Again, it’s completely automatic and ridiculously easy. We’ll take care of everything in the background. Here’s how it works:

1.) Download our iOS app here.

2.) Use “Sign in with Google” to connect to your Google Drive account and accept the Terms of Service.

3.) Kick back and enjoy a cool drink as your Pixorial videos start syncing to your Drive automatically.

The great thing is that those synced videos will also appear in your Pixorial library, where they can be edited and shared anywhere.

Your videos will enjoy a much happier life once they’ve been liberated from the confines of your iOS device. So…download that app and set them free!

Both arenas have been mastered by Morgan, our Director of Business of Development. He’s our point man in for lining up partners such as Mywedding, NYVS, and Google. He’s also one of the chillest guys you’ll ever meet. Let’s find out more about Morgan, his practical approach to video, and his time on the racetrack!

* * * * *

In 140 characters or less, describe yourself.
If you ask my family to describe me it would be something like this: frugal, stubborn, and a perfectionist. I suppose they would be correct.

How do you use Pixorial?
I enjoy capturing random, spur of the moment videos of my young niece and nephew. The wonderful things these kids do and say are fantastic. There is always laughter with my brother’s family, so I like having my Android App ready and available to capture the good times at a moment’s notice.

What’s your favorite Pixorial feature?
The ability to record an activity and quickly forward the video to my Pixorial Library is great! I can share the footage with family and friends; most importantly, I know that my video is securely stored on Pixorial’s cloud or with Google Drive, a recent strategic partnership that enables our customers the ability to store their memories in multiple locations.

What was the most recent video that you created?
I shot a lot of footage over Easter weekend with my phone. Using the Pixorial App I was able to send and store multiple movie clips to my Library for future editing. Ranging from 15 seconds to several minutes, the compiled video is coming together nicely. The great thing about Pixorial is that videos can be constantly worked on with our easy to use editing tool, Producer. I’m a perfectionist; as such, I love the ability to add new content and manipulate the video at any time.

What other apps do you use?
Because my sense of direction is a bit off, I’m always using Navigator to guide me through the city. Also, I love to find hole in the wall Indian and Mexican restaurants; therefore, Yelp comes in handy. Of course, while driving to my next food discovery I’ve got to listen to the radio – Shazam is a great app to identify artists and purchase new music.

Have a tip you can share?
Don’t be afraid to capture random moments with your phone. Late last summer my family went to the mountains to spend the weekend. While walking through the town’s farmers market, I captured video of my wife and five year old niece playing in a stream that ran parallel to the vendors. Because of Pixorial’s cloud storage, my family can access and enjoy the shrieks of joy from my niece for years to come.

Time for a little show and tell! Favorite video?
Years ago I raced cars professionally and dreamed of competing in the Indy 500. While I enjoyed my experiences of racing sports cars and formula cars in the lower categories, I never made it to the premier level in the US. There comes a time when the reality of your passion and abilities forces you to look in the mirror and make a course correction. Fortunately a lot of the skills I learned in sponsorship acquisition and marketing have enabled me to have a wonderful career away from the racetrack.

The video below is a year in review from my days in the CART Barber Dodge Pro Series, the opening show on CART ChampCar race weekends – at the time, the premier category of formula racing in North America. The championship traveled throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The trained eye will notice two famous drivers now competing in NASCAR – Danica Patrick and AJ Allmendinger.

Now for the inside scoop. What do you do when you’re not at Pixorial?
As a new resident of Denver, I enjoy exploring the city and nearby attractions. Within an hour’s drive are old mining towns, ski resorts, and great mountain roads. This summer I’d like to try rafting and attending a few local sports car races. Also, in a pure act of stupidity, I entered the Warrior Dash. The Dash is an crazy event that includes running through mud and climbing over obstacles, as well as mass quantities of alcohol. My first summer in Denver should be fun.

* * * * * *

Morgan will be joining myself and several other members of the Pixorial team for this insane race, which features charming challenges such as crawling through mud under barbed wire, scaling giant walls, and leaping fire. In the event we’re still alive, we’ll let you know how it goes (with video of course)!

