Dutchvlog - "Mobile Suica"

Tja, het is een beetje stilletjes geweest rond Dutchvlog in de maand april. Dat is jammer want we waren weer lekker op gang met de TN&NM - Tech News en New Media - show en wat nieuw tutorials. De stilte heeft een aantal oorzaken. Ten eerste hadden we begin april 'serious system failure' waardoor we een weekje niets konden doen en vervolgens een computer met een lege harde schijf van de monteur teruggekregen. Ten derde hebben we de eerste problemen meteen aangegrepen om onze systemen te verbeteren met het toevoegen van een High Def montage systeem uitgerust met een harde schijf die NOOIT uit kan vallen. Er komt nog bij dat wij het druk hebben met opdrachten voor Deepstream.nl New Media onze videoproductiebedrijf. Dus zoals je ziet komen we even handen tekort.

Over een weekje zullen wij weer gaan publiceren, allereerst met de laatste deel van TN&NM - Welke Video Host en vanzelfsprekend komen er nog wat tutorials aan.

Ondertussen wil ik graag een juweel van een vlogje met je delen; zo een die je toevallig tegenkomt in een nachtelijk surfaanval. Kage uit Japan laat ons zien hoe hij een frisdrank uit een automaat besteld en dan meteen betaald met zijn mobile telefoon gebruikmakend van het al in 2001 geintroduceerde Suica ( Super Urban Intelligent Card ) systeem. Kort, helder en echt mooi gedaan. I love this type of media!

Dutchvlog Tutorial # 15 - Compressie met Quick Time Pro

Click to play Quick Time Click to play FlashClick to play WMV

De eerste demonstratie van een Quick Time movie op een computer was alweer 17 jaar geleden in 1991. Quick Time is de verzamelnaam van de multimedia architecture van Apple waar de webbrowser plugin, en de media player onder vallen. Inmiddels is Quick Time een van de meest gebruikte video types op internet. Na het oorspronkelijk .mov type zijn er inmiddels veel meer typen verschenen die op een andere manier worden gecomprimeerd. Het maakt hoge kwaliteit videobestanden die verrassend klein zijn en goed via internet kunnen worden getransporteerd. Het is bovendien nu ook voor Windows computers beschikbaar.

Het exporteren van een Quick Time Movie direct vanuit je montagesoftware levert vaak een teleurstellend resultaat op tenzij je de meest recente professioneel gereedschap hebt. Vaak is een plugin of een extra stuk gereedschap nodig om de gewenste resultaat te bereiken. In dit tutorial gaan we op een PC click voor click een dv avi bestand comprimeren met de H264 codec met de Quick Time Pro software van Apple om een .mov bestand te maken.

Meer Gratis video tutorials bij www.dutchvlog.nl

Dutchvlog - Beter video Maken - Basisuitrusting

Click to play QT Click to play Flash Click to play WMV

De tweede webisode in de serie Beter Video Maken gaat in op de minimale basisuitrusting van de videoproducer. Zoals bekend heeft Dutchvlog een hekel aan geld uitgeven! Met digital video is het ook niet meer nodig! Met een DVcam en een PC kan je nu de kwaliteit van een grote filmproductie van 20 jaar geleden makkelijk evenaren mits je een paar basis principes onder de knie hebt. Buiten je PC en je Dvcam kan je al met een paar honderd euro de kwalitiet van jouw video oppeppen tot profi proporties.
Als jouw kijkers zich niet hoeven storen aan slechte techniek, hebben ze meer oog voor de inhoud van jouw werk en daar gaat het uiteindelijk om? Wij beginnen bij wat je nodig hebt om te vloggen en kijken hoe je heel eenvoudig je mogelijkheden verder kunt uitbreiden. Vanzelfsprekend vind je alles hierover - en nog veel meer bij www.dutchvlog.nl

