I had a week off so I did fun stuff across the Central Coast. Fun, food, family, and sun.
Oh, and this is also the 100th blog post on jesseluna.com (formerly Build Your Fan Base). Thanks for tuning in!
I used Animoto.com to create this video then I downloaded it and posted it to YouTube.
I love promoting awesome people, great causes, events, and organizations/businesses that are doing interesting things. My favorite tech tool to help me do this is the Apple iPhone 3Gs.
There’s a reason the iPhone 3Gs is such a hot seller, it is a mobile promotion machine. I use it to check email on the road or at home when away from my laptop. I use it to take pictures that I post to my Twitter and Facebook status feeds and to various blogs. The built in video allows me to post to my YouTube Channel, post via email to my Posterous account, send short videos via 12seconds.tv, and to live stream using Qik.com and UStream. With this single tool, I can immediately share what’s going on with my life or at an event.
Here’s an example of how I used my iPhone for shameless self-promotion. A couple of months back, I noticed Nancy Rodriguez’s Twitter update where she mentioned that she and the crew from Q1047, the local Hip-Hop and R&B station, where going to be live broadcasting from a nearby McDonald’s. It was around 7am so I grabbed a fast shower then zoomed over to McDees. I had chatted with Nancy before via Twitter so it was great meeting her and the rest of the Rico and Mambo show. I took a couple of photos of them in action, posted the pictures to Twitpic and Twitter, spoke to Nancy, then headed back to go home.
Now, I’ve been listening to Q1047 since I moved to Ventura County and it’s my favorite station. So I was glad to post pictures and tweet about them on Twitter. But as I headed back to the car I realized that I could have plugged my new online blogging course. So I decided to grow a sack and went back to ask Nancy to send a shoutout to my BuildYourFanBase.com readers and she kindly did so.
Fifteen minutes after I left the live broadcast, I had uploaded the video shoutout to YouTube and had already tweeted out a link to my blog post on the event. Minutes later Nancy retweeted the link and gave my blog and new blog class an on-air shoutout.
Now that’s promotion at the speed of light!
Do you have any other mobile promotion tech tools that you swear by?
YouTube allows you to create a custom video player but the process doesn’t include an easy way to set the player size. I’ll show you how to do both.
Create the custom player
You can create a custom player by logging into your YouTube account then selecting “Account” link next to your user name at the top right of the page.
From the Account page, click on the “Custom Video Players” link under the “More” column.
Click on the Create Custom Player button, add the player name and description, select the layout, then select the video(s) you want to include. If you want to create a player for only one video or for a specific group then you can save what you have at this point and create a Playlist with those videos. Otherwise, select the video(s) that you want to include in this player.
Click on the “Select” button once you selected the videos(s) to include in the player.
Once things look good, click on the “Generate Code” button then you’ll see the Embed Code box with the HTML code in it.
At the time of this post, the default player size is 416 by 337 pixels. You probably noticed that the Create a Custom Player process never allowed you to set the player size. I’ll show you how to edit the code so you can get the right player size.
Edit the Embed Code
Copy the Embed Code and paste it into a Notepad or Text file for now. Now, we’re going to change four parts of that code, the two “width” and two “height” parameters which are both 416 by 337 respectively.
To avoid strenuous math at this point, I included a data table that has the width and height at different percentages of the original player size. So if you want the player to be around 300 pixels wide, you’ll need to set the height to be around 240 pixels, based on the chart below.
| Player Parameters | ||
| Width | Height | Percentage |
| 125 | 101 | 30 |
| 146 | 118 | 35 |
| 166 | 135 | 40 |
| 187 | 152 | 45 |
| 208 | 169 | 50 |
| 250 | 202 | 60 |
| 270 | 219 | 65 |
| 291 | 236 | 70 |
| 312 | 253 | 75 |
| 354 | 286 | 85 |
| 374 | 303 | 90 |
| 395 | 320 | 95 |
| 416 | 337 | 100 |
| 437 | 354 | 105 |
| 458 | 371 | 110 |
| 478 | 388 | 115 |
| 499 | 404 | 120 |
| 520 | 421 | 125 |
| 541 | 438 | 130 |
| 562 | 455 | 135 |
| 582 | 472 | 140 |
| 603 | 489 | 145 |
| 624 | 506 | 150 |
Final Steps
Now that you have the desired width and height, change those values in the Embed Code then add the entire code to your blog. If it doesn’t fit correctly, revisit the table above and find a combination that works for you.
You just learned how to create and resize a custom YouTube Player!
The best way to customize your YouTube Channel is to do the following:
* Plan out your channel’s color scheme
* Set your channel’s color options
* Design a custom background to showcase your channel
Let’s jump right into the first phase.
If you are setting up a channel for an existing organization or business then you should use your business’s color scheme. If your business uses orange and red in its colors then your channel should use orange and red. It’s a branding thing.
The same thing applies to individuals. If you have a consistent blog, Twitter background, or MySpace design then you should keep things consistent.
But, if you are starting from scratch then you can build your design from anything. You can build off your favorite picture or logo or avatar then choose to use those related colors. YouTube has a basic color scheme palette which you can test out. We’ll get into the actual choosing part in the next section of this post.
HOT DESIGN TIP: Whenever I’m totally lost on a new design, I start looking at movie DVD cover art to get some ideas. It helps me match up a feeling to a design. For example, if you are looking for a design that is dark, sleek, and techie-looking, then check out The Matrix DVD cover.
Now that you have a color scheme in mind, we can dive into the YouTube settings and start to test things out.
To access the YouTube channel settings:
The last thing you need to do to *bling* out your YouTube channel is to create a custom background.
There are three things that we want to accomplish with our design:
* We want to make sure our background matches the theme settings we just did in Section #2 above.
* We want to plan a design that works around the main video panel.
* Lastly, we want to add custom brand elements to the design.
Note: There are dozens of ways to accomplish the following design steps, but the ins and outs of using specific design tools (like Photoshop) are not something I want to cover here. I’ll keep things general so that you can accomplish them with any suitable tool, but will focus on the process and main elements.
To meet the design needs, I created a template guide that set off the main video panel, added a focus design area just to the left of the video panel, and made the total background image size large enough to be viewed on larger monitors.
Here are the specifications:
This is where we are so far:
And this is what things would look like if we stopped right here. I zoomed way out on the browser to demonstrate the entire design.
If you were looking for a simple black background with a gray frame around the video panel then you would be done, after removing the guidelines of course. You can download this stage of the background file here in .png format.
But we want to move on with this design and add some branding. I’m going to add in a picture of me and my name, similar to the style of jesseluna.com.
Quick Note: Keep in mind that the background file size cannot exceed 256KB. If you try to upload a file size larger than that, the change will not “take.”
As you do your design, you can upload versions to YouTube (keeping in mind how we navigated to the Advanced themes section described above) and do some testing.
I did some testing and realized that the left border on left hand side of the video panel, takes up too much precious real estate. I’m going to reclaim the majority of that border space and leave the border on the right side. I’m also going to add a picture of my Lab, Ivory, so she can keep me company.
This is what things look like now, after I uploaded the background image:
After I uploaded this last background image I made a few more changes to the channel colors and now I’m happy with the overall design.
There’s certainly more that I could do here but then I’d never finish this post!
To see other cool examples for of *blinged* out YouTube Channels, visit:
Hopefully this will help you navigate some of the “wonky” YouTube set up flow and help you create a killer YouTube channel.
Animoto, the video creation company, has an iPhone application that allows you to create a video out of pictures on your iPhone. The iPhone version requires at least five images and an audio selection from the Animoto library then you are all ready to create the new video.
The iPhone application gives you the option of creating a 30-second or a Full-Length video. The 30-second video is free but does not allow you to include video snippets or post it to YouTube. I didn’t try the Full-Length video so I’m not sure if those features do show up there.
Unfortunately, the video you create on the iPhone does not show up on the regular Animoto.com web site under your account. They have a message saying that developers are hard at work on that.
Besides these minor limitations, the free Animoto iPhone app is easy to use and makes a great dynamic video.
