Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

As the whole of the wedding video industry,

do you think that we as an industry should post the full length wedding video on youtube along with the delivery of the DVDs? Now youtube lets you post very long videos, so it seems like something that is so very easy to do with most people in America at least on cable internet it's not too much data.

In essence, this is something that would spread.... If the top 5 wedding videographers in your city did this, then that would trickle down from both clients and competitors to become a norm.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

I wouldn't do that on YouTube... Vimeo may be. It's just it looks cheap on YouTube. besides, if you have any of the copyright music used, YouTube might reject it too.

What I do is to export the entire DVD to Flash posting it online as well as USB thumbdrive for local playback Make it as an add-on option, or be included in some package.. or use it as a way to get the indecisive clients to sign up.

I like it this way as I have total control of what to show or not (password protected). It also preserve the DVD navigation experience too.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

I used to think that YouTube looked too cheap for our videos but it has improved. I guess that as such institutions as the BBC & the British Royal Family now have their own YouTube channels that it's somewhat respectable. The important thing is to create your own channel with a page to your own design & either disable or monitor closely all comments so that you don't get all the dreadful tacky dross that attends most YouTube videos.

TheRoyalChannel - YouTube
BBC - YouTube

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Good point Nigel

After receiving a few tacky comments on a wedding clip "the bride is ugly" ..totally un-necessary and probably teens with nothing better to do, I now disable everything on the 2nd tab in the new uploads interface....that allows you to disable comments, voting, responses etc etc and it keeps the page clean for genuine viewers!!

I embed a custom YouTube Player with thumbnails on the side in my website so brides can pick and choose clips to watch. However the interface makes your video itself quite small ...Is there anything else that you can use (obviously from YT!!) that would allow a bigger viewing area...I was hoping they did a custom player interface with maybe the thumbnails running along the bottom??? so you could have a bigger view screen....Is anyone else running their YT playlist on their website with a custom player???

Chris

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Tacky, can I ask , is the USB playable on both pc and Mac , and how do u go about making a flah file, sorry if it's a silly question., as I am not sure, but I would like to offer my brides a USB.., the worry I had is if it will work on both opperating systems. Thx.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Rob

If you have encore you can export your menu and assets as a swf. I've even made a few quick flash websites doing this trick.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Rob, I'm not TACKY.

I use Encore to export the DVD authoring to Flash. It is playable in both Mac and PC, android too.. just not iPad.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Flash doesnt work on ipad!

That is another huge issue, especially with the world going mobile. What is the other option? Mp4 streaming, right? But then you need a way to integrate the menu into this.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

I think it is a huge issue if this is the only deliverable method . Mine is an add-on on top of the DVD and bluray distribution. :-)

Yes the world is going mobile but that doesn't mean going ipad only. Ipad owners already aware there are many websites they can't visit. all android users together with the up coming Microsoft Surface tablet will still be able to visit. I do agree it will be a perfect solutions to be viewable on ipad and iPhones too. Hopefully Adobe will add an HTML 5 export inEncore soon.

I think ipad can still playback. .FLV video. If that's the case, I can create an HTML page serves as menu to click to play all the flv files.

Your thought?

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Interesting... exporting the DVD to a flash website.
That would really help for interstate and international clients to view a draft before finalisation on Blu-Ray/DVD.

Back to the OP, I don't think there's a problem with placing up full length films on Youtube. I think the big guys just don't do that because:

1. Music - No doubt, there will be commercial songs used. You can't expect a feature length film for personal use to be just independent music that the couples don't know. However, some couples are fine with us artists to choose the score, a truly original piece of film.

2. Privacy - Not all couples want their entire day shown and the Cinematographer/Videographer/Company might not want to place a feature up because they don't want everyone to see how they edit/piece it together. If you search on Vimeo though, I think there's a couple of feature length wedding films there.

Will the future be delivering our media to Youtube? Probably not. But as Taky has pointed out about the Flash site, going mobile/online might be the future. Look at Apple, they're pushing the death of the DVD/BluRay with their latest gear. I think as the world becomes more technologically advance, things will all be digital and online. Either public or private server based.

