Ran into Kevin O’Keefe at Gnomedex. Kevin is the president and founder of LexBlog. The subject of video and cameras came up and I recorded this minute of jerky, noisy video during a break at Gnomedex with my wee Casio EX-S770. About LexBlog: https://www.lexblog.com/about/
Category Archives: YouTube
Henry Rollins on the Internet
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I used to count on Dennis Miller or George Carlin for this kind of rant. Miller got some kind of neocon brain tumor and Carlin… I’m not sure what happened to him. But Henry Rollins nicely captures my passion for the Internet and disdain for those that would thwart and control it. Strong, adult language. Not work safe.
Sony Handycam vs. Casio EX-S770
I’ve often wondered why my video doesn’t look as good as other clips I watch on YouTube. I chalked it up to equipment but learned this week that I have not been properly encoding my video before uploading to Google Video or YouTube. I’m hoping that will improve my stuff.
But today I decided to shoot a few minutes (3.5) with my Sony Handycam (DCR-TRV740) for comparison with the little Casio I’ve been using. I really expected to see a noticeable difference and while the sound was certainly better, I can’t say the video was that much improved.
It’s quite possible I still don’t have my video shit together in terms of encoding but I’ll eventually get that figured out. And I guess I’m pleased the the little pocket Casio stacks up so well against the larger Sony camcorder. All of which brings me back to my original fondness for the Casio: it fits in your pocket so it’s always with me.
But I’m going to make greater use of the Sony (with tripod and good mic). And if you know how to tweak video for YouTube, I’d love to talk.
State Fair video contest
David Brazeal (the Man Behind the Curtain at Learfield InterAction) points us to this entry in the Missouri State Fair Video Contest.
“Show us in 60 seconds or less how you are preparing for the State Fair by entering the “Preparing for the Big Show” video contest. Create your work-of-art, then post the video to YouTube with the tag “mostatefair”. The grand prize winner will have his or her video premiered before the Jason Aldean concert opening night of the Fair.”
When pros see stuff like this or the summer intern video I posted earlier… I’m sure all they see poorly shot/edited amateur video. When I see these, I think, “Damn, that’s clever!” Or funny. Or interesting. And I’m reminded that almost anyone can now play in this sandbox. I love that.
Summer Interns
Our summer interns are packing up and heading back to school. One of their final tasks was to prepare a presentation on what they learned working for Learfield. The interns working in our Dallas office created a Powerpoint presentation which was, I’m sure, very… nice.
The Jeff City crew asked my advice and I told them Powerpoint is for losers. I suggested they produce a video and loned them my camcorder. I forgot to give them a mic so the sound is not all that it might be but their creativity and humor comes through loud and clear. Ladies and gentlemen… Coleman, Corey and Tyler.
iPhone: The Music Video
This little ditty –by NYT tech writer David Pogue (and friends)– was posted sometime earlier today and (as I type this) has been viewed 3,772 times. I found it on the digg home page so we can assume it will be seen many more times.
I have to wonder if anyone has felt moved to this kind of hijinx by any previous cell phone? Maybe. I just missed it.
“I Got a Crush On Obama” video
I just took a look at the latest political video to go viral. The young woman featured in the “I Got a Crush On Obama” video is Amber Lee Ettinger (an actress). The real Obama Girl, the one who came up with the idea of the video, the song and the lyrics is Leah Kauffman, a 21-year-old undergraduate at Temple University in Philadelphia. When I left YouTube, the video had been viewed more than half a million times.
My first thought was, no political campaign could create something like this. My next thought was, if a campaign could create it, they wouldn’t want us to know they had. Much more effective. In this instance, I’ll probably never know. [Thanks, Jackie]
Flood images: YouTube and Flickr
People in the midwest (Iowa and Missouri) affected by the flooding wasted no time in posting video to YouTube. Here’s some footage from Washington, Missouri.
Missouri Valley, Iowa got 5-7″ of rain in a very short period of time, which resulted in three levee breaks. This clip is part of a series … this guy (I don’t know why I think it’s a guy) decided to go with a rock video treatment … and here’s one from Wyeth Hill in St. Joseph MO. (Across the river, Elwood Kansas was in the process evacuating.)
A Flickr search for “missouri flood” pulled up 490 images. I’m sure I missed some good ones. Go ahead and post them in Comments.
Ira Glass on storytelling
Thanks to David for pointing me to this series of interviews (YouTube) with Ira Glass. His weekly program, This American Life, is the best example of what radio can and should be. But that doesn’t sound quite right to me any longer, since I began listening to the program via podcast.
So let’s call it the best example of what storytelling can and should be. “Radio” makes it about the medium. And it never was, not really.
My take-away from the first segment of the interview is that it takes as much time to find a good story, as it does to write and produce the story. He says the TAL team spends about half of their time searching for that good story to tell.
PS: I had never seen Ira Glass and he looks exactly like he sounds.