Dutchvlog - TN&NM-Welke Video Host ? #2

Click to play QT
Click to play WMV
Click to play Flash

Tech News en New Media #2 - Welke Host #2 - JumpCut & Stage 6

In de tweede webisode van de miniserie kijken we naar de twee video hosts JumpCut en Stage 6. JumpCut is een klein host van Yahoo die het monteren en uploaden van je clips, en foto's niet alleen makkelijk maar ook lollig maakt. Je hoeft niet een zelf montage software op je pc te hebben, je kan gewoon online monteren met de online editor. JumpCut is uitstekend geschikt voor de beginner of degene die geen zin heeft in moeilijk gedoe,
Het kijken naar Stage 6, een bijzonder host van DivX.Inc, hebben wij naar voren gebracht ter ere van zijn opheffing!? Het is 28 februari jl van de lucht gehaald.
Met de HD markt nog in rep en roer over de dood van HD DVD is het opmerkelijk en jammer dat zo een veelbelovend host, specifiek bedoeld voor HD DivX plotseling uit beeld verdwijnt. Dutchvlog was net op tijd bij om de laatste dagen vast te leggen voor dat het voor goed verdween.

Vanzelfsprekend zijn alle relevant en informatieve links gepost bij Dutchvlog - Links en Tools

Dutchvlog - TN&NM - Welke Video Host ? #1

Click to play QT
Bekijk de webcast Full Screen - Click to play Flash
Click to play wmv


Dutchvlog TN & NM - Tech Nieuws en New Media

Internet wordt steeds sneller en de manier waarop nieuws en nieuwe technologie om zich heen grijpt dus ook. Web 2.0 heeft zich al genesteld in onze dagelijkse leven en biedt ons duizelingwekkend mogelijkheden om van alles te doen; produceren, publiceren, communiceren, gezamenlijk iets bouwen - het gaat maar door. Het leven zonder New Media is al haast ondenkbaar.
Gelukkig hoef je al dat vernuftige pret allemaal niet zelf te zoeken of bij te houden want Dutchvlog doet dat nu voor je in de nieuwe webcast - Tech Nieuws en New Media.

Welke video Host # 1 - blip.tv en YouTube

De wazig, haperende Quick Time en Flash video's en de lange download en buffer tijden zijn haast ongemerkt tot het verleden gaan behoren. Er doet ook een gerucht de ronde dat internet video "is here to stay. "
Een steeds groter wordende deel van de wereld is aangesloten op breedband en zit lekker voor de computer internet video te bekijken in plaats van voor de buis. In een hysterisch gegrabbel om het succes van YouTube en de bijhorende financiële vruchten na te apen zijn in de afgelopen half jaar ontelbaar gratis video hosting sites als paddestoelen op het web verschenen. De meeste zijn om te huilen maar er zit ook wel een aardige tussen
Dutchvlog heeft een beetje rondgesnuffeld en is enkele sites tegengekomen die iets bijzonders te bieden hebben. In een serie van drie webcasts worden zijn bevindingen uit de doeken gedaan. We beginnen alvast met twee van de grootste en compleet tegenovergestelde marktleiders YouTube en blip.tv

Dutchvlog - Beter Video Maken - Turbo Intro

Click To Play QT (iPod compat)

Click To Play Flash flv

This is a bilingual post. The clip is in Dutch and the text is obviously in English. The Dutchvlog video blog has a sister site www.dutchvlog.nl (in the Dutch language) intended to provide tips, news and information about all aspects of online video and videoblogging. It has recently added a number of new pages including The Best Web Shows - Links and Tools (still under construction) and How to make better Video. The clip above is an introduction to the new series "How to make better video" in an attempt contribute to a better general quality of online video. The pages will be complemented with new, informative clips on a regular basis and the updates will be announced on the Dutchvlog.nl homepage. Finally, if you don't speak Dutch…..learn it!

Dutchvlog - The Dutch Bang into 2008

Click To Play Quick Time (iPod compat.)

