Like what you see? Think you know a scarier video? Think these videos are lame? Let me know in a comment!

10. Prodigy – Breath

Stylised really well this video sets the image for the band perfectly, scary, weird and a little bit creepy. You might not think this video is particularly scary at first but what could be scarier that finding a crocodile/alligator under your bed? There are a lot of flashing lights going on ha let you see short bursts of what is going on but never the full picture. The only thing I think lets this video down is the production value, it’s a little too shiny. If it had been shot VHS like they did for “Take me to the hospital” I think it could have looked a little scarier.

9. Marilyn Manson – Beautiful People

The problem with Marilyn Manson is that his videos aren’t scary, they are “shocking” designed to make you feel a certain way, but not actually very deep. That kinds sounds harsh, but I haven’t see a video with plot yet. Designed as a satirical look on “beauty” this video barrages the viewer with images of vulgar and “freakish” looking objects and people that one might not deem attractive. But with out getting too political the video has so firkin cool camera action going on! I really like the bit when he turns to the camera… Ok that’s a little vague, but with all the strange magnification gear he has strapped to his chest when he turns to the camera the face is magnified and it re frames the shot in one simple movement. I just like it. There are a lot of camera effects like blurring in and out that am it seem sort of dreamy (or nightmarey).

8. Rammstein – sonner

A strange take not he Snow White and the 7 dwarves tale this video has the band down a mine searching for gold for their mistress. When this video starts it’s hard to tell if it’s in colour of black and white because the scene is so devoid of life/colour. Not to say it’s devoid of activity, the band are mining and hammering away in sync like mindless zombies. The story has the band seeming to actually get rid of Snow White as to rid themselves of their ruthless queen but not able to bring themselves to kill her they surround and drug her while she is asleep. They place her in a glass coffin and rest her atop a mountain in pride of place. But they do not stop mining. Full of strange imagery and that giant Snow White (as opposed to small dwarves) makes this a scary story of master/slave relations.

7. The prodigy – Voodoo People (pendulum Remix)

The most cringe worthy video I think I’ve ever seen, ok it’s not that “scary” in the conventional sense of the word but jeez, people running blind folded, hands tied behind their backs full speed into… what ever is there. Makes me cringe >_< As with most Pendulum videos there is a sinister gangster type eliminate to who ever is organising this “race”. There is no clear goal or motive for this so the viewer is left to make their own mind up which makes things more sinister if you are that way inclined (like me).

6. Eminem – 3AM

A fairly eyry song the video for 3am has Eminem wondering some kind of hospital/asylum committing various foul deeds. the camera work and general artistic feel of this video make it quite unnerving.

5. System Of A Down – Spiders

Edging on fantasy this video reminds me of Labyrinth, the never ending story and the unusual settings brought to life by their creators vivid imagination. A strange living organic type of environment where you don’t know what is friend or foe makes you very cautious. There is an edge of unnatural technology and stone in the natural world which makes you wonder who put it there and where are they now?

4. Sepulrura – Ratamahatta

Stop motion is always freaky, the movement isn’t natural and the shapes are hint ad yet never seem to be exactly human. Not counting Wallace and Grommet of course <3. When the human characters look barely human what ever else is in the video looks even more demonic.

3. Ice cube & Dr Dre – Natural born killaz

Pure gangster violence with scary imagery never looked so… Scary. The song is about killing in cold blood and it’s vividly brought to life in the video designed to send a shiver down your spine. The victims in the video have their faces blurred out, which oddly seems to make it scarier. You don’t see their faces, you can’t accept them as “actors in a video” they become your mom, your dad, your best friend, they could be anyone. As well as killing the video is full of fire and other evil imagery, buildings on fire, skulls, and lots more. Strange camera work leaves ghostly images of the rappers laid onto of each other and makes their motions unnatural. I think it depends on your personal attitudes to how scary you find this video. I aint no natural born killer, I thinks it’s kinda spooky.

2. Aphex twin – Come to Daddy

*shiver* Watch it… you will see.

1. Michael Jackson – Thriller

Does this really need any introduction? Possibly the start of the music video this short movie terrified and thrilled audiences with it’s audacity at breaking the mould. One of the most memorable videos ever made with the most memorable dance sequence this video gets to number one not because it’s the scariest video ever but because of the production value, the theatrics and the pure awesome.

