Shocking VLOG!!!!

The LEGO Trooper: Episode IX


Creating the Video: Afterthoughts

While I still think I sound horrible, the sound itself is horrible as well. I will say that there are much faster and easier ways to make a Vlog other than the way I went about it. I wish i had chosen one at this point. I do like the video, just not the sound. Anyway, I made the video by using still photos of a LEGO stormtrooper with various head movements and some arm movements and plug them into After Effects to make the animation of L.T.. I then just ran an Xbox through my DVD-Recorder and recorded as I played the game. I then used HandBrake to get the scenes from the DVD. Due to time constraints and my own stupidity I found myself without a decent audio record and had to use the mic on my computer to record the audio. I put everything together in iMovie (not the greatest when audio is involved) and created the video. If I had a lot of time on my hands I wouldn't mind doing more episodes, but unfortunately I do not. I do believe that videos like this and those of the more normal variety are going to by seen quite a lot and probably more than they are now in the future, so maybe some day a special edition of this episode will be made or even more LEGO Trooper episodes (but those probably won't be as good).

Here is a shot of the set.
And
here are some videos that makes mine seem very insignificant.
video1 and video2

A Presidential (hopeful) Blog - (Shocking if it was 7 years ago, maybe even 3)

Today I decided to take a look at Hillary Clinton's blog on her campaign website. It's not shocking that the blog entries aren't posted by her but by Crystal Patterson for most part, but a few of the ones I looked at were entirely direct quotes from her. Others from time to time were written by other people about specific things. There is a seperate page for videos or "HillCasts" as they call it if you don't want to search through all the posts to find one. Though, as i'm writing this they just added another post that is a video (through YouTube) about how you can vote for what her campaign song should be.

They do seem to be using the blog to it's full potential. They sometimes have several posts a day and have the ability for viewers to subscribe to it through several methods. And with the use of other writers adding content from time to time they give the readers more variety in what they are reading then just the same updates everyday (Not that that's bad thing). I believe the readers of this blog are the audiendce they are attempting to reach mostly because of the comments posted and that there atre links to her facebook and myspace pages that would be aimed more at different audiences.

I believe that this blog was created because the canidate is doing what is expected of her with her news releases. It would seem wrong for her nopt to have a blog or any of the canidates for that matter, but especially her because she gets so much attention.

The blog itself seems more of a way for those already behind her to keep up with her though. For those who are unsure or curious it can be helpful but other places on the site would be better suited to get them behind her. As for myself I would have to say that it has improved my opion of her a little, but I was already leaning her direction anyway, so it wasn't a very big effect.

YouTube, YAY!!!! - (Hmmm, shocking ... isn't it?)

YouTube is definitely the first place I think about if I want to find a video of something on the web. I go there pretty frequently to look for videos i want to see and then stay and look around at other videos while I'm there. And most of the time when i look for something, the thing I'm looking for is copyrighted and then I stay to look at the "uncopyrighted" ones. Though that seems a strange answer, because aren't all the videos on there copyrighted in someway by the poster. The issue is if they were copyrighted by someone besides the poster. Anyway, I definitely believe that the copyrighted videos should be on there, because they draw the crowd who then stays to look at everything else. Plus, let's say that a clip from show appears on YouTube, and people go to YouTube to see the clip. The clip is part of a show and people may want to watch more because of the clip they watched. For example, I watch Robot Chicken all the time now, because I went on YouTube and watched the clip of the Emperor getting a collect call from Darth Vader. YouTube helps the owner of the copyrighted videos in that way.

I believe that the DMCA is a very good thing for providers and users on the web. And i think that t should protect YouTube because if itself and it's users weren't granted the freedom that the DMCA provides then YouTube would fail and so would many other sites out there. It's because of the user's video postings that they are allowed to make money. They don't post the videos themsleves. They're still just a host for user content and the DMCA allows for them not to have to check every file that being posted on their site. If they advertise that they are a source of entertainment, they are only that source because of their users and what those users. YouTube should be allowed to continue as a provider to users for them to post their videos and with the DMCA's protection.

This post was based on the recent column written by a writer who is general counsel for Viacom.