Momentshowing

(CLICK THE PHOTO TO WATCH)
Not too long ago, I promised myself I’d post a video each day for 3 consecutive months.
Who can post 90 videos in 90 days?
I can’t.
Not with the tools we have. Not the way I want the videos to look.
I was able to post for about 2 weeks straight.
It was a good experiment.
I’m getting better and more comfortable creating and posting video.
This is what Ive learned.

I KNOW KNOW WHAT I WANT

Right now, the moment I take out a camera, everything changes.
People get on guard. I want to record life more naturally.
I want a camera that doesnt look like a camera.
Make it look like a tomato. anything.

I wish I could record 1-minute, self-contained moments that required no editing,
but life is rarely this seamless.
Usually I record a Moment…then ill get a concept…then I record another 4-10 minutes of raw video.
I then go home and edit it down to a 1-3 minute videoblog.

Right now, editing must be done on my home computer because its got all my stuff.
As much as I have fallen in love with iMovie, it takes me 30-60 minutes(a long subwayride) to edit a video.
This is my editing dream.
I want an iPod Editor or PalmEditor that would let me edit video anywhere.
Work, subway, friend’s house, the park, a dungeon.
Basically it’s like a small sketch pad.
I will transfer the video from my tomato camera(remember, it doesnt look like a camera)…and use a pentool to edit.
I can…drag and arange moments in the order i want….crop each moment to the right length…add simple titles and sound.
Then, I want to post using wi-fi or cellular.

Is this possible?
Only by making the recording, editing, and posting of video this simple could I post each day.
Life is busy.
Im staying up till 4am each night doing my videoblog because I cant do it anywhere except my home at night.
The recording, editing, and posting must be a part of my daily life.

I am becoming a madman. I scribble notes to myself while i walk, sit on the train, in the movie theater this afternoon.
It’s all about videoblogging.
About how this is the way we could really start learning.
This is where we can all start going crazy together…and then learn to be sane.
I feel like my point is not getting across…like I have to convince people.
It’s dumb…theres so much all on little pieces of paper in front of me.

Meanwhile, a video. Here’s the scene.
Late night dinner amongst friends. I think Rahim likes Melissa. Okay, I know he does. The camera happens to be there.
Click the photo to watch.

This is a clip from the weekly call-in show I do in Manhattan.
It’s ridiculous.
You’ll notice that Sean Gilligan of vblog central callls me during the show…
What I learn from the show is just because you give the people a voice…doesnt mean everything gets better.
we have to learn how to talk to each other…and this means being as open, tolerant, and stand up as possible.

This is my attempt to try to post a video a day for 90 straight days.
We’re up to about 2 weeks now.
Im telling you these tools are not so easy.
Though I love the result, the process is time consuming.
Plus, there are so few people in here.
Ther are so many people who want to put video on the web…what’s stopping them?
Let’s see each other.
But its pushing me.

A videoblogger that I admire recently sent me a note:

I’ve been keeping a breast of the material that is popping up on the
videoblogging group……
Its so male-centric that I’m starting to drift from its technical gibberish.
Though I am not one to be unique concerning such thoughts. Its not really
solving a problem or addressing one. Its just making their dicks longer and
harder so that they don’t have to reach as far for the Kleenex at the end of
the moment showing.

Now, emails like this keep me on the straight and narrow…reminding me why we’re doing this.
Im really not interested in geeking out and building a better hotrod.
Anyone who knows me will tel you that I am a very untechnical person.
(i cant write html and this is why i blog with Typepad. I also dont know how to get my own domain name.)
In this videoblogging adventure, everyone Ive met in person, in emails, or through their blogs seem truly interested in connecting people.
We are creating a way to easily make and distribute video without asking anyone’s permission.