12. Oxide and Nutreno – Rap Dis
Just because its an awesome BRITISH rap video, so violent and awesomely stylized. How grimy can you get?

11. Ludacris – Roll out
This video is so colour full it’s ace. I love the big head effect they use on Ludacris, even though they probably didn’t need to. I was tempted to put up “Move bitch get out the way” but I think Roll out has a little more interesting a video (move bitch is way better song ayeah). Unfortunately the only video i could find on youTube had embedding disabled D: but check it out here

10. Snoop Dogg – Jin and Juice
This has to be here JUST for the intro, what else gives a snap shot of a young G’s life like this video?

9. Lil John – Real Nigga Roll Call
Had to put in a Lil John, and Real nigga roll call is an ace video, I love the random plot and the black background and heads rapping away.

8. Run DMC – Tricky

This video has one of the best ring tones on a helicopter phone ever. Another theatrical rap video as so many are, but pulled off with a certain panache that stays family friendly and humorous and yet still super cool.
Yet anoher non embedabel video D: Check it out here

7. Busta Rhymes – Gimmi some more
This surreal video makes Busta Rhymes stand out as a rapper. Not the stereotypical rap video it’s full of comic book, child like imagery that sets it apart from other videos.

6. Jay-Z – 99 Problems
This video is ripe with imagery, far too much to be able to go though in this blog, but you can really tell that a proper director has made this video. The video speaks for it’s self and the music compliments it well. This video is awesome.

5. Beasty Boys – Intergalactic
This video really is fantastic, I love when videos have plot to them. It’s so much more interesting seeing an artist expressing themselves than just harnessing an outlet to exploit something they already did. Who doesn’t love giant cardboard robots? and the dance/movement time lapse is fantastically unique and recognizable.

4. Eminem ft. Dr Dre – Guilty Conscience
This video plays really well on the split personality aspect of the two rappers appearing as the good and bad side of your “conscience”. The “bullet time” matrix effect with the freezing and camera spinning round looks really cool and is utilized really well. I think it’d be pretty cool to have Eminem and Dr Dre in your head… Man you’d become a rich rapper easy…

3. Limp Bizkit N2gether now
This video looks so friin cool, suits the song perfectly with it’s weird rap and strange video yet also being very stereotypically rap. If that made an sense. I love the use of the fish eye lens and the hall way with the conveyer belt floor moving them around it gives motion to the image even though the camera nor the surroundings are moving.

2. 2Pac – California Love
This video is amazing, the theatrics are hilarious and add to the scene in making this dirty rap video suite the dirty Dr Dre beat. Glorifying gangster hood as they wish to this video will always depict the era of rap from whence it came yet never age.

1. Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre – Up in smoke tour intro
Not strictly a rap video this is pretty much THE best rap video there is… Word.

Interlaced

6. Deinterlaced video
Interlacing for those that have never heard of it before is to do with your TVs cathode ray tube. Basically it shoots a ray of light at the front of the screen which changes colour as it scans across the screen. Unfortunately they found that by the time the ray had gotten across and down and across and down all the way to the end of the screen the first lines had lost colour. So they invented a second scan field. Now it scans one line, skips a line and then does the other till it hits the bottom and then goes back to the start to do it again filling in the missing lines which keeps the image bright all over. Clever really. When it comes to computers though its very different.

Deinterlaced

Computers use progressive scan where it does the whole image in one scan. It is recommended to deinterlace your video if it is for use on a computer. Have you ever watched a DVD on your computer and noticed that during fast action there are what appear to be strange lines? kinda like blurring? Well this is due to playing interlaced video on a progressive scan screen.