But just like photography, there will always be people that want something physical in their hands. Be it a DVD, Blu-Ray, USB, tablet etc, of their memories.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

I don't know y'all. I'm considering adding a disk free package for this years bridal show. same stuff just online delivery through vimeo and maybe a USB thumbdrive if they want. they can always add DVDs, but I have no emotional tie to menus or the like... I'm doing 2 things right now. 15 min short form and trailer. both of which could be easily delivered online without disks. and in south Carolina, at least, I won't have to pay sales tax if there's no tangible product.
Bill

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Bill,

I would think a tax auditor for the state would consider a digital video file to be a "tangible product", no matter how it's delivered. What else would you call it? A service? At least in my state (Louisiana), the only services that don't get sales tax applied are consulting and repair services, and only for the labor. I hope you don't get audited if you plan on side stepping sales tax by delivering product online, I doubt they will agree with you seeing as it will be easy for them not to and they will gladly take your money if they can.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Uploading a video to YouTube seems to be a service. On the other hand, perhaps the bride and groom would pay more if you promise to not upload the video. In this way they own some sort of exclusive license on work for hire.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Robert,
I've checked with the DOR several times about this and digital files are not taxable. I deliver a good many corporate videos and commercials online. its different in every state though, so checking with the state dor is critical. no big deal for me anyway, but just one more step I don't have to go through.
Bill

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Surely it's the financial transaction that's the taxable element regardless of there being a physical object or not. If that were the case we could all sell our discs for a nominal $1

I'm neither a tax man nor accountant so best take proper advice. Acting on advice from a forum like this is not wise if it may lead to serious consequences.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

It all depends on the rules in the particular legal jurisdiction. Here in the UK all goods & services are subject to a standard rate of Value Added Tax at 20% except for some goods/services that are either levied at a lower 5% rate (domestic fuel), zero-rated (food, books, children's clothes) or exempt (funeral services, insurance). There are similar rules for the rest of Europe. However as I recall Purchase Tax which was replaced by VAT in the early 1970s was purely a Sales Tax on physical goods so that services were not subject.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

I was thinking more of income tax rather than sales or VAT. as the final product for wedding video/film is not sold with a value independent of the cost of production. I could understand this in the context of a special interest DVD sold at a per copy basis but when the whole of the cost is in production it matters little how it is delivered in terms of the tax liability for the charge made to produce it.

But as I said I'm not a tax expert but I'm sure that most countries consider money earned through business as taxable whether there's a physical product or not.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

In South Carolina (bearing in mind sales tax is a state by state thing) If I perform a service that produces any kind of tangible product whether that be a photo print, DVD, etc. The entire purchase is subject to sales tax. If I perform a service and deliver a digital file online, it is not subject to sales tax, but every state is different.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

OK I understand you're talking about sales tax not income tax.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Sales tax in Florida works the same as Bill mentioned for South Carolina. This comes up with some of my corporate clients. I explain to them the difference in price between digital file transfer and giving them physical media. The price difference can be very substantial, and they really complain about sales tax on the whole package, not just the price of the media, but hey, that's the rules, and I don't make 'em.

My NPO clients don't need to worry about it. Valid NPO clients don't pay sales tax. (By valid I mean they have the proper tax certificate).

Federal Income Taxes have their own rules. I'm thankful to have a good CPA.

Back on topic, I upload watermarked previews with timecode to YouTube for my corporate clients and email them the link (with the proper privacy settings). It works well, and so far, no big problems. It's so convenient for the clients, and me. Plus the price is certainly right. The only problem is if YouTube is blocked on their corporate intranet. Then the client needs to talk to their IT people.

Now final delivery is normally not to YouTube, but to their FTP server, unless the client doesn't have one. Then I offer to set them up a YouTube channel.

Wedding clients (and I only have a few of them) don't have the watermarked preview step. They just get a final delivery. Final delivery is final, unless they spot a mistake that I'm responsible to fix. Previews for wedding clients open up a big can of worms, that others on the forum have discussed in other threads.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

In California, you cannot just sell the disc for $1 and collect sales tax on that $1. It is stated time involved in producing that product is taxable.

Something good to read about
The 7 Common Tax Mistakes Made By Photographers ‹ PhotoShelter Blog

“If you hand over a CD, if you hand over a thumb-drive, if you hand over any thing that is tangible, you just sold a product and as such you have to pay sales tax on products that are sold,” he said.

“At the same time, if you are a photographer and you don’t give them a tangible product, and you just FTP all of the photos that you take for a wedding directly to the client, you’re not actually turning anything tangible over to them so you might not technically have to pay sales tax on the services that you provided.”

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Could one company provide the services and a separate company duplicate the disks? This would keep the services separate and make it more clear what should be taxed as sales.

Suppose I work as a second shooter for $X amount. If I turn a tape in at the end of the day, does that change my status from providing a service to selling $X amount of taxable merchandise? I can see the point if I originally purchased the tape with a tax exemption for resale, but what if I purchased the tape retail and already paid the sales tax.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

If that were ever an issue then in this instance you would just get whoever hired you to provide the tapes before shooting commenced.

Re: Delivery of all videos on youtube?
 

Part of the cost of video service is subcontracting out... last time I checked, you don't pay sales tax when you 1099 people.