With this post, we’re kicking off a series of articles and videos filled with fun and useful tips for creating polished and just plain awesome videos. The skills and techniques that you’ll learn come straight from the crazy-talented video production experts at NYVS. Ready? Let’s rock!

What’s the difference between an amateur-looking video and one that’s slick and polished?

Sure, there’s the obvious – the polished video might be shot with a better camera with higher quality and better resolution. But even an ordinary smartphone camera, in the hands of a skilled videographer, can produce incredible videos.

In this tutorial from our partners at NYVS, you’ll learn about shot composition – one of the basic building blocks of great video. As you’ll see, these tips are simple to understand and easy to put into action. Let’s take a closer look:

As NYVS points out, there are four basic principles that can dramatically improve your videos:

The Rule of Thirds: Your frame can be divided into a grid of three vertical and horizontal lines. Subjects look best when they’re centered on one of those intersecting lines.

Lead Space: If your subject is looking in one direction, frame the shot so that there’s plenty of room ahead of their gaze. (The opposite can look unnatural and cramped).

Headroom: Frame your shots so that there isn’t tons of space above your subject’s head, and be careful to not cut off their body at an awkward area, such as their knees.

Background: Is your background distracting or annoying? Too busy? Too boring? Is the angle of your shot appealing and interesting? Ask these questions as you frame the shot and position your subject.

Next time you’re watching a video, TV show, or commercial, watch for these shot composition techniques in action. Once you’re aware of these methods, you’ll notice them all the time!

And now for a challenge: Incorporate some of these tricks in your next video; we think you’ll love the final result. Submit your video with these applied techniques by using your “share to crowd” button to share with PR@pixorial.com. If we feature your submission, we’ll upgrade your account for one year!

According to the LA Times, Mother’s Day is the second-highest gift-giving day of the year.  So of course, this means that retailers and online shopping sites are vying for your attention with the items that they think you should buy. But what, exactly, is the best gift for mom?

Here’s a little hint. Moms love talking about their kids, looking at pictures and reliving their favorite family memories. So this year, instead of buying chocolates or flowers, why not give the gift of memories?

There are a few ways to tell your mom “I love you” with video. Dads, get your kids involved with these fun ideas!

• Create a Videocard – upload a new video or use an existing one
• Create a digital video masterpiece or custom DVD – use Pixorial’s editing tool, Producer, to bring together your favorite moments
• Share a link to a video on Facebook or in an email

Chocolates and flowers are nice, no doubt…but they just don’t last. This holiday, get your mom something that she can enjoy for years to come!

Here is a quick video example and what you can do with Pixorial.

It’s a banner day at Pixorial HQ! After months of behind-the-scenes preparation, we’re tremendously excited to reveal The Big News:

Pixorial has been chosen by Google to be a Google Drive launch partner.
Here at Pixorial, we’re all about telling stories through video. Google Drive is all about file storing, sharing, and collaboration in the cloud. Put Google Drive and Pixorial together, and you’ve got an incredibly powerful combination that will change the way you collect, create and share your favorite video moments.

What is Google Drive?
As Google points out in their announcement, Drive is much more than cloud-based storage. It’s a way to keep everything and share anything, whether you’re at home, at the office, or on the go.

How is Pixorial integrated with Drive?
With just a few clicks you can open, create, and share video files using our app. If you have video on your Google Drive, you can easily sync those files to Pixorial’s web-based platform, where you can collect, edit, and share those moments.

Google selected us as one of the top video solutions available for the launch of Google Drive because of our unique, easy-to-use storytelling platform, and enthusiastic customer base; our users have uploaded over a million minutes worth of video! As we integrated our platform with Drive over the past few months, our goal was to make your experience as simple, seamless and intuitive as Google’s search. I’m happy to report that our development team did an incredible job; accessing Pixorial from your Drive account couldn’t be easier.

How can I get a Google Drive account?
Sign up for Google Drive at drive.google.com and you’ll get 5 GB of storage free. Add the Pixorial app through the Chrome Web Store.

