video blogging

earlier this year on 23rd May I went to Gallipoli & ANZAC Cove in Turkey, so this is a collage of some of the video clips taken that day. in Australia & other Commonwealth countries, Rememberance Day is on 11th November. as I'll probably be overseas for that day, I made this video in advance.

it was interesting to see Gallipoli and to hear and read the stories of the ANZAC battles from the Turkish perspectives, as I'd only heard the Australian stories previously. as the Turks won this battle, they celebrate the day as we remember ANZAC Day on 25th April each year. their battles were led by Mustafa Kemal who later went on to become Ataturk - "Father of the Turks" - founder of the Turkish Republic and its first President - the fall of the Ottoman Empire happened after this battle, and many of the famous quotes of his arose from this period also. so when I was there, I thought of the ANZACs who'd lost their lives - partly in the name of modern Turkey. amazing to think what could have happened if the tide hadn't washed their boats onto the wrong part of beach and they had been able to climb the hills over the gradual slope. also I noticed how many red poppies there are in the area! I'm not sure if they were there back in WWI too or if they've been planted in the peninsular by the various commemorative groups.

the song is "Ever so lonely / Eyes / Ocean" by Sheila Chandra on her "Moonsung: A Real World Retrospective" album - I thought this song was apt as perhaps the soldiers felt lonely fighting by the ocean/sea in a far away country. plus it's a beautiful song, and once again it was exactly the right duration (strangely this happens often)

the video is made using Isadora - using multiple players and an image tile - .izz file attached

VloMo08 - day # 2

http://www.aliak.com/content/vlomo08-day2-gallipoli-rememberance-day

visit http://mefeedia.com/channels/vlomo08 to see other people's videos

02/11/2008

http://blip.tv/file/1420485

http://vimeo.com/2140499

this is a short video taken out the window on the train last night. the people are reflections of themselves as seen from my side of the train, and they become combined with the lights and suburbs outside the train as we move past the stations.

I made the patch for the effects on the lights & speed of the video in Isadora (attached)

the song is "In Reverse Order" by Neotropic from her "La Prochaine Fois" album - it was exactly the right duration and the name of the song matches the video as the people and lights are in reverse

VloMo08 - day #1 video 2

visit http://mefeedia.com/channels/vlomo08 to see other people's videos

http://vimeo.com/2140331

http://blip.tv/file/1420154

VloMo08 - Videoblogging Month 2008 has started now that November is here. People from around the world are posting videos on the VloMo08 site

my first post this month is the Strawberry Fields Strawberry looking for lost clubs in the Valley video - it was filmed in Brisbane whilst I was on holidays there on 09/10/2008, but I think it's a nice way to start VloMo08.

http://blip.tv/file/1417068

a quick spur of the moment video since there was a strawberry in the Valley. it made an appearance at the Reunion party with Vision Four 5

zzz33333's video on Humanity is NOT a virus - complete with The Matrix (movie) references :)

and the links he posts in another video @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB0PNQlc5OU

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READ THIS!

Ishmael and others by Daniel Quinn

READ ISHMAEL

ISHMAEL BY DANIEL QUINN

EVERYONE READ ISHMAEL!

Endgame and others by Derrick Jensen
Against Civilization and others by John Zerzan
The Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tse
White Noise by Don Delillo
Demian by Hermann Hesse
In the Absence of the Sacred by Jerry Mander
WATCH THIS NOW:

http://www.archive.org/details/PhilosopherSeed-DerrickJensenEndgamePartO...

PART 2:

Click To Play

Watch the video

it snowed in Jerusalem for a couple of days. the first day many of the roads were closed. the stores close - the city shuts down. my workplace was closed for both days (so a long weekend for some!). the second day by mid morning the sun was out and sky was blue.

snow in the middle east! lots of fun!

the music is "Snow" by Severed Heads off the Gigapus album
http://www.sevcom.com/

30-31/01/2008, jerusalem, israel

http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-jerusalemSnow649.flv
http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-jerusalemSnow649.mp4
http://blip.tv/file/651524

I need to make a drupal module to store / manage my video files - fields such as :
filename
date
location
subject
url01
url02
project used in
file path
version
movie format
original
camera
archived
archive location
backup drive
backup path

+ more as I think of them

attached is a text version - there's some missing as I had to delete some files from my backup drive to save space. so they'll need to be added once I find the box the dvd is stored in back in sydney (whenever that may be!) some have been lost as a backup drive I used in Auckland has broken :(

online video editing sites

Andrew Garton's posted a question asking for recommendations for online video editing systems. I did a quick google search & asked on the videoblogging list. making a list below (& replied to his post) for reference :

(read more)

I'm back in Auckland again for work, and have been catching up on emails over the Easter weekend break. A couple of emails to the Sarai reader list have led me to read about workers in Gurgaon (an industrial city with many call centres near Delhi) and watch videos from Indian women in villages producing their own video magazines.

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The first email was a blog post by Shivam Vij called "Who is a Bairagi?" asking questions about OBC (other backward classes) in India and do people there really know who these people are and how they live. The post was from a journalist who sometimes writes for Tehelka (the people's paper). The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) has lists of names / castes for people classified as OBC. The Delhi list can be found here and full list for Indian regions found here. There's even a Questionnaire for consideration of requests for Inclusion and complaints of Under-Inclusion of backward classes in Central list - criteria such as Social, Economic and Educational.

