TBK tells- The making of Chester’s House, part one

 
 

                   Chester- ready to show you around his house!

My Pinoy friends used to criticise me for paying so much to have my videos edited (about 18 bd or 2,712 Php or £ 42) but having taken over the editing I can tell you he earnt every penny! 

I have just spent probably two days working in a 5-minute Vlog! First you have to shoot the vlog- sounds simple but you need to eliminate background noise (the builders next door and trikes going past) whilst keeping the sounds you need (Chester panting and barking). Then you need to check you have sufficient lighting (the lights keep failing in Chester’s house and having filmed the kitchen I realised it was too dark to see- hence having to make part two!).

  It took ages to get a shot of Chester looking out of the window that was in Focus

Sometimes when you play the video back you realise parts are out of focus. If it is at the start or end of a clip, it’s easy to cut it out but if it's in the middle you might lose the narration. There are ways around these issues. Photos can be cropped and made brighter, the sounds can be removed, and a voiceover added. If you have no sounds its boring so you can add a soundtrack (music or sound effects) and there are now hundreds of websites offering these (like the 2 barks at the start – played twice to make 4).

              One of the free sound effect sites that Luis introduced me to

However, you have to get the volume right- too loud and it covers the voiceover and too quiet and it cannot be heard. Finally, filming is finished (“Never work with animals or children” is the old adage and its very true- trying to get Chester to look up, go down the stairs on cue etc. added another layer of complexity) and we transfer the memory card to the laptop to Edit. The first time I did that for Chester’s Vlog I forgot to copy the clips from the card to the laptop and when I went back later to continue editing (without the card which I had wiped clean) there was nothing there! Back to square one!

    This caused me to panic and message Luis- "HELP!"

Editing the vlog is another art in itself. It helps of you have shot the video as you know what order it’s in and where titles are needed sound effects and additional pictures. For Chester I used to give him a storyboard (a word document listing the clips and photos in the right order and suggesting which photos are used where). 

           Making a simple Vlog- just one layer with the sound below

You have to line up each clip, photo, sound in special software and then constantly review to ensure it’s not too long, it’s in focus, the sound is clear, it is properly lit, there is no background noise etc. The titles and subtitles have to be selected and added, and slowly, second by second the Vlog is built. Above is an example from Chester’s Vlog and below is a more complex example that Luis sent me:

Then the moment of truth- the vlog is rendered (making it suitable to play but freezing the laptop so you can do nothing else but clean your camera equipment and put it away). Some of the videos I sent Chester to edit previously had maybe an hour of video clips to be edited into one 8-minute Vlog and the rendering would happen throughout the process slowing everything down!

              The completed Vlog is uploaded to You Tube eventually

The next moment of truth is once you export the completed Vlog as an MP3 file and then upload it to YouTube. That last part can take an hour or so depending on your internet speed. Here in Puerto Princesa, I am with Globe home Wi-Fi, and it is very slow. For example, last night I was feeling very happy to be uploading the "Chester's house tour" vlog the night before it was due to be premiered! Then I went off to wash up while it uploaded. I came back an hour later to find my internet connection had crashed and I had to start all over again. I remembered thinking “really” when Chester the Hooman came up with 101 reasons why the Vlog would not be ready on time (internet outage, Brown out, fire down the road!) They say that when you learn to do a task yourself you understand all the issues others face. Finally, you get the notification that the Vlog is uploaded and next you have to publicise it!

   An example of the email we send out weekly to advertise the Vlogs and Blogs

I use various ways to publicise the Vlog- I have an email group I write to with the link (now up to 90 people!) but I also use this for the Blog. We upload them on different days (Blog Friday- the day off in Bahrain and Vlog on a Monday- when people go back to work around the world except parts of the Middle East and are looking for distractions).

   

                            I also advertise the new Vlogs on my personal Facebook page

                         
            The advert and links on The British Kabayan Facebook page

Secondly TBK has its own Facebook page so I will put a link there and then once the Vlog is published; I can embed it in a Blog like this. We also give a link with the Vlog to the relevant Blog, so we boost both our Blog readership and our You Tube subscribers. If someone I know is in a Vlog I will send them the link as well by email, WhatsApp or Facebook. Generally, the more people in the Vlog the more people will watch it. For example, Jhoanna’s Birthday vlog by Luis which had 95 viewers.