Alternative Format
Click To Play (Flash Video)

Dutchvlog - Autumn Palette

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This is but a fragment of my autumn in town and country

Alternative Formats Available

Flash Video (.flv)

Click To Play

Internet People by Dan Meth

Internet People is yet another entertaining indication of how much the viewing culture, in the broadest sense, is developing. A computer illiterate TV addict would have absolutely no idea what this is about! Dan Meth, of the animation studio www.methminute.com produced both the animation and the song. He is obviously completely and passionately involved with new media. It was posted at every conceivable popular host and within days it had been watched more than 15 million times and is now probably the most watched animation on internet - not on tv. Each viewer made that conscious click!

This bubbling production centres around many of the popular video bloggers around the world - the true internet people. It includes Ask a Ninja, ZeFrank, Lonely Girl, Geriatric 1927, Rocketboom to name but a very few and many of which could have been found in my Vlogroll - literally for years
The new online culture is progressively distancing itself further from the mainstream in its powerful advance and shows that age, colour, creed or culture are no impediment to be a successful videoblogger.

It also shows how painfully far the Netherlands is lagging behind in the use of new media despite its high broadband connection density and superb infrastructure. Here in general, it has not progressed beyond posting abusive or "Donald Duck" media on YouTube. I sadly suspect that the Esmee Denters syndrome is merely incidental!

Hey Dan thanks for letting me share …..good on ya mate!!

Dutchvlog - Shakespeare in Diever

Formats available: Click to Play (98Mb) Quick Time

Click To Play (56Mb) WMV

Click To Play Flash Video

The Vlogumentary

Yes - All the world is a stage, but some places are more a stage than others, ay, there's the rub; and Diever is without question one of these places.
This small hamlet of scarcely 2200 inhabitants produces a Shakespeare play in Dutch once a year and has been doing so since 1946 when Midsummer Night's Dream was staged for the first time. Now, sixty one years later, enthusiasts from all over Holland and beyond converge on the open air theatre in the forest just outside the village. This year the staging of the romantic comedy, As You Like It, pulled a full house at every performance.

Jack Nieborg is the third resident director of the theatre. He is responsible for the monumental task of translating the plays into Dutch. With the Arden Editions as his blueprint, and whilst remaining close to the original plot, many of the Shakespearean metaphors and allusions are transformed into a more contemporary form. He is however surprisingly successful in retaining much of the entertaining Shakespearean linguistic dexterity so unique to the genre. It remains unmistakably Shakespearean.
In March of every year the first creative meetings take place. During the course of the next four months the creative teams develop and refine all aspects of the production. At the end of July the dressed rehearsals are staged. The cast consists of the local farmer, the baker and the candlestick maker and provide an extraordinarily professional and entertaining performance throughout the months of August and September.

It remains a mystery to me to see how such a small hamlet can produce such spectacular performances. It must be the firm foundation of community spirit, commitment and above all the love and enthusiasm for the magic of Shakespearean theatre. There are only three theatres in the world permitted to fly the Stratford flag - and Diever is one of them. In one word - brilliant!




Links
Shakespeare Theatre Diever - Home page
Cast -As you like it
Wiki - As you like it
Tourist information Diever

Herman Broodplein Amsterdam

Click for video

When one has lived in a city as long as I have in Amsterdam the familiar love-hate relationship starts to creep up on you unnoticed with the passage of time. The city is presently executing the mother of all redevelopment's around the central station area. Although one understands that a city is a constantly changing organism and that sometimes major surgery has to take place it does not make the prolonged chaos and disruption any easier to bear.

But at long last small parts of the redevelopment are coming to conclusion, showing that the years of mess and noise are perhaps worth the wait. Part of the new Amsterdam Central Library - OBA - was opened to the public last week. The new library certainly is worth it. No expense or effort has been spared to create a cultural palace of note.
A new reading area has been created in the art and music section and has been dedicated to the late Herman Brood - a fitting tribute to one of Amsterdam's most turbulent and sensational eccentrics. On the 11th of July the Herman Broodplein was officially opened by his daughter Holly and his widow Xandra.

