Disney, Marvel offer do-it-yourself 'Avengers' vids
In an effort to get more mileage from its marketing campaign for "The Avengers," Disney and Marvel are letting fans produce their own Web videos using official footage from the film and music from its album "Avengers Assemble."
Disney Interactive and Marvel launched a video mixing tool on YouTube late Wednesday that offers HD clips from the pic and lets users choose up to four songs from the album, a compilation of tracks in the pic and inspired by the actioner.
The software provides tools to trim and render edits, add special effects and transitions.
Selected shorts will stream on a separate section of Marvel's YouTube channel, while Disney and Marvel also want creators to post their productions on their own YouTube channels, Facebook, Google+ and other social-networking platforms as a way to assemble interest in the superhero actioner from the web community around its May 4 release.
While the "Avengers Remix" software is available on YouTube (at YouTube.com/avengersremix), it is not part of Disney Interactive's original content deal with YouTube to provide the site with family fare that was brokered in November. A series based on the popular "Where's My Water?" mobile game is part of that pact, which will play a key role in the revamp of Disney.com later this fall.