Schlomo Steve Garfield: So, it says "camcorder empty" and I'm like, "Oh, my God. The camcorder is empty!" I'm like, "No, wait a minute. That's a good thing." Schlomo Rabinowitz: Yeah. It's empty. I haven't used it today. I could actually put stuff on it. Is that what you mean that was a good thing? Steve Garfield: They need a new wording for that. Schlomo Rabinowitz: They do. Steve Garfield: Camcorder is fabulous. Record. Schlomo Rabinowitz: Yeah, camcorder is excited to be used. Camcorder excited. Steve Garfield: Camcorder empty. Oh, my God. That's like a gas gauge. Schlomo Rabinowitz: Exactly, seeing that's negative. Yeah, I agree. Steve Garfield: I got to talk to user interface kind of. So, tell us who you are. Schlomo Rabinowitz: I'm Schlomo Rabinowitz. Steve Garfield: And why don't you just tell us what the secret of online video is. Schlomo Rabinowitz: To me, the secret of online video is really understanding how, you know, we all have these little toys, right? You understand that I could just run a gun and go "Ba! Ba! Ba!" but it's about now what do I do with that and how do I deal with my subject, how do I get what I need from them and make them feel comfortable, so in the end they look fun on camera and I'm getting my information out and how do you do that. That's really the secret of online video because we're all talking about making concise things with crazy, f*cking click machines and now how do I make that happen like over here, they are doing an adoption service and I decided to do some on there and one of the people there is this little 10-year-old girl. So, I said, "Hey, can we use her to represent the adoption service?" Right? So, I got the little girl and we're talking. I said, "Okay, so this is Little Missy, the dog," right? She's introducing the dog and I said, "Since we're looking for an owner and we're at South by Southwest, what sort of music does the dog like?" and she goes, "Uh, Miley Cyrus?" I said, "Perfect!" So, hopefully people will see this then Miley Cyrus may come adopt Little Missy, you know? That sort of thing. So, you get something fun as opposed to just, "Here's the dog adoption service. Here's the static wide shot. Now, let's go in." It's a little bit more than that. It's between that and bringing a camera from here into here. Get a close up then go back. That's actually engaging online. Steve Garfield: Oh okay. Schlomo Rabinowitz: See? See? Steve Garfield: Oh, wait a minute. Let's go find that dog. Where is that? Schlomo Rabinowitz: Over here. Steve Garfield: Okay.
Read an excerpt of this interview and more in my book, Get Seen.
