Life and a few updates!

I know it has been a while since I did an actual post, but here goes! I think the last time I actually wrote a complete entry I was telling you about the plans for my birthday. Actually those plans changed completely and we ended up having a few friends over at my place and then going out for a bit instead of having this epic birthday bash at a club that I was originally planning. All seemed to work out for the best and everyone had a good time!

Speaking of my birthday, this is what I got for my present. I have never played hockey before, but I am learning. Lucky for me I am athletically inclined and can play most sports reasonably well. Once I learn the skills I think I'll be able to play just fine. In fact today I am going to skate for the first time, I'll let you know how that goes!

Happy Birthday Shawn!, originally uploaded by fleurdelys79.

She also bought me a pro account for my Flickr photos, so now I can upload more photos per month. This gives me the chance to get back to taking pictures again. We have two fairly good digital cameras, so it's about time that we really put them to good use.

I'm also in the middle of a lot of video ideas as well. I'm trying to decide which direction I really want to go with it. The music videos I am fine with, but it's the identity of the show itself which could use some help. My next video idea is actually a parody of myself! I am going to write this show down instead of making it up as I go along. I think if I am more organized it will be a better show, especially with the editing skills that I have now!

Oh and then there is drum corps. I haven't talked about it in a while, and that is because I really do need a break when the season is over. It is something that I need these days, the chance to unplug for a few months before getting back into anything. These days it is a bit different for me because I am not on the inside. I also have to change corps because of immigration issues. It is hard to let go of a corps that I have put in so much time and effort with, but at the same time I know that I am not gone forever. This year I am helping friends of mine bring back a corps that has been missing from the circuit for the past several years. If all goes well this season then the corps should be set up for future success.

So that's about it for now...I promise I'll update again soon!

Tuesday Afternoon Updates

Sorry if I haven't been posting a lot lately but I have either been too busy or just too lazy to post! There has been a lot of stuff going on and for a while there I was burning the candle at both ends. Finally I think I am rested relaxed and ready to get into some kind of routine again!

I've not only been slow with my blog posts but with my vlog posts as well. I'm working on changing all of that an rearranging my schedule so that I have a little more time for everything. I did manage to make a new episode for LOUD Tour TV and a new music video last week even though I was completely worn out. Look for more videos soon. I plan to go out and shoot some right after I have completed this blog entry!

I played in a golf tournament this past weekend and actually did quite well. My team fell apart on the back nine and we were struggling to save pars so we had no chance of winning the thing at all. We finished at 3 over par which considering the cold, wet, and windy conditions isn't bad at all. Maybe with a little more then 4 chances to play next year we will be more successful as a team.

Anyhow I am off to the hockey game tonight. I'll be sure to take pictures so you can see just how close we are! I might even try to do some video from the game as well! Until then stay out of trouble and don't do anything I wouldn't do!

Would someone remind me again if I am coming or going?

Sorry for the lack of a real update for the past week! I have been busy, but it has been with other things and I just haven't taken the time to write about any of it! I will touch on a few of them here in this entry tonight! I also didn't want to do an entry or post a video for a couple of days because of the instant success of my latest video, "The Corner."

Speaking of that video, it's success continues! Right now it has received over 2000 views and 700 downloads at the various sites where it has been uploaded! I am very excited by it's instant success, but even more excited by the feedback that I have been getting from people around the blogging/vlogging community. With each new video I have really been able to communicate my intent across to my viewers. I have others that I will be editing and uploading soon! Hopefully those will be just as effective as my latest video!

So in the midst of all this work and excitement I have decided to take some things to more of a professional level and have come up with the concept of my own company "SPC Productions." The first thing that I have done to put myself out there is to create a new blog! The new blog is hosted over on Wordpress and it will be the major source of all information about all of my latest video, music, and photography projects. So please have a look at the SPC Productions Blog and tell me what you think!

In other news, I had the weekend off, and boy did I need it! I had a lot of fun going to football games, watching DCI, hanging out with some friends, going to a barbecue, checking out an afterhours club, and watching golf on TV! If you want to read more about it, please visit Christine's Blog! All in all it was a good time to hang out with my friends and not have the stress of drum corps and rehearsal to deal with. Christine has pictures on her blog too, be sure to check them out!

So only 3 more weeks left in the season, and it appears as though a lot of groups really still have a chance at the top 3. Now it's going to be a matter of who can really step up to the plate and perform their show to it's maximum capability! We are in a position to succeed and hopefully we can pick right up where we left off last Saturday in Binghamton.

After the season, it's time to put my life fully in order and take care of business to make this move to Canada a legal one. It will also be time for catching up to my friends again and being able to do more of what I got to do this weekend (only not everything in the course of 3 days, maybe one or two things per weekend so I don't burn myself out!)

Well thats it for now! Remember check out the new blog! Only 28 days until Football season! Woo Hoo!

More cool websites on the internet!

Sorry for the lack of updates this week. I have been checking out a bunch of other video and live internet TV sites this week and putting up quite a few updates on those. Mainly I have been checking them out to see what kind of interface and what kind of audience you can generate. So after a week of checking a bunch out, here are three that are worth taking a look at.

The big boy out there is blogtv. I had some difficulty in the past week getting everything set up, but once I figured everything out I was able to finally make some videos there. The lie broadcast allows the viewers to interact through a chat box within the show. It's cool to be able to interact with other users while doing a live broadcast. The only drawback is that you get 2 hours of recording time for each show. So if you do 30 minutes a day for 4 days then you have used up all of your time and you have to create a new show. Still it's the largest community out there and it will reach a much broader audience.

Viddyou I wrote about last week a little bit. There is no live broadcasting with viddyou, but clips are posted immediately after uploading. If you have a webcam you can record with the pres of a button. It's a relatively new startup company and it's really more of a place to network and chat with people by leaving each other video clips. The community is good people and there is no badmouthing going on like you will find at some of the larger sites. If you aren't ready to do live broadcasting then this is a great site for you. It's very easy to use and like I said the people there are all great. You can also upload your own videos here as well, so if you like to prerecord shows you can do so and upload it in the future.

The last site that everybody needs to check out regardless of whether you are a vlogger and interested in live broadcasting or just a regular person who is bored on the internet with nothing to do is Operator 11. Operator 11 allows users the ability to broadcast and interface with other users in real time. Anyone can be a part of your show and you can be a part of anyone's show. You and your friends can all meet up on the internet and broadcast your own live TV show! Each person can get in front of the camera from their own computer and offer their input into the show. Each person can also share their video clips during the show. This is live internet TV at it's finest. Everyone needs to go and check this out now, this is the future of live TV right here! To see my show, please visit my profile page. Also be sure to add me as a friend and I'll invite you to be on the show each time I run it!

Well there you have it, if you are bored this weekend be sure to check out these great websites! As for me I'm off to Rochester, NY for yet another show! See you next time!

A Quick Update Before I Hit The Road!

Yes I am off to Bridgeport, CT this weekend. I hear is lovely this time of year (sarcasm!) We have a show and a parade there this weekend. There is lots to be done this weekend too and it ought to be interesting how we respond after having a weekend off.

I went to check out the International Jazz Festival yesterday here in Montreal. The setup and the whole atmosphere looks really cool. I just wish I didn't have to go to CT this weekend and miss out on some of the big shows. Wynton Marsalis plays tonight and Harry Connick Jr. on Sunday. Those are the two acts that I really wanted to see too. I took a couple of cool pictures from the festival yesterday, here is one to share. I also took a video for LOUD Tour TV. You can view it at the top of my blog or on the entry below. I'll be back to check it out more next week so look for more cool pictures and videos!



In other news, I have finally launched LOUD Tour TV Live! I was originally going to do the show on blogtv, but I could not get the camera working properly for it. I tried to get some tech support, but the answer that I got didn't really help me out at all. Their software is built for windows not for Mac, although some Mac users have got it working, I just could not figure out where to change my camera settings. I am tech savvy enough to figure these things out, I mean I produce and post my own videos everywhere on the internet! So I took my live show elsewhere. It's a relatively new company, but they seem like good people and a good community, although I feel like the old guy over there! Go and check out the Viddyou website and decide for yourself.

And with that I am off to eat some lunch, then shower, then pack for CT. See you next week!

Internet Presence, Making Money, and Yet Another Cool Video!

In my endless quest to increase my internet presence I have added my videos to two more site! The first is a Canadian video site called video.ca. It is a very simple site comprised mainly of Canadians all doing their short films and posting them online. OK, so I'm not exactly Canadian yet, but my videos are made here, so why not share them with the people who live here! You can see my videos here.

The second site that I am now sharing my videos with is called Atom Uploads. They are part of the company Atom Films which has helped quite a few people who are making short films get discovered. In fact a few of the films there are featured on Comedy Central. Another great thing that they have is some revenue sharing potential if your film gets featured. Sure it's a long shot, but aligning myself with a company like this only increases my chances of getting discovered and having the chance to make some money! Anyhow you can check out my stuff on Atom Uploads here.

There is only one thing that I don't like about these sites and the same rings true with all video sharing sites out there and that is the compression of the video to fit their players. You lose the quality of the video when you have to upload to these sites. In fact I already have to compress my newer movies down just so that they can be uploaded. Consider my latest LOUD Tour TV video. It's a huge file 443 MB. I have to compress it down to 100 MB in order to upload it to most of these video services. The quality suffers if you don't view the film as I originally intend it, particularly when you are shooting in the highest quality possible. I guess it's just growing pains and storage space, some people don't care, but I do.

So that's about it for today, I'll leave you with this really cool video called Music For One Apartment And Six Drummers. This video is genius, so be sure to watch the whole thing, even though it is nine minutes long!

Video, Blog Features, and Some Other Cool Stuff!

Now that I am back in the groove here I have some interesting items of note that I would like to talk about today. I'll start with video. And not just LOUD Tour TV this time! I had to work that shameless self promotion in there sorry!

Actually I want to talk more about revenue and how to generate revenue from these videos online. Last night Christine said that I really need to start offering my videos for sale. Some of the videos are of really good quality, while some are just of average quality, but it's the ideas and vision in my videos that I should be selling to people. I do have my video's available on iTunes and through other sources and I do have the option of charging people money on either a per view basis or to charge them to own the video outright. Selling the video's like that is going to generate a minimal amount of revenue in the long run and I feel it will hurt my overall viewer ship. Plus I have made my videos available out there through a number of different services not to mention the various video feeds that my show already goes out to. You can read all about it here. Basically people aren't going to pay for what they can view for free, even if the quality is diminished.

Speaking of videos, it has become even more easy now for an amateur to get started shooting and sharing videos on the internet. I was check out this new device called Flip Video the other day. You can see a picture of this device down below.

This device allows even the most novice users the opportunity to shot video anytime, anyplace, anywhere and upload it to your computer in just a few simple steps. Now for all of you tech-types here are some quick specs. It shoots a full 30 frames per second in 640 x 480 VGA video. Files are recorded in MPEG-4 format and saved in AVI format. The device is compatible with both PC and Mac. You can buy this devices with 30 minutes of recording time or 60 minutes of recording time for less then $150. Check out the Flip Video site for more details.

I figure since all PC's come with Microsoft Movie Maker and all Mac's come with iMovie, then anyone can can make great movies and post them instantly to the internet. Cool devices and software like this is worth looking into. After that all you need is a place to store your videos online and you are all set. There are plenty of places where you can do this for free. I recommend blip.tv because they offer the best quality.

And now some cool features and a cool guy that does some awesome video work himself! Regular readers may have notices a few changes to my blog recently, such as the addition of the recent comments widget on the sidebar and today I have added the Click Comments widget to each of my blog posts. I was reading my friend Maurits Blog and I saw all of these cool features and I just had to add them! For those of you that have never clicked on him in my blogroll I highly suggest that you go on over to his site and check out what he has to offer. If you guys like my videos then you will absolutely love his! Maurits is a pioneer and a visionary in the internet video age! I learned many of my tricks simply by watching his videos! If you are thinking about starting a video blog or doing cool music videos yourself, I would check his website out first!

So that's it for today, stay tuned tomorrow for more, until then...Watch My Videos!

Some Days You Just Gotta Update!

And today looks like one of those days! For those of you expecting LOUD Tour TV Episode 7 to come out today, you are going to have to wait until some time tomorrow. First I have a cut on the inside of my mouth that makes eating, and even speaking quite painful. It is getting better each day and I hope to be close to 100% tomorrow. So instead of doing a video today, I am going to rest and go all out for tomorrow. Also Christine is home sick today and some of the things that I have planed for the video might me too loud and annoy her, so I am putting off shooting anything until tomorrow morning as well.

In related news I may have my first actual video editing project that pays! Now granted the guy is a friend of mine, but he likes what I have done with the show and has asked me to help him put together a cool video and picture montage for his final exam in 6 weeks. I will meet with him tomorrow to catch up and to discuss some of the details of exactly what he wants to get out of the video. At the very least this will be a resume builder and be able to showcase some of my skills as an editor.

We had a good weekend at Brigadiers this past weekend. The corps is in semi-stealth mode with regards to what is going on, but this year closely resembles 2004, only with less super stars, but better team players and a much better attitude. This group feels like it will rely much more on work ethic rather then raw talent to get by. It should make for an exciting season so long as we have that majority of folks in on a full time basis once we hit the field next month.

I will unfortunately be missing the next camp because I have been hired to play in a couple of gigs that weekend. Sometimes you have to go where the money is. This will be the 3rd camp that I have ever missed since 2001. I know I missed most of last year, but that was also when I was planning on not coming back. From the weekend that I told everyone that I intended to be there full time, I did not miss even one minute of rehearsal.

