Audio and Video Tools for Participating in Vlomo12 and AudioMo
I will be participating in VloMo (National Video Blogging Month) and AudioMo, (publishing audio content daily) for the month of November.
My track record is not good AT ALL, when it comes to participating in things like this, but somehow I've managed to be a part of VloMo consistently since 2008 and every year it's getting easier to do.
I wanted to share how I do it so that it works for you, particularly if you are juggling a ton of other things :)
Clarify Your Participation
I participate in VloMo because:
- I love the challenge
- I enjoy shooting video, although I seldom do it.
- I adore recording the magic of the everyday, especially with my girls.
- I delight in the process of working with media.
- I find discovering new ways of creating content incredibly fulfilling.
I don't use VloMo for any business strategy. I don't think of calls to action, of driving people to my web properties, or trying to land a client.
I do it for the fun of it, to play with my girls and my world around me. It ignites creativity and a genuine love for sharing with the world.
Playing in this fashion inevitably sparks creativity within my business. I always end up with new workflows, or new ideas for doing things.
Allow The Creation To Be Part of Your Life
The tools that I use for this whole thing are all those that are accessible to me at any time, anywhere. This is a necessity as my life with two girls four and under does not align well with any kind of scheduling or structure.
My tools have to be mobile, simple and fast, plus they must also fit well with my existing workflow.
Just enough, so much
When it comes to the length of the media that I create, I keep it short. I've welcomed the boundary set by iOS of only being able to email videos that are less than a minute long (around 54 seconds actually.) That forces me to be precise as well as offers me the opportunity to discard videos easily and record something else.
It also makes it easier for people to consume the content. Most folks have a minute to give you :)
Easy Tools to Use for Publishing Quick Videos
These are the tools that I use that fit that criteria:
iPhone
My iPhone is the tool without which consistent posting would not be possible. The primary camera for VloMo is my iPhone camera. My iPhone is always with me, so I'm always ready to use it.
The Vimeo App for iOS + Vimeo
Although at times I yearn for more choices in terms of editing titles and adding pretty themes, the Vimeo App does everything that I want to do pretty simply.
Parts of the UI are not quite as intuitive as I would like, and I find myself frustrated with the app when I want to get creative with cuts and adding titles, but at the same time, it forces me to keep thing simple.
The app allows me the ability to personalize my videos, as well as add MUSIC! They have a great list of music available to use right from within the app.
Of course from within the app you can instantly upload to the Vimeo service, which I love and choose over YouTube for these beautiful little snippets of life.
I love the Vimeo vibe and the community. It makes me happy.
From Vimeo or the Vimeo App I share my videos straight to Twitter and can choose to share to Facebook.
The app is FREE!
The iMovie app
There are times when I want to do a little bit more with my videos. I use iMovie for iOS. I only use this app if I really want to add a specific theme to my video.
Posterous
I love Posterous. I'm not sure how I ended up choosing to commit myself so fully to my Posterous blog. For some reason the ability to do things from within email really resonated with me.
I think I ended up choosing it because posting to Posterous was already so much part of my workflow, particularly my mobile email workflow. It just fits right in.
Attach media or write text and email. Bam. It's posted.
I either attach my newly edited video to an email and send to Posterous (what I prefer) or if the video is longer than 54 seconds, upload the video to Vimeo and create a web post with the embed from Vimeo, which is a little more time consuming.
The other insanely lovely thing about Posterous is that it's all there on that website. It's my virtual album or scrapbook.
In the past, I've not been too good at tagging my posts, but I've recently made sure to learn how to tag my posts when I post via email and have created an iOS shortcut to help me doing it efficiently.
Easy Tools to Use for Publishing Quick Audio
Here are some services that you can use to publish audio really fast:
I have not quite decided which one I'm going to be using.
Ultimately I want something that can push the audio straight onto my Posterous Blog.
I know that I can also skip any other app or service and use only the Audio Memo app from my iPhone and email it straight onto my Posterous page. Done. Frictionless.
So there you go!
I'm always looking to streamline my workflow, so if you have any good tips PLEASE leave them in the comments. I love to experiment.
Also, if you have any ideas for other video editing apps that I should play them, let me know! I'd love to try them out :)