This Halloween, I participated in some spooky telling at a local gallery and performance space called Wild Goose Creative, and we invited Deb Gregory to film us. I’ve been wanting to put some footage on my website, but shied away due to the cost. With the idea of sharing with the other tellers, I interviewed a bunch of video outfits before finding Deb through a Wild Goose referral. Boy, did the estimates vary. The most expensive was around $4,000. That quote came from a high-end organization that works with other high-end organizations. I used the yellow pages and called everyone under Video Production, and I even called some funeral agencies. I guess it’s common to film funerals? I ended up with several folks in our price range, which turned out to be $130 a piece. It would have been cheaper, but we all agreed to chip in for one of our members who had paid for the hall.
Deb came for a look at the facility before the performance. That night she filmed us and within a week provided us each with a DVD of our own performance, plus a DVD of the whole show, plus a tape we could use for editing.
I now have two movies up on my website, and, since they are both spooky stories, I would like to add a third. I use Verio to host my website and I use Contribute to edit my website. I spent hours messing around, however, before I understood I had to update my version of Contribute and then more hours working with Verio to recognize it. Both Contribute and Verio were prompt to answer my calls and my questions. I look at working with technical problems that I don’t understand to begin with like chipping away at a boulder with a small pickaxe. Eventually, things crack. Both groups worked with me until the problems were solved.
To get a video on your website, you have to get it out there to be easily accessed. I use Youtube. To get on Youtube, you need an account, but once you have it, uploading your video is easy. For me, uploading the first video took quite awhile, but the second was much faster. It's important to remember that the time limit for a piece on Youtube is 10 minutes...it used to be 7. If you go over 10 minutes, you'll spend a long time waiting for it to load only to have the whole thing rejected.
Can I see your website? I love spooky stuff! I was kinda sad because Halloween ended too quickly last year. Anyway, good thing you learned all of these. You can use them to optimize your site!
Posted by: Rose Ector | February 15, 2012 at 06:36 AM
My website is www.sallycrandall.com. The videos are on the page called About Sally
Posted by: Sally Crandall | February 15, 2012 at 07:22 PM
It's kinda fun to learn about stuff like these, ain't it? It's quite cool, too, that we are able to upload videos in the internet these days. How time (and tech) flies...
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, in posting videos on a site, try not to fit too much in one page, as they can quickly slow down the site.
Posted by: Abigayle Soderstrom | February 21, 2012 at 06:05 AM
Thanks for the tip. Any more to add? It sounds like you've done it before. I've started a Youtube book picks blog called You Told Me I Have to Read More Fiction. Check it out.
Posted by: Sally Crandall | February 24, 2012 at 08:15 AM