Formats available:
Windows Media (.wmv)
Quicktime (.mov),
MPEG-4 Video (.m4v),

Full Moon in East Amsterdam

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Dutchvlog - Bravo blip

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I have been happily using blip.tv as a video host for a year now and it never ceases to amaze me.
Having an aversion for anything "mass" my primary impulse was to avoid places like YouTube despite its world wide exposure and mythical success. The same also goes for DailyMotion. Furthermore perusal of the Terms of Use of both hosting services reveals a horrifying commercial reality. By agreeing to the aforesaid you grant the host permission to do whatever they like to your carefully sculpted visual creations - to cram it full of commercial messages of their choosing should they see fit.
Naturally the money for the hosting servers has to come from somewhere but the appeal of internet video is that you were able to escape the ineffective TV commercials that are crammed down your throat as frequently as is practicably tolerable. This overtly commercial foundation will eventually be the catalyst to its decline.
blip.tv maintains a more sustainable philosophy. You as author of your video material remain the boss. Commercial messages will only be attached to your clip if you grant permission. This also means effectively that you are not bombarded with commercials whilst browsing the UGC of others. Furthermore as UGC becomes more intricate and creative the prospect of it being defaced with commercial crap becomes even more unattractive. Nevertheless, unmistakably aroused by the sound of $1,5 billion dollars, the value that Google attached to YouTube, YouTube clones are popping up all over internet as is to be expected. In a year you will be able to buy them on e-bay for some loose change with a failing commercial TV channel thrown in for free.

Blip frequently update and improve their service and each time it is a pleasure to see how creatively they accommodate the needs of the serious videoblogger.
They have introduced a Show Page on which you may present your cinematic wares including a trailer for your Show. If anyone has a handle on the future of internet video it's blip.

Not having the patience to develop a custom trailer I have cooked up a Dutchvlog collage for the meantime. Click on the collage.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (iPod) (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)

The Vloggies - Awards

Click to start video

If you weren't able to make it to the Vloggies this past weekend in San Francisco, then you can experience the magic in this super condensed version of the awards festivities. Irina Slutsky along with Daniel McVicar hosted this seminal event in front of a crowd of over 300 screaming vlog fans. Enjoy!

Episode links: The Vloggies, Laughing Squid Photos, Podtech, Dan McVicar

Cross posted from Geek Entertainment TV

60 second Vlog Promo

60 second Vlog Promo

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This is a 60 second promo for vlogging presented in the Dutch language by 11 year old Zowie de Mol: Media Tycoon / Media Guru!

CoffinVlog

CoffinVlog

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The Death of Reality TV may have been caused by the Euthanasia Show!!

Vlogging is slowly getting talked about - and thought about.
It was amusing to see how the network that broadcast the vlog item on Dutch TV last week immediately ran away with the idea that vlogging will be the ultimate reality TV. It was as though a gasp of relief bellowed through the creatively barren mainstream medialand - “At last; a new angle to revitalise the perishing reality tv concept”.
The penny has obviously not dropped yet; how can you compare an apple with a pear?
The DNA of the mainstream network reality TV and the reality of the vlog are fundamentally different both in the driving force that creates them, their production methods and the motives that effect their inception.
It’s obviously going to take a while for mainstream media to adjust their frame of reference – by which time it will be too late!
Being humane, unlike the sensationalist networks, I hope to soften the distress caused by the passing of a lucrative media era by pointing them to a location where they can obtain a magnificent, made to order coffin (in the form of a tv studio) for their redundant ideas – or should we apply euthanasia?

I am presently trying to set up a first vlogger in Ghana.
Coffins - by Papa Willy - Teshi Road (near Labadi) - Accra Ghana (no e-mail!!!)

LINKS
More coffins from the BBC picture archive
Travel Guide Ghana Lonely Planet
Africa Guide Ghana
Ghana Web Ghana homepage

Vlogging Holland - TV crew film vloggers in Amsterdam

Vlogging Holland - TV crew film vloggers in Amsterdam

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Today I was filmed vlogging in Amsterdam and later interviewed by a crew from Dutch RTL 4 television. Later Gabe and Gabe from Xolo were interviewed by the same crew about of vlogging and it’s progress in Holland. (unfortunately all in Dutch) They are going to run an item on Dutch national television coming Friday (if not then Monday). This is great exposure for vlogging and I am chuffed to have taken part. But it is above all a massive mothervlogging tribute to the toil of Freevlog, FireAnt, Steve Garfield, Gabe McIntyre (get ya bandwidth ready) and all the other inspirational front liners who have put so much effort into getting this great vlogging message across to so many people. Good on ya guys. Events like this confirm that we are getting somewhere – and makes it even more worthwhile.

