[Hidden-tech] Using YouTube and Blogger to create FREE instant multimedia websites

[David Caputo]

Hello everyone,

Expanding on the theme of "podcasting" a few weeks ago, I related my 
experience with using a low-end Sony DV Tape Handycam, an iMac with 
iMovie, and YouTube to quickly and inexpensively (approaching free, 
other than time) post video blogs, performances, instructions, and 
marketing messages.

Now I add Blogger (Blogspot) to the mix and have created something even 
more customizable and powerful, and still it's essentially free except 
for the time required.

Last Saturday, May 19th, the band Unit7 with Kim Zombik and the Trailer 
Park Horns along with special guests Celia and Wil Lettman played the 
Iron Horse Music Hall to a packed, standing-room-only crowd. I was there 
and videotaped the entire thing on my <$300 Sony DV Handycam. I then 
went home, downloaded the tape to my computer, sliced it up and exported 
it as web video using iMovie, and posted it up on 
http://www.YouTube.com/PositronicDesign

It was great, but there were a few problems.

Even though I posted everything in reverse order, so that the songs 
appeared in the order that they were performed at the concert, the 
system can only display up to 20 videos at any one time, and there were 
25 songs in the concert, so there was no way to get the whole show onto 
one page. Plus, there is no way to keep the show from getting pushed 
into the background chronologically if I ever post more stuff, which I 
intend to. It was great for what it was, as in the entire show was live 
on YouTube by 8am Sunday morning, but the delivery left me wanting.

So... I came up with a creative solution that's working out quite well.

I created a free Blogger account just for the show. I then created a 
blog entry (there will only ever be one) by picking one of the pre-set 
templates, tweaking it slightly to allow for the size of the embedded 
YouTube videos, and then entering and formatting text and copying in the 
"embed this video" code from YouTube.

I think it turned out pretty well...

http://Unit7IronHorse.blogspot.com

For a few extra bucks, I registered a domain name for the band ($20/yr) 
and created a hosting account (Super-Economy, $5/month) and set the 
index page of the hosting account to alias over to the Blogspot page. 
This is not "required", but it does make it more "professional" and 
easier to advertise and remember.

To wit, now you can get to their blogspot page at http://www.Olbik.com

So check out what I've been able to do for practically free. It's a big 
job, so it took about 12 hours of actual time to get the job complete, 
plus the two hours shooting the video. As a professional job, it would 
have billed out at 14 hrs x $95/hr = $1330, which is still not bad at 
all when you see what you get and compare it to the other commercial 
options available for anywhere near that price. For a company that wants 
to bring this capability to their internal staff, it's simply a matter 
of getting less than $2000 worth of equipment and having a steady hand 
with the camera and a discerning eye during shot selection and editing. 
I can train someone in the basics in a couple of hours.

I'm interested in people's feedback and stories of their experiences 
with similar mediums. There are other technical options out there that 
do essentially the same thing (Google Video, TypePad, etc) but the ones 
I've described work quickly, easily, and very well.

Check it out for yourself and see what's possible. The concert was 
Saturday, the complete web site re-creation of the concert was live to 
the world in its present form on Tuesday morning. That's not too shabby 
in the turnaround department, considering it's 25 separate individual 
music videos, complete with Titles, Descriptions, Tags and a link back 
to their YouTube source pages for easily integrated ratings, commentary, 
subscription, and forwarding to friends.

http://www.Olbik.com - Unit7 at the Iron Horse Music Hall

Videos shot and edited and web page created by David Caputo of 
Positronic Design

http://www.PositronicDesign.com
http://www.TotallyFixed.com