HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :-D | NEW VIDEO!!!

And so the New Year has come. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

With that, of course I had to do a small video commemorating the new year, so here you go! :-D

Hope you all have a wonderful 2014! :-)

Creating Serial Content (and not the murderous kind) | Youtube Advice!!

And Again we are back with Youtube Advice!!! This is where I talk about the advice I have gathered over time from personal experience and from official Youtube staff. This time, we are talking about regular/ series content.

Let's get started!!

As I have posted a video a while ago called "ProfKranc Talks" I think this is something I should talk about, or at least explain my attempt at creating a regular show on my channel.

Something you will notice on many of the larger channels on Youtube is that they post a lot of similar content, or have a "show" per se.

An example of this is Tobuscus.

Tobuscus is a famous Youtube personality for his over the top videos that span over several pieces of regular content.

In this case, there a multiple "shows" he has.
This includes:

TobyGames: "featuring Let's Plays of popular games with commentary"
Literal Trailers: "Trailer's with Tobuscus parodying the song with singing lyrics alongside it"
Lazy Vlogs: "Long Unedited vlog videos"
Tobuscus Adventures: "Animated shorts of Tobuscus and his random adventures"
Tobuscus Songs: "Songs that Tobuscus posts every so often usually parodying something popular"

As you can see, he has a lot of these. In fact I think I may have also missed a few small series on his channel but you get my point.

People go to his channel not only for his funny videos, but because he has this serial content, we can say they go back to his channel because of the fact they know there will be a continuing of content they like. But there is the case that what if you have serial content that one batch of viewers like, and another batch don't?

Now you could say that this is channel specific and that's true. People have separate channels for different types of content. People have gaming channels, vlog channels, sketch channels, etc. Well you could say there is a kind of a common sense among creators that they separate their content so their viewers don't get bombarded with content they don't like. However there is no rule for this.

Fine Bros

For example, recently TheFineBros who run the successful React Series have moved their drama/ comedy music series "MyMusic" to their main channel.

Originally MyMusic was completely on their own channel, but I think it is clear that because their main channel has more subscribers and garners more views than their MyMusic channel, they decided to move it to their main channel because there it would get more attention.
I'm going slightly off track here, but this is my opinion on the situation of creating serial content for your channel:

I think in order to maintain an audience you need to make sure you create similar content or content that your target audience will like, otherwise if they are bombarded with alien content they will unsubscribe and you will loose a viewer. However if you are creating a show, you need to make sure it is regular otherwise it will not serve the purpose that it was created for:

Serial content is to create entertaining, regular and similar content that will attract and keep a viewer subscribed to your channel.

This is something we have to point out. That when creating serial content, you have to make sure it is engaging and that it is something you can create regularly. If you are thinking of making big blockbuster short films every week with a full time job, you may have to rethink your release schedule.

This of course doesn't mean when you create "Serial Content" that it has to be a show, it could just be things of a similar nature. It doesn't even have to be classified as a show, it's just a word I'm using to describe ProfKranc Talks as that is what it is.

You have to realise that if you are going to commit to something, you have to have the time to do it. Not only that, but make sure that it is something that people will like and so far that is what ProfKranc Talks will be.

The point behind creating ProfKranc Talks is that it is an quick and easy way to create regular content, engage with my audience and also allow me another outlet on the channel apart from comedy and horror videos with the odd AMV.

But anyway, this was really just a rant about my opinion behind creating serial content. I think my channel needed something regular in order to keep viewers here apart from my comedy and drama videos.
That and it's easy to create, which gives me more time to create better content for my sketches and so on.

Thanks for reading everyone, I hope this helps. ProfKranc here and I will see you next time :-).

Oh, and make sure that you are creating something other than Let's Plays. Unless you have a really original take on it, with the situation Gaming channels are in at the moment with this recent copyright lockdown I don't think its the best idea. That and there are enough gaming channels out there right now, I would love to see something new like.... an online drama or something.

But again, that is just my opinion, if you are reading this and you have a Youtube channel, please send me a link either in the comments or in the Blog's Contact me page. I would love to see what you guys do! :-)

Oh and there is something I haven't done for a while.......

RANDOM VIDEO TIME!!!!

Mistakes are made | PROFKRANC TALKS!! | NEW VIDEO!!

Today, ProfKranc talks to everyone about the matter of making mistakes! In video format!

Check it out here!






I did kinda repeat myself a lot in this video, but I'm proud of it none the less.

Anyway, I'll be posting another post in relevance to this video sometime next week, so stay tuned! :-D

FALLING.MOV BEHIND THE SCENES

Another behind the scenes post! YAY :-D.

Okay so for anyone who hasn’t seen the video, take a look below as this probably won’t make sense if you haven’t watched it.

