Bencredible

So get yourself a present! Head on over to http://www.zazzle.com/spacevidcast and buy yourself a nice Spacevidcast mug or shirt or skateboard… You know you want to!

No, I won’t let this go. We can do better and it is annoying me. Here are my thoughts on how to fix the set problem. Let me know what you think in the comments.

This is what is sorta looks like with a white backgorund and blue lights rather than a black background.  I think it looks a log better.  I guess we’ll see when we put the plasmas wit h the black carts in front of all this.

Of course finding a projector to work in such a short throw with enough brightness is hard, but I think I have just the item: the Sanyo PLC-XL51. We could have that 4′ 7″ away from the white scrim and project a 20′ wide image which would cover the whole back wall. Problem is that this projector costs $4,000. As such, we can’t afford it just yet and I’ll probably wait until Spacevidcast brings in some good revenue to go that route. But still… Cool concept. I think it would look *awesome*.

Here’s an idea that Cafn8ed, Cariann and I had while looking at the set… What if we change out the main black curtain for white (which we already have) and project a giant animation on that (maybe a slow moving Earth)?   We think that may solve the black hole of nothingness problem we have on the set right now.

The second problem we have is that the camera 2 shot is just too wide.  This is happening because we have two 50″ plasmas in the shot.  The solution might be to put those on stands but have them mounted vertically rather than horizontally.  This would end up pulling the shot in quite a bit and making everything closer.

There is of course cost to all this.  Each plasma mount will be around $600.00 and then we have to buy a projector to get the image on the back wall and that could be an additional $3,000 or so (depends on what we get).  I can demo the projector part just to see if it works, but the mounts we will pretty much need to commit to.

What do you guys think?  I know I can’t show you yet, but using your imagination do you think this would make the set a bit more…  fun?  Make it more active so it doesn’t look like we’re broadcasting from a basement?  Thoughts?

I’m getting a lot of push back on my decision to have us STAND for the live episodes. Fox814 commented (before he ever saw it) that it wouldn’t work and our window to the viewer is through the computers on our desk. Of course I ignored this because the window to our viewers is the chat room, which we don’t run on the computers on our desk.  Here’s a little insider secret:  the computers on our desk during 2008 were just there to switch between cameras and add graphics.  We didn’t actually use them to interact with anyone.

Now that we have two shows under our belt and people can start to see sorta what the show should look like (we’re not there yet) I’m *still* getting flack for standing. On our YouTube channel a user posted this, “yall look more comfy sitting downz. Bring back da desk and mebe some chips to munch on wit dip and a small mini fridge wit some drinks.”

I’m not 100% sure what that means, but let me extrapolate (I’m hoping they were not calling me fat!) I think the show may have become too formal during the transition, which is the opposite of what I wanted to have happen. This is a concern for me because I don’t want to be anything like a newscast. I want to be a live, interactive show that people can feel like they are a part of. An informal show.

So let me explain what I’m trying to do, and I would love to hear your comments on how we can execute on that. Or maybe some people do like us standing but have not said anything. Now is your chance. Here is a list, in no particular order, of what I want to accomplish:

• I want the show to be super interactive. We love and live off of the live audience
• I want the show to be visually appealing
• I want the production values of the show to be high enough that you’re excited to watch
• I want the content of the show to be engaging so that you’re excited to watch
• I want the show to be educational
• I want to be the premier space video site on the Internet with access to any space clip you could ever want
• I want people to look forward to and participate in the live shows

So with that list in mind, these are a few things I had in mind with the new set

• If we stand we remove the desk. The old desk makes us look a bit like a cheap cable news network, IMO.  By standing and getting rid of the desk we also remove a layer between us and you the viewer.
• I wanted to have multiple cameras so we can play off each other
• In order to pull off the multiple cameras we have two HDTVs that are over each of our shoulders that we can interact with

So the basic idea is to improve the set and get us closer to you.  Get rid of that desk, get rid of that layer that seperates us from you.  But there are problems (here’s yet another list):

• On the first show my hands looked awkward
• On the second show I bounced too much
• The wide shot does not seem very inviting.  In fact it seems far away and foreboding

One thing to note is that each show has had major technical problems.  This distracts me and you can tell on camera.  I fear that some people may think that this has to do with us standing.  In reality it has to do with me trying to figure out how to fix the problems while I’m on camera.  Taking a look at our latest episode you can clearly see that I’m distracted by the lack of a chat room on the screen.  What really needs to happen is that I need to ignore the technical glitches and I have to plow through them.

I think all in all the new show format seems to be coming along nicely, but I fear that we may be losing that informal and fun edge.  I really like the new opening, but is it too professional?  Does it make the show look like any other TV show out there and as such you lose interest?  If we get rid of the technical problems, get rid of the long awkward moments when the wrong camera is up, and get rid of the awkward delays before the SpaceNews open and chat room pop up, will that help the show?  Should I consider doing the same format but sitting instead of standing?  Is it just a new thing so you’re not used to it?  What do you think?  What can we do to make Spacevidcast the best online video show, ever?  Price doesn’t matter, feasibilty doesn’t matter… I would like to know what you guys think, then if we have some great ideas we can execute on them.

On a final note, here are my thoughts coming home from 2.02.  You’ll note that I’m not very happy with Charter.

We had a lot of issues last week. One of the problems was the framing of the shots, which was limited because the only black we had was on the wall directly behind us.

We’re getting there. Bit by bit, piece by piece.

As promised in the uber long pre-show this last week, here is a tour of the new Spacevidcast studio.

I took this video while we trekked from the Crow River Coffee Studios back home (about a 40 minute drive). These are my general thoughts on how Spacevidcast 2.01 went. I can say that I was hoping it would go a lot smoother, but I’m not at all surprised at how rough it was. We will get it all fixed and worked out though.

This video was taken on the drive home from the Crow River Coffee Company which is where the new Spacevidcast studio is. Basically I’m happy with the show but worried about the technology. I think I may be asking too much of CamTwist and Blackmagic.

One of my favorite local restaurants is RedStone.  At RedStone my favorite dish is the Jerk Chicken Fondue. Alex knows that I can’t have the fondue, so what does he do at lunch?  Well, I think this video explains it all: