Lazy Day Vlog: The First Shoutout Video

Another Vlog. This took longer than I had planned, mostly because I planned to do some crazy stupid graphics animation, which I decided was nowhere near necessary for a vlog. The first version I did I tried to do some motion tracking, but the software I was using wasn’t liking the long video. So after a few days of frustration, I was at work and decided to go into an empty room and film. the above is the result. Now I still tried to make the one shot above too complicated too, but I think for a long, talky video it’s about as complicated as it should be.

I’ve been shooting all my recent videos, except the Low Light test shot on the Kiss X4, on my old point-and-shoot, a Canon PowerShot SD960 IS. It’s a tiny camera, but I think it does better 720p video than almost all the vlogging cameras on the market. It was a gift, though. I wouldn’t buy one just for video. But it also takes some amazing pictures as well. I’d be hard pressed to get rid of it either way. My next vlogging camera will be the new HD Sanyo waterproof Xacti. I still love my SD Xacti, but I haven’t used it since I went full HD. I haven’t shot with my iSight either, which is what I did most of my old vlogs on. Hey Apple, when IS the 720p or 1080p iSight coming out? This should be a priority…. I want to get a new computer soon and I’d love to have a new iSight on it. I will be getting an iPhone 4 when they’re back in stock here in Japan (I think), but I’m not too sure if I’ll be using it for vlogging yet. I’ll have to do a side by side test with my little Canon.

Anyway, this is the first shoutout video. I will be making more. I don’t leave people out in these videos, I promote who is on my mind and who I have time to talk about. If I had my way I’d do hour long videos talking about how great my friends, subscribers, and the people I watch are. Anyway, here’s the list of links for the people in this video…

-Project Twenty1-
http://www.projecttwenty1.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectTw…
http://twitter.com/projecttwenty1
-Stephanie-
http://www.shinygrape.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/lotusdove
https://twitter.com/shinygrape
https://twitter.com/wiccanchicken
-Matt-
http://cinevore.com/
http://www.crystallinestudios.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/cinevorefilm
https://twitter.com/cinevorefilm
-James-
http://cinemassacre.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesNint…

-Richard-
http://www.stupidfingers.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/vomitsaw
The Nintoaster Instructional Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDGR2M…

-Hikosaemon-
http://hikosaemon.blogspot.com/
http://www.zenremix.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/hikosaemon
http://www.youtube.com/user/hikotalk
https://twitter.com/hikosaemon

-Gimmeabreakman-
http://www.youtube.com/gimmeaflakeman
http://www.youtube.com/user/gimmeabre…
http://maggiesensei.com/
https://twitter.com/gimmeabreakman

-ZackScott-
http://www.zackscott.net/
http://www.youtube.com/user/ZackScott
http://www.youtube.com/user/ZackScott…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Scott
https://twitter.com/ZackScott

-Justin-
http://hikikomori.posterous.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikikomori/
https://twitter.com/justindoub

Lastly, I’m having a lot of fun working on music lately. I’m going to try and have original music on every video. Though I will contact some artists for permission to use their stuff for future projects, I like making quick stuff that sounds decent. If you have access to Garageband, you have no excuse not to have copyright-free, original music on your videos. I’m mostly using the banks of loops that come with Garageband and a few 3rd party plugins and expansion packs, but I eventually want to get back into creating 100% original stuff again. This is great practice, if anything.

Not sure what I’m going to do next. I filmed all my stuff for the “Life in a Day” movie project on Youtube yesterday. I have a lot of editing to do, as I recorded a lot of my sound in surround on my Zoom H2. One of the best recorders for the money, I highly recommend it.

Until next time!

Lazy Day Vlogging, or Doing Stuff Because I Should Be

So let’s try vlogging again.

Lazy Day Vlogs are exactly what they say they are: Vlogs when I have nothing better to do. The one thing I have in Japan that I never really had in America is tons and tons of free time. Even though I do have projects that I get commissioned or hired to do, as said above, I don’t have anything that’s be a long commitment. When I have a big project, I utilize this free time well… but when I don’t I feel a bit guilty and lazy. I’m use to having a 10-14 hour a day full time job with freelance on top of that. That was the reason I had a hard time making videos before I moved to Japan. When I came here it was a night and day difference and being burnt out and having time to recover was a deadly combination for laziness. It’s not as bad as I peg it to be, I just love throwing the guilt on myself. Helps keep me from staying in bad places.

Anyway, I’ve been working on a lot of personal things too. My speaking is one of them. I want to be a better speaker and work on my thought process when telling a story or idea. My goal is to have as little unnecessary edits in videos like these as possible. I almost want to start an “Edit Jar” that I have to throw a 100¥ coin in every time I have to do it. I don’t like having to re-do a video because of one mistake just so I don’t have to have an edit, so It’s best to try and do without them in the first place! Maybe I buy acting or speaking classes with the money…

That said, I’m having fun with the 8-bit theme. I have about five or six music tracks already done and some random graphics, so it won’t be going away for awhile.

I still like this blogging thing. I should do it more.