Watched the video? Good, now let’s get down to business. 

The Initial Spark

As Halloween approached, I decided that I should do something to celebrate this brilliant holiday of goblins, ghosts and ghouls with a little horror video. 

So as this video says in the title, the video was based solely on a creepypasta. Literally I was reading the creepypasta word for word in this video. The entire video is just a dramatisation of it. You may not realise this, but there are a lot of creepypasta channels out there. 

If you google “Creepypasta Youtube channel”, probably the first youtube channel to come up would be “MrCreepypasta” which is essentially someone just reading the creepypasta with some pictures and some music.  

As you may know from my channel, I like dramatising things. So I decided, why not make a simple and live action version of this creepypasta.

By the way, if you don’t know what a creepypasta is, it’s essentially a story made on the internet to intentionally scare the reader.

If you want to know more about it, click here.

So, what is so behind the scenes about this article? Well, even though the spark itself isn’t that big of a deal because I literally just did what a lot of hollywood studious do: take an already successful piece of literature and make it into something people can watch rather than read.

Well, there is the how that I can explain for this video. This means showing you this effect:

Falling into darkness effect

This effect, in other words:

This effect consisted of one main trick.

Green screen.

I have realised I use green screen for a lot of my effects! I guess that’s a pro tip.

Pro Tip: Get a Green screen.

Wait I’m not a pro, so we’ll need to call it something else that’s similar….

Prof Tip: Get a Green screen.

Okay, so What I did first was film a blank plate. This was pretty much just this for 5 seconds: 

After that, I then put the green screen in with the exact same lighting (to make it look the same as the blank slate) and then filmed me doing the actions. Like so: 

In doing this, I have now been able to separate the two assets of the actor doing the actions and the background. This allows me some creative freedom in what I can do with it. There is another way of doing this which includes a lot of masking, but green screen is less time consuming and so much easier.

So anyway, I brought both of these assets into my editing software (I used Final Cut Pro X) and placed on asset on top of another. 

After using the blank slate as the base layer, I put the green screen footage over the top of it and then keyed it.
It should look like this on your editing timeline:

This made the actor seem like he was in the room. That was step 1 done, step 2 was making the background fall away and leaving him in darkness. 

So how I did it was I took the base layer (background/ blank slate) and then added 2 keyframes. One keyframe when it was normal and one when it was at 0%, essentially it had disappeared. The two keyframes allow the transition of the fall into darkness gradual. Rather than the background disappearing, we now have it speeding away and getting smaller behind the actors head.

Upon this, we have essentially got the effect. One thing is though, it looks very blocky. Like literally it is a square getting smaller. Now if this is what you want to go for, thats it for you. Congrats you have made the effect!

But if you want to go a bit further, add either a feather mask or a vignette on your base layer footage and adjust it to when the layer gets smaller. This give it a smoother edge and doesn’t make it look as blocky. 

Now just slap some sound effects on there and boom, got yourself the falling into darkness effect.

Thanks for reading! See you on the next post!

HAPPY BLACK FRIDAY!!! | NEW VIDEO!!!!

Happy Black Friday everyone! Hope you don't get trampled over if you join the crowds!
Anyway, prepare for an epic video! Really proud of this one! Has a proper epic trailer feel! And it's not just because of the inception horn! :-D

Enjoy!!

NEW VIDEO!! WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY????

You ever have that song that you hear so much it drives you INSANE????

Well yeah, this is kinda a play on that :-p.

ENJOY!

By the way, behind the scenes for a certain video coming soon :-D

See you then!

Bob's Army Rises! | NEW VIDEO!!

NEW VIDEO!!!

The Prophecy foretold that the ancient warrior Bob would build an army an rise against the tyranny of Google+. Watch as I speak of the legend of this great battle as Bob's army attempts to liberate Youtube from Google+!


Have you seen this man?

This is Bob. A while ago (by that I mean back in 2009) he was a picture meme where people would post him in the Youtube comments saying he had "taken over" Youtube. He disappeared for a while, but now he has resurged as the front for the copy paste battle against the new Youtube commenting system.

If you frequent Youtube, you probably have noticed a change in not only the commenting system, but this sudden integration with Google+. Everyone dislikes change, but some people hate this commenting system so much that it has started a sort of movement against it.

Truth be told, most of the content creators I watch seemed to have benefitted from the commenting system change. They are just a bit more peeved off about how Google+ is being shoved in our faces by asking us every so often whether we want to use our real name on our Youtube account.

If you want to sign an internet petition that's going around to try and reverse this change in the Youtube comment system, here is a link: goo.gl/DzL6kx

I'm not really bothered by it, cause honestly I don't get enough comments to even bother moderating them but for some people it seems like a pretty big thing.

