#37, Four New Videos

View from Hyde St. Pier, San Francisco, California, April ‘08, artistic view.

In the last several days, I managed to release four new videos; Line Secure, Up & Down, Black Birds, and At The Bay. A good weather was a definite factor in filming and getting good results. The subjects are different, the mood is positive, and all of them are easy to watch. Will see how well they do.
YouTube started experiments with playing higher quality videos along with the stereo sound. This definitely works in the right direction, and helps showcase videos a bit closer to their uncompressed originals that I watch so many times.

Dinner: Assorted fish cakes, from Kobe, Japan.

Reading: Pat Pattison, Writing Better Lyrics, The essential guide to powerful songwriting – from generating ideas to developing verse and beyond, Writer’s Digest Books, ISBN-10: 1-58297-066-5.

#36, Weather Forecast

The original blog entry has been deleted.

#35, In Memoriam: Roland Lietzenmayer

Above: Family Released Announcement.

We’ve never met. He was one of my subscribers on YouTube; this is how we interacted. He watched my videos; I enjoyed his videos where he usually played a flute either solo or with his daughter Milena. They seemed to work together well, or almost well, and produced good shows. He tried to experiment a lot with all that was new.
We were supposed to work together on a music piece for one of my videos, I recorded a separate video for that purpose and later named it Birds. His task was to supply a good flute music part of his own choice. However, since this happened to be close to Christmas season, business and family arrangements kept him very busy. I had to release Birds with my own composed music.
After that we agreed to work together on something different once he had more time. Later his YouTube account got into slight issues; we exchanged messages from time to time.
Then this week, a sad message came about his death back in March ’08. There is not going to be any new flute music by him in my videos. A distant friend, never met, somehow close because of YouTube videos.
Rest in Peace, Roland.

YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/Vatsek .
Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/Vatsek .
Let’s call this #35, In Memoriam: Roland Lietzenmayer.
Copyright © 2008 by Vatsek. All Rights Reserved.

#34, Moooo, Where Is The Music?

Mooo, North of San Jose, California, April ‘08, artistic view.

Yes it is true, I have no music yet for my next video. Only loose ideas flying over my head and some tiny snippets that I may turn into something musical in the next two to three days. As far as video shooting goes, I probably have enough from similar scenes as in the last video. This one is more or less a test of a new camera, and therefore did not want to go very far just in case I forgot to press one of the switches, or something like that. The weather was not as nice as last time, quite cold, and the sun had lots of blue in it, and much less pleasant yellow and orange. Also there were almost no people around and only cars passing by from time to time. Of course, there were cows as always grazing grass; one of the bulls, #167, came close to me. You see it in the picture above, and after I made a Moooo sound, it came to within several feet of me, apparently to check if I am shooting in 24p or 30p mode! It was 30p; all bulls like quality, then it rejoined the herd. The moving objects are smoother in 30p then they were in 24p, and the movement of leaves in the wind, for example, is now looking very pleasant. Did not have a chance to shoot something moving fast in front of me yet, do not know how it would look like. Whether any of this still remains in the final YouTube version, nobody really knows. Let us post this one and really start to work on music.

Canon web site: http://www.canon.com

#33, Early Evening - Mini Music Video Released

Hills From Early Evening, San Jose, California, April ‘08, artistic view.

Just checked YouTube* Top 100 ranks to figure out who is going up and who is going down. There are changes happening, and some stars of yesterday are slowly disappearing. New people are showing up, some at almost alarming pace. Who is …, you may ask? The staying power of early vloggers is beginning to be tested, and some quite common names up till now are shifting toward an exit. Has YouTube incubated a real star so far? I mean, somebody who really can be called a star? Or, do we have to wait for that moment a bit longer? Is this new medium at all able to pick a star? This, in my humble opinion, has not been answered so far positively.

