New video blog and a big favour to ask...
Monday, November 16, 2009 at 8:45PM So after taking the plunge with YouTube, I've decided to go the whole hog and start producing some new content, specifically for YouTube.
As well as the MinClip screencasts and the trailers for ScreenCastsOnline, I'm going to start producing some video clips of me!
It was a hard decision as one of the reasons I liked the screencasts format so much in the early days, is that I didn't really feel comfortable appearing on camera (and I've got a great face for radio, yada, yada!!)
But after 200+ screencasts, lots of podcast appearances, several interviews and also getting on the bed with Cali Lewis, I felt now was the right time to perhaps come out from behind the screen and do some real life video stuff.
Never fear, you won't now start finding me pop up in a little window in the bottom of the shows. They will remain as they always have, with just my voice narrating the screencast. No, my appearances will be as video clips on the YouTube channel.
I'll use YouTube to pontificate about the Mac, discuss the latest Mac topics and also share with you any experiences I have with my Macs or any other gadgets and gizmos. So please nip over to YouTube or checkout the introduction video below.
However, I have a big favour to ask from my blog readers, my twitter followers and my ScreenCastsOnline viewers.
Over 200 of you have kindly subscribed to the YouTube channel, for that, I thank you very much!
But I need at least another 400 subscribers to the channel before I can apply for YouTube Partner status. I could really do with this status, so I can get access to some of the special tools and other goodies that YouTube restricts to partners. Things like enhanced pages, access to the video thumbnails and the ability to post videos of over 10 minutes to YouTube. You'll see what I mean about being able to change the thumbnails from the clips below - the one with my eyes closed - tragic!
If I had Partner status I could change it, so if you can spare 30 seconds to subscribe I'd really appreciate it.
You can find the ScreenCastsOnline channel here or watch my introduction video below:
As well as the introduction, I've also published my first video comment, all about my run in with the Magic Mouse and my first impressions of the BamBoo Pen and Touch Fun:
I'm pretty pleased for a first attempt and received some nice comments over on YouTube.
I need to invest in some proper lighting so I'm calling in some favours from my old mate Israel Hyman from Izzy Video. He's helping me out with some suggestions for some decent lighting rigs so the quality should improve over the next few weeks....
How much for a lighting rig!!!!
Reader Comments (9)
good luck, looking forward to more from you Don!
I agree lighting is important especially when you have a dodgy camera like mine (Samsung IT100) as can be seen in this bad lighting example. Having said that the results are much better in : good natural light and apart from the borked white balance, this film shows a very annoying fault when zooming. All links point to my vimeo.com films.
Excuse the spamming of my footage, hope it was a bit interesting or relevant at least.
Don -- Great effort and it's refreshing to see your radio face! (eye contact and all that)
How do we get notified that a new post has been made to your channel on YouTube? I can't seem to get the RSS feed to work.
Good luck, Don.
Duly subscribed and Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch purchased .... Your podcast is as usual good value for money but the fall out purchases as usual cost much more LOL.
John
Dave P, That's a good question! Looks like YouTube really don't want you to use RSS but their own built in subscription mechanism. However, that relies on visiting the website or possibly relying on emails.
You can subscribe to an RSS feed though. Just copy this into your news reader:
http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos?author=screencastsonlineThis will send you the descriptions each time a new clip is uploaded to YouTube along with a link to the episode.
The only thing I would ask is that you subscribe using the YouTube mechanism as well, so YouTube can track my subscriber numbers and help me reach Partner status.
The RSS feed won't work in iTunes BTW, but I've tested it in Google Reader and it works fine.
Wow, that's what I get for not looking at this blog a few days. Now Don is appearing in Video, subscribed immediately :-)
nicely done Don :) I've a few friends turning to Mac, so now I can easily point them to your youtube channel :) and of course recommend extra membership too :)
You record a video on a given topic and if people want more information, you give them a web page link where they can find out more, or purchase the product.
Yeah I agree the lightings will do justice to your videos and promise it will make it all perfect. I also do video screencast but just the voice minus the face. I can't face the camera and do the yada yada yada... Well, I am glad you did have the courage to do it... Good luck!
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