Anyway, new video. Badaboom! :-D Hope you enjoyed it, I'll catch you on the next post!

Falling.mov | HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! | NEW VIDEO!!

To everyone out there who celebrated halloween:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

To those who don't, you can still watch my latest video based on the Falling creepypasta!

ENJOY!! :-D

For those who don't know what a creepypasta is: Creepypasta is a story made up on the internet to intentionally scare the reader. If you want to find out more about Creepypastas, go here: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/creepypasta

Thanks for watching and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN! :-D 

HOW TO GET OVER WRITERS BLOCK! | NEW VIDEO!!

A short tutorial on how to get over writers block! Enjoy!

Just a little something on the side | BLOG EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

Okay, so if you do follow this blog, you probably know that I make videos on a regular basis. Mostly comedy or drama videos, but I think you may also want to know about another thing I do.

Acting. 

Now you have seen in quite a few of my videos in the past I have acted in a lot of them. This isn't only because of lack of actors, but also because I love acting. 

Since I was a little kid, I loved playing pretend and that evolved into me loving to act. 

Because of this, I have been in many theatre productions and most recently a short film called Sacrifice.

This is something I love about Youtube. I love both acting, writing, directing and editing and I have been able to do all these roles for different productions. Sometimes this can be a bad thing as you would be distracted while in different roles, but the fact I get the chance to do all of them is pretty brilliant :-D.

Anyway, recently I have been auditioning for a lot of voice acting roles online and I thought I might as well share with you a clip I put together from one of the auditions. I hope you enjoy :-D

Disclaimer: This isn't what voice acting mainly consists of. It also consists of grunting in random intervals between sentences that state the obvious :-p.

Hope you enjoy!

MOUNT EVEREST FAIL!! | NEW VIDEO!!

NEW VIDEO! MOUNT EVEREST FAIL! 

Watch as two climbers make it up mount everest in record time, but a small mistake causes a life threatening disaster in an EPIC FAIL! 

Sleep deprivation | SLEEPING IN | NEW VIDEO

NEW VIDEO!!


Okay, so I know this isn't really a funny video but I feel its a bit relevant right now.

At this moment in time I have been quite deprived of sleep. I'm not complaining or anything because I'm actually in a very good position at the moment, however I have ended up taking on so much that I have been having unwanted sleep intervals during the day.
This won't interrupt any schedules or anything, but I thought I should just give a little bit of advice.

YOU NEED SLEEP! 

Sleep is needed for your body to function, no matter how annoying it is. Honestly, I could do so much if I spent the time I would asleep doing other things but we can't do that. Staying up late often and only gaining a few hours of sleep will not allow your brain to function correctly and will not only affect your work, it will affect your social life as well.
You won't be able to react to things like you usually would.
I won't go on forever, but I'll say even though I have been making great strides recently, falling asleep in the middle of the day isn't what you would call "productive".

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the video. See you next post :-D

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN!! | NEW VIDEO!!

A new video has been released on the American Government shutdown that happened recently. Take a look!

THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT HAS SHUT DOWN! What is going to happen now?

Okay, so as some may know, around the end of September 2013, the American government shut down due to a disagreement between the mainly on the budget plan that would be put into affect. Most of this budgeting focus' on ObamaCare. 

I won't explain it all here, but for anyone who is interested in the whole thing, here is a video that will explain it:

MAKING A CUSTOM THUMBNAIL!! | YOUTUBE CONSULTATION ADVICE!!

LET US CONTINUE IN OUR YOUTUBE ADVICE!!!

Previous article: http://profkranc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/youtube-consultation-advice-make-it.html

INTRODUCTION! 

When you are fishing through the massive amount of videos on a Youtube search, you see so much random stuff on there that it kind of turns you off. But then you see a professional looking thumbnail attached to a video that you think this video must be good! 

When you go down a Youtube search, the thing that people look at is the thumbnail. If they see something that peaks their interest, they will take their time to look at it. It is during these precious seconds you need to sell your content.

The video thumbnail is a window into what the video is, so Youtube gives you a choice of three different frames from the video to choose what will essentially be the billboard of your video trying to bring viewers in.

Now if it is the case that this frame that Youtube has picked for you isn't good enough for you to try and bring in views, then its time for a change. This is where you bring out the custom thumbnail. 

If you have entered yourself into the Youtube partner program (as its kinda free to enter now), you can edit the thumbnail. 

You do this by following these steps.

INSTRUCTIONS!

1. While logged in, go to your video:

You should see it in this kind of format because you are the uploader of this video.

2. Go to info and settings.

You do this by clicking to the pencil button. This button is the first on your left below the video.