JogVlog Interuptus

click here to view vlog interuptus

At this time of year the Netherlands suffers from acute blue-sky deficiency. Today was a rare exception. The sky was deep blue so I went for a jog and decided to vlog it. Not one hundred meters from my house, I was stopped by a motor policeman who had obviously found my activities intolerably suspicious. Being totally taken aback I was unfortunately unable to shoot the first part of the questioning procedure but unobtrusively turned my camera on as the exchange progressed.
I’m glad I got something otherwise I would not have believed it myself. After extensive communication with police base camp the officer was compelled to concluded I was not an extremist terrorist and bid me on my way.
I did finish the JogVlog although by now I was no longer in the mood to do what I had in mind. I wasn’t anywhere close to a controlled area. The Amsterdam Police are extremely jumpy and they are not shy about it .I think GabeMac would agree.
Considered on a local level however, although I dislike getting stopped and questioned by the Dutch Police who are notoriously cerebrally deprived and impolite, two minutes walk from my house in the other direction, young men parade around provocatively in jalaba’s doing their best to mimic Bin Laden. The neighbourhood is a notorious feeding ground for the fundamentalist Hofstad group who are presently being tried for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. One minute further on from there marks the spot where Theo van Gogh the film director was brutally murdered by an affiliate of the group. The existence of this active terrorist cell came to light when one of it’s key members was discovered filming potential targets such as the parliament buildings, the national airport, electricity generating plants and the national security agency’s head office….with a dvcam!

DutchVlog 1 - Is it cool to vlog in Amsterdam

DutchVlog 1 - Is it cool to vlog (In Amsterdam)?

3 min 53 secs

click to view video

Precisely two weeks ago I suddenly became chronically digitally aroused after watching a short news item on the Dutch RTL4 TV channel. It featured this fresh new stuff from New York called vlogging and a few clips from RocketBoom. I was astounded. So I immediately got into my mouse and googled as fast as I could to RocketBoom and before you could say “digital cut” I was watching his vlogselency Mr Verdi. It got very late that night – and every night since then. (so if I am incoherent now and again I’m sure you’ll forgive me). But I have to face it ; I’m hooked! Thank God - I mean Bill Gates – that there is also this Yahoo group where I can openly ventilate my overindulgence without feeling ashamed! (Steve Garfield also has bags under his eyes now and again so I don’t feel so isolated – but in his case it ‘s well worth it because he makes really funky stuff – thanks Steve). I would have thought by now, after two weeks, that the vlogmap of this microscopic marsh, called Holland, would be completely red with vlog balloons when considering the raw statistics;- The Netherlands has the second highest relative density of domestic broadband connections in the world after South-Korea – and the general level of computer literacy is also extremely high. But it does not seem to be the case. Strange! The number of vloggers in the whole country can still be counted on three hands. In my opinion vlogging and the vlogger are the best thing since sliced bread. Dutch television is so abominably bad it makes my stomach turn and it's only going te get worse. The complete media landscape here is going to undergo comprehensive overhaul very soon – naturally for the worse – so TV in Holland is as good as dead! It has always been a sickly child since it's inception. Thank God – I mean Bill Gates – that we have cable so channels from Belgium, France, Germany, UK, Italy are spuwed into our living rooms. The lack of vlogging her must change! So I have decided to hang a website www.dutchvlog.nl onto this vlog to try and encourage a bit more activity over here. The Dutch could use it! Eventually it will also be in Dutch simply explaining that the vlogoshere exists, how to get around and directing them to Freevlog as a start.
This stuff needs exposure. It should not be kept from the world for one second longer than necessary! Comments welcome!