Sick of blurry, shaky YouTube videos? So is YouTube, and so the Google-owned video site is launching yet another effort to raise the bar for video productions this week. Starting Wednesday, it is going to host weekly Hangouts about the art of video production, with subjects ranging from storyboarding to color correction.
The workshops will be held by YouTube employees, and made available as Hangouts on Air, meaning that nine people at a time can join and ask questions while an unlimited number of people can watch via Google+. Archived recordings of the Hangouts will be avialble on YouTube as well.
This is just the latest effort by Google to improve the overall production quality on the site, and grow talent that can be tapped as partners for monetized videos. In May of 2011, YouTube launched an ambitious university program, teaching 20 select students in person at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts and Columbia College Chicago’s Television Department. Before that, it gave 500 of its partners $ 1,000 each to buy better camera equipment.
YouTube’s new Hangouts are obviously less targeted, but could potentially reach a much bigger audience. The initiative also coincides with Google using Hangouts to foster relationships with developers. Last month, it launched a new section of its developer site that lists office hours for Hangouts on a wide range of topics.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
- Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
- Players and Strategies for Real-Time In-Stream Advertising
- Connected Consumer Market Overview, Q2 2010