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Another email to sarai reader list highlighted a new law resource in India - Between Law and Justice: A Law and Society Reader, a DVD database with (so far) over 400 articles on topics such as :

1. Legal histories
Colonial
Postcolonial
2. Constitutional promises and perils
3. Siting struggles: human rights and social justice
4. Roti, kapadda aur makaan: law, livelihood and development
5. Supreme, yet fallible
6. Crime and punishment
7. Access to justice
8. Citizens/denizens
9. Edge of desire: law, gender and sexuality
10. In a minority
11. Green justice
12. Media law & free speech
13. Governance
14. Life of law amidst globalisation
15. Legal education
16. Interdisciplinary challenges
17. International law

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Another email was a promo for a new documentary :

"INDIA UNTOUCHED - Stories of a People Apart" is a new documentary directed by Stalin K. and produced by Drishti. Drishti is a a collective of film & documentary makers in India.

Video Volunteers is part of the Creative Visions foundation and aims to setup Community Video Units and train local Community Video Producers to produce video magazines based on local issues which are screened monthly in 25 villages reaching more than 10000 people in these communities. Members of the communities speak about what matters to them and the CVU allows them to have a voice which is then shared with other members of the community.

http://videovolunteers.org/
http://videovolunteers.org/videogallery.php - to view the videos

India's Frontline magazine has a story about Video Volunteers.

http://videovolunteers.org/video_change.php
[quote]
The impact of social change media

Video empowers the poor with leadership and critical thinking skills and makes them partners in the development process. Even non-literates can learn to make videos in a matter of months. Here are some success stories from NGOs around the world:

* Bangladesh: Village women submitted video testimonies of the domestic abuse they have suffered and avoided intimidation in the village court.
* India: Rickshaw drivers made articulate video pleas that convinced local banks to give them loans for the first time.
* Mexico: Merely the site of a camera and fear of being caught caused police to withdraw from an illegal raid in Chiapas.
* Nigeria: A cholera outbreak was less severe in villages where a video on clean water was shown.
* Egypt: A group of women abandoned the practice of genital mutilation when they heard the call for change from community members' video interviews.
[/quote]

Other related organisations helping to teach people video making skills in India are :

Barefoot Workshops, a not-for-profit media and music based educational organization where adults and youth are taught video, photography, music, and art as a way to document their surroundings, make change in the world, and most importantly, make change within themselves.

Velugu is the largest poverty project in the state working in over 860 mandals in 22 districts and aims to reach 29 lakhs (1 lakh = 100 000) of the poorest of rural poor. Velugu enhances the poor's capacities to manage their resources and helps access public services. SERP's uniqueness is in the blend of professionals and trained activists working at the grassroots. SERP has committed professionals, Community Coordinators who are working with the poor communities. It also creates the necessary critical mass by building the social capital through facilitating the identification of community activists and trains them as barefoot professionals, as paravets, botanists, social activists etc. This cadre of rural development professionals are managed by the mandal federations.

Creative Visions - The Creative Visions Foundation was inspired by the life of Dan Eldon -- artist, adventurer and activist - who was killed in 1993 while covering the conflict in Somalia as a photojournalist for Reuters News Agency. He was 22. Founded by his family and friends, CVF is a publicly supported 501 (c) (3) organization that supports "creative activists" like Dan -- social entrepreneurs who use media, technology and the arts to create awareness of environmental, social or humanitarian issues -- and inspire positive change.

last year I was asked (albeit last minute!) if I'd like to contribute to a book tentatively called Videoblogging Hacks so I wrote up the following rather quickly and sent it off. I'd been playing with creating html links and href tracks previously and I think I'd mentioned it on the videoblogging yahoogroups list. anyway, the book was published and is now available from various online stores.

the book is called Videoblogging and the authors names are Jay Dedman, Joshua Paul. I received a copy and had a quick look through it on my last trip home to Sydney - it's a very throrough book! so grab a copy if you get the chance.

my section was cut/edited quite a bit. I was surprised it made it all. so below is what I sent through - I need to find the images and post/links them also. it's a useful reference for me also, but most of the info below is already available on the internet.

I did find it hard to locate information at the time, so this was a way of bringing it altogether in one place as a reference.

attached are the doc and rtf versions - hopefully the images show up in them. I can't see them here on the mac but perhaps I don't have the correct viewer installed.

there's a couple of other good books on videoblogging also along with the one mentioned above :

Videoblogging by Jay Dedman, Joshua Paul

Secrets of Videoblogging by Michael Verdi, Ryanne Hodson, Diana Weynand, and Shirley Craig
( this one's available on safari techbooks online if you have a login there )

Videobloggin g for Dummies by Stephanie Cottrell Bryant

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Creating Clickable Hyperlinks in QuickTime video movies.
-- Kath O'Donnell

Everybody knows that html links, or hyperlinks make the internet go 'round. Wouldn't it be cool to include clickable links in the video files you create and publish also. Think of the possibilities! Depending on what your video content is, the links could enhance the viewers experience whilst watching your video and allow them to gain more information or visit your homepage once they've finished watching your video. Clickable links turn your video file into an interactive video.

Including hyperlinks in your video using Quicktime is a simple step involving adding a text track and HREF codes or adding a HREFTrack, but surprisingly few people use this feature. More advanced options include being able to display the clicked link into specified html frames or windows, or even sending JavaScript code or parameters to JavaScript scripts on your website. SMIL movie files can also be used to create links, though if you decide to use this method, you need to be aware of the different ways SMIL files can be played on a computer ie it may be played in a non-QuickTime Player so could behave differently to what you expect. For this reason, this guide concentrates on creating clickable links using text tracks in QuickTime PRO.