WUMF: June 2013 Edition

Another month, another WUMF

Obligatory YouTube update

So, far, I’ve made a whopping $1.55   YAY!  

At this point, I am spending more money than I am making on the effort.   I am still working to pinpoint what I can do to increase traffic, outside of spending more money.    Is my presence on YouTube unknown?  Does my content suck?  Am I just not doing anything interesting?   Not sure.  As a YouTuber, or potential YouTuber, your mileage may vary.    

My videos with the most views were ones where I was unable to play a game due to technical issues with recording the video and what sucks is I spent $50 on a game I can’t record.  Which, had I know I couldn’t record it, I wouldn’t have bought it for Windows.  Granted, we’re still only talking 2000+ views. 

I enjoy playing video games and I like to have fun.  Maybe people don’t want to listen to me talk while I play.  Maybe I should focus on just presenting game play.   Yet, if I just produce the content and don’t inject personality into it, is there a point?  I’d basically be making money off of other’s work.    I wouldn’t be bringing anything new to the table.   What I need is some objective opinions about my work… but that means views.  You know what that means?  It’s a pity party and I want you all to come commiserate with me.

The Birds

Not one, not two, but four birds tried to commit suicide in front of my car this morning.  What the hell?  Not to mention, yesterday, on the way to dinner, I nearly saw one bite it on the front end of a truck at an intersection.

Why do they insist on hanging out on the roads or flying low.  THEY HAVE WINGS, GODAMMIT!  They can fly higher than the telephone wires.  They don’t need to be doing Death Star trench runs on PA highways.

Last of Us

OK, I think I know my YouTube problem.  I suck at games.  This is probably one of the most anticipated games this year and I’ve played all of 15 minutes of it.  Furthermore, I dropped $100 on a video capture device to record PS3 play but I can’t do stealth worth a damn.   At one point, I actually picked up a bottle and chucked it at a guy’s head by accident.   The game is also very slow to start, disguising the early action as a tutorial.  

However, my game time is limited because my kid has been up later due to it being summer.   When she goes to bed, I’m ready to go, too.  

Cabin in the Woods

I was hesitant to want to watch this because I didn’t think I would like it.   First of all, the trailer gave away the basic plot, which was a bit disappointing.  I usually would kill to see anything Wheddonesque but I was a not feeling this.  Then I went and spoiled the rest of the movie by reading the plot.

I found the answer though.  Watch this in a group… on someone’s back porch during Summer… while drinking alcohol.   It was a great time and I enjoyed the film.  It redeemed itself because it wasn’t trying to disguise itself as a horror movie.  It was an open faced cliché.   The fact that I could pick out so many references and a few that almost slipped by was hilarious.

Design It - The Westeros League

I finally got around to putting up my first “Design It” video.  With the 3^rd season of Game of Thrones starting this weekend, I needed to hurry and get these up.

These are different than the regular game play videos.  I do not have the ability, yet, to record my desktop (Windows 8) with FRAPS.  Therefore, I have to download all the images from the sites and add them to the Windows Live Movie Maker Project as stills.   Then, I can adjust their timed length, add transitions and animations bridging two images together.   After that, I can add in the music and save the video.  Then I have to go back and record the commentary with Sound Recorder in chunks and splice them into a new project with the saved video as a clip.

Because of the time constraints, I have to somewhat plan my commentary in order to hit my marks and not go over on time.

In all, a three minute video can take an hour or two to produce.

It might be a great way to reach your audiences but there are some manual hang-ups I have work through.  

In any case, here is my first effort at the “Design It” series.   I am also going to post this on the Store blog as well.

The Design It Series - The Westeros League #1
The Storm's End Baratheons

The AngryCast update #2 - Mongo Smashes and Build It

Since the last update, I’ve been busy with recording and editing.   I managed to put together two more videos for the Minecraft series.  This brings the total up to 10.  Granted, I am still only releasing one a week.  

Part 3 - Arrow to the Knee

Part 4 - Minecraft Part 4 - Inane Ramblings of a Reluctant House Builder

I’ve also posted the last Build It video for work I did on a Multiplayer Server that appears to have gone dark.   It was a project that granted me Builder status on the server and gave me creative control.   Unfortunately, the footage is quite bad and I admit I had to make do with what I had.  At the end, there were a lot of problems with trying to record there.  There was some griefing of the landscape and missing chunks that didn’t make for some great backgrounds.

The Cult of the Creeper

And as if I didn’t have enough going on in that realm, I just got the latest SimCity title and began doing some recording of that playthrough.    For anyone who has considered doing this kind of work, believe me, you find it hard to come up with commentary on a game that pretty much makes you wait for things to happen.  I hated having to do edits to the flow because the soundtrack is pretty good.  Unfortunately, I said a lot of stupid things.  More than I usually do, so I had to do a lot of cutting.   I’ve also enabled longer videos so it ended up being over thirty minutes. 

