Founder of the Social Media Escape Club
From Kottke:
Many think some people are special but usually those people just put a lot more time in it than others. This applies to sports, arts, almost everything. It’s worth doing something for a long time, even if the benefits are not always clear. Good surprising things come out of it. You also learn about yourself in the process.
Made another Bandcamp Roulette. Still messing up (note the right side screen clip doesn’t take up its full space), but that’s how we learn, right? Also need to figure out an audio ducking solution. Right now all the audio gets recorded into ScreenFlow, while the video of me is recorded using an iPhone. Separating those two channels of audio is easy, but its getting them in sync in post production that’s the hard part.
My first Bandcamp Roulette in awhile. My roomie watched the series for the first time recently, and said she thought it was great, and of course that was the kick in the pants I needed to make a new episode. OUTSIDE VALIDATION. I need to remember to make these things for me, and to keep discovering fun new music.
Still trying to fine tune my process. I used to sync iPhone video (w/ audio) with screen capture of the Bandcamp slider for the first part of the video, then make another video using the same set up, but screen capturing a different section of the Bandcamp website. As you can imagine that got a bit tedious, more moving parts, more room for error.
Now I just capture the full Bandcamp website and zoom in on relevant sections during post production. More editing, but I like being able to shoot it all in one take, which I think keeps thing more spontaneous.
My video editor of choice is Telestream’s Screen Flow, which I’ve been using since my Skull Toaster days, as you can see in this post from 2018:
2352: MOMENT OF METAL #262: Thinking I should start a HEAVY METAL HELPLINE, but then remembered it'd just be this 24/7. pic.twitter.com/1JsMVGhgNA
— SKULL TOASTER (@skulltoaster) January 12, 2018
At the time iMovie just wasn’t working for me, and though I’ve used Final Cut Pro before, it seemed like overkill for what I was trying to do (as you can see above). I stumbled upon Screen Flow from a software bundle pack and I’ve been using it ever since. There’s a learning curve for sure, but once you figure it out you’ll be making videos in no time.
I’ve told lots of friends to “just start,” and how episode 10 will be better than episode one, and on and on. One of these days I’ll believe that for myself, and my own work, but this the struggle, I suppose.
Thinking out loud here – I’ve been doing video on and off since 2006, never really committing at any one point. Not to say I want to build a YOUTUBE CHANNEL and have a million subscribers. Hell, I don’t know what I want. I’m 44, and have done a lot of shit over the years. Sometimes I feel like I’m just running into walls with stuff, and still trying to make heads of tails of anything at all.
What? How? Is this even real?
Really enjoyed IGORRR’s 2017 album ‘Savage Sinusoid,’ but haven’t been keeping up, but really stoked I stumbled upon this clip. This song is from a new album, ‘Spirituality and Distortion,’ due out in March.
It’s video likes this that push me forward. With all the ills of this world, the strife and turmoil and impending supernova of Betelgeuse (maybe?), music is as important as ever. Getting a bunch of people into a practice space, or sending MP3 files back and forth over the internet to make music like… this?
Yes, why not?
Sure, the “Shot on iPhone 11 Pro” got me to click play, but wow, this is so well done I cried at least twice.
Holy heck this video makes me want to start a podcast again, for the 100th time. Seriously, this looks so damn good.
I think I’m okay at building newsletters, because they’re very direct. I created the Skull Toaster email newsletter because it gave the answers to the metal trivia I posted everyday on Twitter and Instagram.
The Metal Bandcamp Gift Club newsletter gets sent out when someone has a birthday, and it links to their Bandcamp Wishlist.
Both of these newsletters serve a purpose. Want answers to metal trivia? Yes? Subscribe here. Want to help support music and labels? Yeah? Click here. Boom.
Podcasts, though, have eluded me. I did one called the Workbench Podcast with my pal Bill Meis for awhile, and Metal Minute (a sort of parody metal news show), but haven’t really done anything since.
Been having so many talks about negative self with friends and pals lately.
We have no issue accepting horrible bosses and big jerks, but we issues with accepting graceful, kind people. If they exist in our lives, they can exist as bosses, and colleagues, and partners, and people in our lives.
Keep moving in the direction of the good things you want, and stop accepting jerk behaviors as truth, as gospel.
Seldom does a band just randomly following me on Instagram or Twitter catch my attention, but this sure did.
“Rent a space, greenscreen it, use stock video” THEY SAID. “Build it all in my house by hand” CLYDE SAID. – Instagram
Go follow that Instagram link, seriously.
That’s what I love about the creative spirit. It makes no sense on paper to build a space ship, or a cubicle set, or a waiting room, in your HOUSE. But the creative energy takes hold and you make a video and it has 10,000 views in less than a month.
The band is Tides of Man, and they’re touring the US now. I wonder how many people discovered the band this same way, because of this music video?
I’ve been saying for awhile to other creative folks, “just put stuff out there.” Do it consistently, do it often, and keep doing it.
Lately I’ve been eating my own dog food, and making these daily videos, which I also convert into a podcast (on Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud). I’ve found that just hitting record is the best way to do things, and not waiting for the lightning bolt of inspiration to hit.
Is it perfect? Not a chance, but this is just video #10, and I’m doing this in real time, testing and trying new things right before your eyes, so maybe you can learn along with me.
Since I’ve been working on this, and spreading my daily Good Vibes, I’ve gotten more messages and notes and DMs then when I wasn’t doing this sort of thing, so in that sense it’s working, and by working I just mean I get to talk to more pals everyday which means I love it.