Blog Posts About: video

After noticing a Twitter conversation mentioning Common Craft, I met Chris Johnson of Simplifilm.  

Last week Chris posted a blog post that provides a look at his position regarding Common Craft and Common Craft Style videos in the context of other producers. The post is called: Have Your Own Style (What Happens When We're Asked to Make a Common Craft Video).  Chris writes:

They have their niche and nobody good would ever copy their style. Common Craft should be the only people that make a cut-out-videos-that-explain software or web services. Anything else is an echo.

and

If a client asked, we’d say no. It’d be an admission of creative bankruptcy to try to mimic the very clear, original style that CommonCraft uses. 

First, I want to thank Chris for standing up for our work so publicly. I like that Chris’ perspective is not about legal ramifications so much as recognizing another company’s work and making a conscious choice to take a different creative direction.  In some ways, it’s how the world should work. 

The fact is, there are many videos out there that could be called “Common Craft Style” - we see them all the time.  Like Chris, people sometimes expect us to be up-in-arms about other producers who take inspiration from, or even directly copy our work.  While plagiarism and trademark infringement is unacceptable, we recognize that there is a gray area and always appreciate attribution if our work is indeed an inspiration. It's this gray area that makes our position on Common Craft Style a bit complicated.  

Example: Educational Use

Teachers and students are currently working on what they call “Common Craft Style” videos in classrooms.  These are often middle and high school students making videos that help them learn about history, for example. While we are not involved in any way, we have always encouraged teachers to take inspiration from our work in school projects. 

Here's an example created by Wendy Drexler:

Here's another made by 8th graders that makes me LOL:

There are 100s of examples on YouTube and even a Common Craft Style video explaining how to make Common Craft Style videos in the classroom.

As we mentioned, the existence of these projects makes having an absolute position on Common Craft Style difficult, as we are very supportive of these educational, classroom-oriented videos. 

Years ago, we decided that the best thing we can do is focus our attention on building our brand and making the best possible videos.  Our goal has always been to create a brand of videos that speaks for itself and I think we’re getting close. 

There will always be the company, producer or agency who chooses to make a video in “Common Craft Style”.  Sure, you could say they’re copying us. You could say that we need to stop them. But as Chris’ blog post shows, the market has a way of recognizing and even protecting unique and valuable creations.  Here's what I mean...

Rock and Roll

Chris quotes Scott Ginsberg in his post, “There are no cover-bands in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”  While this may be true, that building is filled with individuals who were inspired-by and copied the techniques of others. Even though Chuck Berry inspired Elvis Presley, there will only ever be one Chuck Berry. And maybe that’s the lesson here.  

More than anything, we want to see video explanations become the next rock-and-roll. We want our little industry to grow and for talented producers to build careers on using videos to explain and educate.  And for that to happen, the environment needs to encourage producers who take inspiration, but also find responsible ways to make their own creative contribution.  

We’ll always protect our brand and appreciate attribution where it's appropriate. But at the end of the day, we want to be the people who help inspire the next Hall of Fame inductee, not stand in their way. 

If you’re considering a Common Craft video, please contact us. 

The video below was made with the Trustworthy Computing Team at Microsoft. As we learned, there is a debate brewing in the world of software security.  It's a debate about how to report problems that are discovered in software - what the industry calls "vulnerabilities". I'll let the video speak for itself on covering the issues.

For this post though, I want to talk about the use and power of visual metaphors, which was a big challenge for this project.  Here's a question for you: how do you visualize software?  We've used box like you see in a computer store, DVDs, binary code, etc.  These still aren't the best, but it's an ongoing challenge. Now, if software is hard to visualize, what about software vulnerabilities? That's a whole-other can of worms. 

This project, like many that we do, prompted us to come up with a symbol that is used throughout the video.  This is risky because if the symbol doesn't work for the client, it means taking two steps backward and completely rethinking the visuals.  For the idea of software vulnerability, we chose to use a chain metaphor.  Software is a system that works together and a vulnerability is essentially a crack in one of the chain links - it compromises the power of the whole system.  By making this point clear early in the video, we were able to establish a visual symbol of vulnerability that we could use for a lot of scenes.

Thankfully, Ken and the Trustworthy Computing Team liked the chain idea and the video.  See what you think:

Today we’re publishing a new video: BitTorrent Explained by Common Craft

Watch the video.

Chances are, even if you’re one of the millions who use BitTorrent every day, you don’t really know how it works.  That’s part of the magic that makes it so popular - it just works.  It helps you download files from the Internet faster than any other method. This video explains the moving parts that work together to deliver the file to your computer.  

Those of you who tune-in to the Common Craft blog may remember that we made a custom video for BitTorrent a while back.  This video is very similar. Because BitTorrent is such a popular and misunderstood technology, we made a deal with the BitTorrent to be able to publish the video for our library.  So, it is now available for licensing and use in education.

If you have a laptop, you've probably worried about it getting lost or stolen. These devices have become the home of so much of our lives that thinking about one in the hands of a stranger is painful.  Thankfully, products like LoJack for Laptops help you prevent potential problems and get your computer back.  The video explains how:

A quote about how they've used the video:

“We had a very successful CES. The video was on all our ipads and was a hit with clients, partners and our CEO, so much so we’ll be featuring it at our global sales meeting next week!” Kate Kyle Brow, Director – Global Consumer Marketing.

Thanks to Joey and Kate at Absolute Software for a great project together!