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Vevo's website redesign simplifies the video watch page, adds artist pages
Chances are you've enjoyed Vevo's music video catalogue in one form or another, and purists who prefer .com access are being rewarded today with a fresh website design. The "video watch page" was previously littered with related clips, a playlist and other distractions, which have now been dispatched for greater focus on the tune at hand. Much of this has been moved to "artist pages", a new pop-up hub (pictured above) which is full of extra info on your chosen act. Head over to Vevo to see the enhancements for yourself, and with impending OUYA support, you might want to consider it your primary dispensary for that daily dose of Biebzilla.
Stop-motion music video relies on OpenOffice and Excel, finds formula for success (video)
It's already considered a grind to produce stop-motion video -- imagine creating a clip using the spreadsheet app that many dread seeing at work every morning. Joe Penna, better known to the internet as Mystery Guitar Man, isn't afraid. He and his team recorded a performance against a greenscreen, gave the video a mosaic look in After Effects and proceeded to recreate 730 of the frames in OpenOffice (and occasionally Excel)... by hand. We don't want to know how long it took Penna and crew to wrap up their work, but the result is probably the liveliest you'll ever get out of an app meant for invoices and corporate expenses. The fully produced video is above; click past the story break if you want to smash illusions and see how the pixelated rumba came to be.
OUYA wrapping up funding with limited brown metal console, Vevo deal
To put it mildly, the OUYA console has had a better than expected funding run -- the project is now past the $6 million mark, or six times what it originally needed. The team still wants a little something to end the last week of fundraising with a bang. It just unveiled a limited edition brown, brushed metal version of the console with a controller to match; all it takes is a $140 pledge during the final push to August 9th and you've got the Yves Behar-chosen color for yourself. The special run should arrive as part of the wider March 2013 launch. If the original silver hue will do just nicely, thank you very much, OUYA has struck another content deal and will launch Vevo's music video hub side-by-side with the console. Click past the break for a peek at the controller, and consider a pledge on Kickstarter if you just can't stand the thought of having the same console as everyone else.
Vevo app brings ad-supported music videos streaming to the Xbox 360
The video services Microsoft announced would be coming to Xbox 360 continue to trickle out and the latest is from Vevo. What it brings free of charge (with the exception of the req'd Xbox Live Gold subscription, of course) is a library of music videos that's big enough (45,000 deep) for you to remember when the M in MTV stood for something. An additional bonus is that many of the videos are actually in high definition, unlike the ones broadcast on MTV and Fuse's high definition channels, and when we talked to the company ahead of the launch we were told the audio and video have been reencoded specifically for TV viewing.There's the requisite Kinect integration for voice and gesture control, and users can create a queue of videos and skip through them without pausing the action, and of course share what they're playing with other users on Xbox 360 and services like Facebook. Best of all, it's not a pay-per-view setup like iTunes or the standard Xbox music videos. There are a few quirks however, like needing to create a Vevo account to get access and the number of clicks it takes to add videos to a playlist. Still, whether you want to autoplay all of your favorite artist's videos or pick one at a time it all works pretty well -- the only problem now is finding something worth listening to. Check the Xbox 360 app marketplace to download it or give the video demo (embedded after the break) a peek.
Music video created with iPad and iPhone
As you can tell from our quiet start this morning, it's a slow day around the TUAW HQ -- most of us are still in the holiday mood, and with much of the United States off work today anyway, things aren't too crazy. But we're still here, and while some of us are buried under snow, we can still at least remember that somewhere on Earth, there are sunny skies and tropical breezes. In fact, you can see both in the video posted below, which was shot by Ron Nadel and Dovev Adar a band called Passion Pit, completely on an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4. [Update: We originally attributed the video to the band Passion Pit, but the music is incidental] The team used the ReelMoments app (and presumably the official Camera app as well) to shoot all of the footage, and then edited it together with iMovie on the iPad. It's well done -- I wouldn't say it's super groundbreaking (we've seen music videos put together like this before), but there is some really good stuff in there. That last shot is especially great, and, if you are like us and working today after the holiday, might remind you that at least someone's on vacation this afternoon.