You will now be on the info and settings window. This is were you can edit all the information attached to your video. This is also where you can edit you channel thumbnail. The page should look like this:

Now this video has already been edited to have a custom thumbnail, but I will guide you from here to get your custom thumbnail.

3. Click custom thumbnail.

Now if you have joined the Youtube partner program, below the three thumbnail options that Youtube has provided you there should be a button just like this:

Here is a picture of another video with this button, just in case you weren't sure, here is a highlighted screen from another video:

I don't know why I didn't just use this video before hand, but whatever. We are doing this :-D.

4. Select what you want your custom thumbnail to be. 

Once you have clicked this button, it will bring up a window for you to select what you want your thumbnail to be. 

Now if you can, make your thumbnail as big as you can without going past the 2MB image size mark. This is so that even if the page is stretched, your thumbnail won't lose quality.

I would advise customising your thumbnail rather than just taking a frame you like from the video. If you edit it, add titles and other special effects it will stand out more among the rest.
Here is an example:

What would you rather click on? I would click on the one at the top, as it looks very professional and it seems like the guy has put quite a bit of effort into it. The more professional it looks, the more trust you will instil in the viewer that it is good and you know what you are doing. I will leave the design of your thumbnail up to you :-).

Now to see the final result:

Your video will have changed from something like this:

To this:

It seems much better and will most likely gain you more views than if you just left it to Youtube's thumbnail system.

Hope this little post helped. I think in order to make the Consultation posts easier to take in, I'm going to post them shorter like this one. So instead of just being confronted with a wall of text, you can look through it quickly with having to seep through the boring stuff.

I know its a bit of shameless self promoting, but I have some other social media pages if you want to check them out :-D

Social Networking = Procrastination. SO PROCRASTINATE WITH ME!

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ProfKranc

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/profkranc

YOUTUBE:  http://www.youtube.com/user/profkranc

I'll catch you on the next post!

Oh, and by the way.......

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RANDOM VIDEO TIME!!!

COPYRIGHT LAWS ARE A B****! WHERE TO GET COPYRIGHT FREE MUSIC!

If you have ever seen any really big brand on the T.V, internet or even just a logo, you will have probably seen something to do with copyright.
Quite usually it comes down to this symbol:

For anyone who is new to the concept of copyright (and if you are new to it, what the hell have you been doing? :-D), it essentially a tag where if someone has a legal right to this process. Any major brand song? That's copyrighted to the music artist.

Now I could copy and paste an entire law stuff, but if you are really interested in the ins and outs of the copyright laws, click this link here: http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

I won't go too into the copyright laws, but how it affects me as a film-maker and others like me is what we can use for free and what we need permission for.
For a lot of film-makers out there, we need resources we can use to help construct our videos. One of the biggest examples of these is music.

We can't go using tracks willy-nilly without peoples permission if a piece of music is copyright. For example: If I wanted to use one of Eminem's new tracks Berserk in a video of mine, I would need the creators permission to use it in my video and this permission would most likely include us giving the artists royalties (money) in return for using their track.

(There is a lot of text here, so I just wanted to break it up with a meme thats slightly relevant)

If we film-makers want to make some money off a film by monetising something or by using it for commercial purposes, we need copyright free or royalty free music.
With copyright free/ royalty free music we can use the tracks provided to us for whatever we want as long as we either credit the creator or in some cases pay for them.
It is true however, that you can see a lot of Youtube videos using popular tracks without the creator's permission. Now this is against copyright to use these tracks without their permission and without crediting them, but Youtube is a very lenient place for this stuff.
And I wouldn't think that the creators of these tracks would be searching 24/7 to find people who have used their tracks without their permission. There is just too much content in Youtube to comb over.

The problem for us film-makers how can we get music we can use for free?
There are 3 solutions to this problem:
1. Compose your own music
2. Get permission to use copyrighted tracks for free
3. Use Copyright Free Music

For me, because I'm not the most musically talented person, I use a lot of Copyright Free Music in my videos. I do compose music the odd time, but in order to save time its better to bring in tracks that are up and ready to go. If you believe you are musically talented enough to create your own music, be my guest. I may make another blog post later down the line showing you how to make a basic soundtrack for a video. But if you are looking for tutorials on how to compose, look here for tutorials on one of the most basic tools, GarageBand: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/How_to_score_with_GarageBand 

To help out anyone who does want to copyright free music, I have a list of places where you can get these tracks here at the bottom of this Blog post. I also have included a video created by Indy-mogul who covers the topic and what to look out for when using them as well having some links of their own to copyright free music.

