Week 6: Internet Tools

The sixth post! (Anime gif edition ^^)

I've been using the internet for most of my life.
Thinking about it now, I doubt I'll be able to amass the (sometimes random) knowledge I have or even use the internet that much without the presence of internet tools. Some internet tools I use include Google Search, Gmail, GoogleDocs, YouTube, Wikipedia and Adobe Flash. These tools are really convenient and I've become dependent on them.

Google. Oh Google. Without it, I wouldn't be able to do research. Most importantly, I would not be able to make significant discoveries, such as information regarding my favourite idols, shows, music, etc.

#fangirling

YouTube is also an important part of my life. I spend everyday trawling the site, clicking endless related thumbnails to watch a variety of videos that entertain me. My already dull life will be duller without it!

LMFAO

Of course there are also some popular internet tools which I don't use, namely social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Moving on...

We're supposed to make a video and upload it. I've edited videos before, but here's my first attempt at uploading one, on YouTube no less, despite having chosen to abide to my principles of having minimal presence in the social media scene as much as possible. Oh the things I do for COM125.

The thing is, I am clueless on how to go about this video project. Firstly, what video should I make? Secondly, how am I supposed to upload it onto YouTube? Third, do I need to enhance my video or is the original clip enough? So many questions! So little time.

Ummmm...

#confused

With these questions, I just dived into the process. Through trial and error, I was finally able to edit (minimal) and upload a video onto YouTube, all in one night! Thus, I present to you my special blog segment of the week:

VIDEO-EDITING AND UPLOADING FOR NOOBS BY A NOOB (if I can do it, so can you!)

Let me briefly guide you through the various steps I took in order to achieve my final result! (Click on the pictures for a better viewing experience)

Human: Me, Cat: You!

1. Transfer your video to your computer (Duh!). The only drawback is that it'll probably take forever.
2. Open your video in your computer's video editing program (I'm using Windows so it's Windows Movie Maker for me).
3. There are plenty of functions that one could use to enhance their video, and it's almost foolproof navigating through the interface of the program. 
   
4. Once you are done editing, save your video! (It'll be a .wmv format and this is important to note when uploading!)
5. Go to your YouTube account and click the 'Upload' button next to the search engine. 
   
6. You'll be directed to this:

   

   Proceed to upload your video

    
7. While the video is uploading, you can fill up details about your video. 
   
8. When the video is done uploading, enjoy your hard work by watching your video!

How simple was that? I even got a congratulatory message from YouTube, haha.

Disclaimer: I assumed you paused my music player already T_T If not (highly unlikely), please do so in order to have an optimal audio experience.

Disclaimer #2: My hand phone memory was low, so the last bit of the video is kind of abrupt. Please do not mind the abruptness!

Without further ado, here's my video!

Apologies for the poor video quality, you can't expect much from a phone ):

Just a special mention: The band is called Roller's Haven, a group that me and my peers are currently managing for a music module, MUS264! Only two of the actual band members could make it for that day, and my group leader is playing the guitar! Please support Roller's Haven on Facebook (: We'll be having another event soon, so do watch out!

Back to the video experience!

It was an interesting process. Reflecting on this experience I have quite a few lessons learnt (or to be learnt):

1. As I have mentioned above, the type of technology one uses is important to produce a video of high quality. Using a DSLR would definitely improve the quality of a video.
2. It is also important to have enough memory when taking a video, because tons of space is required to capture just a few minutes of something.
3. When watching the video, I realised that my hands were a little shaky, which would also affect the video quality.
4. I also realised that my video was static and was only in one angle. This might make the video boring after a while. However, I couldn't really do anything much about it as I might serve as a distraction for the band.
5. It was after I posted the video when I discovered that there was a big black border around the actual performance video (which was smaller). I cannot figure out why as it looked fine to me when I was editing it on the Window Movie Maker.

そうですか。。。(Is that so...)

This is just a start for me and I feel that I have much more to learn about the world of video-taking and video-editing. Hope you enjoyed the performance, signing off!