Well, here’s my first real video for the new We Hunted the Mammoth, YouTube version. It’s a look at JD Vance’s rather silly attacks on childless cat ladies that turns into a critique of Republican notions of “family values.” As a bonus there are clips of cats being ridiculous and adorable.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can post comments here or on the YouTube video itself.
Sorry about the delay in getting this one up. I’m still learning how to make videos.
Ah thank you ever so much for the Dark Mode switch David. That’s just so much easier for me to read. Not sure what’s going on. It’s like how I used to love driving at night but now I have to turn the radio down to go round roundabouts.
Really loving your video style though. I hadn’t spotted that background was green screen! You do have a wonderfully naturalistic presenting style though. And your voice is almost ASMR.
You also some across as very authentic. It’s very engaging. I, personally, like being able to see you. Although it’s also helpful that the content isn’t too visual so I can just listen whilst trying to concentrate on other tasks. Like driving round roundabouts.
I also really like your new logo. Has a great pop art vibe to it.
Really looking forward to future content!
>I had the feeling you were reading what you said
I’ve been working on this! It’s surprisingly tough to seem natural. I did a couple of test videos with a teleprompter and that came across as totally unnatural so now I have a script that I glance at between paragraphs. It’s better but I still have a ways to go. I also try to keep the script much, much more informal than my normal writing voice. And I read the script out loud several times before doing the videos to get used to it and so I can remove anything that sounds too stilted. I don’t want to go the faceless route so I will keep working on it. Thanks for the feedback!
@ David
It took me a while to get ‘natural’ on camera. Not being a professional like yourself I don’t script my videos. My excuse is that I’m aiming more for a ‘chat down the pub’ format. It is all very stream of consciousness though.
But even so, sitting still, especially at my desk, just feels a bit stiff. I also found that just staring at the camera sort of upped the pressure. Because the narrative was all I was focusing on. So I would me more likely to lose my thread.
I found it a bit easier when I filmed on location. Just being out and about was more relaxing. But now I do a walk and talk format. And the distraction of actually walking just makes things flow so much easier.
FWIW, I can’t tell that you’re using a script. You do seem very natural and conversational. And I think that once you have a few more vids under your belt you’ll just get even more comfortable.
Perhaps though, and this is just a suggestion, instead of using verbatim notes, maybe just have bullet points on what you want to cover, and then just talk like you would if you were sat down with someone. I wouldn’t worry too much about pauses whilst you collate your thoughts or minor slip ups; you can just correct yourself. Like you would if you were just chatting.
YouTube is moving away from all the ‘retention edit’ overly slick presentation anyway. The new preferred style is charmingly known as ‘internet ugly’. But essentially that’s just saying people want authenticity now. Especially with so much AI content out there now. That’s another reason it’s quite important that the audience can see you. So they know it’s a real human.
You’re a very personable chap and you know what you’re talking about. Those are your key strengths, so just play to those. Just be yourself and don’t oversweat the presentation. So long as your audio is fine that’s really the only technical thing that matters.
Somewhat OT for this particular post, but otherwise on topic for the site in general. The Democrats apparently were doing a bit of guerrilla lighting protest (or whatever that’s actually called) on Trump Tower Chicago during their multi-day rave party / convention.
https://www.advocate.com/election/dnc-spotlights-project-2025-trump#rebelltitem2
And here’s a sample of the main rave party disguised as a delegate roll call:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=wIXje1pElvRxTH0U&v=ownQeuOjBz0&feature=youtu.be
Hey, compared to how boring those roll calls can get, what the Democrats pulled off was a rave.
Images on that first link don’t load. If I right click where one’s supposed to be I do get options like “open image in new tab” but that results in a blank tab with an address bar full of “data:svg” etc. stuff … and this in a browser that is supposed to support SVG.
Is there coverage of this elsewhere, maybe even at a site that’s compatible with my browser?
That doesn’t seam feasible without a rather steep added requirement: an assistant to follow you around while holding a camera. I don’t know about Mr. Futrelle, but if it were me that added requirement would be an impossibility.
@ surplus
I can assure you it’s very feasible. Especially now camera tracking software is so good. You can even set up the composition as to where you want to be in the frame.
You just have to watch where you’re going.
https://youtu.be/QFk9UfwM_w8?si=SFkx7IdwyxDCc70B
If you’re walking around town or something, rather than just pacing back and forth in your office, I don’t see how any camera, however fancy or expensive, will be able to do that; and you’ll surely spend much of the time outside the hearing range of its microphone.
