Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen not to mention a right pain the ass to code. Considering how it would have to interact with iTunes I don't even know if it'd be possible without a custom plugin, not to mention requiring iTunes to start with.
Is this clip in flash?

That aside, while this has some appeal for the converted don't expect the idea of making customers pay to view your advertising material take off, hell software to block bloody ads is a small industry these days. I subscribe to a few sites (Salon for example) but so far, it doesn't seem to be a very successful business model outside porn. I mean even the registration thing on most newspapers is starting to look like a bad idea, I know I can't be fucked going though registration to view a single damn article and plenty of others do the same. A lot of people use services like BugmeNot to get around it as well, it's a great way to shoot yourself in the foot.

Makes me crazy too. So you're not alone.

Second only to pointless annoying badly made flash intro movies, particularly the occasional ones without skip buttons, sure way to piss off potential customers before they even view your site.

I don't think you people understand though...people up in slang's neck of the woods aren't familiar with such flashy and technically complicated items. It could work for him...for a while.

Ok, I see from the comments I havent explained this very well.

The visitor goes to a specific area in the site that offers animations. The page shows screen shots of the animation, with an option to download with sound, which would take you to the ITunes for the song download. If you choose to watch the clip with sound, you buy the song for $.99 and then a program loads the song and the clip to play at the design speed together. The action follows the music as intended and the clip is that much more appealing.

Why would a visitor want to see an ad? This will not be the traditional "buy our shit" type of ad. It will be an animated scene or group of scenes of something interesting to shooters. It would likely include some scenes from local shooting events or personalities. The target quality will be that simllar to game quality rendering. At the end of the scene, of which the local shooter recognizes something or somewhere that they have actually been to, there is a fade out scene that says something like "brought to you by AGA". The appeal is seeing something gun related or local rendered into a commercial quality clip.

Would the page play music? No. I know how annoying this is and I wouldn't even think of making a page like that. I have never experiences a sound page like that that doesnt drive people away, and that's not what I intend to do.

After thinking a bit more and reading the comments though, it may be a bit more practical to announce that the next clip will be using the music file "such and such" and if you wanted to experience the clip as it was intended, you might want to buy the song yourself beforehand.

At the point that the visitor downloads the clip and has already purchased the music, the program could then simply run the audio and the visual as was designed, with the scenes reacting to the music, beat, etc.

If the visitor doesnt have and doesnt want to see the clip with music, that's fine and the download would also be available. Seeing anything without the sound takes a major part away from the total viewing appeal though, and I wouldnt think that there would be that much of a demand.

Also, the music could alternate from a short list of songs, so if you wanted to see a future clip, say 6 months from now, you might already have the required music to match the clip.

Will it fly? I dont know. I do know that people like to see original and interesting flash or animation typres of videos. There are very few such animations available specifically of shooting and shooting sports. That in inself says a lot. This may be an opportunity to gain a niche market or a major waste of time for the user.

Regardless of the demand, it will showcase my capabilites in modeling and creating videos which may very well be beneficial to me in potential contracts for non-related advertising clips.

There is still much to be done in this project and it's success is unclear. I believe it merits more research at this point. If I can offer this type of ad, it may very well lead to other possiblities for me and for the shop.

For example. Do you think the NRA has the ablility to pay for this type of work? Also, other manufacturers do give promotional money for commercial advertising, including websites. I think Glock USA has the money and the motivation to hire someone like me, a dedicated Glock user, to make clips, headers and other software related products to promote their products. Not some California liberal tech guy, me. A die hard firearms guy with some modeling and tech skills.


Jag: I have the capability to make flash and Avi clips although the flash is somewhat limited in the resolution. The Avi can be rendered in large size though, with decent res.

sidenote: saved by previous fusterclucks. After I typed all this I went to post and it said I wasn't fucking logged in. Good thing I save. :biggrin:

:haha:
Slang, don't you have some schoolwork to do?

This *is* the schoolwork now. The final project.

The tough part, show em I lernt someting (gulp).

You only have to do enough to show them you're a wacko gun nut and they'll be afraid to flunk you. :eek:

Considered you've mentioned previously your target audience isn't on fast connections or great machines a bigass avi might not be that wise. I'm still very iffy about whether this is technically possible, it's certainly not something I'd attempt, put it that way and I've made and am making some fairly damn complex web apps using the edge of most available tech both client and server side (php, shockwave, flash, jscript, DBs, QT and combinations of the above).

As for work, remember there are one sweet buttload of talented designers out there with folios that are awe inspiring and have pro training in brand management and doing design work in a commercial environment, if Glock wanted a campaign, they'd turn to their favorite agency who would recommend someone or put together a team. If you want to know what the best look like take a gander at the kind of stuff on Styleboost and the folios on NewsToday, if you can't work out how they were done in under 30 seconds, you're probably not in the running. The NRA et al might be interested in the some free stuff but at the end of the day it's down to pro skill, not political views.

You have nothing invested in seeing me make it at *something* Jag. You see a hundred reasons why I can't do something, I see two hundred why I can. There's no use in debating, we are both right.

There is no doubt that there is a tough path ahead of me. There is also no doubt in my mind that I can find a way to do something substancial with the site.

In any case, I have installed the PHP nuke and am struggling through the programming end of it. You originally suggested the post-nuke and I installed it onto the server then deleted the uninstall accidently, said fuck it, and went with php nuke. I love it. Thanks for the advice. You're really not a bad guy and I appreciate your honest advice.

I have so much to do it overwhelms me. Time for me to get busy and make something happen. As things progress, I'll report in.

Take care

slang

Sorry if I came across a tad negative, it's just I have a lot of contacts in design and know how fierce the competition is and how many talented designers are looking for work. While I'm sure you're perfectly capable I just felt it's best you go into this, if you're serious, with both eyes open.

As for post/phpnuke, postnuke is a fork of phpnuke, it's been a while since I touched either (I use my own CMS, I find it more flexible) but postnuke was formed due to consistant unpatched security issues in phpnuke, things might have changed but it'll be worth checking before you take it live, there were bots around that could auto-root PHPnuke sites. If you need help with any of this, as always, drop me a line.

I think the biggest difference between whether or not a company or label will come after you depends on if you (or the person using the music) plans on making money with it. You see people ripping songs, images and other intellectual property left and right on places like Newgrounds and Albinoblacksheep and other web animation hubs. But none of them are seeling anything, they're just showing off animation skills (or lack thereof), telling a story, trying to make you laugh...or cry...bottom line is no one's making money from it. And fairly often, the animators somehow credit the music or images within.

If a company finds their song is being used to sell something and that something isn't in line with the company image or that something is making money and they're not seeing any of it, THEN they'll be on you like white on rice.