Wayne D's Blog

My latest video brings the classical lemon battery experiment into the new decade by using lemons to light an LED. Far from being difficult anyone can perform this experiment using galvanized roofing nails, some copper wire or older pennies, some clip leads and an LED. A voltmeter is helpful but not required if you follow the directions carefully. The widespread use of LED's for Christmas lights means you probably even have some LED's lying around the house. The video stars my 13 year old son Steven who didn't have any trouble getting the LED to light. You can also watch the video accompanied by text directions by clicking the How to Power an LED with Lemons link directly below the video.

This video was made for Howcast.com as part of their emerging film maker program which pays $50 for each completed video. Howcast supplies the script, voiceover track, graphical elements and cleared music. THey also supply a clear and concise document outlining their production standards. What they don't do is tell you what to shoot and how to edit it. For me it was the right mix of instructions and guidelines while still allowing a wide degree of creative freedom and flexibility. Howcast.com also provided extensive notes after I submitted the first cut of the video. Considering how many things I had goofed up I was surprised that they didn't just throw up their hands in disgust but instead they emailed a detailed list of issues along with suggestions on how to improve my video that were super helpful, encouraging and kind.

I certainly learned more about using Cinelerra, the Linux video editing package i used to edit the video. Cinelerra had all the features and tools I needed with the exception of one thing. The graphics supplied by Howcast are MOV's with an alpha channel which Cinelerra can't import. I didn't realize that the graphics videos even had an alpha channel until I had submitted the video to Howcast. I did find out that a newer version of Cinelerra for Centos 5 had been released after I had started editing the video. I decided that updating my video editing software in the middle of editing probably wasn't a good idea. What i ended up doing was using ffmpeg to convert the Howcast graphics videos into a series of PNG's which Cinelerra had no trouble importing.

To convert the video to png's using ffmpeg I used the following command: ffmpeg -i filename.mov -f image2 %3d.png
I then used a helpful tool called mkframelist which creates a list of the png's for importing into Cinelerra. Download it, put it in either /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin make it executable and use mkframelist -h to find out the syntax you need to use, I created saved the pg's for each graphic in a different subdirectory and used the following command:
ls *.png | mkframelist -r 30 > output.lst

All in all it was a great learning experience for me and assuming I can find a suitable topic for my next video I know what I can do to make the editing process more efficient and way less painful.

At some point I turned off the box that appeared at the top of the EEEPC webcam tool ucview when a video or image file is saved. The box not only shows the name of the video file that you save but also makes it easy to tell when you have stopped recording with ucview which can be difficult because the changes in the button while recording are similar to the way the button looks when you hover over it.

It took a bit of digging to find out how to do this on the EEEPC and where the value was stored.

If you have gconf-editor installed you can find the key you need to change in /apps/ucview if you don't the easiest to mmke the change is to open a terminal window by hitting Ctrl_Alt-T and entering the following command.

To enable the save filename box for videos use the following command:
gconftool-2 --type boolean --set /apps/ucview/hide_video_saved_box false
To enable the save filename box for images use the following command:
gconftool-2 --type boolean --set /apps/ucview/hide_image_saved_box false

That's it, simple isn't it?

This post is a departure from my normal blog post subject matter, See the end for details.

It's the 21st century and sending the classical Christmas or holiday letter is passe. Impress your family and friends by creating a Holiday video this year and uploading it to Youtube.com. All you need is a video camera, you can use your cellphone, your laptop webcam, or your video camera. Follow these simple instructions and soon you'll be producing, directing and starring in the most unique holiday greeting your holiday card list will receive this year. Depending on how effort you want to put into your holiday epic you can have it shot, edited and ready for viewing in as little as one hour. No special skills or equipment is required as long as you are enthusiastic.

Step 1: Getting ready, picking a location and writing a script

Before you shoot your video it's important that you prepare properly. The difference between a good video and a boringly bad video is in the preparation.

1. Find a uncluttered place to shoot your video. It can be either inside or outside but you want a location that doesn't have too much to distract the videos viewers from your script. This doesn't mean you can't add some festive spirit to your room, a poinsettia or some holiday decorations will add a festive touch.

2. Make sure your location is well lit. If you are inside use as much light as practical, bring in extra lights from other rooms if you can. The cheaper the camera the more light you need.

3. Write down what you are going to say. Don't be tempted to skip this step or you will regret it, when you realize the one thing you really wanted to say was forgotten. Don't just read what you have written on camera, you should read through your message out loud a few times before you shoot your video so you are comfortable doing it on camera.

Step 2: Getting set up

Almost ready to go.

1. If you don't have a [[tripod]] use duct tape or masking tape to secure your webcam or phone camera at eye level, this is not the time to make a long arm video. Chair backs make good makeshift tripods as do step ladders.
2. Make sure camera is aimed properly.
3. Put on some nice clothes and comb your hair, gather any family member who are going to be in the video with you.
4. Get everyone in place, turn on your lights and start the camera.

