Tag Archives ⇒ video

VYou.com – Video Responses To Life's Questions

· Brandon Hann

In the NEVER-ENDING quest to socialize online, expand your reach as a blogger or to become an internet star, VYou brings together the desire to post videos online with that of providing opinions on everyday questions from everyday people.

The premise is simple…ask a question of someone and get a video response back and/or find questions already being asked and create your own video response. In either case, VYou is providing a large database of searchable answers to topics of interest. As a user of some other ‘answer’ sites like Yahoo! Answers or Answers.com, I actually find this service to be pretty damn cool. While most of the questions I’ve watched so far seem to be merely opinions, there are a few people who consider themselves experts in various topics and do provide detailed responses.

Features

Just like any respectable social networking platform out there, VYou offers the ability to follow other users, create status updates and link your account to Facebook and Twitter. However, the entire service is all about videos. This means that instead of posting savvy one-liner status updates to your wall, you’re actually posting videos. You can no longer hide behind your keyboard!

On a technical side, VYou is highly portable in that you can embed your videos and/or entire profile just about anywhere. There doesn’t appear to be an official WordPress plugin, but given that the videos are embedded using a simple iFrame, there really doesn’t need to be one. What’s really cool is that because these videos are short and to the point, you can embed them directly into your articles without having your visitors sit through any fluff or advertising. As an example, I’ve posted a video answer here for your viewing pleasure.

That’s pretty much it. 🙂

My Two Cents

I have yet to record my first video, but so far I like the idea of this site. As an example of a serious use of this site, I was thinking how cool would it be for politicians or other people with clout to be able to sit down and record a series of short video answers to questions that all us regular people send in. Google+ has Hangouts, but it can be a process to set everything up and even when it’s all live, you still only get 9 people max in the session.

Celebrities can use the service to reach out to their fans. While Twitter and Facebook offer ways to do the same, the video response is far more engaging than simple tweets and Wall updates.

American Idol

· Brandon Hann

I just watched the first episode of this year’s season and I always ask myself why this show is still so popular? I mean, doesn’t having a new idol each year diminish the value of the previous one just a bit more? What ever happened to musicians becoming big and famous naturally rather than fast forwarded to the forefront only to be quickly replaced and forgotten year after year? At least the Olympics let their winners keep their glory for four years!

Anyway, the point to this was really to say that I never really watch the show in it’s entirety. I just watch the auditions because I find it funny when people who have no talent actually think they do. Also, they always throw in those touching stories that sometimes bring your own life into perspective and make you realize that no matter what your problems are, there’s always someone who has something worse going on.

No matter how many stories from American Idol I watch, none compare to that of Sherman Pore. I’ll never forget how this 64-yr old man got a petition signed by over 350 people and then got an exception approved for his appearance on the show due to the current age limit of 28.

Here’s the video and if you want to read more on this story and what happened afterward, this blog entry has it all. By the way, Sherman made an album shortly after his American Idol audition which can be found at Amazon.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wluuaS89z6M

I wanted to summarize the aforementioned blog in case you don’t want to read the whole thing!

Sherman Pore had been told by many people that he had a great singing talent and that he should do something with it. Out of modesty or lack of self-confidence, he didn’t pursue it. Then, people started telling him he should try out for American Idol and of course were astonished at the age limit of 28 for the show. When these people agreed that this was unfair, Sherman asked them if they’d sign a petition saying so.

Sherman’s “lady love” of 20 years had come down with cancer and this little project of obtaining the petition was something shared by the two all the way to her final days. When Sherman got to the audition, he mentioned that having met his goal of getting on the show had eased his love’s passing and “made it a little softer”.

He explained to the panel of judges (along with guest judge Olivia Newton John) that his lady love had passed on Friday. This was two days before the audition and he wanted to sing her a song. He began with “You Belong To Me” and blew it away!

He brought Paula to tears and even received a personal comment from Simon, saying he was a class act. Simon then asked him to come over and shake his hand. Paula and Olivia hugged him and you can just feel the emotion in the air. Watch the video to see.

At the end, Sherman makes a point of saying “I won. I am a winner.”

New Years at California Adventure

· Brandon Hann

So in my attempt to celebrate the New Year at Disneyland, I was promptly given this notice when pulling into the parking structure at the resort:

Disneyland is closed

So, we all ended up at California Adventure instead, but it ended up being one of the best New Years I’ve ever had! I went with a friend from work and her family. Unfortunately, my girlfriend was not able to make it, but I still had fun. I couldn’t take many pictures or videos because all I had with me was my iPhone and it was way too dark, but I managed to catch the countdown and a minute or so after midnight.

Here’s the vid:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lcw4ro_zts

My first YouTube video

· Brandon Hann

Since YouTube has yet to index my video, I’m posting a link here for you to enjoy. So the story behind this video montage is simple. All my friends usually ask me why I’m such an Elvis fan and I really never know how to explain it. I generally ramble on about how the first compact disc I ever heard was an Elvis cd and how I was introduced to his legendary life by way of books from the library when I was younger, but I never really capture the essence of what it is.

I decided to compile a series of clips that I think really captures this essence so when anyone asks this question again, I can just show them the video. With that said, check and out and let me know what you think.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qd4eVE510U

If the video disappears from YouTube, I’ll try and repost it here directly. Also, stay tuned for other vids I may post because I have a lot of ideas in my head.