Keep an eye on this blog over the next several days and weeks. We’ll show you how to become a Pixorial + Drive power-user, and provide easy tips and tricks for better video storytelling.

If this is your first visit to Pixorial, welcome aboard! Check out the video below to see how to get started, or click here to snag your free Pixorial account.

This week we’re positively psyched to announce some very exciting news: Pixorial has teamed up with New York Video School (NYVS). Our goal? To unleash the video producer in everyone.

We think this is a natural, peanut-butter-and-jelly fit. A true match made in the clouds. Here’s why:

NYVS is an online video school designed to help anyone who wants to create better video. They offer hundreds of easy video tutorials for all skill levels, covering topics from “what camera should I buy?” to “what are some great advanced editing techniques?,” to everything in between. Throw in personalized instruction and a thriving community of video freaks, and you’ve got a go-to destination for all things video production.

Pixorial is the perfect launchpad for the techniques and skills you’ll learn at NYVS. Combined with our storytelling platform – which lets you store, edit, and share your videos anywhere – you’ll be able to showcase and spotlight your polished creations.

Here’s just one example of their wickedly useful tutorials:

To kick off the partnership, we’re both offering discounts on our premium services. As a Pixorial user, you’ll receive 25% off the NYVS in-depth, become-a-video-ninja Premium Plus plan.

A note to NYVS members:

If this is your first time at Pixorial, welcome! Make yourself at home and get started on a free trial. We think you’ll like what you see.

From the halcyon days of Haight-Ashbury to today’s tech titans, San Francisco has always been a breeding ground for creative, innovative thinkers. Our own Laura Higgins – born and raised in the Bay Area – is no exception.

Laura now lives here in Denver, where she holds down the fort with her family, pets, and an exciting position at Pixorial. Her official title is “Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing,” but that doesn’t even begin to capture how awesome she is. Let’s go straight to the source to learn more about Laura, her techie preferences, and her obsession with taking video!

In 140 characters or less, describe yourself.

I don’t do 140 chars unless forced: my handle is bigbigdogs (I’m an Irish Wolfhound nut). I’m a third-generation San Franciscan living in Denver who misses the ocean. Married early and had two cool redheaded daughters; still married to the same great guy who makes me laugh every day — he was a stand-up comedian & TV host when we met.

I took my first video production class from Video Free America in San Francisco when I was still a teenager; it’s been part of my regular working life ever since. I’ve produced umpteen videos, mostly either funny stuff or corporate stuff, and I’m delighted with how matter-of-fact you can be nowadays about slicing together a cool video to share — editing used to be hard to learn and hard to do, and it’s not now. I’m a veteran of the dot-com boom of the 90′s, having started my first Internet gig in Seattle in 1995, followed by a stint at a few startups and then Microsoft HQ. I’ve worked with Jay Conrad Levinson, the creator of Guerrilla Marketing, and with Anne Holland at MarketingSherpa – both just amazing marketing minds.  Right now I’m learning to be a Mac addict. (Cue the “I told you so!” comments from my Applish friends.)

Working for Pixorial means I start every morning totally excited about what I get to do all day. This is the most amazing time of growth and change for video production and sharing; I love that I get to focus on how people tell their stories using video.

How do you use Pixorial?

I find tremendous immediate gratification in pulling together videos I think will make my daughters laugh. They’re both really smart and sarcastic and because they grew up with a dad who’s a professional humorist and entertainer, the bar is high. Two weeks ago I was walking from the parking lot to our office building near Denver, and there was a huge turkey hanging out beside the building door — and four security guards standing watch! It was such a bizarre scene I pulled out my phone and grabbed maybe a minute of video — four cops, one big honking bird. I thought it was funny. I uploaded it from my phone to my Pixorial Library, opened Producer, dropped in the footage, trimmed it to be a bit shorter, added some silly music from the “Comedy” category plus a few snarky inside jokes as overlay text and shared the finished video with my family. It took me all of about five minutes from shooting to sharing. My daughter Brenna called me and said I made her snork her Starbuck’s up her nose — I consider that a mad success.

