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nodesocket
Well done. Love the kinetic typography effect. Guessing that you guys do promo/about videos?
brackin
Great, another interesting way to put the post into perspective. Also cool for anyone wanting to explain what YC is to non startup folk.
phzbOx
Is there a service to produce video like that? Where you'd choose your music, say the texts, and automatically that'll create a couple sample of it?
genieyclo
I don't know but am also interested. I do know of services like GrumoMedia that make top-notch vids that lots of startups use to market and intro their product.
garethsprice
http://animoto.com/ does a reasonable job of automating simple video production. Looks a bit generic, but it's a hard problem to solve - things like voiceovers and tightly animated text like in the posted video seem simple but require a fair amount of time, equipment and skill to get right.

Any video graphics people disagree? Anyone want to pitch the idea of an automated videographic generator to the next YC? :)

programzeta
I think it's a ripe field for experimentation at this point, as it's a very entertaining way to present information. There is/was a series in Australia called Hungry Beast, which produced "Beast File" segments that used kinetic typography in the same manner as this video:

Stuxnet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g0pi4J8auQ

Google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfV6RzE30

Apple: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj9JVXzoOYQ

There are more of these segments, but a lot of them have to do with Australian politics / corporations. I've watched them all because I adore the style but it might not be for everyone :)

In addition, there have been several labours of love which really showcase what's possible when you make a full production out of such a work, such as this amazing piece of kinetic typography / video done to Jonathan Coulton's Shop-Vac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4sOfO8Ei1g

Any potential company would have their work cut out for them to allow user-generated content to even get close to the above segments, but as the current crop of tools are general professional-level tools (Adobe After-Affects / Premiere or related) there's definitely a specialized gap here.

eneveu
RSA also adapts a lot of their talks into animated videos, such as the well-known:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc (Dan Pink - Drive : The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us)

The difference is that they use "real drawings" instead of computer animations / kinetic typography.

inkaudio
Well it's design, so it would be the equivalent of trying to write software to replace the need for a programmer or any worthy craft. If you want unique quality work you'll have to pay it, otherwise you'll have to settle for a generic template and build on that.
pagekalisedown
Not to be negative, but what I get from this is that their hit rate is going down while their cost is going up. Am I wrong?
rmorrison
Yes, it takes time to build a successful company. A company doesn't exit for $200 million the year it is incorporated. Come back in 3 or 4 years, and I think you'll see the hit rate has gone up!