Leading the Children’s Earth Parade at the 2009 in , the Director of the California Department of Conservation, , takes a moment to shoot a video of actor/environmentalist and me.

Earlier this month KPBS public television hosted a show to help support Public Broadcasting. It’s one of those events that they interrupt every so often to ask you to join as a member. I was channel surfing and serendipitously landed on their presentation of the historic Stax/Volt Revue Live In Norway 1967. It was amazing to see and hear these performances. You get to see Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Booker T and the MGs and others in their prime. It’s the best footage of 60’s that I have ever seen. If you love , what are you waiting for? This is a must see. Buy this disc!

Booker T and the MGs
1. Red Beans And Rice
2. Green Onions

The Mar-Keys
3.Philly Dog
4.Grab This Thing
5.Last Night

Arthur Conley
6.In The Midnight Hour
7.Sweet Soul Music

Eddie Floyd
8. Raise Your Hand

Sam and Dave
9. You Don’t Know Like I Know
10. Soothe Me
11. When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
12. Hold On! I’m Comin’

Otis Redding
13.Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
14. My Girl
15. Shake
16. Satisfaction
17. Try A Little Tenderness

I recently attended a San Diego Social Media Breakfast event in downtown San Diego. Becky Carroll, an executive with the social media marketing agency Brickfish, gave an interesting presentation entitled The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Social Media Case Studies.

For those of you here to view the social media case studies presentation, you can just watch the video. For those of you who like to watch the Special Features on DVDs, continue reading for the behind the scenes story of the recording, encoding and displaying the video that I shot in a conference room on the 8th floor of the Bank of America Building.

This might be the longest single recorded video using a Flip Mino that is currently being displayed on the Web!

My primary purpose for attending the event was to watch and listen to the presentation (and do a little networking). Shooting events (mostly still photography) over the years has taught me that I will miss much of what’s being presented because I am focusing on tracking the speaker and framing the shot. I mention this fact because in this video, the framing is somewhat neglected, however the viewer can still see and hear the majority of the content that was presented.

My list of tools for recording the presentation consisted of only two pieces of equipment, a Flip Mino camcorder and a Gorillapod tripod. The Flip is an inexpensive pocket-sized camcorder weighing 6 ounces and the Gorillapod is a very lightweight (less than 1 ounce) miniature tripod. I set up the camcorder beside me on the conference table, turned it on and basically let it record with some occasional adjustments to the mini-tripod and the camcorder’s limited 2x digital zoom. It’s probably a good practice to avoid using the zoom for distance if possible, as there is a significant reduction in video quality. The tripod gave me a little height and some stability. My neighbor at the table was working on his laptop during the presentation and the resulting inadvertent vibration of the table from that shows up as some camcorder shake during playback.

As the presentation went past the one hour mark, I was amazed that the Flip was still recording as the technical specs state that the 2GB of on-board flash memory records only up to sixty minutes of video. Thirty minutes later – at the ninety minute mark – I had a 1.7GB video recording of the entire presentation. I suspect that when you record multiple videos, the meta information files take up enough space to limit recording time to sixty minutes, but in the case of one long continuous video, it will go to the ninety minute mark as evidenced by the video above.

There are a couple of additional points to know about the Flip. It likes a lot of light for video recording and its audio capabilities are somewhat limited with the built-in, omni-directional microphone. Others before me have asked San Francisco based manufacturer Pure Digital Technologies to add an audio input to accept an external mic, but so far, those requests have gone unheeded. Special Note: This video was shot just a few day before the brand new higher 1280×720 pixel resolution Flip Mino HD (no mic input) was released to the public.

I had this large raw 90 minute, 680×480 pixel resolution, AVI formatted, 1.7GB video without a clear direction of how to proceed. I have worked on much smaller clips using tools like Windows Movie Maker, Quicktime Pro, and Adobe Premiere, but this file was another order of magnitude. I knew that it needed encoding, a boost of the audio track and an online hosting service that would accept and display a file that large. I asked several people for suggestions and I did get some feedback, but the person who actually stepped up to the plate to help with the video was impresario Rob Lewis, the Executive Producer of the forthcoming web series Making Jenn2.0. Rob’s new show is about the life and times and drama of a social media consultant struggling to find balance between her online personas and her ever-present reality. Based on the real life of Jenn Van Grove, look for a release date of the pilot episode sometime in December.

Rob offered to render the file for me and find a site to upload it to. I just needed a way to get the raw file to him. I tried uploading it to his ftp server, but it returned a “file too large” error message (no surprise there), so I just burned it to a DVD and snail-mailed it to him. After he received the disc, he took the file into a consumer grade editing program, Video Studio and outputted a more compressed 745MB MP4 file. He then uploaded the entire file to the Veoh Video Network which then took a few more hours to convert it over to an FLV formatted file. There wasn’t any editing or color correction or any other post production work done to this video.