I tried to avoid using names of YouTube people directly in my blogs, with the exception of my dear subscribers. But starting from now, I am going to spice my blogs a bit and start mentioning them directly. Remember, if I offend somebody, I planned to do just that!
Val from Valsartdiary, the guy from Fox News said you are 30, I always though you were about 17! Isn’t it amazing how you could fool people for such a long time! Your paintings are getting better, truly.
I did release my first mini music video with my own music called Early Evening. For a while I was thinking about it, and even received few suggestions from other YouTube people that it could be a good idea to try just that. So I am trying. It takes a bit to write even a minute of music, so getting a decent length music video is not that straightforward. I may look into using some props for future videos; so far I have not done that. Enjoy writing music a lot, who knows where this can go. It is getting late, and it’s time for a good night of sleep.
Things to read, came in mail yesterday Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 2007 Annual Report. I tend to spend some time on this particular report. Too bad there is no envelope with a big check attached, maybe next year!

Top 100 stars web site: http://www.bkserv.net/YTS/YTTop100.aspx
Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com

#32, Editing Music Video

Downtown San Jose From A Distance, San Jose, California, April ‘08, artistic view.

I hope by now I have enough tape for a short music video. The weather was very nice to shoot in the early evening outside of northern part of San Jose. Last year, in about the same place, I shot one of my first videos in HDV format (1920x1080). Liked it a lot and decided to continue from then on with that format. It is less obvious if it was the best decision as far as YouTube goes, since those two black bars that show up on the top and bottom of a YouTube video window do take some important space away from the video. People who shoot for YouTube in a lower resolution, and worse quality, may actually have an advantage over those who shoot in HDV! But when you watch at home the HDV video that you made, plus the higher quality sound, you think of those other YouTube videos – "Forget It".
I wrote perhaps half of the music for the video, and have some ideas what to do with the other half. Tomorrow I will start working on the remaining part, one note at a time, my favorite way so far, although as I already mentioned previously, not the fastest one.

Breakfast: green vegetable salad with Italian dressing, ham and egg sandwiches, hash browns with Heinz ketchup, and iced tea with lemon.

#31, More Music, Not Enough Video, And Fried Fish

Hercules - An Old Ship, San Francisco, California, April ‘08, artistic view.

I am writing more music for my videos, as is always the case. Will try to write shorter pieces and match them better with the video scenes, essentially try to score the video. So far I was not paying much attention to what the video was actually showing, but from now on will try to enhance the video with music. It is a bit harder to write that way, but it is also a better way without any doubt.
A trip to San Francisco produced little good video, not enough tourists, a bit cold, and a very strong wind. Need to add more clips from another place to come up with a decent video.
On my way home back from San Francisco, I stopped to get something to eat at a place that you may have already seen in my previous videos on US1 at the Pacific Coast. A small, red color wooden building, fish restaurant. Used to go to that place quite often in the past, now a bit less. A bowl of clam chowder, fried fish and French fries, with a tip was $25. A sourdough bread and butter plus a glass of water with ice came with it. Used to be much cheaper several years ago!
I got a good video related book that comes with CD, from Barnes & Noble. A Down & Dirty DV podcast from that author is available on iTunes.

Book: Anthony Q. Artis, The Shut Up And Shoot Documentary Guide, Focal Press, http://www.focalpress.com, with CD, ISBN: 978-0-240-80935-9.

Now drinking: jasmine tea with fresh key limes from Mexico.
Later: a glass of Fox Brook’ 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon wine, from Sonoma, California.

#30, Sunny Day Released

Joy At Sunny Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii, September ‘07, artistic view.