I also use Pixorial as a fast way to collect and organize videos for projects – the Crowds feature makes it really easy to share clips back and forth with people. I was at a birthday party a few weekends ago and there were I think five people shooting video – I collected up clips from everybody and made a little birthday highlight video. Considering that the birthday boy is a world-famous classical guitarist who had requested that people bring their instruments to play instead of giving him presents… well, it was a very musical party! One friend of his who dropped by is a well-known Peruvian guitarist, and the two of them played a duet that was just amazing. I love that I could share this event through Pixorial where I get to control who has access.

What is your favorite Pixorial feature?

By far, my favorite feature is Pixorial Producer, the advanced editing app you get with a Premium account. Even though you can do quite a lot with the Basic Editor you get with a free Basic account, I don’t ever want to give up Producer – I’ve learned a lot of video editing tools over the years, and this one’s so simple to use anyone can master it. I can work FAST in Producer, and as far as I’m concerned the quality is right up there with Adobe Premiere or Final Cut. I just find it immensely satisfying and fun to use – it’s my video Instagram.

I also use Pixorial’s Automagical Video Uploader, because it “watches” my video folder on my PC, and whenever I sync videos to it, the Uploader just sweeps them into my Pixorial library. I love it because I never even have to think about it.

What was the most recent video that you created?

I made two kitty videos a couple of days ago featuring Dave the Cat. The first one’s the video I shot of Dave (then named “Mike”) when I first met him at the Denver Dumb Friends League – this crazy little kitten went bananas batting around a ping pong ball in the visiting room, and I fell in love with him. Then I made one of him wrestling with my husband’s cell phone – it looks like he’s making a call. After all, aren’t cute images of cats the main thing that holds the entire internet together? (It’s either cats or porn, I can never remember…)

What other apps do you use?

Better question is which ones DON’T I use! I have an Android phone, a Samsung Nexus S 4G. I’m not converting to an iPhone because I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Android phone (I just always want the newest new one, of course!). Right now my heavy-use apps (besides the obvious ones, like email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) are Pixorial (of course), Sony FrameGrabber, Flickster, BN Nook, and Audible.com. Those are sticky and practical; I think the Audible app’s one of the best. But I’ve got dozens I like to play with – I’m in the Google Play store nearly every day.

From my Macbook, my #1 love right now is Skitch. I Skitch everything – it’s just ridiculously useful. And I’m getting addicted to my Pinterest Pin It button and also to Psykopaint. I like Chrome more than Firefox, so I browse the Chrome Web Store pretty frequently, too. I love to play with new apps. If I listed them out, this would turn into an even longer blog post!

Have a tip you can share?

Just. Start. Making. Videos. It’s unbelievably satisfying, and I’m still just amazed at how EASY it is to do with Pixorial. Yeah, I’m in marketing; “easy” is one of those marketing spin-words — but it truly fits the bill here. It might be a bigger deal to me because when I started learning video production, editing software was crazy-expensive and took hours and hours to master. Today nearly everyone has a great video camera built right into their phone; it takes so little effort to create something lovely, fun and unique in just a little time – adding music, credits, choosing the best parts of whatever you’ve recorded. It’s fun! So just start.

Time for a little show and tell! Favorite video?

I know this is totally clichéd, but I trace so much of my life’s happiness and success back to my choice of a husband. I wasn’t old enough to buy a beer when we met; he’s been my biggest supporter and ally my entire adult life. So, my favorite video is of my wedding, which was held at the Cliff House in San Francisco on a sunny December morning a few days before Christmas. A very long time ago. I just took the 55 minute version and whipped together a highlight piece – using Producer, of course! Here it is, in all its VHS-to-digital glory:

Now for the inside scoop. What do you do when you’re not at Pixorial?

