At this point in the age of YouTube, it’s not that a big of a deal when some hack makes a “look at me” video and foists it upon the world, only to have it wind up in the same box of rocks as the robo-dancing teens and the puppy-vs-kitten smackdowns. But when that hack is me…well that’s a horse of a different color.
This Easter weekend, I got focused and finally got to work playing with digital video. (Being a graphic designer, I guess I felt the need to play with yet another medium, to avoid making it big in the ones I’ve already mastered.) For several years now I’ve wanted to experiment, and also to involve my kids, whose last association with videography was probably running around with their pants off on an 8mm tape; sorry guys. (And yes, that was looooong ago.)
Sidenote: It just occurred to me that this will probably make for a weak story, in that I’m not offering much technical insight for those as inexperienced as me, and I’m certainly not adding to the body of knowledge out there, in terms of making movies on the Mac. On top of that, [the 4th version of] my first video is kind of lame. But I may not be able to resist including it here, if only to ensure a thoroughly unjustified blog posting.
Oh – Now I remember the human interest angle! First, after reading a David Pogue review in the New York Times, I ordered a Flip Ultra (60 minute) camera from Amazon; I should receive it any day now. It is what it is…a fairly inexpensive plaything that I suspect will be a nice fit for my planned spontaneity(?!) Anyway, for the interim, I said , “Dang it, I’m going to put out the twenty bucks for QuickTime Pro software, so I can do some basic editing.” With that, I exhumed some vintage footage from my still camera (yes), buried deep in one of my half-dozen hard drives. The “reel” I chose was circa 2003, starring my two boys carving jack-o-lanterns in the kitchen.
Hang in there; it gets marginally better…
Yes…Well I’m not all that proud of this fact, but the real tipping-point motivation on this Movie Weekend was to embarrass my 18 year old son, with whom I have… let’s call it… a stressful relationship. With that guiding light, I cut up the footage with Quicktime Pro and put it into iMovie to lay down some audio tracks (I sound like I know what I’m doing, right?). I also saw it as a blessing that the original file, from my digital still camera (yes) was silent – no microphone on that puppy – and no ‘talking’ in the scene either, so no lip-syncing to deal with. I was totally free to besmirch whoever ended up appearing on this future classic.
Adding sound clips – and distorting them a bit – was fun, especially the mocking laughter near the end (at 20 seconds total, I suppose the whole thing is the end). Layered on that is my thoroughly slack-jawed, nasally and delightfully guttural voice, perhaps actually my sleeping voice. This also was my first chance to post a video online. I’m at least happy that my publicly-lost virginity with YouTube didn’t consist of me apologizing in front of a webcam saying “well, this is my first YouTube video…”
And there you have it. The nominations are in. May I have the envelope please. “…and the Father of the Year award goes to…”
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Bruce,
This post was perfectly timed. At marketingyoursmallbiz.com, we are also diving into the video world. Biznik.com, the very cool business networking site we belong to, has just made it possible to add a video to our member profile.
Seeing your first attempt just made me realize how difficult it must be to do, (Just kidding.) Wait a minute. Did you say this was your 4TH attempt????
Thanks for the chuckle.
Thanks for the note Judy. I too am a member of Biznik, but not yet a premium member (which I assume is required for new video feature). But thanks for the heads up; I’m going to look into that.
The four iterations of this one silly video were mostly me editing my custom soundtrack. The source video had no audio at all, so multiple audio tracks were added in iMovie and tweaked a few times (leading to the ultimate 20 second masterpiece)(!)
On yet another recent marketing podcast, it was suggested that one’s online reputation could be easily enhanced with video, provided it had a modicum of value relevant to one’s core mission. Production value isn’t important necessarily. But when your name is googled and a non-embarrassing video appears, that helps someone see that you’re legit – plus whatever good content you can offer.
Perhaps I’ve blown that with this post, but I plan on making the occasional short video regarding the value of design to small business growth.
What I see is more like “Shane the Pumpkin-chunk hold up and breather-on-er” rip off!
I like the audio though…
I remember one time at your old apartment in ___
Shane was between 1-2yrs old I guess. He came running out of the bathroom naked, paused in front of the tv for a moment, squatted and bombs away.hah!
That would have been an America’s Funniest Videos winner of the year. Value to small business-0.
Value to memory-priceless.
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