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Update (8/15/10): the first challenge is up.

UPDATE (8/7/10): It seems like Vimeo and SoundCloud are a general consensus, which doesn't surprise me at all. I've posted a bunch of info on my site regarding how this whole thing will work. The infrastructure is pretty much in place, but I want to give people a chance to review the info. Hopefully there are no gaping holes or flaws; but if you see any, please let me know. Thanks.

A friend of mine used to participate in something like this for 3d animation. It started me looking for something similar a few years ago, but I can't find any place that runs one. So, I'm going to host one on my website. I've been working on a lot of the logistics of it, and I'm close to rolling it out. I'm hoping that a lot of you here will participate, but first I've got some questions for you.

For months when a video clip is provided, where would you rather post your final piece: Vimeo, Youtube, or some other service? I'm trying to keep this free, simple, and a site where I can create a group/channel that everyone can post to (that way all the entries are easy to find).

There will be months where a video is not required. Would you prefer to still use whatever video hosting site, or a service like SoundCloud? Again, key factors are free for everyone, simplicity, consolidated location. Right now, I'm leaning towards using the same video hosting site.

I'm looking to get this going on my site sometime around the 15th/16th of this month (August 2010), and I will get something up on my site outlining the whole thing in greater detail sometime between now and then.

Any feedback on those two items above will be greatly appreciated. If you have any other feedback, please throw it my way too. You may think of something I haven't already; but I warn you, I've been thinking about this for a LONG time. :)

Thanks in advance for your input.

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  • Awesome idea @Shaun!
    – Andrew Spitz
    Aug 4, 2010 at 18:56
  • Yeah, any month that I have the time to participate I am all over this.
    – Steve Urban
    Aug 4, 2010 at 19:57
  • Great idea... I'd vote for Vimeo as video platform.
    – Kurt Human
    Aug 5, 2010 at 15:19
  • Great idea I'm in! I think it would be sweet if you had to record all/most of the source material. Vimeo +1.
    – bpert
    Aug 6, 2010 at 3:01
  • @bpert - oh, that one's already on the list. remember..."a LONG time." lol. thanks for the input.
    – Shaun Farley
    Aug 6, 2010 at 12:30

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Great idea Shaun!

I prefer the quality of vimeo's HD to youtube's. I like the idea of using the same host regardless of whether it's video or audio only. I could see just throwing up a slate card for the entirety of the audio only pieces.

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  • yeah, i was thinking of the slate card idea, which is why i've been leaning in the "same host" direction. thanks for the input.
    – Shaun Farley
    Aug 4, 2010 at 19:07
  • What I'm concerned about is the final layout. If you're going to have all the submissions on one webpage (say one page per event), you'll quickly get fed up with 3/4 of your screen looking like a video that never came...
    – Justin Huss
    Aug 4, 2010 at 23:25
  • @Justin I see what you're saying here and it's a valid point. I guess I was thinking rather than it being an embedded page on @Shaun's site it would be a link to a channel on Vimeo. But that would drive traffic away from his site. Probably not one of the desired goals of the project...
    – Steve Urban
    Aug 5, 2010 at 0:02
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I second Steve's preference to Vimeo, both in terms of quality and the general traffic flow (I doubt we'll get any FIRST! posts on Vimeo) and using the same service regardless of whether it's video or not. I can't wait for you to start this.

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  • so i take it you might participate then.....eeeeexcellent.
    – Shaun Farley
    Aug 4, 2010 at 19:09
  • I plan to, depending on how fast the turn around is.
    – Dave Matney
    Aug 4, 2010 at 19:56
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Vimeo and Soundcloud.

Its interesting and im in!

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  • Just simple as this, me too!!
    – alansende
    Aug 6, 2010 at 23:31
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Awesome idea! I'm sure as it grows, you will be able to find sponsors to provide prizes and entice more participants.

For video, I prefer Vimeo, it's somewhat more elegant. But I think you should use Soundcloud for the audio. Keep the mediums separate. Use a system best for each medium, it will also be less confusing to people checking the designs out.

Just my thoughts. Good luck!

