How a moto-vlogging channel is made between countries + New addition to Mushy Brain Syndicate

Gordon is a Canadian friend that we did a couple of rides with in Beijing, who will be quite likely contributing to some of the joint moto-vlogging and feature videos.

Although we met him in Beijing, he is a seasoned world traveller and is currently in the exploring the Yucatan (Northern Belize, South-eastern Mexico) on a motorbike.
Before that he was doing a massive trek of Thailand on motorbike and before that has been travelling all over North America,

Gordon on his ’94 Yamaha xjr400

An array of Gordon’s recent travel’s in around Mexico & Belize

On the weekend I spoke to him about how his documentation of his travels were going and how good his action camera was to record such scenes.

This is the link to the video for the one I was asking Gordon about.

So yes, as I also discussed with Galen this morning Gordon asked if he could join in.  Galen and I both think that it’s a great idea.

The idea for the channel is meant to be adventure around the world, and I think Gordon’s, perspective would add a lot to the channel.

Gordon and I briefly discussed how it’s like to organise a shared youtube channel and putting together material when members are in completely different countries and locations.

A lot of effort and planning has gone into it so far, but in the end its about making a step forward and doing modification as you go to improve it gradually step by step.  That being said, here is how its working so far:

So after much discussion the way that we envision the channel  (yes envision…)   is that we have a bunch of feature videos with a specific topic that we all stick to.

For example, the 1st video/ topic was Preparation for Winter  – 3 parts.
And then we would all focus on this together.
Then the individual clips are organised and edited together to make 1 video.

For feature videos we will try to stick to a length of around 12 mins.   So if it’s an extra-long topic, it will have to be part 1, part 2.

Intro’s for feature videos:  should include a compilation clip of things we’ve done together, or interesting bike scenes or something…set to music.

We will be uploading a bunch of short videos individually, however the format will try to be as consistent as possible.

We also intend to have some face to face, normal kind of blogging videos about things that we do, or as Galen suggested things that make it look like we’re having a face-to-face conversations, about some aspect of motorbiking…when in reality, clearly we’re not.

Quality:   We’re trying to keep the quality up, but everything is a work in progress.
Galen and I are currently both using Adobe Premier Elements as our video editing software, yet Galen is also experimenting and learning the adobe suite to provide better quality editing and videos in general.  https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html?promoid=KLXLR

Galen and I had a screen sharing session with team-viewer https://www.teamviewer.com/  so I could see what he’s learnt on Adobe Prelude and how this could benefit our production qualities.

Video footage quality – Galen and I are both using the Drift Ghost S,  like a gopro, but specifically made for bikes … I think for moto-vlogging it works out pretty well.
https://driftinnovation.com/products/drift-ghost-s-3    we got for 1,600 rmb

Drift Ghost-S | Drift Official Online Store – Drift Innovation driftinnovation.com The most powerful Drift yet. Capture more of the Full HD action with the Ghost-S and a 3.5 hour recording time, LCD screen and a 300° rotatable lens!

 

It has an arm remote, so you can record when you want, and a swiv-able lens, so you don’t have set up the camera perfectly on your helmet… you can adjust with the lens for the perfect angle.  Also its waterproof without a case,  and … it allows you to have a microphone jack very easily which is perfect for recording dialogue when you are riding.

-Galen and I both have to change the microphone position because we’ve found anything above 55km/h the sound quality goes to shit.

Ideas sharing:  Galen and I are using Evernote https://evernote.com/

Capture what’s on your mind | Evernote evernote.com Collect, nurture, and share ideas across desktop and mobile platforms with Evernote. Your thoughts are always with you, always accessible, always in sync.

It’s very good for sharing notes, small pictures, making to-do lists etc.

links to videos, accounts, screen shots etc.   and you can access it on your computer and your phone.

We use WeChat https://www.wechat.com/en/  (chinese mobile app)  for talking directly

— WeChat – Free messaging and calling app www.wechat.com Available for all kinds of platforms; enjoy group chat; support voice,photo,video and text messages.

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And we use Microsoft OneDrive specifically Galen’s drive to upload and view each other’s actual video footage before we begin making edits and final edits. (Galen has a 5 tB limit.)

Artwork, names, & logos:   So far Galen and I both have our own little youtube channels where we upload whatever we think is appropriate, which we can then link other joint channel videos to later if we wish.

I think the idea for a logo for the joint channel is a combination of our individual logos into some sort of amalgamation.

For this I suggest we used fiverr.com   is just a website where you can find people easily on the cheap for doing this kind of thing  https://www.fiverr.com/categories/graphics-design/creative-logo-design?source=category_tree&page=1&filter=auto  [For logos]

https://www.fiverr.com/categories/video-animation?source=category_tree   [for animation]

I found on my own website, that if I think about things for too long and try to find the free way… yes, it’s possible but it takes more than 10 times longer than if we just paid a small amount and let someone else do it.

Plus, then we would have much less stress.

I realise all of this sounds like a lot.  And at 1 sitting it is… but this is a work in progress kind of thing.
On everything we do we’re treating it as a learning experience.

So we get to learn about video editing & production, photography, presentation… and make some interesting videos by the end of it …. hopefully

I think where our videos/ channel can stand out, is showing people the scenes that we get to ride in everyday, followed by some real-life and useful tips of how it is to actually ride in those countries.

Give people a bit of perspective.

We still haven’t come up with a proper name for our channel, so everyone… if you’ve got any suggestions ?… we’d love to hear it.

Mushy Brain Syndicate is just a temporary thing… but I do love the word ‘syndicate’ and I think it should be included somewhere.

I think we’ll start doing some advertising when we’ve got a few videos up and sorted out the bugs.