I decided to put together a short video. It's the kind of intro-vid, which gives a different flavour to a blog when you see someone you've interacted with - and possibly formed a mental image of lol - on video for the first time. Ok, self-presentation can be a little contrived for sure, although I'm still in my pyjamas for most of the clips (I tend to live in pyjamas when I'm not working). This is my first ever video upload to the blockchain via dtube, it's also the first time I have faced a camera and spoken to it with the explicit intention of sharing the output with the world.
As for shyness, not really, although I don't feel as if I have a comfortable camera manner. My main awareness of having a camera filming was where it was positioning itself as I spoke to it - a kind of multitasking that I guess I'll get better at with practice.
As for the shooting, as you see I just used my phone. The front camera is cloudy but the rear one is clear enough in good light. However, the technical prop which made a lot of this video possible is a selfie-stick that I made for myself out of two bits of wood and a grip. It didn't take me very long to put it together and I find that it works really well.
Right, video taken, it then came to editing time. Premiere Pro - my first choice - ran very slowly on my ageing machine, and so after a little research, I settled on OpenShot Video Editor - a simple, open-source bit of software that did the job just fine. The video is by no means slick, and the audio levels are all over the place, but I have the solid impression that a section of the Steem blockchain does have the endearing quality of valuing content as much as, if not more than, form (yes? no? lol), and I am happy with the casual, amateur feel to my video.
Acknowledgements & Thanks:
- @wanderlass was the example of encouragement and inspiration to even think about making myself the subject of my own videos. Her 'wandervlog' - courageously stepping out of initial masked shyness, prodded me towards a bargevlog of sorts lol. This pushes a boundary for me and I welcome opportunities to step out into the unknown.
- The inspiration for doing a 'reintro-type' video and sharing a bit more about myself came from @minismallholding, who didn't herself do a video btw :).
- @katteasis sent me in the direction of OpenShot
- @valorforfreedom gave me the general rundown on d-tubing, including the tip to use Handbrake in order to vastly reduce the size of the video file without significant reduction in quality - 430MB down to 132MB for this video!
References:
Whilst shooting, I referred to a few of my blog posts which had to do with the subject at hand, including a delightful display of Shanti and Ben-the-Nut playing tug-of-war with the poor toy lion again. I link these below in case anyone is interested :)
- Shanti & Ben tug-of-war
- The Rosebushes in full flower --- after the rain --- as insect battleground
- The Echinesia plant
Thanks for stopping by (and watching :)
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS