Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen | solitude.dk

For the first time: Videoblogging on solitude! [144KB WMV file] My original plan for today was to read up my thoughts on genres in videoblogging, but instead I decided to test out the practical aspects in videoblogging. Nb.: This video isn't what I consider a ‘good’ video entry — I'm just testing here.

Somehow I had forgotten that I own a webcam and that said webcam can make videos. With my half day of experimentation I've discovered that the other videobloggers aren't whining when they claim videoblogging is hard. For my experiment I had a budget of $0 and I figured I could find some open source software like I usually do.

No such luck. I ended up with Logitech's ImageStudio (free with my webcam) to record the initial clip and Microsoft's Movie Maker (comes with Windows; I'm using version 1.0) to cut off the begining and end of the clip and to encode the file as a Windows Media Video. I tried to figure out how to make a QuickTime file, but I couldn't. As the original clip was over one megabyte for eight seconds I had to encode it in some way. The only thing I had was the Movie Maker and so the choice was Windows Media Video. I'm not even sure if Mac-people can view it.

My main issue with Movie Maker is that while it's free there's only one video layer and one sound layer. That means dissolves are out of the question and narration is very difficult to do. This might be different in version 2.0, but I don't have the required Windows XP so I can't upgrade Movie Maker. Other problems include stage fright, a weird accent and a broken microphone (I had to use the internal one in my laptop).

Download the video entry.