Unless, perhaps, the camera is mounted on a drone and it’s possible to get the drone to autonomously follow you and keep you in the camera frame as it goes. But if that’s even possible yet it probably requires a few thousand bucks worth of kit … and it opens up some pretty creepy scenarios, such as some sufficiently wealthy incel obtaining such a drone and programming it to follow someone else.
Even then I’d expect audio quality issues given that the recording is taking place in an uncontrolled environment with other people, dogs barking, random car horns, wind gusts, and so forth. Wind could also interfere with the drone’s ability to keep on station and aimed at you, if strong enough. If you did this on a calm weather day in a quiet area it might be workable, as long as there were no surprises. (Fewer people around = likelier to run into wild animals, notably.) Audio will be clearer the closer the drone can follow you, but that’ll be limited by three things: one, within a certain distance you won’t fit in the camera’s frame at minimum zoom; two, there’s no obvious way to counter one without introducing fish-eye distortion; and three, if the drone is that close you might bang into it if you stop or change direction suddenly enough. A directional mike would help (oh yay, more creepy stalker kit!) but the accuracy of the drone in keeping you centered in its field of view will now impact audio as well as video quality.
@Surplus,
Since I have no idea about what kind of browser you have nor its limitations, maybe an image search on ‘dnc spotlight trump tower’ might work. Can’t hurt to try, anyway.
Another semi-OT link, if anyone is interested in such things I tend to find. Remember that Arizona abortion law from the 1800’s that got revived when Roe was repealed? Someone earlier this year took a closer look at that law and the circumstances it was written under, and found some interesting history connected to it.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-9-2024
The tl:dr is that the law wasn’t originally written to control female reproduction, it was trying to control male lawlessness after the end of the Civil War.
Interesting stuff, at least to me.
I’ve seen people do “walking around town” videos without anyone else filming them. It just takes a selfie stick, and a gimbal for auto-leveling, plus a mini-camera that works with those, I think. Automated camera drones could be done with current technology. They’d probably be a legal nightmare to use on city streets were someone might walk into one, though.
@ redsilkphoenix
Thank you for finding that, and posting it. It was a really interesting read. Especially for a legal history nerd. But also, it shows just how laws we have around now were originally intended to address a totally different type of ‘mischief’ to how they are used today.
I use the word ‘mischief’ there in its legal sense. The ‘mischief rule’ is an alternative form of judicial interpretation to ‘strict construction’. The irony being that the ‘originalists’ on the Bench should use the mischief rule, but they tend not to with stuff like this.
But speaking of old laws, and to come back to the subject at hand, cats, a couple of old laws for you.
In mediaeval England the penalty for killing a cat was a fine of enough grain to cover the cat’s body. Reflecting puss’s value in vermin control.
If a ship’s cargo was destroyed or damaged by vermin the captain was personally liable; unless he could show he had an official ship’s cat aboard. That law was only abolished in the 80s with new rules about animal quarantine.
ETA: Oh, and the cats had passports…
https://hempwell.com/blogs/pets/why-cats-were-once-issued-passports
I don’t know about you, but if I walked around with an arm outstretched holding a selfie stick I’d look (and feel) quite unnatural, wrecking the purpose of this whole line of suggestion; and if I did it for longer than maybe two or three minutes that arm would be killing me.
Drone seems more practical, if you can get auto-follow ones yet and have a quiet enough area to use it in. I hope viewers won’t be too offput by watching the back of your head, instead of your face, while you talk though. 🙂
@Alan Robertshaw:
In mediaeval England the penalty for killing a cat was a fine of enough grain to cover the cat’s body. Reflecting puss’s value in vermin control.
Lain flat or held upright (presumably by the tail)?
To totally stir the pot here:
Surplus, you can’t swing a selfie stick around TikTok and YouTube without hitting a dozen videos shot with an everyday cell phone in any number of environments, you are responding to Alan, who states that he does videos walking around, complete with a link to one such example… why would you then write paragraphs talking about how it can’t be done without several thousand dollar cutting edge uber drones?
I’m not trying to be snide or anything, I am genuinely curious at what your thought process is here.
