Daniel Latimer brought this to my attention in another thread. Really interesting.

But surely Iy can't be the only deliverable. The B&G will still want the files in some sort of physical format surely?

What if you quit your account and retire - what happens lf your previous clients wedding films you hosted with MediaZilla?

I think it will need to be an 'as well as' thing.

We surveyed our clients and the problem is, most are not tech savvy enough to know how to get video from their laptop/devices onto their TV. And we all still love to watch films on a TV right and not off a laptop.

We now offer USB delivery and this is going down well. Pop it in and play it on your TV.

We would love to give mediazilla a go, it will be a great way for our couples to share around their film but many still want a DVD so they can play it at nans house and a blu-ray for themselves. Now, if they were able to add an app onto the Apple TV or other smart TV's. Well, thats everything sorted.

What if you quit your account and retire - what happens lf your previous clients wedding films you hosted with MediaZilla?

I see mediazilla more as a way to show potential clients a finished film online, like you would present it on a dvd or blu-ray, or a way for your client to share the entire film with family and friends for a limited timeperiod. If I would use it in that way I would keep it online for sharing purposes for max one year.

I do find mediazilla interesting as a paid option, there might be clients that want to share their entire wedding film online in that way.

There are a number of things that bother me about this whole approach. My wedding videos are typically 90-110 minutes, which fit onto a dvd or I can transfer in hd to a usb drive. With a cloud based delivery, my internet download speed is 13mbs consistently, but only 0.85mbs upload, but more important is the download speed of clients, which in the UK is frequently way down on what I can achieve.

How much does a subsciption cost, I couldn't see it on their website and would I have to subscribe ad infinitum, paying ever increasing costs into the future on the off chance that a client may want to view their wedding in 10 years time? Ok they can have a 1 year access to it at my cost, then they have to decide if they want to continually pay out to maintain access. they would probably want a hard copy as a safeguard, which really defeats the whole point of online anyway. Why should they pay out hundreds or thousands of pounds for a wedding video, and still have to pay to view it?

Once the commitment to cloud storage only is made, then we and they are totally at the mercy of the companies concerned, re future pricing, access limitations, even the longevity of the company. It could all be lost if the company goes bust or their servers screw up!

I'm afraid that a business model based on my clients having their product floating around in the ether on someone's server somewhere, does not fill me with anticipation or excitement. I know full well that when it all goes tits up, it will all be seen as my fault and what am I going to do about it!

Roger

I was chatting to the guy that developed it on the Linked-In forum for Wedding Videos and there was quite a few questions he couldn't answer. He basically made an exit from the topic and we never heard from him again so I have no idea whether the project actually went ahead or not.

Does anyone know if the guy got it up and running ..it seemed quite pricey but you did get a DVD style menu as opposed to what you can get using a USB drive.

Chris

The question of menus is one that is brought up frequently when discussing alternative delivery systems, but does anybody find that the clients actually want them or even use them? Whenever I visit a client to show them examples, they always prefer to fast forward and never seem to bother with menus. I'm really not convinced that menus have much value with a wedding.

With usb, you can usually fast forward or skip large chunks of a fixed amount. You can of course always make each chapter point as a separate file if you really want to break it up. Menus are great on commercial discs where you want to locate a particular show of a tv series, or alternative content, but apart from that I don't bother with them.

Roger

Roger? you read my mind!!

Most of my brides choose the default option on my menus which is "Play all Movies" ..they want to watch the whole wedding! As long as they can see it from front to back I don't think they care ...menus for weddings are probably just a added value for marketing purposes "We provide a comprehensive menu on the DVD so you can skip to any part of the day" ...but do they really want to??

Chris

I have stopped using scene selections but only have menus on the dvd or blu-ray that lead to the trailer, highlights and complete ceremony so they can rewatch the trailer or just the highlights or whatever as that sounds logical to me, I even take out "play all" because I can't imagine they want to go through the whole thing again when they rewatch it or when they show it to the friends so they have a choice what they want to see.

Also when your clients start skipping through content means the film is either too long or too boring

Mediazilla is supposedly having a launch and webcast today 1st October so we shall see how successful they are ..the website only has marketing content and they have a Facebook page with 300 odd "likes"

They seem to be funded mainly by video producers in the USA including Ray Roman so it will be interesting to see how it is accepted by other videographers and more importantly, brides. There are also quite a few concerns about privacy if you google "mediazilla"

Time will tell

Chris

I guess I'm missing something... what's wrong with Vimeo?

As I understand Mediazilla can mimic a dvd/blu-ray menu online which could be more interesting to showcase to your clients or as a sharing option to give the couple the chance to share their entire dvd contents online the way you see it when you use a dvd at home.

I listened to their webinar. They are going live now for the first 100 people to sign up (more later) and it is an annual cost of $495.

Ouch, if I convert to euro that's 8 times the price I pay for a vimeo plus account, no thank you.