                     Jhoanna's SUPRISE 22nd Birthday Party Vlog 

Other factors to consider in making your Vlog seen by a lot of people is an eye catching (maybe controversial – but I have been warned to be careful by my Pinoy friends as one does not want to upset the wrong people here!) title like:

 

 "El Nido: a paradise no more", seen by 251 people so far, my most watched Vlog!

The opening clip is also crucial to grab interest, as Luis explained to me.

           The TBK Tours logo that Chester created for my Vlogs

Previously my tour vlogs started with a cartoon car and a map – the aim now is to have something really eye catching at the start. Most people spend hours scrolling through their Facebook feed, Instagram, You Tube, and other social media and will only stop scrolling if they see something they really like. Once you have their attention you can go back and tell the story. So, in Chester’s House video we started with a cute picture of him and then had the waking up scene (TJ’s idea) and the barking the time (which came from a conversation with Chester the Hooman) and then we went around the house. 

    Special thanks to Jhoanna who took many of the photos in the Vlog and Blog

Back in Bahrain my ILM classes I used a variety of Media to get the message over (students get very bored sitting still listening to a lecture so we would have work in pairs, syndicate group work, experiential learning exercises, etc. to break up the monotony.) 

So, it’s the same concept with the Vlog and the 8 mins (the max people will watch a Vlog usually) must be broken into parts. Thus, in Chester’s house vlog we had the bedrooms upstairs with me talking as we looked at the pictures, then a bit of activity, cuteness and movement with Chester going down the stairs, and then we looked around at the bottom of the stairs.  

     An example from the web of how I will start the Vlog of Chester's first swim

The good news is that after only 3 weeks editing my own Vlogs I have started to think like Luis! I know when we go to Sabang for one of our next Chester Vlogs (“Chester goes to the seaside!” the opening shots will be of Chester going into the sea for the first time then we will go back to the Journey there and the hotel we are staying in and so on.

They say that "First impressions " are very important (I used to teach people about going for Interview and tell them they only had a few seconds to make a good first impression (appearance, smile, handshake and introducing themselves). The same applies to the Vlog but also with the Vlog the ending is very important- will they hit that subscribe button? Will they hit the notification bell and come back next week. 

           One of the logos I usually put at the end of my Blogs, vlogs and emails

There are thousands of Vloggers out there and only some I watch regularly:

• ·       Khalid Al Meri from UAE with 1.6 million subscribers

·       Drew Binsky with 3.28 million subscribers

·     

• ·       Growing up without Borders - 94,800 subscriber

                      They were recently in Bahrain!

• ·       The Hungry Syrian Wanderer with 4.8 million subscribers

                                His Tagalog is so much better than mine!

 Here in Palawan the most popular Vlogger is Geo Ong who seems to break all the rules above (his vlogs are often about 20 to 40 minutes long for example) and yet he has 3.1 million viewers and makes a fortune from Merchandise and is mobbed wherever they dive into the water around Palawan to film.

         Thanks to Luis for sharing Geo Ong with me as part of my Vlog training 

Chester, the Hooman, made me some business cards and I give these out to anyone who asks for my details (bank, printing shop, filming at a market etc.) and if anyone asks what I do I tell them to Google “The British Kabayan”, but it’s a very slow process.

Please note this is my old card and I no longer have the Bahrain WhatsApp number

Everyone in the Philippines wants to be a Tik Tok superstar, or a Videoke champion or a vlogger- and they think it's an easy way of making money from Product endorsements, free hotels and so on. But it’s not like that in the real world. It costs me a lot of money for the equipment (lighting, camera, lenses, Boya microphones, Drone, go pro etc. and with only 170 subscribers (today, hurray!) I do not make any money- You Tube only pay out if you have 1,000, 000 subscribers!

However, all my life I have been a teacher and told stories and now I have retired I am enjoying sharing those, and educating people in a fun way, as well as developing myself and at age 62 learning new skills and pushing myself out of my comfort zone

  

            Maybe you CAN teach an old dog new tricks - or a young dog to Pray!

All I ask the next time you are scrolling through You Tube stop when you see one of the TBK vlogs that you spare a thought for the hard work that went into it.

 Hopefully after an hour writing this my latest Vlog should have uploaded. You can see it by clicking the picture below!

                                             Chester's first Vlog!

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Until the next Blog or Vlog this is TBK signing out, Ingats!