Removed YouTube video Live! again

You all may know about the huge amount of YT videos that have been and are still removed due to copyright claims from music publishing companies. Unfortunately this had hit some Machinima even very popular ones like Jaydee's music video Helena which had several million views. I never expected this will hit one of my videos who never received such visibility and are well hidden in the far end of the long tail. I was really surprised when I noticed one of my music videos Psycho (Big Love Remix) had been removed due to a claim from Warner Music Group. Looks like there are indeed scanning everything. For sure automatically. In my case that was easy since I mentioned the song title (Big Love by Fleetwood Mac) in the description and tags.
Great YT offers an easy way to protest against the removal. They offer three option. First,they falsely identified the song. Second, you have a license to use that song. Third, you claim 'fair use'. Even not seeing a real chance they even look at those protest mails, I decided to give it a try. For sure they identified the right song, so I deceided to try the second option.
Not because I want to lie on them. For sure not. But due to a not widely spread information I had in mind, I indeed have a license to use that (and other) songs in my YT videos.
When starting YT here in Germany in 2007 they made a deal with GEMA (a group like RIAA in the US) which grants us the right to use every music that GEMA represents (and that is nearly every commercially distributed music). There is some recent discussion if this contract is still valid, but I tried. I mailed them back their press release to see what happens. I was quite sure they'll ignore anyway. I can't tell you how surprised I was when the next time I checked (just about 1h later), that video was LIVE! again. :))
I never ever expected that. I still even don't believe someone really read that protest in person. For me it looks like they just take the protest and assume you are right (sounds crazy) and set that video online again. But maybe I'm wrong.

Intervention - noitnevretnI

You really have to watch this new movie by Overman:

Intervention

What he calls 'An experiment of music and story' is more than just an experiment. It's a surprising movie and it introduces a new and intereting concept to show us how 'time' could used creatively in a movie. It reminds me a bit on his movie Reveal just this time using 'time' instead of 'space' to reveal and unfold the story.
The music for this film is so well crafted and performed and worth listening for it's own sake. I enjoy to see directors using machinima for experimenting with all aspects of the filmmaking. This opens new doors for all of us, extending our range of expression in movies. I don't want to go as far as to say this will become a new trend, but who knows.
After watching the film you should watch the 'reverse' one as well to see how marvelous this film was laid out in both story and music:
Noitnevretni
Now you can try experimenting on your own. How about adding the two parts together and stitch an endless loop. Or maybe add a twist and build a Moebius strip. Open a door for us and make your own movie. Liberty City is a great place to start and explore filmmaking.

[Movie] You and I

Overman at zarathustra studios just released another very nice GTA4 movie:

You and I

"Sometimes fate conspires to keep two lovers apart. And sometimes stupidity saves fate the trouble."

Social Club TV Video Editor Contest: Valentine's Special

Social Club TV is holding a special Valentine's Day themed Video Editor Contest. Enter the Valentine's Day Special Contest by uploading any kind of romance-themed clip to Rockstar Social Club TV anytime between February 10th through February 17th inclusive, using the tag “Valentine-Contest”.

Best in Class 2 Winners Announced

Rockstar finally published the winners of their second machinima contest, this time movies up to 3 minutes lenght were submitted:

Best in Class 2 Winners

Rockstar Games has posted 6 new developer videos to Social Club TV:

New video creations from Rockstar Games

Unfortunately nothing in there that really impressed me so far. Is this because of some limitations of the editor tool? Maybe, but I just don't want to believe that right now. Maybe there are some gems hidden in the 6000 movies submitted so far which got over 13 Mio views in total. Let me know if you have found one, I'll be more than happy to watch it myself an feature it here.

Best in Class 1 Winners Announced

Rockstar finally published the winners of their first machinima contest:
Best in Class 1 Winners

Movies

First the winners of the Journalist Video Editor event at SocialClubTV
Gold medal: "The Bellix Reloaded."
Silver medal: "My Weapon"

Having fun when playing the game is always good start for a Machinima movie:
Grand Theft Auto : Music to the Madness by chaosPerfection
What the Fork? by Zarathustra Studios

And finally looking for a style that they hadn’t tried at before:
Burgeur Shotte by LitFuse Films