It's "only" about 2.5 times more in the us, but if brides can actually buy into it as a replacement for DVDs then the time savings would make me consider it.

but what can it do that vimeo doesn't?

okay - an interactive menu system - more than double the price of a Vimeo Pro account and I can create private portfolios in Vimeo, have more storage capacity in vimeo. I certainly upload complete weddings at the moment and give clients access but only as an extra, I wouldn't want to do without some sort of physical delivery

but if brides can actually buy into it as a replacement for DVDs then the time savings would make me consider it.

Would that not mean you have to keep an account for ever? If the couple wants to re watch their film in lets say 10 years time, could you guarantee it's still online?

but what can it do that vimeo doesn't?

I haven't used it, but I listened to the seminar they put on yesterday. From my understanding is that it delivers a cleaner project to the bride, so all the video is in one place. It will play on any platform (so iPhone, Android, tablets, computers, etc.).

The bride can create her own account (this is not required) and she will be able to put her wedding into her account. The big benefit here is that if I stop using Mediazilla for any reason the wedding will still be there for her to go back to. (She can also download the video, but that's the same as vimeo)

They have an app for TVs (Samsung smart tvs, hopefully apple tv) that is being worked on - not here yet, but that would get it onto a TV easily.

I don't know if that's worth the extra cost, but I'm always interested in at least exploring new avenues of delivery.

It's "only" about 2.5 times more in the us

Not more? I pay 50 euro for a vimeo plus account while mediazilla would be 392 euro. Is it not the pro account you are referring to?

The big benefit here is that if I stop using Mediazilla for any reason the wedding will still be there for her to go back to. (She can also download the video, but that's the same as vimeo)

Would that mean she has to pay 495 every year to be able to watch her video?

Not more? I pay 50 euro for a vimeo plus account while mediazilla would be 392 euro. Is it not the pro account you are referring to?

I thought you had a vimeo pro account, my mistake. The Pro account is $199

Would that mean she has to pay 495 every year to be able to watch her video?

They said it was a free account.

After chatting to the guy somewhere else I raised concern too about "What happens if you close down" Then the bride has nothing so one would still need to give her a backup disk or USB.

Yep the costing is very confusing but essentially YOU foot the bill and your bride gets it for free as long as the company keeps going ... The $495 allows I assume 1TB of space and this can be shared over a bunch of brides but at the end of the year you have to cough up the next $495 and for every year thereafter. Assuming you are a fairly active film maker I can see the space diminishing rapidly so the more you shoot each year the more it's going to cost you ... After 10 years you are likely to have quite a hefty bill to pay each year as you cannot just abandon your 10 year old films assuming they won't watch them any more.

To be honest I really don't like the idea even if Ray Roman does ... I think I'm out on this one!! Apart from the DVD style menus a vimeo pro account can do much the same thing and it has been running a lot longer.

Chris

Even a Vimeo Plus account for $59/yr does about the same. I'm going to stick with that because it's working great for me.

The deal breaker for me is the copyright music issue. Yes we pay licenses for most of the music we use but it's not always possible to license all the music especially for the songs played live. The menu system looks great, the concept is unique & marketable. That all said it shouldn't be very hard for me to create my own menu's via an onepage parallax WordPress theme which would allow me to host my videos where I chose something I'm definitely going to look into. 1TB of cloud storage is pretty cheap these days.

I wish Jon & his team all the success they deserve, Jon is always in the forefront of innovation. Personally MediaZilla isn't what I'm looking for right now, I'll see how the market goes.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I just don't get the need for it :-( I can see downloading movies to view at home without having to buy them, and paying a subscription for the service, but spending a couple of thousand dollars on a wedding video, then only being able to view it on line seems like a bad idea to me.

They will only be able to view their video when and where they have an internet connection, or should I say a fast enough internet connection. Goodness knows what they do when they want to show it to friends or family that don't have a connection at all or have too slow a connection. What is the problem with preparing a dvd/bluray/usb for the client? Have people got so many weddings coming out of there ears that they can't spare a few hours of overnight rendering to earn their couple of thousand dollars, or is it more a matter of wanting to be seen to be cool and fashionable using the latest technology no matter what the inconvenience to the client. I'm quite sure that the vast majority of wedding clients are far less obsessed with the technology than some of the videographers here.

There is little enough market already for wedding videography without imposing even more totally unnecessary limitations on it in my opinion.

Roger

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I just don't get the need for it :-( I can see downloading movies to view at home without having to buy them, and paying a subscription for the service, but spending a couple of thousand dollars on a wedding video, then only being able to view it on line seems like a bad idea to me.

They will only be able to view their video when and where they have an internet connection, or should I say a fast enough internet connection. Goodness knows what they do when they want to show it to friends or family that don't have a connection at all or have too slow a connection. What is the problem with preparing a dvd/bluray/usb for the client? Have people got so many weddings coming out of there ears that they can't spare a few hours of overnight rendering to earn their couple of thousand dollars, or is it more a matter of wanting to be seen to be cool and fashionable using the latest technology no matter what the inconvenience to the client. I'm quite sure that the vast majority of wedding clients are far less obsessed with the technology than some of the videographers here.