I’m an animal nut, so I spend a lot of time wrangling with my giant hound, Preston McGinty the Irish Wolfhound (named for the 1940’s film director Preston Sturgess, who directed a hilarious comedy called The Great McGinty) and his pal Fargo Lebowski (Coen Brothers, ‘nuf said) the black Labrador Ball Retriever mix. Fargo’s 15, and I’ve found myself watching videos of him as a puppy in Seattle lately. Plus we have four nutty and opinionated cats that act like cartoon characters – they get a lot of my time. I love to swim and take early-morning walks with Preston, and I make jewelry. I’m a voracious consumer of novels and nonfiction – via Nook for print and Audible and Overdrive on my Zune, Walkman and Android. I love gardening and making terrariums, and I serve on the Board of Trustees for the Denver Botanic Gardens.

And there you have it! Keep an eye on this space; Laura has some incredible video stories to tell. (And if you ask nicely, she might be willing to share some of those zany cat videos too.)

Videos that were previously stored on FlipShare no longer have a home. The good news? We can help! We understand how important it is to keep those videos safe, and we know you want to share only the parts you want to share.

Here’s how to get started:

1.) Open a free Pixorial account, then move your inventory of Flip videos to our secure servers. Our Automatic Uploader can take care of the heavy lifting, seamlessly moving your files from your computer to our access-everywhere service.

2.) Use our storytelling platform to make your videos come to life. Use our basic or advanced editors to create unique creations, then privately share them to your friends and family. Need more storage? We’ve got affordable premium plans to meet your needs.

3.) Surprise the people you love with a gift. Make a personalized Videocard greeting, or even create a DVD of your Flip videos.

We can’t bring back the Flip Camera, but we can help you resurrect all those videos. Create a new account to get started. Or, if you already have a Pixorial account, start transferring those Flip videos! Your memories will be much happier in the cloud, where you can store, edit, and share anywhere.

Our Founder/CEO, Andrés Espiñeira, also offered his thoughts and perspectives during a 20-minute talk on storytelling and video. As he points out, technological advances mean that you no longer have to shoot or own a video in order to edit and share it. In other words, one video can have countless storytellers.

This is pretty much the reason we exist: to liberate shared experiences and memories captured on video.

But I digress; let’s hear from the man himself…

If you’ve got a dark, sad song playing on the radio, you’ll be drawn to the bleaker details of the scenery – the run-down buildings and dirty streets. On the other hand, a bright and happy song will give those visuals a positive spin; the children playing, the peaceful clouds in the sky, and so-on.

The bottom line? Powerful visuals + the right music = cinematic awesomeness. To master this equation, answer these three simple questions:

What am I trying to say? Sometimes you won’t need to think hard for the answer. If it’s a 4-year old’s birthday party, the soundtrack probably won’t be a dark and brooding track. But not all of life’s moments are so emotionally obvious.  Dig through a wide range of styles – rock, ambient, etc. – that evoke different moods. Watch as the look and feel of the video changes with the music.

As a general rule, the more time you spend with music selection, the better results you’ll get. Don’t immediately settle for the first song you come across that fits the video; experiment and see if there’s an even better fit.

How much original sound should I use? The volume slider in our editor makes it easy to balance the audio between your video and the soundtrack. This is a good opportunity to get creative. For a music-video feel, opt for full-soundtrack audio. This is also a good option if the original sound is poorly recorded or full of distractions like the wind blowing in an outdoor video. If you’d like the set the mood in a subtle way, add just a touch of the soundtrack.

Who’s my intended audience? In our Producer editing platform, you can choose from more than 1600 tracks (and 500 in our free Basic Editor). But if you have something else in mind, you can upload anything you’d like from your hard drive.  Does a certain song hold a special meaning for the person/people who will be watching your video? Are there lyrics that perfectly compliment your masterpiece? Upload away!

Here is an example of a video with three different music tracks, you can see how the mood and visuals seems to change:

Pixorial power tip:

Video: #1 Fantasy Music

Video: #2 Scary Music

Video: #3 Playful Music

When we say you can upload anything you’d like as an audio track, we mean anything – including something you’ve recorded yourself. This means you can record a customized narration for a video; simply turn on your computer mic and use one of the many free recording programs available for PC and Mac.