Hope this is of some use to you!

http://www.youtube.com/user/FreebieFM
http://www.purple-planet.com/
http://www.royaltyfreemusicfree.com/
http://www.gumballmusic.com
http://www.downloadroyaltyfreemusic.org
http://www.royaltyfreeze.com
http://www.luckstock.com
http://dig.ccmixter.org/
http://www.jamendo.com/en/
http://www.musopen.org/
http://www.nosoapradio.us/
http://www.machinimasound.com/
http://www.firstcom.com/
http://www.freesound.org
http://www.sweetsoundeffects.com
http://www.mobygratis.com/film-music....
http://incompetech.com
http://joshwoodward.com
http://freemusicarchive.org
http://royaltyfreekings.com
http://mattmcfarland.com
http://audionautix.com
http://anthonykozar.net/music
http://freemusicforvideos.com
http://beatsroyaltyfree.com

NEW VIDEO!! That Moment When a Friend Cancels Plans

New That moment video! Sad one this time! Can you handle the feels?

I 


I think I may start making more videos like this alongside my comedy ones. Drama and that kinda stuff. THERE'S A DEVELOPMENT IN THE CHANNEL!

I've been wanting to make a more drama like video for a while, and this is just a taste of what is yet to come!

NEW VIDEO YET AGAIN! AND IT'S TOPICAL!

2 videos in 3 days? I'M ON A ROLL!

Say hello to a video inspired off a blog post of mine. Enjoy! :-D

GOOGLE IS STUPID! R.I.P Youtube Video Responses

Okay, so when I say Google is stupid, maybe its a bit of a strong term. I'll rephrase it:

I don't understand some of Google's decisions.

And that's the truth.
Quite recently, Youtube cancelled the Video Response feature. It actually stopped being used on the 12th of September.

Now I don't want to go on a rant here, but I don't understand this executive decision to take away something that is a brilliant way for the community of Youtube to interact with each other. Not only that, but it allows people to get more attention for their similar content.

Google has announced, saying that in order for people to better interact with their fans they are going to invest time in creating new ways for the user to connect with their fans.
Even the words here are brilliant. We may take this as a sign of what Google thinks that Youtube and its users is. The people who make content are essentially mini celebrities and the people who watch them are fans.

As much as this language could be taken for granted and say its nothing, we can see it differently if we look at Youtube as a different kind of place to them. Youtube is a community to some people, and because of this decision, some people won't be able to connect as well as they would want to with their audience.

There has been a suggestion that they may allow Youtube links to be included in comment sections now, which I don't understand. It would mean that people would have to fish through the massive amounts of comments there to find these videos when before they could be just seen in a completely different section of the video.

In their Youtube section that explains how to make a video response, they wrote this:


Video responses are going away. On 12 September we’ll be sunsetting the video response feature, and video responses will no longer be shown below the video player. Video responses are rarely played (the click-through rate on video responses is 0.0004%), so we're investing in new, more effective engagement features instead.

Now, thinking that Google has people who perhaps have waaaaaay bigger brains than ours, perhaps they do have a better way to connect content creators with their audience. But why don't they just release this new change while getting rid of the other.

 Instead they are leaving people dry of this new feature, saying its going to be great. A promise is sometimes not good enough, but hopefully Google knows what its doing and will come up with a better solution to this problem than they have with other recent changes they have made i.e Youtube layout and paid subscription channels.

Well, I guess that was kind of a small rant. I just don't understand these decisions that Google and Youtube make sometimes. I know everyone dislikes change in one way or the other, but all we can do is hope for the best in this situation.
And right now it seems like I'm making this out to be worse that it seems.

I guess I'll just lighten the mood with a.......

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RANDOM VIDEO TIME!!

A VIDEO IS BORN!! NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL TRAILER!!!

Say hi to my new fancy Youtube Channel Trailer. This bad boy will appear every time someone who hasn't subscribed to me visits my Youtube channel!

Have a looksy :-D



So yeah, after a month's hiatus from my Youtube channel, I'm finally BACK! Expect more videos on the way ladies and gentleman, I am READY FOR ACTION!!!

Everything is a learning experience

A while ago I released a trailer for a 5 minuite short film I made called "What you deserve". IN the description I did say this was going to be the next thing I released.
Well guess what? I lied! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!

All jokes aside, I'm actually rather disappointed by it.

You see I have a code when it comes to uploading things to the internet. When I have made something, I take one final look at it and ask "Am I proud of this?" If the answer is no, then I scrap it. And this happened with "What You Deserve". 

Original What You Deserve was a college project and unfortunately I wasn't able to use my own personal equipment. Because of this, the overall production quality went down a lot and because of other restrictions it went down in quality in other places as well. 

The end product got full marks at college, but when I looked at it for another point of view. A view for publication on the internet, I just didn't like it.

I'll give you some idea of what it is about.