Music video: iPhone games get real
This video by Australian band Hey Geronimo is the cutest thing. The group painstakingly recreated scenes and characters from popular iPhone games for their song, "Why Don't We Do Something?". I love the Angry Birds in the car, the flying Fruit Ninja fruit and the cat battling Flight Control airplanes (plus that flight attendant -- meow!). My favorite, however, is definitely the little Cut the Rope doggie. The video looks great as they nailed the look of each game. It's pretty much the perfect thing to watch on a busy Friday afternoon. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
First music video shot with the iPhone 4S
A band called The Turnback nabbed a few iPhone 4Ses as quickly as they could, and scheduled a music video shoot right around launch, opting to be the first to fire off a music video using just the iPhone 4S and its new HD camera. As you can see below, it looks pretty good -- not quite as good as a full HD video, I think, but not bad. For a phone camera, it's great. The video was even shot in the new 1080p mode, and was cut together on Final Cut Pro. As a proof of concept, at least, it works, and it shows that aside from all of the splashy news around Siri, the camera adds yet another nice feature to the latest and greatest iPhone. [via RazorianFly]
Daily iPhone App: VidRhythm
When Harmonix (the makers of Rock Band and Dance Central) first announced it was creating a brand new iOS app, I was looking forward to a brand new music game of some kind. But the company surprised us all with VidRhythm, now available on the App Store for US$1.99. It's not really a game, really; it's a casual (and fun) remixing tool and music video maker. The game has a bunch of tracks (mostly original, though there are a few classical songs in the mix as well) that are assembled out of little hits of sound, everything from bass drums and high-hat hits to various other beats and samples. Your job as the music video maker is to replace those samples with your own audio and video. The app tells you exactly what to do (like "say Bom"), and you can then record video of you or some gullible friends doing just that. Record all the samples, choose a video style, hit Go, and voila: almost instantly you have an original music video, made up of your own video recordings and audio mix. It's wild to see in action. There's no actual game to play, but it is a lot of fun to play with, and Harmonix has done a great job of hiding all of the video and audio processing that must go on behind the scenes to make something like this. You can see some examples of the videos on YouTube, but until you actually dive in and make one yourself, it's hard to tell just how magical the app really is. Essentially, VidRhythm is a cool toy, not to mention a fun creative tool. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get a full game from Harmonix, but this is nice, too, and I look forward to seeing the kind of videos people end up creating with it.
Robot band covers Marilyn Manson, renders sullen teenagers obsolete (video)
Sure, we've seen robot bands before. But even when insecure and egotistical, they never quite capture the youthful disaffection we want from our mechanical pop stars. Until now. End of Life is a robot band consisting of a cello, and electric guitar, drums, and, for some reason, a flat-bed scanner -- maybe he's the cute one? The group recently covered Marilyn Manson's three-string anthem "The Beautiful People," and it sounds almost exactly like you'd expect: we'll call it "raw, visceral, and uncensored." We can't wait to see them sneer at Rock Band-playing robots too lazy to learn a real instrument. Catch them in the video after the break, and you can tell all your less-cool friends you knew them back before they sold out.
New Kurt Vile video shot with Windows Phone handset (video)
This certainly isn't the first music video we've seen shot with a smartphone. And whether or not it's the first one shot entirely on a Windows Phone device is almost beside the point. What really makes the whole thing remarkable is that, unlike a lot of these fairly gimmicky videos, this one's for a truly terrific artist, Kurt Vile, whose awesome Smoke Ring for My Halo dropped on Matador back in March. The Todd Cole-directed video for the first track off that LP follows a day in the life of an East LA-based couple. Check out the video and an obligatory making of after the break.
Music video created with iPad Brushes app
This video for the song named "Undivided" by the band Blush is intriguing. First of all, because it's a pretty solid pop song (with, as far as I can tell, a rare safe-for-work appearance by Snoop Dogg himself). Second, because the simple but beautiful animation was entirely created by animator Shawn Harris on his iPad using the Brushes app. It's very well done. You can tell that many of the parts are strictly done with finger painting, but he's also got some interesting photo editing effects, too. There's a "making of" video to watch as well that goes through some of the techniques used by Harris. Surprisingly, it was all done in the app -- he simply recorded each brushstroke as a frame of video, and used Brushes' own tools to output the final product. Good stuff! [via Gizmodo]
'3 Dreams of Black' is the trippiest WebGL interactive music video you've seen all day
Perhaps you had your fill of WebGL yesterday after playing Angry Birds from dawn till dusk, but there was an even more graphically intensive Chrome browser experience unveiled at Google I/O this week: "3 Dreams of Black" by Rome. Simply put, it's an music video that runs in your browser window, starring the talents of Danger Mouse, Daniele Luppi and Norah Jones, but instead of watching Norah serenade you from a stage or set, you're thrust into dreamlike, interactive 3D worlds. It's a fantastic tech demo for WebGL and the games it might inspire... and it's also something you'll want to experience for yourself. Find it (and the copy of Chrome Canary you may need for it to run well) at the source link below.
FaceTime is the star in The Blue Stones music video
And now for something completely different: a music video featuring FaceTime on a pair of iPhone 4s. Canadian duo The Blue Stones created their video for the song "I'm A Stereo" using the iPhone 4s, FaceTime and strategically-placed duct tape. The latter was used to cover up the name info on the phones, but there's no hiding the fact that the band members are guitarist/vocalist Tarek Jafar and drummer/backup vocalist Justin Tessier. It's a pretty catchy song and video, and it shows once again just how embedded Apple technology is in our popular culture. Enjoy the video on the next page, and remember when these guys become The Next Big Thing that you saw 'em here on TUAW. Thanks to everybody who sent this in!