Visit www.100fps.com for some heavy interlacing tips

7. Embed your videos
Embed your latest videos in your blog or website automatically. YouTube has some hidden code that will let you embed latest videos as well as many third part plugins for blog sites like WordPress and blogger. Otherwise you can create a play list of all the videos you want to embed on your site then copy and paste the embed code for your play list. YouTube will help make your website look more interactive.
YouTube video embed wizard

8. Time your videos
Make your videos around 2-3 minutes long if this is your first time making video for YouTube. Watching some people talk on a webcam for 10 minutes can be very tedious and people wont be interested or see that hilarious moment that happened at 9:30 so just cut that bit out. Video blog editing has become very easy and “stylistic” to have one long clip that has been cut up to get rid of the mistakes and rubbish bits so don’t worry if you only have one shot to cut through (example here). Remember when you start cutting stuff up it doesn’t have to be in the same order anymore, move clips around and get the most effective effect. If your videos become more “plot” driven and you get a lot more good content after you have cut out the crap you can look to aiming at 7-8 minute videos. Be careful not to go over the 10 minute max though.

9. Fill in all the boxes
When you upload your video remember to fill in the description and key words if you ever want anyone to watch your video. Key words are very important as they will help people find your video when they search. It’s no good you having the best video of how to be awesome if you don’t have “best frikin video on how to be awesome” in the keywords somewhere. YouTube search can’t watch your video so it has no idea what its about, thats why the description/keywords is so important.

10. http://
Most importantly make sure the first thing in your description is http://www.dudeinadrama.com OR your website, which ever works best for you >_> <_<  BUT the http:// is the important part here, if you put a normal link in, it will look cool and all but no one will click it. Adding http:// makes your link into a hyperlink that will be clickable and by putting this in the first part of your description people will be able to go straight to your site with one click. People are fairly lazy you have ot make it easy for them

There’s my top 10 tips for making your videos more YouTube friendly
:3

For non HD content you should aim to have the resolution at 640×360 (16:9) or 480×360 (4:3). as recommended by youTube for smooth results.

2. Bit rates
The bit rate is how many bits there are in your video per second. It’s pretty easy to guess that the more bits her second the more detail and better quality the video will have. Unfortunately if you max this out you may fight that your video files are too large for upload to YouTube =[ as a suggestion aim for your bit rate to be around 6-8Mbps but try maxing it out as far as it will go and keeping under the file size restrictions.

3. Video Compression
Don’t upload uncompressed video, there is no real need and it will just take up unnecessary disk space and your files will be too big. Try using MPEG4(DivX, Xvid)/H.264 for the video and make sure your frame rate is corrected as discussed above. YouTube runs at 30fps (Frames Per Second), it shouldn’t matter what your video frame rate is but if you match this YouTube will have an easier job of making your video look good.

4. Recording Audio
As a note to recording your video, get the audio right at the start. If it’s too quiet your video will suck, try using a tie clip mic or shouting loudly at the camera if that’s what your using. I’ve used an external computer in another room with a long lead to a SM58 on a stand pointed at the subject before and then added the audio track to the video later. If you want your videos to have a high production value you need to make the audio top quality.

5. Audio compression
The use of high quality audio in YouTube videos is debatable. If you are going to upload HD quality video then shouldn’t you upload HD quality audio? But I’ve heard the same people who say to upload HD quality video saying to compress audio to MP3. The way I look at it, if the video is being watched on a 5.1 surround system with HDTV then HD sound would be useful, on a laptop with average quality speakers HD audio is pointless. For me I’d have to say HD video is a lot more noticeable than HD audio so I’d tend to drop the quality on the audio. MP3 or AAC formats will work fine. 44.1khz is CD sampling rate so that’s always a good guide to go on.

Stay tubed for Part.2!

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…Still with me? I’m hungry now >_>

This means you can use H.264 compression for your 3G mobile device videos as well as your HDDVD releases. It does a whole load of complicated calculations with pixels to make the files sizes smaller and more accurate. I don’t want to go in depth with these because unless you are planning to write your own video compression technique it will be lost on your or useless. Never the less I will provide links at the end of the blog to some sites explaining the heavier stuff for some further reading.