Agent Soloman gets a job for a man called Stephen Hollywell, a man who is rather high up in the business world. We follow Soloman as goes to complete his job and gives him What he Deserves! With the help of comedy relief character Jhonny.

The script was fairly solid, however its the execution that could have been done better. The stalking was rushed, the characters were likeable but quite undeveloped and the acting in some parts was atrocious.

However there is some things to learn from this experience. From it I was able to try out shooting a dialogue scene, shooting a scene in public, trying out my spider rig and being able to direct a team of people. It was also useful as I now know a guy who is my regular Assistant Director.

I guess the point to my rambling here is that even if you have projects that fail, you learn something from them. Its never a waste of time if you learn something.

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RANDOM VIDEO TIME!!!

Writers Block? Maybe.......

So yeah, as of recently if you are subscribed to my Youtube channel (and if not, here is a link to my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/profkranc) then you may have noticed that my channel has lacked channel updates for quite a while now.
Truth be told, its because I have writers block.

If you create any type of art then you will have come across a part in your life where the ideas just stop. Your mind river has it a blockage. And you just can't get rid of it.
I will say I have got a few scripts that I could dig out and get into production, but these scripts are of rather large productions and would take ages to make.

But right now, I'm really dissapointed that I can't just work through it.

There are two main ways to get past writers block.
The first is to ignore the task. Get away from it and inspiration will eventually come.
The second is too power through it. Force yourself to write and see what comes out.

But the problem with me is, I don't even have a fresh starter idea to work on.

But don't take this and start thinking that I've ran out of juice (awesome metaphor there :-p). I just need to get my head straight and keep going. Something will come out eventually......

In the meantime, I will still blog. I don't have writers block for blogging, just for vids. Hopefully after this blog post, I will finally be able to get something out for you to watch or get excited about :-).

Also, to keep you occupied:

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RANDOM VIDEO TIME!!

I can't wait for the Superman vs Batman movie, can you? :-D

YOUTUBE CONSULTATION ADVICE: MAKE IT PRETTY

As I said in one of my previous posts, while I was at Summer in the City I visited a Youtube consultation area in which I got advice from Youtube staff in how to make my channel better. And so, in these small little blog entries I will tell you what they helped me with.

Would you Rather?

As the title would suggest, the Youtube staff advised me to try and make my Youtube channel and content more visually attractive to the audience. Looking at it now, it seems really simple. Would you subscribe to a channel that looks like this:

Or would you rather subscribe to a channel that looks like this:

Obviously you would subscribe to the second one. It seems to have had more effort put into it. There are a few important elements in this channel that were specifically pointed out to me by the Youtube staff.

Attracting viewers! What can you do?

The first was a profile picture/ Youtube avatar. Before, it was a blue square that was standard for Youtube channels without assigned pictures. The Youtube staff told me that when someone looked up your channel or when it happened to pop up in a search, you want to advertise to the viewer. Make the channel look interesting and draw them in.
This is the same for when it comes to custom youtube thumbnails.

On Youtube, there is a partner program which gives you certain benefits which can help buff up your channel. This includes custom thumbnails.
Now you can see that some of the bigger Youtubers, if not all of them, use custom thumbnails in all of their videos. This is because it makes the video look more visually attractive. I unfortunately haven't added custom thumbnails to my videos as of yet, but I do plan to in order to try and get more viewers in.

The staff then told me about trying to make your channel then more attractive to people once they arrive at your channel.

Make a Youtube Banner!

They told me to do was make some Youtube banner art for my channel. You can see my Youtube channel art here:

As you can see, it is very simple. Literally it is a special font and edited to make it look like it is glowing and an added lens flare cause they are cool :-D. Even though it is simple, it still make the channel look nicer and more professional. Because of this, we encourage the viewer to believe that we are professional and put effort into Youtube.
You can go all complicated with your design, but I believe making it simple is better. I also chose it to go this way because I didn't know what else to do at the time :-p.

If you are wanting to make a Youtube banner, you do have to follow certain guidelines when uploading it.
Youtube, of coarse being weird, only accepts banner art that is 2120 pixels by 1192 pixels in size. But to help with creating a Youtube banner, here is an image to help with it:

http://www.customermagnetism.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/youtube-one-channel-template-r1.jpg

Click the image to go to the original link. Download it, it should help :-)

Anyway, with that the Youtube staff just advised me to make the videos themselves look as attractive as possible for viewing with:

• A Nice structure to the video
• Good video quality
• Good Sound Quality
• Quality Content

Conclusion! 

In any case, everything I have written in this blog post has all been about appearance. Appearance on Youtube is a key thing to gaining subscribers and viewers to both your videos and your channel. Keep that in mind if you start a Youtube channel :-D

With this small amount of knowledge I pass onto you my friends :-). I hope it helps. There will be more as this isn't the only knowledge that was given to me. Stay tuned!