Part 1 - Shatner You Fabulous Bastard

So, come on by, and see how I'm doing.  I know.  It's bad.  ;)

The AngryCast update - Mongo Smashes and Build It

Part 2 of the series, “Mongo Smashes: Minecraft” has been up on YouTube since last weekend and for the two of you who are actually wondering,  “How it’s going?” I’ll tell you.

Slow.

Mongo Smashes: Minecraft Part 2
Hole in the Wall

As a new YouTuber, I do what everyone does; watch the ticks slowly go up by one each day.

Some days I wonder:

“Did I add to that?” 

“Did the number change?”

“Should I make more?”

Well, the answer to number three is, of course you make more.  I have five more episodes ready to go.  This experiment is only a failure if we give up.  We’re still only at $37 in costs. The path to Internet infamy was not done simply by Harlem Shaking it.  We're looking for sustained interest, here, not overnight sensation.

So, expect Part 3 to be up this weekend, along with at least one more “Build It” video.  Here is the latest:

Build It: Modern Empire Logo

The Beacon Shrine Part 3

The last part of the Beacon Shrine build is now up on YouTube.

It took forever to edit and post.  Here’s the breakdown of how that worked.

I recorded all of the footage President’s Day weekend using FRAPS, which I purchased. 

Then, I edited each episode down to length using Windows Live Movie Maker.  The first was about five minutes and the next two clocked in at 14 minutes and change. 

Then, I added in narration using Windows Sound Recorder.  After that was done, I saved it all into WMV format and then opened a new Windows Live Movie Maker (WLMM) project and dropped music in from MachinimaSound.

Total financial burden to produce YouTube videos to date:  $37.

Pros:

• Cheap
• Fun
• Creative

Cons:

• Cheap
• Time Consuming
• Frustrating
• Resource heavy

I used cheap twice because for some reason, my videos don’t have the same quality as others I’ve seen.   I haven’t figured out if it’s my FRAPS record settings or me continually making the project into a video file in order to add another layer of audio.   In any given project, WLMM only lets you add in one separate audio track.

I know a lot of other YouTubers use FRAPS to record Minecraft but not sure if they use WLMM to edit and post.  I just saw Sony Vegas 12 on Amazon for $60.  That would push my budget for an unproven venture to just about $100.  May have to mull that one over.

The other frustrating thing is that it takes forever to work in WLMM.  Sometimes it gets hung up and I have to wait for it to stop idling.   The conversion to a video file is also tedious and posting to YouTube could take a couple of hours at least.   I’ve been up late, set a video to publish and went to bed.  Then, finished off annotations and descriptions in the morning.

Now, my biggest problem is doing the actual content.  In my previous post, I stated I had a backlog of footage to edit and post.  I have three episodes done and won’t have to record new ones to work on until almost April.   I left off after recording for one day and now I have to look at the footage to see where the hell I was when I was playing.  I did some stuff on my own and recorded it for another video and I don’t remember the narrative I was working on at this point.

Also, it seems that the server I was playing on is possibly shutting down.   I can understand.  It takes money and time to run a server.   From what I gathered these were high school kids, so as the weather gets nicer, they probably have less time to devote to it.  Sucks that I donated $10 to the server and then they started experiencing issues and possibly shutting down a month later.   I’ll remember that next time I’m on one.

Until then, I will keep going, tweaking the process and letting you know because I know you’re all just at the edge of your seats on this stuff.  ;)

The Beacon Shrine Part 2 and Mongo Smashes Episode 1

Anticipation is not something I’m good with, folks.   I’ve been sitting on at least two projects that are ready to go.  Well.  They are ready as they’ll ever be.

Last post, I talked about the jump to YouTube and with that I posted the first “Build It” video.  The second is now up on The Angry Cast channel.  I have one more left to edit and a surprise add on, as well.   Meanwhile, I’ve been recording footage for the “Mongo Smashes _____” series and one episode is in the can.  I don’t want to release it until I’ve finished the first Build It project.

Why?

Well, for one, I did the first video on President’s Day.  The second went up this past weekend.  That’s five days in between.   I want to have some level of consistency with releasing videos as to not build expectations… I know… Like there is any, right?  Still, when I first started the blog back in 2008, I posted five entries a week.  That lasted all of two months and then I backed down to three a week, sometimes less.   I don’t want to hit a deadline, just to hit a deadline.  My schedule isn’t set and I play when I can.  Editing sometimes takes hours, if not days.  I don’t want to post all I have, now and then go three weeks with nothing.  

The second issue is that the Build It series takes far longer to produce.     Me just playing a video game, badly, is fairly easy.    But to record a build, edit it, narrate it, add sound, and publish takes time and I’ve got footage for one more section of the Shrine I did, plus a walkthrough of the other buildings I did for the Modern Empire server.  I want to space those out along with regular videos. 

