Faced with yet another YouTube challenge I accepted the mission. The objective: create a 15-second spot (15 EXACTLY per their rules and regulations) that illustrates how much simpler life would be using Microsoft Sync (smart voice recognition software). You’ve probably seen the commercials….woman holding latte walks purposefully toward glass double doors, calmly says, “door open” and then slams into it, coffee spraying everywhere. Or, the guy who firmly commands, “treadmill on!” and then proceeds to take a running leap for the still stationary machine, nearly decapitating himself in the process. Fun, huh?

So I had to think of something along those lines but of course that hadn’t already been done. I brainstormed….I came up with some fairly obvious choices; “computer on!”…..”toilet flush!”…..then I found that one of the simplest executions was really most “on strategy” – my “elevator up!” concept. Check it out:

So what I did was I took my Sony Cybershot camera (yes, I’m still using it which will explain why the clarity isn’t fabulous), I mounted it on one of the obnoxious oversized planters in my office’s “foyer”, took a look through the viewfinder and made sure that I was getting the shot I was after. Then it was truly as simple as hitting record because once the camera was rolling I could walk into the picture and have it continue rolling as I got inside the elevator, waited for the doors to close, then quickly press the “door open” button and assume my position of confusion/frustration again at not having moved. You get the picture.

When I was done (and this literally took all of two minutes to film) I imported the footage into Videowave (integrated into Creator 10) and quickly edited out the bits I didn’t want – like me hitting “record” on the camera and then scurrying stage left. Right? Left.

I then silenced the native audio because I didn’t want that strange humming sound that accompanies poor audio – it’s like the lights in a cheap department store. Creepy and depressing. I found this cool instrumental version of the main theme to “GoldenEye” and then (now this is going to sound confusing but it’s sooooo not) I imported the unprotected audio into Mixcraft, took EXACTLY the 15 seconds of it that I wanted, then saved it.

Next I overlayed the audio on my 15-second video clip and I had myself a little story going. The best part, I used the narration feature again (remember how perfectly that worked in My Nature Valley?) and I dubbed my “elevator up!” voiceover just as my mouth was saying the words. The narration layers on top of the background music (cool) and doesn’t sound weird or thrown in “after the fact” – just more like what you’d expect from a commercial. Ya know? In fact, I’ll take this opportunity to show you what my video would have sounded like had I NOT done anything at all to the audio. Check this out:

Pretty big difference huh? I know!

So anyhoo, if you were to check out my YouTube channel you’d see I executed on the “toilet flush” concept as well – but I felt my elevator clip was stronger and likely wouldn’t be done by many. Toilet humor is far too obvious. But always funny. At 36 I still love a good toilet joke. I digress.

Stay tuned cuz I’m in the throes of wrapping two new video/song compilations: the final anti-smoking pitch and a road trip video that I had wanted to submit to a contest but unfortunately I couldn’t finish it in time because I actually had some work (yes, real work – the kind I get paid to do) conflicting and messing up the rest of my life.

Bye for now!