Video In

by Charles Fulton
Summer/Fall 2003

Broadband Streaming
It's time to get out of the heat and get in front of your computer or living room PC with a nice, cool beverage of your choice. Here are some sites that feature some great broadband video for the streaming. These are sites that really shine if you're lucky enough to have DSL, satellite broadband or a cable modem, but several of these sites also have 56k streams available for the bandwidth-impaired.

Britshorts
[www.britshorts.com]
Enter the screening room and watch a short film made by a British filmmaker, with films from the British Film Institute and the London International Film School. You can even get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into films that are currently in production, as well as announcements from recent film festival wins garnered by featured filmmakers.

Capitol Records
[http://music.capitolrecords.com]
Find a favorite music video from a Capitol Records recording artist from a broad selection of genres, including modern rock, classic rock, pop and R&B. There are also artist spotlights featuring Capitol artists from the past, including Nat King Cole, John Lennon, Frank Sinatra and Bob Seger.

Comedy Central
[www.comedycentral.com]
While the video is spread out through the site, you can find video clips from most of Comedy Central's programming, including South Park, Chapelle's Show, The Daily Show and The Man Show. Sound clips and other interactive goodies round out the offerings. You can also purchase show merchandise, participate in forum discussions and play thematic games.

Major League Baseball
[www.mlb.com]
Follow the Video link to see all the baseball video you can think of, from video of the games themselves to player interviews and outtakes from This Week in Baseball. For $4.95 a month you can also sign up for Total Ticket, a premium streaming service, which provides full game video, highlights, The Hot Stove Report and more.

Guerrilla Filmmakers
[www.guerrillafilmmakers.com]
In addition to viewing a wide selection of guerrilla films (very low-budget films and videos that are frequently experimental in nature), you can also learn about the filmmakers and videographers themselves, and learn how to submit your own short videos for possible distribution.

Maakies
[www.maakies.com]
Remember those Maakies animated shorts that aired on Saturday Night Live? Now you can watch them anytime in QuickTime. Click on the Animation link and you can watch Drinky Crow, Uncle Gabby, and the rest of Tony Millionaire's distinctive characters. Also enjoy interviews with Millionaire and archives of the Maakies comic strip.

Scour
[www.scour.com]
A huge, but rather jumbled collection of videos, music and installable games (predominantly for Windows), Scour features videos of comedy, sports, TV, movie trailers and music videos. When we visited, Conan O'Brien clips and trailers from Rocky, The Magnificent Seven and Platoon were a few of the featured highlights that we found.

DivX
[www.divx.com]
Not as much a streaming site as a portal to find DivX-encoded video. Follow links to great content, including alternative cinema, cult classics, and independent films, not to mention Videomaker magazine's instructional video series. You can also download the latest version of the DivX codec for Windows, the Macintosh and Linux, and follow links to several player applications for this up-and-coming media format.