Recently I had the good fortune to run into a local hero of mine, who through a long and lovely conversation is now a new client.  Her violin doubles as a fiddle.  Her violin is a 1777 Vincenzo Panormo.  Jen attended Julliard and she her Vincenzo have played shows from Carnegie Hall, to Peru and Turkey-and so many other places.  I am not a huge violin guy.  I love classic music but still…not really a violin guy. But to see Jen play is not like watching anyone else.  There is something other worldly and unmistakably mysterious happening there. What I also love love love about Jen’s work with her music is that she isn’t playing within the boundaries of classical music that one would presume.  She’s classically trained and has played in grand theatres…but she is equally at home playing on the floor of huts in 3rd world countries.  She plays free local shows where she fiddles and jams with local musicians.  One youtube video shows her fiddling while simultaneously hammering the kick drum on a set.  She has participated in numerous humanitarian causes, using her violin to bring people together and create community.  I could go on and on.  But needless to say I am quite excited about generating some hopefully wonderful video for her upcoming performances and tours.

Recently TEDX contacted Jen for a shoot here in our area.  The video, to me, is stunning.  The lighting exquisite. The cuts and the flow that TEDX did on this piece are superb. I hope to one day be good enough to capture something as well as they did with my camera. But the music and the way Jen plays is the most amazing part.  I have posted the full video here…and then below it my treatment of it to specifically advertise for a local show that she is doing.  The full version below really is worth the watch.

I challenged myself to keep my edit down to 30 seconds, to try to have the text punctuated by the music and focus on using the open spaces so they fit naturally into the viewers field of view without interfering with the enjoyment of the brief glimpse of Jen’s craftwomanship. Here is my treatment…nothing too fancy but here it is…

 

Anyway…

Choosing a Thumbnail for Your Screenshot…and other text!

See that text above that is underneath the video I made and uploaded to Vimeo?  What I learned is that the file name you give the file while saving on your hard drive is what will appear not only on Vimeo, but also in locations like…say…when you embed the video in a wordpress posting…or on FB.  My original title read “JenVideoRev4”.  And you know…that just doesn’t sound that as good or informational as “Jennifer Curtis Violin at Duke University 2/6/16”.  So, I used the file name to double as informational content for viewers…especially since the video is marketing that performance piece specifically.

Pay attention to screen shot thumbnails.  Vimeo allows you to choose any frame you wish to be what people see when the video is parked.  So again…if you are making a video that is promoting a show or a location, you can “set up the shot” to help do passive marketing to show viewers-who may not even watch the video-information that may still use.

My screen shot for this says “The Road From Transylvania Home”…because that is the title or the umbrella that most of her work is under at this time, as she focuses on the work of Giorgio Enescu…a Romanian composer.

Different Platforms=Different Displays

On FB, the blue lettering is at the bottom of the screen though…but here on WordPress it embeds differently and the blue lettering is obscuring my efforts.  Lack of standardization is something to ponder.  Will more views come forth on Youtube, or FB, or Vimeo?  When choosing a screenshot for parked video…if you have informational text, it’s worth pondering.

Quick Way to Change Embedded Video Screen Size On WordPress Blogs

When I embedded the codes from Youtube for video #1 and from Vimeo for video #2 they came with presets.  Initially the Youtube video loaded in with presets at

width=”640″ height=”360″

My Vimeo vid was way smaller and didn’t want it to be.  So, if you ever run into this…and you want your screen to be larger for the video just go into the HTML tab and find the width and height and change-o presto.  Mind the aspect ratio.  You can’t just make the numbers whatever you want.  But if you are brand new to this…at least you now know that width=”640″ height=”360″ gets you a pretty nice size.  When you click back to VISUAL it should be there in the new and improved size.  Don’t forget to check the Preview tab to make sure all is well before publishing.