Here are some examples of H.264 usage that I borrows from the apple website

H.264 is the latest compression technique out there and is used in the new Quicktime, and DivX players as well as many other new technologies. It has been accepted as part of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) which have lead the standard for video compressions through out time.  Its where it’s at basically, and I’d recommend using it if you want to hang with the cool kids. Now actually making your videos look good and not take up half your hard drive with this compression technique is another story. As will all video compression you need to set the right aspect ratio, frame rates and video quality to get the balance just right. This I am going to talk about in my further blogs,

Also see…
www.vcodex.com/h264.html
Wikipedia

What made me laugh was in the second episode they introduced a new character, a sexy rogue. Obviously the next episode she was not available, probably nuking some noobs in BGs or something, so they got a guy in a wig, then at another point it was a totally different woman! You should NEVER let your cast get in the way of telling your story! Especial on the internet, and for comedic value think about maybe firing cast members to do this on purpose

Check they website out: www.herculeanproductions.com

Also the guys from Lonely Island had a similar issue in “The BU” Which contains Sarah Chalke who you may have seen in the popular TV series Scrubs! I know I was like “WTH!? HOW did they get her to do this!? xD”. But after the first episode she seems to disappear and is replaced again by a guy in a wig, then later on as a giant puppet. They even replaced her in the title sequence at one point but she does later on return to the series!

You can find The BU here at channel101.com or on YouTube.com

Some things to think about when choosing screen capture software are:

• Do you want full screen video capture?
• Do you want to capture only a specific window or area of the screen?
• Do you want to capture audio at the same time?
• Do you have anyway to edit it or does it need to have an editor with it?
• Do you want to zoom, annotate, highlight aspects of your capture and how will you do that?
• What format does the video need to be in? .mov .wmv .mpeg .swf .flv?
• What do you intend to capture?
• What quality does it need to be?

Check out the blog list here:

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/resources-for-video-blogging/

:3

Making video for TV and Film is a costly experience and there’s a lot of competition for a small sector so people give up easy. The internet is the same people but with an infinite broadcast capacity, and its so easy to get video on the internet you can’t help but have a go. For instance there are only so many 3 minute 30 slots for music videos in a day, a finite “inventory” for a music video channel (or any other channel for that matter) so competition is fierce. The internet? Well infinite capacity and a totally custom viewing experience, people can show what they want it’s up to the viewer to watch it.

Recent trends have shown music video channels like MTV have stayed away from the popular past time of showing music videos to instead focus on celebrity gossip and reality TV. Is this because the internet is stealing its avid viewers? Or are people just not interested anymore?
Well I did a little digging and found an interesting article on the Telegraph website talking about how people aren’t putting enough money into music videos these days, all rap videos look the same. I guess this mean lower standard of video so people are less interested in watching it on TV. TV still being the home of “quality” content, and the goal of everyone who ever starts making videos on the internet. The internet is well known for being full of garbage, so why do so many people watch videos there? Well, you can watch what ever you want, when ever you want, as many times as you want! Think about that, it’s perfect! So, is there anything to watch? Damn straight there is! All that stuff you watch on TV is there on YouTube or one of the many other video service providers around as well as a lot of content they would NEVER show on TV!

Statistics have shown that the internet is more popular than TV but I don’t know. I think TV will be around forever, I mean the internet keeps updating and the new formats evolving and computers need upgrading. Where as you can still plug a TV in and it will work, of course if it’s not digital ready it wont… >_> <_< >_> <_<
The TV provides an authority, in news the TV seems more reliable, more trust worthy. You wouldn’t watch David Attenborough latest wild life series on the internet. Watching films on the internet seems strange to me, because the internet is infamous with such low-fi production values. If you want a “Wow that’s incredible” I think you still have to look to the big screen, for a quick “LOL” The internet provides a far greater database of video clips all rated by how good they are deiced by people like you.

While writing this blog it got me thinking about a directors commentary on the El mariachi DVD by Robert Rodriguez (I was only watching it because I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off, was WAY more interesting than the film) and he said “Don’t shoot for film, shoot for video”. He was talking about how he saved money making his film and that he never had a “Film print” made, he just shot it for video. Any distributor that thought it was good enough to go on the big screen would pay for a film print, if they didn’t like it, he hadn’t wasted his money. People shoot for the internet, because it is cheep and easy. If it’s good enough to go on the big screen, some one else will pay for it (or with today’s digital technology you will change the export settings and render it again).

In conclusion:

• TV will be here forever
• Internet will enable a lot of new content
• People still listen to radio

:3