Somewhat related: Recently I had a conversation with a guy concerning a camera called the Insta360. It is under $500 depending on what model/set you buy and has a fisheye lens allowing for practically everything in every direction if you get the dual sided one. Pretty decent audio too. Dude uses it to record sports and you can see what the other team is doing, hear what people are yelling, etc. Like a super GoPro
I figured he had help making those videos.
(Hm … maybe with some sort of arm brace, so you can rest the arm muscles?)
@ surplus
Thank you! But all my own work. I just love walking. So if I’m in a nice spot, and I can think of something to waffle about, I’ll just knock out a vid. I generally don’t plan or rehearse them. So it’s a pretty quick process.
I used to find nice spots with something photogenic in the background and film static. But as David is finding out, just sitting and talking to a camera can feel a bit stilted and unnatural. I find though the walk and talk approach really works for me. It just feels more conversational and less pressured. Like I really just Zen out a bit and it all goes stream of consciousness. Although I should probably pay more attention to where I’m going. One of my favourite comments was:
I have come close a few times.
I would though like to see @David shoot out and about. I don’t know much about Chicago other than it’s toddling and windy. So I’d like to hear more about it.
As for the practicalities, the camera is pretty light, so you don’t notice it. I mainly film in out of the way places, so you don’t feel too self conscious. And no-one seems to even notice. But even when I shoot in a busy spot, people just ignore you. Although occasionally people have listened in and then offered me interesting titbits about the location that I can add in. But I shot this on a very busy day in Falmouth and it was like I was invisible. People who like the history of riots might find vaguely interesting.
@.45
You can pick those up 2nd hand for about 100 quid here. They’re very popular with cyclists as helmet cams, because of the all round view.
@Alan:
My understanding is that Chicago’s nickname of ‘The Windy City’ really has more to do with its long history of shifting (and often corrupt) politics than it does with the weather.
Chicago’s other common nickname of ‘The Second City’ comes from the sheer number of ways in which Chicago was considered second place to New York City, apparently starting back in the 1950s. The ‘Second City’ comedy troupe (which later created SCTV) started in Chicago and took its name from that nickname, and then later opened up a branch office in the other ‘Second City’ to New York, that being Toronto.
@Surplus to Requirements:
How I imagine this would work with current tech is that you’d have some sort of signaling device on your person, one which can measure how far you are from the drone and which direction you’re facing. It signals that info to the drone, which constantly adjusts itself to be in front of you (or at a specific angle from you, with the camera facing your direction) at a specific distance, keeping at a preset height above the ground (not sure how to best deal with stairs or steep slopes). It would need to prioritize moving away if it’s less than the specific distance, just in case the user runs about erratically or straight towards the drone faster than the drone moves, to prevent it from getting much too close of a shot and maybe crashing into the user.
I’d assume that any commercially available version would also need at least minimal proximity detection and avoidance, so that it’s much less likely to hit a wall or a tree or another pedestrian, but the above should be good enough for a very clear area. At this point it’s basically a robot.
@ snowberry
Drone tech is pretty amazing now. The early ‘follow me’ ones did need the subject to wear a tracker; but now they can just do it visually. Bit more here on that:
https://store.dji.com/uk/content/camera-drone-that-follows-you
The camera I now use has similar software. I mainly use it just to keep me in frame when I’m using the selfie stick. But you can mount on a tripod and just tell it to follow you around if, for example, you’re moving around a particular location. You can also use the phone app to remotely fine tune it.
Doesn’t just do people either. If I’m in a gallery I can tell the camera to focus on a particular work. Then if I walk around it tracks the object and looks like you did it on a dolly or a crane.
Another app I would recommend is Black Magic’s video app. That turns phones into professional spec video cameras. Some of that Age of Ultron film, and that Spiderman: Homecoming film were shot on iPhones! using that app.
It’s free to download. As is Blackmagic’s editing software, DaVinci Resolve. Blackmagic also make professional gear. So their marketing strategy appears to be that if they let people use their software for free then if they become professional filmmakers they’ll stick with Blackmagic products.
*Starts taking notes*
If it follows you, it moves through space you just vacated. If it tries to stay in front of you, it has to swerve and fly along significant arcs any time you turn, through space you hadn’t just vacated. I can easily see it veering into traffic and causing a highway pileup. This doesn’t seem viable for use in or near civilization, still. Even if it kept sufficient altitude (over 2m?) to go over pedestrians’ heads and above most automobiles, a truck (or, where Robertshaw operates, a double-decker bus) could hit it. And it could suddenly crash through someone’s 2nd-floor apartment-building window … plus, if everyone started doing this, they’d start crashing into each other.