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  • if it grows to the size where it can find sponsors and offer prizes, that would be great; but porbably also a heck of a lot more work. i'll have to see how it goes for a little while first. i just want to give people a place to experiment, but challenge themselves, and hopefully instigate a few conversations along the way.
    – Shaun Farley
    Aug 4, 2010 at 20:28
  • I prefer Soundcloud for audio as well, and vimeo for video, they both seem best at what they do.
    – bpert
    Aug 6, 2010 at 3:04
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Sounds like a fun idea! I prefer vimeo - better encoding, etc. and all the same host regardless of audio only or audio with video. What would the source material be formatted as? One of the nice features of vimeo is allowing people to download the source video from the original video posted, thus saving you a lot of hosting room and bandwidth as well.

Please keep up posted!

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  • the source material is going to be all over the place in terms of quality. i'll either be designing challenges based on materials i've already gathered, or looking for materials for challenges i've already dreamed up. fortunately, my host service has unlimited bandwidth and storage. so, i'll be probably stick to using my site, as i'll need to maintain a higher level of control for some of the materials that will be posted.
    – Shaun Farley
    Aug 4, 2010 at 20:32
  • These ideas are fun and I would participate, but it would also be fun to post a video and have people design the sound for it from the ground up including source recordings.
    – bpert
    Aug 6, 2010 at 3:06
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Great idea! I'm in.

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I'm already liking it :) If it's going to be embedded in your website, I'd go for Vimeo and SoundCloud. I don't think the huge amount of screen space taken up by slate cards will be much enjoyable when browsing audio-only editions of the challenge. Rather keep these slim.

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  • @Justin Huss - yeah, the more I've been thinking about it, the less i like the idea of a page full of slate cards. lol. i'm just going to be embedding a group of finalists on my site. i'd like the "group" function on whatever hosting services i choose (sounding like vimeo and soundcloud right now) to be the clearinghouse for all submissions, but also a place where the community can discuss ANY of the entries (not just the finalists). soundcloud's groups do at least have that capability, i'd probably skip it if it didn't.
    – Shaun Farley
    Aug 5, 2010 at 14:02
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Not sure if it's possible, but a system that would allow one video to be uploaded by the admin then the option to choose whichever sound file the contestants have submitted is synced with the video.

I wouldn't be able to download the same video 50 times due to bandwidth, but if I could just select say the top 5 rated audio files (rated by the people that can look at all the videos/sound) one at a time which is synced to the admins video, it would be ok.

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  • @ofa - this is an interesting idea, but not one i'm sure i could pull off at the moment. i don't know of any hosting site that has this feature, i'd have to use something like divx on my site. that means people would need plug-ins, and (though i don't mean to sound lazy) a lot more work on my end to get something up that everyone can look at. i'll keep it in mind for the future though.
    – Shaun Farley
    Aug 5, 2010 at 11:25
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Greetings to all members, so far I only read you. Now I have been encouraged to participate, start with this thread.

I love this idea. Motivation is a key factor to improve on the job. And motivation can be fed through the challenges. If these challenges are also public: better! Then we can compare with other work and feedbacks can be great.

i also vote for vimeo and soundcloud.

Àlvar

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This sounds amazing. Definitely a good way to get the creative juices flowing.

Colin mentioned Dropbox. A friend of mine showed me apple's mobileme online storage. It costs 99$ a year, and provides 20 GB of storage space.

+1 for vimeo

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  • @Joel @Colin Hunter - fortunately my hosting service includes unlimited bandwidth and storage. so, unless i run into some major issues, my site will be the clearing house for all materials i decide to incorporate.
    – Shaun Farley
    Aug 8, 2010 at 14:06
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I think it would be fun especially to see what everyone else on the board is doing

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I agree with most here. Vimeo and Soundcloud together. You might also want to look at using something like Dropbox as well. This would allow you to host other formats (omf for example)...

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Outstanding idea, Shaun. Let 'er rip, I say, and I support the consensus on Vimeo.

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+1 for Vimeo and SoundCloud.

Nice idea and I'll certainly have a bash if I have the time.

Ian

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This is a great idea, Shaun. Normally I have to find ways to motivate myself to keep my chops up between projects. This will definitely get the juices flowing.

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