Step 3: Shooting the video

1. Relax, smile and deliver your message.
2. Do it again, that's right, after you are done for the first time repeat your message a second time. If you don't want to have to edit the video later stop the camera and restart it so that each attempt is in a separate file. After the first try you will be more comfortable and relaxed. Repeat as many times as necessary until you feel that it went well.
3. After you feel happy with the results do it one more time. You won't feel pressured to get it right and you are likely to get your best result.

Step 4: Upload and share your video

1. Watch your video message and pick which attempt you like the best.
2. Log into your Youtube account and upload the version of message that you like the best. Check the related Mahalo pages for detailed instructions on uploading to Youtube. Decide whether you want your video to be public or private and set your video permissions appropriately.
3. When Youtube has finished processing your video email your Youtube video link to your friends and family.

Don't forget

The cheaper the camera the more light you need.

Choose an uncluttered location to shoot your video

Write down what you want to say before you start

Keep it short 2-5 minutes maximum

Record your message multiple times so you can pick the best version

Relax, smile and speak slowly

How this post came to be

This post was originally written for Mahalo for a page entitled How to Send a Youtube Holiday Video Greeting. I misinterpreted the task and wrote this piece instead of what Mahalo expected, a page on how to use Youtube Greeting Cards, which aren't active yet. I submitted the completed page and it was rejected because I hadn't used any references which are required as part of the new Mahalo quality standards. I appealed the rejection on the grounds that I had the requisite experience to fly reference free. My appeal was unsuccessful so I decided to use the work as a blog post instead.

When it was time to make another video I asked a question on Mahalo Answers to help me come up with some ideas for a topic. After a few people answered I decided to start with a video on wrapping Christmas presents thinking that it would prove useful to the denizens of Youtube during this holiday season. When I told my wife of my video plans she suggested she should be the one in the video because her gift wrapping skills were better than mine. I told her I'd be happy to let her star in the video. After a bit of through she decided that she wasn't ready to be the gift wrapping mentor to the world so I ended up wearing all the hats of video production and hosting which made me the gift wrap professional, well dedicated amateur actually.

As always prepping for the video shoot was more time consuming than actually shooting the video. Finding a spot where I could shoot the video, lighting, writing the intro and then down into the basement to find suitable wrapping paper to wrap the gift. Find the tape and scissors and I was ready to go. Shoot the video and then it was off to computer for editing. Trying to remember the magic dvgrab incantation I used last time, This time I'm going to write it down here so I won't forget for next time.

[codespan]dvgrab -f mpeg2
mv dvgrab-002.m2t dvgrab-002.mpg
[/codespan]

Though mplayer couldn't play the files dvgrab created Cinelerra had no problem importing them. The newer version of Cinelerra I installed after my problems last time worked almost perfectly, no crashing and only two freezes during file import because of table of content creation issues when I hadn't renamed the m2t files. Transitions, rendering a frame to a png to use as a background for the title and titling all went smoothly. Uploading to Youtube.com turned out to be the biggest hassle, uploading 820 Megs on a 60 KB/s Rogers cable internet uplink turned out not only to be painfully slow tieing up my internet connection for more than three hours before failing, repeat and it failed again. That's all behind me now and the Christmas gift wrap video was finally all wrapped up.

Ever since I asked my first question on Mahalo with good results I have been dabbling in the Mahalo universe. At first this was by answering question on Mahalo Answers, more recently my Mahalo participation has also included page management. Ah the beginning of June Mahalo allowed their users to claim and build pages on Mahalo. In exchange for building pages Mahalo offers to split the Adsense revenue with the page manager. Recently Mahalo has targeted How To pages as an area they want to build out and has also offered users money up front to build the page in addition to the fifty/fifty split on the Adsense revenue. Some page managers have hit the jackpot but even if you don't hit a wildly popular page you can still earn a few dollars for creating a page and keeping it updated. Reviewing the statistics shows that the majority of members are earning less than $50 a month from their pages but it's important to remember that at least Mahalo pays. There are plenty of other sites that rely on user generated contact without flowing any of the revenue back to their users.

The How To pages I have built, How to Make a Savoy Corpse Reviver Cocktail, How to Make a Dirty Mother Cocktail,How to Apply for WIC in New York and How to Avoid Panty Lines to name a few are a combination of quirky and niche so I don't really expect them to generate much revenue for me but that doesn't mean that someone who is more driven and dedicated than I could do quite well for a minimal amount of work.

One area where Mahalo excels is game walkthroughs. A day or two ago Mahalo built a page with a walkthrough for Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2 which includes eighteen HD videos. I expect that will make someone a fairly nice pile of cash. Other areas that have proven to be quite lucrative for Mahalo page managers are coupon pages and game cheat codes.

If you want to give Mahalo a try I would suggesting trying out the How To Rush week tasks. Mahalo pays $7 Mahalo and the How To editors will guide you in getting the format right. Full disclosure, if you if you decide you like it and build ten How To pages based on my referral I get $100. If building pages isn't of interest to you then Mahalo Answers may be more to your liking. I answer questions while watching TV which means that Mahalo pays you to watch TV.