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RANDOM VIDEO TIME!!!

THE SITC EXPERIENCE!!

BEWARE! LONG POST AHEAD!

So as I have mentioned in previous posts, I attended this amazing event called "Summer in the City".

Summer in the City is an event that has been held in London for up to 4-5 years now, being one of the UK's largest Youtube gatherings. This year it was held at Alexandra Palace on the 17th-18th of August. It had a large amount of things going on at it including:

• Youtuber Meet and Greets
• Panels 
• Live Performances
• Merchandise booths

etc.....

It was amazing, I got to do so many things, but I was slightly disappointed I only got to go on one of the days that it was happening due to other commitments.

Never the less, I had a great time and because I had such a great time, I thought I might as well write up what I did during the 1st day of Summer in the City :-D

THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY!

So I started up early from the B&B I was staying at and made my way up to Alexandra Palace around 1 hour before the event opened to the public. when I arrived, I was astounded by how many people had shown up. I had expected people to have arrived earlier than me being that it was 10am, but I swear there was already around 200-300 people already arrived and lined up to enter into the event to see their favourite Youtube stars.

I hate lines. I'm can be a patient person when I want to, but for a cue with 300 people in it and still another hour to go I decided ask some of the staff if there was a chance I could volunteer at the event.

Now I know what you are going to ask: "ProfKranc, were you just seeing if you could volunteer so you could sneak inside and skip the line?"

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Maybe....

Nah guys, I'm not that irresponsible. I was actually genuinely interested if I could volunteer for the day. Seeing stuff as a attendee of the event is one thing, but being part of the behind the scenes is another :-).

However, after some unsuccessful attempts to volunteer, I milled around some of the nearby shops to waste time, hoping the enormous line would die down once the gates had opened.

They didn't.

When the gates had finally opened, the line had wrapped around the building and covered the grounds surrounding it. I still didn't want to get caught in the line, especially because I was at the event all by myself. So I went back to a place I found while wasting time before Alexandra Palace opened.

At the side of the building there was a side entrance that 1 guy was guarding. I'm ashamed that I can't remember his name now, but he was a really friendly guy who worked for security at Alexandra Palace for all the events that took place here. 

We exchanged stories about each other and had a few laughs while a few small time Youtubers arrived seeking entrance with their invitations.

Then there was a fateful meeting a beautiful young woman. And thus a new chapter of the story unfolds.

Meeting a new friend

Two volunteers came up to us from the building, telling us some more Youtubers would be coming this way while handing the guard a list of who should be arriving. Julia was one of those volunteers.

Julia is a girl from Austria who was volunteering at the event. She also has a Youtube channel where she vlogs. I WAS IN ONE OF HER VIDS BTW!

Here is a her video on Summer in the City and a link to her channel if you are interested :-).

Julia's Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/juliaisaglobetrotter

Anyway, she was assigned to the side entrance to help identify the Youtubers coming round to make sure they were sent in the right direction. During this we talked and I was able to find out a bit more about her, why she is here and what was going on inside Alexandra Palace behind the scenes. 

After talking with her for a while and seeing that there was no chance of the line shortening anytime soon, I decided to stay for an hour or so after the gates had opened at 11am to see whether or not I could just wait out the cue. 

So after 11am, more and more Youtubers who were performing came round to the entrance to get inside, some bring in company, some not. But in the end, Julia and the security guard did their job and some of the Youtuber's companions were turned away.

As more and more Youtubers arrived, a small group of about fan girls without tickets to the event had arrived to quickly take photos with whatever stars they could find. 

Now before I continue, I'm just going to explain what a fan girl is for anyone who has been living under a rock :-p.

Fangirl - An analysis

A fan girl (as the word suggests) is a girl who is a fan of something. You would think that's it right? Heh heh WRONG!

The term fan girl is more commonly known for some of the more extreme female fans out there. Have you ever seen Justin Beiber fans? Fans of small/ young screaming girls who are crying in the audience of 1 Direction concerts? The ones who are beyond obsessed with these people who they ogle over? Yeah, they are fan girls.

This is a tame photo for what I saw.

Anyway, back to the story

The Stars Approached

The fan girls were waiting around yet again, the group had grown slightly, but it wasn't anything the security guard couldn't handle.

You know, I wouldn't have described these girls as fan girls until I saw them react to what I' about to tell you.

The events were slowly getting into session inside the building. I was still waiting outside the side entrance with the security guard and Julia, sharing some Oreos among them and the surrounding fan girls. Then a black car with tinted windows pulled up. 

It took me a while to realise, but upon examination of the shadows inside the backseats of the car where non other than the popular twin vloggers "Jack and Finn (JacksGap)".