Some great uses:
1) Great for photographers who want another way of presenting their photos
2) Realtors could snap a few pictures, add music, and create a great video for a home listing -ON LOCATION
3) Great for sharing pics from any event. You’ll be able to share something much sooner than by uploading and tagging pictures via Flickr
4) Mix in pictures of a loved one and a message then send it to them for their birthday. A nice surprise!
5) Great quick way to share the happenings at a political rally to keep people engaged.
The following video was created using the iPhone application and pictures I took on my trip to Denver. I used the “share” feature, emailed the resulting link to my email address, ran the video then used the embed code to place it on this post. Enjoy!
If you like this post you should totally either subscribe to the RSS feed, sign up for the email version, or leave me a juicy Comment below.
By John W. Bosley
Imagine a mystical land with a stream called, “Indie”. Fish are traveling in this stream heading to a bigger stream called, “Main Stream”. There’s salmon, trout, perch, and many others. Some are exotic fish, others are fairly plain. All the fish have one goal in mind: to reach the “Main Stream”. If they do not reach the “Main Stream”, the fish die or grow weak with hunger.
As all these fish travel to the end of their journey they suddenly run head long into this large monstrosity…a dam the size of the Hoover Dam!…
Right at the point where “Indie” dumps into “Main Stream” this dam stands like a fortress to hold back those who would dare to come in. This dam has been there for years. It’s not made with precision, but by circumstances. Sometimes it’s technology, or lack of funding. Other times, like in the present it is “too-much-content”, or not enough distribution companies. But for whatever reason, this dam stands in the way to forbid anyone from entering the “Main Stream”.
In frantic panic all these fish dart back and forth to find a way out. Some think in their craziness that if they just follow all the right directions and do what “experts“ tell them they‘ll be ok.
But suddenly one or two of the salmon decide to do a crazy stunt…. They back up and charge at the dam, then, just as they come close, they leap high in the air, trying to jump the dam…. Sadly, many of the salmon who try to escape… die. But a few make it over and find safety in the “Main Stream”.
So why did I tell this obvious tale about film distribution and relate it to fish in a stream? To answer some of the reactions to a quote in one of my press releases:
The system in many ways has always been broken because it is flawed. The film business maybe one of the most competitive businesses out there. Only so much content can truly be seen, and now, too much content is creating a serious problem. It’s an issue of supply and demand. There aren’t enough indie distributors out there and “everybody and their brother” who has a camera is calling themselves a filmmaker. Only the strongest will survive.
Is it possible that a really great story could be buried forever by the sheer amount of independent films that are out there? Yes. Any film, studio backed or completely independent runs the risk of being “un-noticed”. Why do you think that marketing is so important? Has it potentially happened before? Yes. Remember this film in 1977 called “Star Wars“? Lucas brought this script around to every executive in the business to get someone to fund it, but nobody could understand the complexity of the story until one executive took a risk on Lucas. Lucas‘ persistence, probably almost to the level of annoyance, paid off.. and it ends up being one of the most lucrative story ideas ever.
I have decided to be one of the crazy “salmon” in my little tale I told of the streams. I have and will continue to try unconvential routes to reach out to my audience. I will not back down from my pursuit of reaching as many audience members as possible and give them a chance to see the story of “Amnesia”
The Amnesia Movie Poster Contest and Rebfest are both ways in which I am reaching out to my audience in a personal way.
RebFest is about emerging talent, which I am concerned has been pushed aside and not celebrated enough. RebFest was actually conceived because of many filmmakers on Twitter and the realization that what WAS working is NOT working any more. (I would go into more detail, but I don’t have enough space.)
For me, the reason for making “Amnesia” changed from when I started on the project. “Amnesia” has become one of the most important projects that I will ever do. I have become extremely loyal to making sure as many people as possible hear about this film and can watch it. Anyone who has seriously sat down and watch the film, allowing the story to influence them, realizes that the story, message and relevance that is has to our present time is extremely important. I believe that “Amnesia” may possibly be one of the most important stories of this decade, that is why I don’t back down!
The “Allan Carter Saga Part I: ‘amnesia’” is being showcased at http://www.rebfest.com March29th – April 3rd.