In essence, I’m creating a backlog of footage, so I can use a timed release method for publishing.   Slow and steady, folks.  It’s one of the rules I have set down for myself.

The others being:

Have fun or don’t do it. 

Fail early.  Fail often.

Put some time into it.   Add sound and titles.

Don’t be afraid to record lots and edit out the horrible parts where you ramble or derp.

With that, I give you Part 2 of the Beacon Shrine Build It Series.

The Angry Cast

It’s official!  I have launched myself into new self serving, egotistical, “look at me” heights.  I’m on YouTube.

The AngryCast made its debut this month with a couple of test videos, an ad for the upcoming series, and the first in a series of videos showcasing my lack of building skills in Minecraft.  The kicker?  You get to hear my voice.  Shudder.  Well, actually, in the first video, you can barely make me out, but it’s there.

 

Why am I torturing you with this?  Well, as the ever enterprising entrepreneur, I thought it was time to explore a new avenue and build the brand.   OK, Let’s face it.  It’s about money.  LOL.

When I first started the blog it was a war cry.  It was rage against the machine that is Hollywood.  An idea was formed for a stupid novelty website that would provide people with bad advice in the monosyllabic mumblings of myself as Mongo.  And when neither the capital or tech know how was available to realize that dream, I shelved AskMongo.    I wasn’t about to shell out money to domain sit while I got older and still no closer to designing a website. 

But, something snapped and I started writing posts about how bad Hollywood had become and it turned into  this blog.  Then, I got the idea to maybe sell merchandise for the blog and if that proved profitable, I would revisit the website idea and use the merchandise to fund it.  But that didn’t work either.  So, AskMongo crawled back into his hole.   Then, I started thinking of my rants in graphical terms and came up with the idea to sell t-shirts with pop culture parodies and an homage to my childhood cinema memories.   So,  I launched a shirt site and separate blog to cover that.

That blog, still exists today as a place where I can showcase my work and talk about how you can do what I’ve done, only better. 

Now, I’m taking it one step further.  YouTube videos to cover it all.

Of course, you know, this means I will have even less time on my hands.  Here’s why.  Once again, these stories are for your benefit.   Use me as an example of what not to do.

I am the lazy and cheap ass entrepreneur.  My design business costs me all of $50 a year and manages to bring in about a 25,000% ROI.  Trust me.  That’s not a lot.   It pays for my mortgage, a week’s worth of vacation, and Christmas. 

But still, it doesn’t hurt.  I put in maybe 10 hours a week of work towards it.  (I know.  It shows.)   So, I splurged and bought FRAPS to record videos.  I can record my desktop as well as games.  Yes, Minecraft.  LOL.  There will be others as time allows. But I also want to do older games.  Games I loved back in the days of MS-DOS.   However, I spent all of $37 dollars on this new media empire.  The microphone I got when I purchased a replacement PS3 for $50.  Windows Live Movie Maker came with my laptop. 

And as far as music is concerned, I’ve been sticking with Royalty Free music that is covered under the Creative Commons License.  That means you can use any music listed under this license for whatever purpose, including monetized YouTube videos and you are only obligated to give credit in the description. 

I will say that I can understand why it takes so long for videos to get produced. I spent a good 12 hours putting together a five minute video.  That included eight hours of actual in-game recording, two hours of video editing, one hour of narration recording, and one hour of uploading to YouTube with tagging and descriptions.

I’m still getting my legs under me and working out the bugs of the process.  For one, Windows Live Movie Maker is free and you get what you pay for in terms of quality.  It’s not bad, but there are times where the application chokes under the pressure of all that data.   It corrupts clips just to spite me, which cannot be compressed into a video file format, forcing me to do it in layers.  Many, many layers.   The different settings for each layer get confusing and in the first video, I had to go back and redo parts which led me to forget to turn the music volume down when I added the track back into the project.   It can be really frustrating to do all this at 11:30 at night. 

I’m planning on four main series of videos with no real schedule.

Mongo Smashes _____ (Insert Game Title):  Basically, me playing a game, badly,  and hopefully being interesting. Minecraft to start, more to come.

Build It Series:  Minecraft specific videos that will involve me giving a play by play narration of building anything in Minecraft, some items will be comment driven.

Rants:  Sometimes in games there are periods where you have to do menial tasks that take a long time.  In Minecraft it might be gathering material or exploring.  In these cases, I will use the time to just rant.  Think of it as a blog post set to music and video.    I will probably even read or expand on some of my favorite posts in this series.

Design It:  This is the shirt side of the video series as I give showcases or walkthroughs of designs I’ve done.

For those of you looking to get into this business, I will keep you posted on how the process is going.  I haven’t monetized the videos, yet.  I need more of a following.   But, with a little luck and creativity, I might be able to pull it off.  We’ll see.

Come take a look, subscribe, drop me a comment, and I’ll keep making more.