolio for any video creator. This became most evident to me just yesterday. If you’re a professional or amateur in the online video work, I can’t recommend Poptent more. I suggest making a profile, listing your accomplishments, and posting your work. That’s just a start, because there’s an excellent community there too. It’s a professional place, but it’s also a blast, so join the fun.