I’m pleased to announce that I’ve finally completed the introductory video for my new steampunk-centric YouTube channel, Steampunk Desperado. Lots of people do video-based book and movie reviews but I’m not aware of any that focus on the steampunk genre. So this is naturally a good niche for me. That said, I will sometimes review works of a more general nature, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. Check it out here.
These days it seems like everybody and his little brother want to become YouTube personalities. Too bad Andy Warhol didn’t live to see his 1968 prophecy come true: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”* Perhaps it’s not coincidental that 15 minutes is the max length for “non-verified” accounts – not that it’s that big of a hurdle to get verified so you can do longer ones.
Having lost interest in the traditional diversion of network television, I currently follow dozens of channels on YouTube. Although these folks make it look easy, it’s not – at least if you want to do a good job. Anyone who’s ever spoken to an audience knows it can be challenging to keep your focus and speak extemporaneously. Why not just read from a script? Because unless you’re a great actor, doing so makes for a lifeless delivery. I always thought I was good at public speaking, but in reviewing my early recordings I realized that I said “um” about 500 times over the course of 15 minutes. After several more takes I got my “um” countdown to 6 or 7. Even so, I rambled at times which is where video editing came in handy.
Speaking of editing, since I’m a dyed-in-the-wool do-it-yourselfer, my next step was to acquire and learn to use a video editing application. At least it was inexpensive since the premier video editor on Linux (the OS I use for almost everything) is the free open-source program KDEnlive (pronounced kay-den-live.) The version I’m using, 18.08.02, has a few glitches but I’ve figured out how to work my way around them.
My wife and fellow steampunk Arlys was patient enough to critique my early attempts and one of her comments was that they weren’t visually interesting enough. Therefore I decided to add overlay images to illustrate the books and concepts I was discussing. This isn’t all that difficult, except that I got carried away and ended up using over 20 of them. That was time-consuming, but there’s an added benefit. After about 15 takes of this video to finally get to “almost” perfect, it was nice to have the option of adding last-minute corrections and additions in text format.
As frustrating as it was at times, I’ve enjoyed the challenge of producing this video. I have completed four more in raw, unedited format, so expect to see new content soon. Check out my Introduction to Steampunk, and please like and subscribe!