Music video shot with only an iPad 2
Take a musician, a film company and four iPad 2s to a rocking dance party, and you have all the ingredients for an impressive indie music video. Filmed by Remedy Films, this 5-minute music video for the song "Need" by Eddy shows what is possible with the iPad 2 and some talent. According to Chase Andrews of Remedy Films, the music video required about 25 hours of work. The group waited in line 8 hours to purchase the iPads, spent 5 hours filming and almost 12 hours editing. The crew treated the iPads as professional cameras by attaching one to a steadicam rig, one to a Cineslider and one to a handheld rig. The fourth and final iPad was held by the singer herself and makes its cameo appearance in a few parts of the video. The music video self-admittedly should have been shot under better lighting conditions, but the night-time party theme matched the song, and the end product still turned out very good, despite the limitations of the iPad's camera. Check out the music video for yourself after the break, and let us know what you think in the comments.
3D music video was shot with two iPhone 4s
Forget about the Android-powered LG Optimus 3D with its fancy 3D camera, all you need to make a 3D video is a couple of people, two iPhone 4s, and a healthy dose of enthusiasm for filming. The folks at Atomic Cheesecake productions were up to the challenge and put together a 3D music video recorded entierly using the iPhone 4 and its five-megapixel camera. The 3d indie video aficiandos put together a semi-fancy rig to align the two iPhone 4s so they could record video and combine the two streams to create a 3D effect. The cameras on the pair of iPhones were controlled by the Almost DSLR app which gives your precise control over the individual settings of the camera. A little bit of post-processing to perfect the 3D and director Ryan Suits has an interesting and innovative video. The video was produced for musician Luke Hagendorf who is using it for his song Changes We Don't Understand. The 3D video requires those red and cyan glasses to enjoy the full 3D effect but, with or without galsses, you can check out his 3D test video and the music video after the break. Enjoy! [Via Tecca]
Kinect used to shoot a gorgeous, ghostly music video
You might think you've seen all that can be done with Kinect, but you would of course be wrong. Here's another example of how Microsoft's bundle of sensors and cameras can be utilized to freshen up an old concept -- in this case a music video -- with some arresting new visuals. Just sit back, relax, and hit play. [Thanks, Joe]
LG G-Slate spotted in Korean music video, 3D cameras and all?
Oh LG, did you really think you could slip an entire tablet past the eagle-eyed gadget obsessives of Korea? The G-Slate has been one of the more mysterious devices launched at CES this year, but it now appears to have shaken off some of its shyness and made a cameo appearance on K-Pop star Seungri's latest music vid. Our Korean correspondents inform us that Seungri's band Big Bang has had a relationship with LG since the introduction of the cheap and cheerful Lollipop handset (video evidence after the break), so it's not unreasonable to believe this young chap has an inside line on LG's upcoming hardware. His video shows an LG-branded slate at 0.53 and 1.52, and although we get only brief glimpses, one of them suggests a dual-camera array on the back, which seemingly corroborates earlier rumors of the G-Slate bringing some 3D voodoo to the market. Skip the break and see for yourself. [Thanks, Alan Yi]
More music videos now playing on Android YouTube app, more pre-roll commercials, too
Let's get the bad news out of the way first: pre-roll ads are coming to YouTube on Android in a big way. Big G is adding the digital speed bumps to "tens of thousands of YouTube partner videos" starting now, but it's for a sort of good reason: Katy Perry. Well, her and a bunch of other music videos, all appearing in the YouTube 2.0 app on Android, with the initial batch provided by VEVO. Music videos will be identified by a note icon and, while you're watching one, you can get artist info and quickly view other tracks that are available. Right now this is a feature only available on Android but, with Google happily extolling that it drove a 300 percent growth in mobile video viewership in 2010, we're guessing it'll be coming to other platforms soon enough.
Sour's 'Mirror' browser-based music video is absolutely wild
Is Japanese band Sour's "Mirror" music video the single best thing we've ever seen in a browser? It probably is. Load it up in Safari or Chrome and make sure you connect your Facebook, Twitter, and webcam -- we tried it out and it's totally fine. In fact, it's more than fine. It's stunning. Why can't HTML5 and Flash always play this nicely together?
Screen Grabs: BlackBerry Eyed PlayBooks (video)
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dot com. Whoulda thunk that the third time we'd see the BlackBerry PlayBook on video, it'd be in the hands of cube-headed dopplegangster Will.I.Shill? Not us, but we're terribly excited to see the 7-inch tablet show off its augmented reality chops in the Black Eyed Peas' latest music video. We're not really sure what alternate reality hijinks turned the musicians into 8-bit portraits nor pixelated their world, but the BEP sure look adorable as Xbox LIVE-friendly avatars. Watch it after the break, or skip to 2:12, 3:16 and 3:54 if you just want to get your tablet on. [Thanks, Jamesy]