The embedded video displays the first five minutes of the presentation. Longer videos require the Veoh Web Player to watch in full-length, so to watch the full ninety minute length version, you must first download and install the software. To do that simply click on the Watch the Full Video button to be redirected to an installation page to run the Veoh Web Player installer to watch the video immediately. Sorry fellow Mac users, the Veoh Web Player only runs on Windows XP and Vista. On the Mac, a longer video requires that you first download the video and then watch it later. Complain to Veoh.

Basically, for under $200 in equipment with no bells and whistles, you can unobtrusively capture an hour and a half presentation that can be uploaded to a free hosting service where thousands of viewers can watch it.

Credits:
Speaker Becky Carroll
Camera Steve Eisenberg
Encoding & Distribution Rob Lewis
SMBSD is organized by Holly Matson

Flip Video MinoHD Camcorder

• Weighing only 3.3 ounces, MinoHD is the world’s smallest
• Features a super-slim, super-sleek design that fits into any pocket or purse
• Simple user interface features one-touch recording and digital zoom, making HD video easier and more fun than ever
• Holds 60 minutes of HD-quality video on 4 GB of built-in memory; no tapes or additional memory cards required
• Convenient flip-out USB arm plugs directly into your computer to launch built-in FlipShare software
• Internal Li-ion battery recharges through built-in USB arm while you’re plugged into your computer
• Produces incredible HD 720p (1280 x 720 resolution at 30 frames per second; 16:9 widescreen) video
• Records high-quality MP4 files that can be easily dragged and dropped into iTunes, iMovie, and iPhoto
• Watch videos instantly on TV with included connector cable
• Instant playback, pause, fast forward, rewind, zoom , and delete functions

Flip Video MinoHD Camcorder

By Feb. 17, 2009, all television stations will , making analog transmissions obsolete. If you or someone you know have yet to switch to here are 10 helpful links:

dtvtransition.org Information and resources on this site will help ensure that you’re prepared for the digital TV transition and that you’ll continue to receive free broadcast television in the digital age.

dtvanswers.com Here to help you make a smooth transition.

digitaltips.org Convert your Mom!

creativechannel.com Are you and your TV ready for the digital transition?

dtv.gov Find out more about whether or not you will be impacted by the digital TV (DTV) transition.

tvfool.com Analyze your location to determine which broadcast television signals are available in your area. It will compute the expected signal strength for every channel “in the air” at your location, including adjustments for transmitter power, terrain obstructions, curvature of the Earth, and other factors that affect signal availability.

dtv2009.gov TV Converter Box coupon program website

antennaweb.org Maximize your television reception

hdtv.forsandiego.com Forum for hdtv

fcc.gov Setting up your digital-to-analog converter box with a vcr

The Web may seem like a vast ocean when it comes to finding something you need. Thankfully, search engines can help turn oceans of information into small pools that make finding information easier. Here is a short video designed to help you get more out of your web searches.

Recently my friend Red was spammed over on Twitter by a sleazy marketing guy. Out of misplaced curiosity Red clicked over to the spammer’s site to take a look at what this guy was pimpin’. He noticed that the guy had embedded the commoncraft video explaining twitter on one of his (the spammer) pages. The problem was that it was an unauthorized version of the video that had been illegally edited to display links pointing back to the spammers site.

Red wondered about the licensing requirements for the video and shot off an email inquiry to commoncraft asking about the legitimate use of the single user license which commoncraft sells.

Red received a quick response back:

Our licensing prohibits the alteration of any commoncraft video. Further, the single-use licensed versions that are available in the Store are not to appear on the public web under any circumstance.

Later Red got a follow-up email thanking him for alerting commoncraft to the violation. Commoncraft went on to say that at first they emailed and called the spammer. There was no response. Then they emailed the spammer once again and wrote that commoncraft has “12,500 blog subscribers who would *love* to hear about someone who is blatantly violating it’s licensing.” That did the trick and the spammer subsequently removed the illegal video from his site.

Red got some well deserved appreciation from commoncraft and a wee bit of satisfaction from nailing a .

Looking for an easy way to play FLV (Flash Video) files downloaded from YouTube and other video sites? Get this . It’s easy to use, and you can view videos at 1x, 2x or even full screen.

Feature summary:

* Play FLV files on any Windows PC.
* Double-click files in File Explorer to play them automatically.
* Zoom 50% – 100% – 200% and full screen.
* Double click video view-port to toggle full screen.
* Drag-and-drop multiple files.
* Play URL’s, Streams and Local Files.
* Remember position on screen at next launch.
* Remember audio settings at next launch
* Optional video smoothing for fast CPU’s.
* Small download. Just 2.12 Mb.
* No viruses, spyware or adware.
* Includes free audio recorder option.
* 100% FREE.

Download this fully functional software for FREE now! Download FLV Player.

These exclusive educational videos will quickly give you the basics of using drop shippers in your eBiz. You’ll get a birds-eye view of how the entire product supply chain works. The videos are quick and easy to go through.

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Friday’s music video.

Friday’s music video.

Friday’s music video.