I doubt this can be workable without giving it actual intelligence, on the level of a sparrow or something … no, more, sparrows have been known to fly into windows.
Selfie stick and arm brace it is, then, with care not to accidentally cane someone in the head when turning. Everyone will stare at you. Everyone.
@Alan Robertshaw: Well, that’s more than I was expecting. I at least try to generally keep up with tech advancements – more for conspiracy theory debunking than anything else because I’m a very late adopter – but this seems to be one area which I’ve missed. Admittedly in part because even fairly recent videos of people using camera drones which I’ve seen were still using remote controls. I suppose that’s because “follow-me” drones are currently very expensive, if your link is anything to go by.
@ surplus
Most drones now have automatic collision avoidance, so that does address that issue; and stops the drone damaging itself when you fly it into a telegraph pole.
The Ukrainians have really adopted the auto tracking facilities now to have drones just chase down enemy soldiers and even vehicles.
For myself I’m not that into drones; but that’s an aesthetic thing. They can do some amazingly cinematic shots. But I find those lose the intimacy of the vibe I want to create. So when I shoot B Roll, even though I do employ some cinematic tricks, I’m aiming for POV shots that an actual person could view. So that, hopefully, doesn’t take people out of the moment.
Drones though can really lend themselves to some self shot videos though. There’s a lass I follow called Wildbeare. She does amazing wild camping stuff (“Today I’ll be overnighting on Ben Nevis, using a bin liner and some hair scrunchies…”). But she gets some great aerial footage when she’s out in the wild. But that suits the sort of video.
So I do prefer just the selfie stick, or a tripod if I have to be static.
I do love the technical aspects of cinema though. I especially like when proper film directors employ cheap and cheerful methods; that appeals to my Yorkshire sensibilities. Like, if people want to save the time and expense of setting up a dolly and the necessary track, they’ll just put the camera on some kitchen roll on a slippy table top. Then pull the kitchen roll. If you pull it vertically down the edge of the table you get buttery smooth tracking. My favourite though is when, instead of using a crane to get a tilt shot, they just put a mattress down and get the camera operator to fall backwards.
Alan, I’ve enjoyed your videos so much I’m in danger of trading my Stetson for a flat cap.
@ Vicky P
Nooooo! In my head you’re a sort of steampunk cowgirl. So you have to be true to your roots. I do love me a hat though.
Thanks for your kind words on the videos though. I just really enjoy doing them. Both for the opportunity to walk and waffle; and I also like the technical aspects of filming and editing.
I am aiming for a very naturalistic style. So I try to use the real ambient audio. There is the practice that you should always ‘capture the room’. That is, you just leave an audio recorder running for about 10 minutes in the location you want to film in. Then you always have suitable audio for your B Roll and you don’t have to worry if someone coughed or an aeroplane flew overhead whilst you were filming the actual shot. I’m too lazy to do that though. Normally I get away with it by just waiting until there are no intrusive noises before filming.
I shot a video around Middle Temple though. I was really pleased with the audio. Apart from one clip in the gardens where someone had driven past blaring out loud music. I was shooting on a Saturday morning, so generally it was quiet and all the other garden clips were just birds tweeting and the like. I thought copying the audio from one of the other clips might be a bit obvious; with the repetition. I have another great piece of free software though, Soundly. That’s just a database of Foley effects. So I searched ‘gardens, birdsong’ and soon found a clip that sounded pretty spot on. So I used that.
Cue the comments section being full of ornithologists arguing about “how did a lesser spotted African coconut swallow end up in London?”
Yeah, I fully expect the military has access to fancy features that civilians can’t get yet, or at least can’t get on the cheap.
There’s a guy who’s been using drones to film the volcanic activity that’s been wracking Iceland for the past four years. There have been some remarkable aerial shots and close-ups; at a cost — the volcano ate at least one of his drones (overheated, shut down, and fell right in). The drones in question are clearly off the shelf remote controlled ones — no fancy self-driving abilities. They can maintain a selected altitude autonomously and maybe resist being pushed off-station by the wind, but I think that’s about it. Otherwise, you want it to go left, you’ve gotta push a joystick left; you want it to pan the camera right, you’ll have to manually do that too. It can look in basically any direction in the hemisphere underneath itself though, including moving one direction while looking in another.
https://www.youtube.com/@IcelandFPV