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The latest and greatest project management and web posting platforms
Hey guys,
For a long time we’ve been using iWeb to post our client submission videos on our own site, but in the last year it’s just become tiresome to deal with (especially since Apple EOL’d it). SO, I’d love to hear what you’re using to handle things like customized, password protected sites for clients. In a perfect world we could create client specific, project specific sites that show version histories as well as a quick list of client notes. If clients want to provide feedback on the page, that’s great as well (but not required).I know a few years ago you guys had been throwing around a few different programs, but I’m curious if there are any new programs out there that handle this in a better, more automated way. For example, if we need to upload a new version for a client, we export it from FCP, drag onto a droplet, and boom – the program creates a specific page with link to a password protected site. Does this exist yet?
Thanks!
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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12 Replies
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I certainly wouldn’t claim any expertise in this area and have done no exhaustive research. But it’s mostly because we’ve been so happy for the past couple of years with Marco Solorio’s MediaBatch. No, it’s not quite as simple as the drag and drop approach John wants but there are any number of things it does quite well.
When videos are converted to Flash the player enables you — or your client — to set markers at various points, attach lengthy notes to the markers and even draw on screen with a rudimentary set of drawing tools. It’s an extremely convenient way of communicating. It’s also possible to upload other formats of video and audio, but I don’t believe they offer the draw-on feature.
There’s also a separate notes area for each video and a “pass” button which brings up a “Pending / Approved / Needs Revision / Declined” window also with a spot for notes.
MediaBatch enables you as Administrator to allow or disallow viewing, saving and client uploading with a single click for each. Also quite cool (and quite useful for checking up on clients) is the ability to allow users to see or NOT see a hits counter. We routinely leave it’s visibility off so only we know when a client has actually looked at something or not, or has had a few dozen people look at at.
If something better comes along, I might consider it. But for now I’m happy enough with MediaBatch that I’m not looking.
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Does it work with iOS devices? It looks interesting, but my clients are usually traveling and on iPhones or iPads, so flash would be a deal killer.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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Obviously the Flash part does not with iDevices. But virtually all clients at desktops have no problems with the Flash files. They can still see the QT ones however.
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Right now we are using Dropbox. It is very simple to throw a video into the public folder where it generates a unique URL (like you mentioned). No fancy notes, etc. but it gives you a URL even before the video fully loads, so if it is pretty big you can send the email and leave for the day while it finishes up.
Right now, we are considering a switch to Vimeo Pro. It sounds as though they do a lot of what you are asking for, and vimeo is accessable on iOS devices. Neither of these options though, as far as I know, have password protection. We work with small businesses so a unique URL is enough to keep it out of anyone’s gaze.
Jeff
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We use Basecamp – each major project gets a Basecamp project – only invited users both internally and externally can access a project. It displays images within the site, but media you have to download.
What this system does for us is eliminates endless emailing of attachments, and provides a user friendly way for clients to upload and download files. One things that continues to be true is that in the corporate and health sectors, personal computers and the people using them are slightly less sophisticated than in the consumer world (ie, no support for Quicktime, limited support for MP4, limited support of streaming and chat and skype and IM and anything that is not a Word doc in some cases!) So we need to make things simple for our customers.
We use YouSendit for obtaining large files from the field and for propagating files to those not on a BaseCamp project.
Mike Cohen
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Very interesting. I’ll keep my eye on basecamp. I think for my needs it may be slightly overkill, but perhaps my needs will change.
I like the simplicity of dropbox (and we use it often!) but we need password protection and things like that.
Thanks guys!
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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Been using Vimeo Plus for the past few years for client review videos and they have been very happy. Simple website link, password and they play the video. No knowledge needed whatsoever. Before that we were using FTP links and that was becoming a problem for some to figure out.
Now with the new Vimeo Pro it’s even better because I can set up a Portfolio for each client. So they just need to bookmark one site, one password and they can see all of their own videos. At the same time, each individual video in the portfolio can have its own password so if they want to share that video with someone else to review, they can without giving away the main password to everything else. They are LOVING this.
It does exactly what you ask, it leaves all the videos on that site until you take them down. Pro gives you 50GB of storage at any given time. Even our full half hour shows are only 500MB or smaller at full resolution so you have lots of room for a lot of videos.
And yes, the videos play on iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. Vimeo automatically encodes the videos to support them. Great for clients who are traveling or who like their iPad over computers.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
You know what….I’m going to do it. I’ve resisted because Vimeo is a little squirrely in my experience, but for $200/yr I guess I could do worse. Maybe they put a priority download on the pro stuff.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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When you have the Plus or Pro accounts, your uploads are processed pretty much immediately. When you have the free account, you have to “get in line” with everyone else who is uploading.
The $200/year a thing was the no brainer for me too. 🙂
Also, when you get your account set up, note that you can customize the Portfolios for your various clients. For me, each client sees their own logo when they log into the portfolio. Small touch, but they like that.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
I like the custom client logo. I think this will be a great way to get the process consistant. Another cool thing – it looks like I can build a CNAME reference to point subdomains each clients playlist. There’s a chance clients won’t even know they’re on vimeo! I’ll post back the results of that when I can figure it out.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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