However, much of what we’re doing is new.
Works like RSS, bit torrent, and enclosures….are new things that we’re using to make this vision possible.
RSS stands for “Real simple syndication”, and lets people subscribe to your blog.
Bit Torrent is a new way of sharing very large files, especially video.
Enclosures are the way videos are attached to RSS feeds so they can be automatically downloaded to a person’s computer overnight.

These are just terms we’ll all understand someday soon.
One day, “RSS” will be as simple a concept as “email”.
“Bit Torrent” will be like saying “FTP”.
“Enclosure” will be as common as “JPEG”.

So here is a very geeky video about a box that lets you watch videoblogs on TV.
For important reference, Part One of this video is HERE.
I interview Dan Mellinger who built this creation…and he is a guy who simply wants to watch video that people make on his TV.
You really cant do that very well right now.
It’s all part of his Massive Media vision.
Part 1 shows the box itself and how it hooks up to the TV.
In Part 2 below, Dan explains his motivation and what it all means.
This is basically a homemade Tivo connected to the internet that lets you record TV, share these files with others, and download homemade videos to watch on TV.
(this video is 9 minutes long! lots of good information!)

Today’s video is about a different take on using videoblogs.

In the videoblogging group, we’re discussing what a videoblog should be.
Different camps are forming.
short or long?
“like TV” or completely “not like TV”.
really, it’s all correct depending on how people watch the videos.

We will someday (soon?) have a choice to make as videobloggers.
When i make a videoblog specifcally for the web, it’s got to be short because of my limitations in storage and monthly bandwidth.
When I watch a videoblog on the internet…sure, I want a short video I can scan in under a couple minutes.
Adrian says under 30 seconds.

But what if we can get these videoblogs on the TV?
What if the blog is just a delivery method for torrent files…that can be subscribed to, downloaded, and watched on TV?
Then, videobloggers can create almost any length videos for people to watch.
How will this happen?

This video shows a box that Dan Melinger has built so he can connect his internet to his TV.
Anything(video/music) he downloads he can watch/listen on his TV using a remote control.
Right now, he cant really watch our videoblogs becasue we do not publish our videos as enclosures/torrents on RSS 2.0 feeds….so he ends up downloading pirated movies and TV shows.
But let’s not get too technical right now.

Check out what could be. This video is a long one. 7 minutes.
Part II will come tomorrow where Dan explains the philosophy. Stay Tuned.

I want to first thank Josh Kinsberg, who’s almost got me to completely understand Bit Torrent, a new file sharing system.
Through emails and iChat…i bet Ill soon be able to do it all myself.
This is how I learn to teach other people.

Also I encourage you to listen to one of the latest Gillmor Gang.
It’s this radio show about technology.
It’s about an hour long…but you hear these guys discuss ‘podcasting’ and trying to get their head around people making radio shows and distributing them through iPods….cutting out traditional media.
What is podcasting? Here’s a a brief history….
there are literally several hundred ‘podcasts’ that have cropped up in just the past 3 weeks.
But with so much stuff, where do you start to listen?
What about quality?

Rick Rey, a new videoblogger in our group, made a great point…

“as someone who’s still new to all this, I’m still struggling
with a very basic problem: I don’t know which direction to take with my
video blog. I know that I WANT to broadcast, but I’m not sure exactly WHAT
I want to broadcast. I suspect other people have the same problem.”

Adrian Miles advises the new videoblogger:

1. video production is now as cheap as chips

2. so don’t be precious about it.

3. because entries are now sketches, not finished works

4. so experiment to find your voice

5. include yourself

6. and anything else you have someting intelligent to say about

7. use the camera and editing

8. put it out there, get a theme going, let people in.

I believe that conversations will develop.
As tools become easier to make and post audio/video…more people will join in and things will happen.
The talented will step up and they wont be hindered by anything.

Anyway, here is my daily video. My humble contribution to the conversation.
I let you in on one of my walks in Manhattan.
I love to walk so I can think, watch people, get depressed, flip out, exhilerate and move.
This is Midtown West over by 11th Ave.
It’s a weird part of town because it’s so desolate…and usually the city is alive all the time with people.