There is little enough market already for wedding videography without imposing even more totally unnecessary limitations on it in my opinion.

Roger

Hi Roger,

Based on your replies to every thread that comes up in regard to the internet I think there's a clear divide between the technological abilities of your area (i.e. slow internet) compared to some other parts of the world. The cliental that I have has fast internet (fast enough to watch a video online) and it's not an issue to show videos online for a bride to watch or even to download a video.

I have also found that the easiest way that bride's share their wedding videos are through online social media, which means that's where I get the most exposure is through an online presences. If I'm able to present a product online that has a bit of polish and wow factor then a friend will be more likely to look at me when she gets married.

Is mediazilla better than vimeo in that regard or worth the additional cost, I don't know the answer to that.

I also understand that your wedding videos are hours long and this type of distribution may be unreasonable for what your market demands.

I don't disagree that currently DVDs are the easiest way for someone to pick up a wedding video and play it on their screen at home. I also agree that whatever way a video is presented shouldn't be a hassle for the bride to watch.

For me, I just like to keep a finger on the pulse of where our industry is going. I don't want to be caught behind when the time comes for change. Apple no longer supplies DVD players with their computers and streaming movies/tv shows is hugely popular. In general, there's a move away from physical media as a source for videos. It may not have hit our industry yet, as there's still not an easy way to watch it on a television, but I want to be ready for when that happens.

I'm not saying it's mediazilla, but I am keeping an eye on it.

Hi Daniel,
Yes you are quite right, I get very uncomfortable with online only distribution in the UK. The main providers are constantly advertising their high speed streaming and download speeds, until you read the small print which always says 'Up to xxxMbs' Ceratinly in some areas of the country with fibre optics, that may be achievable, but there are still many areas of the UK with no connection at all and many more with very poor service. The same applies to 4G phones which are being pushed hard, but at the last check, coverage was only available in 7 cities and only some areas of those.

I am all for movie downloads and being able to share things via social media, but the idea of paying out so much money for a wedding with no hard copy is something I am very uncomfortable with. As an add on service to the hard copy great, but not a stand alone. I would compare it with paying out thousands of pounds to buying a new car, but having to let someone else keep it and needing to contact them every time you want to use it, It would never feel owned.

I do think that a mix of hard copy and streaming is the ideal delivery solution, but something that replaces the current disc or drive options. Maybe the self contained player or video album mentioned elsewhere is where the future lies, it seems an attractive idea and something to own after paying out all that money.

Roger

For those still interested in this service here is a link to a post on Liked in from the original founder Jon Geddes and all the comments he got including the pros and cons. This is when he wanted feedback when it was still in the pre-launch stage some time ago.

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Your-Feedback-on-Digital-Delivery-2886434.S.5842102399367397376?trk=groups_items_see_more-0-b-ttl

Chris

I still think this is something to watch for but my main concern is that it is putting the ownership of the brides memories for years to come on us. What if we go all Stillmotion and move into corporate films and stop doing weddings. For our brides who have a 'cloud' only copy we need to keep paying Mediazilla or they loose their film. No, we have to keep paying a subscription.

In 50 years time when the grandkids want to see nanas video they can pull out the DVD/Blu-Ray/USB/Disk copy and watch it. If we only delivered a mediazilla copy there is a chance of people saying "The company went bust, its gone forever".

I think a hardcopy will still be required.

A Vimeo Pro account is a different matter. Whatever we move into we will always have a vimeo account... Plus its cheaper.

I've asked if there are trial accounts as I don't fancy paying $500 to try something out that I may not like. Windows, Sony Vegas, Adobe Premier, Photoshop, Vimeo or anything does trials.

Also, you can guarantee Ray Roman and Cinemacake arent paying $500 a year ;)

*Disclaimer, we have no plans to shut up shop, stop doing weddings, nor are we in a position to go bust ;)

Mediazilla guys, if your reading this. An idea would be to pay per film so each film has its own account which doesn't expire. So whatever happens, the couples still have their film. This is especially important if your pushing the service as a disk replacement.

Hi Danny

I really cannot see this as a full delivery option. In 50 years probably we both could be pushing up daisies and the company's founder also could be in the same boat so I would see it as an optional extra only. OK, the online menus are neat but as already discussed, brides seldom use them and they are more of a marketing gimmick ..because other guys offer a "DVD menu" you feel obliged to do so as well whether the client needs it or not.

The bottom line is that you might as well use Vimeo or YouTube and forsake the menu option as they are likely to last longer than us in the market at a fraction of the price. Let face it a youtube uploaded video isn't the most professional BUT it's free for the couple and is likely to remain online a lot longer than a company who suddenly decides that their service is not making them as much money as they expected so they just shut it down.

Chris

If anyone is interested, www.precomposed.com (now Mediazilla) is selling all of their amazing templates for $10 today as it is their last day in business.