Some weeks ago, I realized that my Internet future simply had to include video. Listening to several video training webinars made it sound as easy as pie. Maybe it is...if you've never made a pie. Or maybe that saying stems from eating pie.

More to the point, however, my "Video Publishing Career" got off to a definitely rocky start. One highly reputable company hosted a content sharing contest in which I neither won nor placed. However, since they were giving away 10 Flip video cameras as prizes, I figured they must be okay. Wal-Mart forked one over at a reasonable price, and I went to work.

Glitch #1: The video would play back, but the sound was virtually inaudible, and the Flip will not accommodate an external microphone. Maybe it would have better sound when played back on the computer.

Glitch #2: It would start to play back on the computer. Wow, excitement time! But after a few seconds (from 3 to 15 max) it would freeze up completely.

Hm. Okay, well, back to Wal-Mart, which reminds me, I'm still packing the refund credit in my billfold, a much needed $175 I'd better get to using....

Through Amazon, I find my next camcorder: A used but "like new" Panasonic VDR-D300 from a seller with 100% positive feedback. Excitement time! Until the box arrived.

Glitch #3: We knew there was trouble immediately, since the box containing the camcorder rattled! That's not what you want in a package containing a delicate, fragile, electronic anything. It turned out that the seller had simply tossed the unit into a way oversized box, along with a small box of accessories to bang around with, and mailed it that way from Berkely, California, to Parachute, Colorado.

Amazingly, the camera still records video, but not sound. This model also comes with a built-in lens cover, an AC adaptor, and of course a manual. None of these were present. The seller turned out to be a college kid who said a number of things (as we exchanged a series of emails) that simply could not be true--such as claiming that he'd bought the unit new without a manual.

There wasn't much use in even attempting to get my money back, my bargain $250. If you've gone to college, you know he didn't still have my money; it had gone to tuition or rent or books or something less reputable but nonetheless permanent. Okay. Spilled milk and all that. Onward

This time I went to a definitely reputable seller, same model camcorder, but brand new. BuyDigg had the best price I could find, and they got it to me in record time. Or rather, they would have:

Glitch #4: Fed Ex couldn't find us!!! No, we're not kidding. We live in a fairly new development that is not yet on everyone's map. A customer service rep lied to me, saying that the seller had picked a shipping method that did not service our town, which made no sense.

In the end, after two crucial days of delay (crucial because my "free days" before having to return to full time work as a truck driver were counting down fast), I avoided two more delay days by driving (on a Saturday) about 100 miles round trip to pick up the package at the terminal. The young lady at the terminal laughingly agreed that the back-east customer service rep had (as I knew) lied foolishly. The fact of the matter was simple:

The delivery driver had never been to our town before...and never would again. Yes, they had our phone number. No, they didn't call.

Fortunately, a small but powerful stereo external microphone (which the VDR-D300 does accommodate) came in that same day, so things were finally good to go. Right? Oh, sure.

If you're wondering about my lack of graphics or videos at this point, sorry. You'll have to either scroll ahead or wait till I can get to one...LOL!

Well! I shot a full 30 minutes of me doing songs, 5 of them plus half a dozen false starts, and played them back on the unit. BEAUTIFUL! Let's get these loaded onto the computer!

Uh-oh.

Glitch #5: The Panasonic video editing software that came with the camcorder was not compatible with Vista, which I have. Curse you, Microsoft! (Yeah, I'm still using Windows, and I have heard about ingratitude and such, but still!) Not only that, I finally checked and also found out my 8 Gigabyte laptop did not have enough room left for space-hogging video. I was going to have to buy a second computer and make sure it was loaded with Windows XP!

AAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or something like that. I'd already "busted" my old (admittedly outdated) Dell desktop last October and bought a Compaq laptop. Now, 6 months later, not even the Compaq was enough. But, oh well, bite the bullet,not the hand that feeds you, a shopping we will go.... The result was the Lenovo Think Pad on which I'm typing this Hub, 80 Gigabytes instead of 8, and probably it'll be obsolete by 2009, but here we go....

Glitch #6: Couldn't get the Panasonic software to work enough to upload to the Net. Figured this was not a super-terrible deal, because our training gurus had recommended never using company-issue stuff like that anyway. So, I found the Sony Vegas 7 software they did recommend. Only when I downloaded I got Vegas 8 instead of Vegas 7, not intentionally, just happened.

Wow. Cool software. Imports from the minicam flawlessly. Plays back beautifully. Yee hah, I'm a star.

Glitch #7: Using TubeMogul to upload to a dozen video content sharing sites at a time AND get free tracking charts as well...great tool. I highly recommend 'em. But when I hit their "Browse" function to grab my video, it can only find what has meandered on in (via my editing software's "Import" function) all the way to my Documents.

In other words, TubeMogul can't find the edited version so beautifully dressed up with credits and such...and Vegas 8 can't seem to load that vesion to my Documents. Or maybe it can, and I just haven't figured out how yet.

In the end, it seemed a lot more important to get videos "out there" than to get them all "prettified", so finally: SUCCESS! Here's the first one ever uploaded, accomplished on April 4, 2008:

Saying that getting "What's Your Story?" out there was a sizeable relief...would be a sizeable understatement. It had taken more than 4 weeks in time and $1600 in new equipment and software to get the job done. Mere minutes before filming what you see here, I was so stressed that when I needed to reset my bedside clock, I kept running the numbers past the correct time, which naturally meant having to run around the full 24 hours again. And again. And again.

But now the worst was over. I did have one done, my accounts at each of the 12 video sharing sites were in order, TubeMogul had saved all my credentials, and it ought to be simpler from here on in. And was it ever. The second uploaded video, setup to finish, took 4 hours instead of 4 weeks:

Going for number 3 (at a rate of one per night), I felt it should be workable to crank one out from camera setup to upload conclusion...in about 2 hours. Which, just last night, was almost exactly how long it took:

Most of us know a ten year old somewhere who knows a whole lot more about video production and uploading than I do at this point. So does my webinar video trainer, obviously, who just happens to have a degree in film and TV and an oscar on his mantel and a few hundred other credits to his name. To folks like that, be they teachers or ten year old wizards, my struggle to get to First Base has to make them figure I'm a pure dee idiot.

But if you're brand new to the genre like I was a month ago, maybe this Hub can be of some small help. It can't hurt. After all, if you struggle with it like I did, you'll at least know you're not alone. And if it's easy as (apple? cherry?) pie for you, then you can feel all superior and happy, and that's okay, too!

A note about my recording studio: It does include a few of the "standards", such as camera, tripod, external mic, and 3 separate lights in reflectors with alligator clips so I can move them around and point them wherever. But when I record, I'm standing at the foot of my bed, back to one wall or another, with way insufficient room to set things up "right".

It won't win any Oscars...but it's a start.

Thanks for reading,

Ghost32