Here is day 10 of the next 90 days of the life around me.

Michael Powell, Chairman of the FCC, visited MNN, the TV station where I work.
Anyone in Manhattan can come, take classes, use our equipment, and get on TV for free.
We’re always trying to find new ways to reach further.
One reason why i got involved with videoblogging.

Powell came to check out the way we use WI-FI to go live from outside locations…like the networks use satellite trucks.
Our Youth Channel gave him a cool presenation on their use of this technology…
The whole purpose being: stop selling off the public airwaves and free up more of this unregulated bandwidth for the public.

WI-FI broadcasting was spearheaded by Kenyatta Cheese when he worked at MNN.
Drazen Pantic and Shawn Van Every have become a huge part of the process.

All we use are a laptop, iSight camera, and an internet connection….then route the signal onto one of our 4 public channels.
So you can basically go live from anywhere: from down the street to the other side of the planet.
We’re just using video iChat.
Shawn created a customized program using Quicktime Broadcaster that allows us to swicth between 4 live feeds in the field.
Our biggest success was going live from inside the Republican National Convention.
We’re slowly starting to integrate the technology into our normal production scheme.

Chairman Powell turned out to be a real charmer.
He sounded like one of us: give people a choice, let them have a voice, preserve and enlarge public communication.
But his actions have proved otherwise…and evidence shows he’s on his way out of the job anyway.

This is a simple video on a busy day.
Powell is in our studio, while we have two groups in different locations in Manhattan who will talk to him LIVE using our system.
Since I was helping make sure everything went smoothly, I didnt actually get to record what the WI-FI broadcast looks like…but you get the feel.

By the way, I really love my little Canon digital-still camera.
I couldnt do most of these videos if I had to lug around a video camera.
I carry the Canon in my pocket and just grab video moments as they happen.
Most people don’t realize it can take video.
But I wish I had a camera that didnt look like a camera.
Im trying to do videos on the subway (some amazing life going on), but pulling out a camera is incredibly uncomfortable.

My friend Peter is travelling in India these past couple months.
He’s also been quietly videoblogging.
Peter is the guy who helped me get started posting video to the web about six months ago.
Seems like it’s been a long time…a whole group has formed.
we both share the vision of people around the world posting video regularly…thus really laying it all out on the line.
Ignore the TV, newspapers, and radio…What is everyone really thinking and doing?
Once you know the reality…then you can really start fantasizing.
His trip was part of this experiment.
Problem is he’s using public computers which are all PC’s.
He can only create WMV’s…a Microsoft propietary format.

Also, Josh Kinsberg has created a thing called vipodder which automatically downloads videos for you if you subscribe to feeds.
This is a concrete step to helping videobloggers gather their favorate video feeds into one place.
So you could actually sit down and watch a buch of videos back to back with clicking around the web.
It’s a start.
The problem…where do you play them?
Why not the TV? (dont get me started)
I guess right here.

Enough about this stuff…let’s start the show.
Here is the 9th installment in a series of 90 videos in as many days.
what is it all about?
who are these people?

Here’s #8.
Man, and Im going to make 82 more of these videos in as many days?
and none of them can be about me.
My whole life will be revealed. Youre going to intimately know all my friends.
haha most of them don’t even understand.

So this video shows a weekly routine.
Every Wednesday night, I go to Mica‘s apartment on the Lower East Side to pick up organic vegetables and fruit.
We’ve bought into a local farmer’s crop through a CSA.
The farmer drives it to a local community center for distribution.
Mica can explain it better than I can.
Then, I take them home where I share them with my roommate Mason.
I eat meat. I grew up eating hot dogs and ramen noodles.
But there’s something about eating this stuff that’s just plain fun.
The whole concept is cool.
Oh, and Charlene is teaching us how to make Pumpkin soup.