(Jack and Finn from JacksGap)

Only seconds after realising who the shadows were in the back of this car, the driver got out of the car to open the door to allow the stars to get out and make their way into the building. The fan girls caught sight of Jack and Finn and began screaming with excitement. 

Jack and Finn urgently pleaded to the driver to close the door and drive on through quickly. Julia, the security guard and I removed the barrier leading to the building and the car began passing on through. 

Meanwhile the fan girls were crying just from the sight of Jack and Finn, one biting her finger to prevent herself from screaming anymore.

Of coarse this screaming brought more fan girls to the area and began discussing excitedly how Jack and Finn had been here.

Moments later, the black car showed again exiting the building, now without Jack and Finn. However, this did not matter to the fan girls as they began to feel the car just for having the Youtubers in it.

I don't want to paint fan girls a bad name as it seems I making them out worse than what they are. I got talking to them and they were actually really nice. I was just really surprised about how they reacted to the sight of Jack and Finn. I only thought the stories of fan girls were just gross exaggerations of the real thing, but now I have learnt the truth.

After Jack and Finn, no more Youtubers came and Julia was allowed to go back into the building after a job well done. 

I went back to the main entrance. It was now around midday and the line had finally died down. I was able to get in without a problem and began exploring the massive venue.

The Venue

Entering I could see the place was absolutely packed full of people (as it would be). Seeing that this was now around 1pm, I grabbed the nearest program and found out what was on next. 

Upon looking at the program, I figured I had some time to kill before I could go see one of the panels I wanted called "Taste and Decency on Youtube". So I made my way to the main hall and explored.

There where quite a few booths here. They included video games, bars, free hugs, merchandise, a Youtube network and the Youtube consultation area (with FREE MILKSHAKES) which is where I got the Creator Playbook. 

After wasting some time, I made my way out to the main entrance. I was in the middle of trying to find a vending machine for something to snack on when I ran into Julia again. She was wondering too after she lost her friends. So she stuck with me as we continued to explore.

Eventually I came across a Youtube star. None other than Liam Dryden :-D.

Liam Dryden

Liam Dryden is a random Youtuber who helped make Summer in the City. But the main reason I got giggly from the sight of him (Oh God, I'm a fan girl) is because he was Scottish (even creepier XD).

Anyway, he was the only Scottish Youtuber I knew and so I wanted to meet him. 

By the way, I don't have an obsession with the Scottish. For one reason and another, I feel like I have a special connection with Scotland. So I went up to him and guess what I did?

I shook his hand and told him that I respected what he was doing and that he should be proud.

Yeah, I did just that. See I'm not a fan girl :-p.

Panels Arise

Afterwards, we went to a couple of panels and I got to shake the hand of a couple other Youtubers including Benjamin Cook, Tomska and Ciaran O'Brien.

After a panel called "Short films on Youtube", I got talking to Ciaran afterwards and he actually told me about how he got invloved with Youtube.

Just a bit of background on Ciaran. Ciaran is a 1 man crew that helps a lot with filming other Youtubers stuff while also doing jobs for production companies.

Ciaran O'Brien

He told me about how he started off doing stuff for production companies and worked with a couple of Youtubers before he got spotted by Tomska during Summer in the City with his camera. 

But anyway, after we talked all the way into the main hall he got surrounded by a few fans wanting autographs, photos and other things of the such. So I let him be and made my way to another panel about the new Youtube layout.

Something I actually noticed during this panel is that the Youtube staff presenting the panel were getting slowly bashed by the Youtubers present about how they have lost a lot of their traffic because of the new system put in place on Youtube. I won't get into that, but I was able to make a few friends who were Youtubers there. 

After this panel, the big event happened where a star studded cast of people from Youtube came and did a panel on the main stage, asking questions that the series "Becoming Youtube" poked questions at.

I'm kinda slowly losing the amount of detail I'm putting into this it seems, so I'll be quick and briefly explain the rest of the night.

When Day Turns into Night

Julia, her friends and I all stayed to watch a couple of the final live performances and made our way to the bar. This was quite a fun part as a few Youtubers and many of the event attendees had arrived. 

We had a few drinks and before you knew it everyone was gone. I sadly parted ways with everyone and made my way home for a good night sleep.

Moral of the Story

I'll say that I had a wonderful experience at Summer in the City. Even though I could only go for one day, I made lots of new friends, got to meet some brilliant Youtubers and learn some valuable information.

I would totally advice you to go to Summer in the City next year. It's a blast for anyone who goes :-).

Anyway yeah. That is my big long post about the Summer in the City experience over. I'll catch you later. Live long and prosper or something like that :-D.

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RANDOM VIDEO TIME!!!