So that's it for now, I hope everyone has enjoyed my music videos over the past week. I have multiple other music videos in the planning stages. Some footage has been shot, but not set to any particular music of yet. Other videos have the music chosen, but do not have video footage yet! Stay tuned later this week for another music video and hopefully tomorrow I can get Episode 7 of LOUD Tour TV out to you!

LOUD Tour TV Episode 6.5

Click To Play

Episode 6.5?!?! Yes, I was not too happy with the product that was Episode 6 for many reasons! So I went out today and put some new footage together complete with a little personality and fun! You will find this one more pleasing to watch and maybe even get a laugh or two out of it!


So as you can see, I have been filming a lot this week to make up for last week's lack of filming! I have been shooting (and walking) so much these past few days that my brain (and my feet) are starting to hurt. I have also shot another music video to be released tomorrow. The video is already finished, but I am holding off for now!

I will also be attempting (key word here is attempting) to get some footage from the road and possibly from Syracuse this weekend. All media shot of the drum corps must be approved my corps management before it can be distributed anywhere on the internet. I was going to try and keep it less about the corps and more about The LOUD Tour and friends of The LOUD Tour, but since the way I present myself and present my friends in the video is ultimately a representation of the corps I must run it through the powers that be first. It's not that we don't want our work to be shown out there, however there is a chance that people would use it to maliciously harm or misrepresent our organization. Despite taking all precautions necessary with the proper disclaimers or by using creative commons as a means to license my videos so that no one may use content in any way these things have happened in the past to our organization and to other organizations as well. That's right folks, only in drum corps could Freedom of Speech and Censorship clash in such a way!

So Many Changes! More to Come!

So by now many of you have been reading about and seeing the changes that I have brought to my blog. Today's latest addition comes from Twitter. This is another step that I have decided to take to allow more interactivity with my readers. I hope to update it regularly and give people a run down of what exactly is going on in the world of The LOUD Tour.

By now many of you may have noticed that I have switched my videos from YouTube to Blip TV. I am very happy with the switch. Not only can I bring you LOUD Tour TV in a more efficient manner, but I can also bring it to you in higher resolution because of the improved video format. You will also notice that unlike YouTube, MySpace, and Google video there is no watermark on the video. That is a huge plus! I will continue to load videos to YouTube from time to time, however those will only be the videos that show the most interest.

Another thing that I really like about Blip TV is the fact the LOUD Tour TV gets it's own full page dedicated to everything about LOUD Tour TV. Be sure to visit The Official LOUD Tour TV Page. Or get up to the minute updates by Subscribing to LOUD Tour TV.

I have other big news this week for LOUD Tour TV viewers. Stay tuned here and to the Official LOUD Tour TV Page for details really soon!

In other news it looks as though winter might be on the way out here in Montreal. It's still cold outside, but the days of -38 temperatures seems to be behind us. This means that I should be able to get out and shoot a lot more picture and video footage from some happenings around the city! I look forward to better weather and more time spent outside of the house!

The next big project for The LOUD Tour is going to be a major face lift. I have heard from several of you out there in the bloggosphere that I have great content, but an awful look! I have taken each of your comments into consideration and I am aware that changes need to be made in the visual department! So whoever has a really creative idea for a design and layout feel free to pass it along! If I use your design I will do a video review of your blog on a future episode of LOUD Tour TV!

Attention Google Video Users...

I am looking for your opinions. Recently I have launched LOUD Tour TV as something to compliment my blog. I posted my video over to YouTube and it took nearly 2 hours for it to become available to be embedded here on my blog. The first try did not work because the sound was not synced with the video so I had to convert the format from AVI to WMV and then re post it to YouTube which then took another two hours for my video to become available to embed again. The video was a little over 2 minutes in length. The file size was roughly 6.5 Mb

Now what I want to know from you Google Video users is how long from the time you upload your video until the time it is available to be embedded on blogs and other websites? Also are their issues with syncing sound and video on AVI files? I am currently shooting my videos with my Fuji FinePix E550 digital camera. As you can see the quality is pretty good. I want my videos to be available to the public without #1 having to convert them to WMV format and #2 within minutes of the actual upload. Basically the video that I shot at 2 o'clock yesterday wasn't available to be show until almost 7 because of a sync error and the long processing time.

Please Google Video users give me feed back on your Google Video experience!

Video Blog Entries Coming Soon!

Tomorrow (well technically later today) I plan to do my very first test run with a video blog! I plan to do about 3 minute video and post it over to youtube then embed the video over here and make that my main entry for the day! I just want to bring something different to the blogging table. Anyone can write posts all day long, but I want to do something completely unscripted and see how that goes. If all goes well and the idea really catches on I may expand on it and do some kind of feature every week! So tomorrow (or later today depending on how you look at it) look for my first ever video post!