After almost two days of editing, a Sunny Day video is released on YouTube. This is my very first iMovie ’08 video. Actually after an initial bad publicity, I delayed using iMovie ’08 for quite a while; now consider it to be entirely unwise. Lesson learned from "experienced" YouTube members who are quick to review and judge: forget about their opinions related to everything. The new version of iMovie is indeed easier to use than the old one.
Now back to the video. Spent about a week composing music for it, only two longer pieces and a short one for the closing scene. You may wonder why it takes so long, if you write music a note at a time, this is how long it takes. I did not use loops so far, not sure if I like the idea enough to try. Need to look around, read on the subject of composing, how others approach this subject. I do know that some people essentially hear the music, then sit down and "simply type it". I am far from that stage.
Shooting at the location is quite short, a matter of hours. Then editing, adding audio, and rearranging things around, takes quite a bit of time. I noticed that there is no easy way to find where the middle of the video is for the purpose of the middle image that YouTube uses. Is this true, or I have missed something so far?
Like more and more natural sounds that are recorded at locations. There is so much more going on around the scenes that are shot. Careful editing adds a new dimension to the final edited outcome. Next time I may try to shoot some scenes with a shotgun mike, and some with a broader pattern mike, and then compare those two methods together. Will I like the narrow pattern of the shotgun?
Lots of organic Oolong tea, and jasmine tea during editing, with some ascorbic acid added (that is vitamin C, if you wonder), not much more. A large green Granny Smith apple, sorry, almost forgot about it.

#29, Sunny Day Is Coming

Sumi-e Footprints, Oahu, Hawaii, October ‘07, artistic view.

It took me only a few minutes to decide where to go and what to shoot. A very sunny weather was a decisive factor. Why don’t I look at all places from Rainy Day – my last video, during a sunny day? So the Sunny Day video idea was born. Sunny but not hot and sticky, gorgeous you might say. Now I need to edit everything, add more music and we are going to be ready very soon.

Dinner: Way too much to eat, I am not going to go through a long list, way too many calories to burn.

#28, Rainy Day Released

Louis Italian Restaurant, San Francisco Municipal Wharf, San Francisco, California, September ‘07, artistic view.

Rainy Day has been released and received some audience. Coming from a break in making videos sets you inevitably back and your initial audience after the return is smaller than it used to be. This is understandable, a bit of cooling down occurred. Some people left YouTube, as well. However, the numbers of subscribers and friends have increased steadily even though I did not submit anything for a while. Now things are going to pick up again after this fourth release in a short time. The weather is sometimes rainy, sometimes shinny, I got some drizzle during the recording of the last video in San Francisco. Was not quite sure if I end up with something that may be difficult to watch, but that did not happen. Out of a 60 min tape, I managed to get over 6 min of good quality video and most important with a quality sound. Although there were scenes taken with raindrops on the camera lens, I could easily edit those out. And if a sound did not cooperate, a heavy and noisy truck drove by, for example, I substituted this with a good music composed by myself. Actually I spent over a week composing music for this video, and was able to use about ¾ of what was written. The remaining pieces somehow either require some more work or be placed in trash – simply not good enough.
Most of the viewing occurs in the first three days after your release according to YouTube Insight. Majority of viewers come from California, surprise, surprise, some from New York, and a smaller number from other states. Very little from Europe, Australia, or Asia.
Now going back several months ago, as you may recall, I was blocked by somebody from abroad, never learned about the real reason. Now I have been apparently unblocked, so I decided to subscribe again to that YouTube member. The very first thing that is evident is that the videos are now much better there. Will post more details on that subject as soon as something new develops. Yes, a mystery cloud still envelops that story!
Right now I am sitting and composing music for the next video, probably will not make for this weekend, because there is still lots of work to do. No subject for the video has been chosen yet.
Reading more about film scoring, actually I like the subject more and more. You should hear signs of that in my upcoming videos.

Dinner: Turnip strip buns with Spanish extra virgin olive oil (San Gallio), turmeric, curry powder, and cumin. Jasmine tea. Berkeley Farms Bulgarian cultured buttermilk. Roasted peanuts (unsalted). Raw baby carrots. A glass of Carlo Rossi’ white Rhine wine.

Books: Dave Hunter, Play Acoustic, The Complete Guide To Mastering Acoustic Guitar Styles, http://www.backbeatbooks.com, with 2 CDs, ISBN 0-87930-853-2.
Fred Karlin and Rayburn Wright, On The Track, A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring, 2nd Ed., Routlege, Taylor & Francis Group, http://www.routlege.ny.com, ISBN 0-415-94136-9.
Enya, Amarantine, Piano, Vocal, Guitar, EMI Music Publishing, http://www.halleonard.com, ISBN 1-4234-1431-4.